INVITATIONS at work, how to say YES and NO - Business English lesson with professional vocabulary.

Learn how to confidently accept or politely decline invitations in professional English when speaking or writing. This episode provides essential business English vocabulary and natural phrases for networking and building work relationships. Master the art of professional communication with practical tips and real-world examples.

Accepting invitations in English is important for networking and professional development. But speaking English as a second language or communicating your plans on invites to events and meetings can be difficult. This business English lesson is going to help you to say yes or no to your colleagues when they ask you to attend meetings and events. We discuss some natural and native sounding vocabulary that you can use to talk to your managers, clients, customers, and colleagues, including some phrasal verbs and idioms that you can use to sound more natural and native when talking or writing to people at work. 

Also, if you're studying for the IELTS, TOEFL, or Cambridge English tests and exams then you might find some of the vocabulary in this episode really useful.

This podcast is all about helping you to communicate better, in English, at work. I work with international English speakers from around the world who use English, at work, as a second or third language and I hope that I can bring some of the ideas, vocabulary, and grammar, from those sessions, to you in this podcast.

Don’t forget that my full time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills. So, if you need English to do your job but don’t speak it natively then maybe we can work together to help you to achieve your language goals. 

Book a class: https://www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com

Transcript

Welcome to the Breakout Business English podcast. Where? I help you to communicate Better. At work, in English. Hi everyone, my name is Chris and as always I am a business English coach and tutor. Thank you so much for listening and for your time and today's topic is: How to say yes? Aw, no. To an invitation Work.So on last week's podcast, we discussed... I'm and rescheduling Events.So Today's topic… feels like the natural Next. To object, the natural way to follow that. If you are scheduling events, you will likely be replying to invitations, replying to invites, or indeed making your own invitations. Whether you are inviting a colleague to do something or simply giving your answer to an invitation, dealing with invitations is a key part of networking and building professional relationships. In today's podcast, we're going to talk about how to invite your colleagues to events, how to accept and how to politely Decline or say no to an invitation. We're going to hear some natural and native vocabulary that we can use to do this. And we'll hear some great sentences that you could use in many different situations. Ciao. Let's get started. First. Let's discuss making invitations. Let's imagine that you want to invite a colleague to lunch. How might you do that? What kinds of words or phrases might you use? Let's take a listen. To some natural and native ways that you might invite a colleague to lunch. A few of us are popping out for lunch. Do you fancy joining us? A few of us are popping out for lunch. Do you fancy joining us? Would you like to join us for lunch? Would you like to join us for lunch? I'm heading out for lunch soon. Do you want to grab a bite to eat together? I'm heading out for lunch soon. Do you want to grab a bite to eat together? Let's start our vocabulary discussion today by taking a closer look at some vocabulary from the first example. And we're going to start with the phrasal verb 'to pop'. Out. To pop out. In the first example, we heard: A few of us are popping out for lunch. A few of us are popping out for lunch. To pop. P-O-P to pop. Is a word that is often used in informal English to show that you are going to briefly and casually go somewhere. To briefly and casually go somewhere. For instance, if you are standing at my front door, the front door of my house, then I might invite you to pop in. I might say, would you like to pop in? Or maybe your office is at the other side of a large building to my office. I might ask you to pop over so that we can discuss something in person. I might say. Hop over.So. In this example, To pop out means to briefly and casually Leave a place. You might pop out for lunch, pop out to the shop, or pop out to make a phone call so that you don't disturb other people. In a similar way. We often hear "pop" used as an informal alternative to the word Butch. P-U-T. But... For instance, if I'm popping out, I might pop my coat on. If it's cold, I might pop my coat on. If it's really cold, I might pop a hat on. I could pop something in my notes during a meeting, which means to just quickly write something down in my notes. All. Pop a letter on your desk. Which means to put or place a letter on your desk. Or I could pop my phone on silent so that it doesn't interrupt me at work. Popped my phone on silent. As you can see, pop is a very common, natural and native word and you'll hear it in lots of different contexts in movies and TV shows, usually as a synonym for put. R as a synonym for to briefly and casually visit. Let's do a little quiz here.You know, I used to do quizzes at the end of this podcast a few episodes ago, maybe two. The first, I don't know, the first 10, maybe 15 episodes of this podcast. And I was thinking of bringing that back in some way. For now, let's take a look at another phrasal verb that means to briefly and casually leave a place. I just spoke about the phrase "to pop it." out, but we can replace pop with a word beginning with the letter H. This word is four letters long, And it's a part of your body. This is a part of your body that you only have one of. It's a very important part of your body. This four-letter word begins with the letter H and ends with the letter D and this is your Ed. Y'all head. Which means that this phrasal verb is to head Out. To head out. We heard this in our third example today. I'm heading out for lunch soon. I'm heading out for lunch soon. Just like I might say I'm popping out for a few minutes, I'll be right back. I can use head out in the same way. However, head out has the additional use of just meaning to leave, not to leave and come back, just to leave.So it can mean this as well. So I might say that I'm heading out at the end of the day. Which means to leave at the end of the day. But I can say, I'm heading out to the store. Do you want me to bring anything back for you? Let's discuss the word 'to fancy'. Fancy. F-A-N-C-Y. To FUNCY! This is a word with, again, a couple of different meanings and uses in English. However, here we're going to focus on one of its uses as a verb. And this means that you want to do something. We usually use this either with nouns or with continuous verbs, progressive verbs. That's the verb with the letters ing at the end, often known as a gerund noun. In the example, we heard, "Do you fancy joining us?" Do you fancy joining us? Which was simply an informal way to say, do you want... Join us. Or If we wanted to sound more polite and formal, Would you like to join us? Would you like to join us? Which was the example that we heard in our second example there, wasn't it? Would you like to join us? To use my previous example of popping out to the shops, I might say, do you fancy a Slack? Maybe I can pick one up for you. If I want some company, I might say, do you fancy coming with me? Do you fancy coming with me? Or maybe do you fancy joining me? And if you fancy working with me to improve your English, then don't forget that my full-time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills.So, if you need English to do your job, but you don't speak it natively, then maybe we can work together. To help you to achieve your language and communication goals. If you'd like to book some time to meet with me through one-to-one video calls, just you and me, then you can go to breakoutbusinessenglish.com. That's the name of this podcast, the name of the show, breakoutbusinessenglish.com and find out more. Awesome. I sometimes have offers and discounts on class packages and entering your email address on the website is the best way to be the first to find out when those limited time deals are available. I've worked with over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals, from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders, to help them to achieve their goals. And I look forward to meeting you.So, as I mentioned, BreakoutBusinessEnglish.com is the website, or you can click the link down in the show notes or the description for this episode. Let's move on. To accepting... Invitations. Hopefully the invitation that you received was from a colleague that you are interested in spending time with, and so you want to give them a positive response. You want to say yes. Let's hear some polite, natural and native ways to say yes and accept their invitation.That's a great idea. Count me in. That's a great idea. Count me in. Thanks for the invite. I'd love to attend. Thanks for the invite. I'd love to attend. I appreciate the invitation. Please consider this message My RSVP. I appreciate the invitation. Please consider this message My R. S.V.S.Let's start in our third example with the initials RSV. Key. If you receive a particularly formal invitation, then you might be asked to: RSVP. And as you might be able to tell from that sentence structure, we often use RSVP as a verb.Someone might ask you, Have you RSVP'd to the invitation yet. Have you RSVP'd to the invitation yet? But it's a noun. As in... Have you sent your RSVP yet? Have you sent your RSVP yet? RSVP stands for Four French Words, which I am now going to try to pronounce for you. And my apologies in advance to any French speakers listening to this, and especially to my mom who speaks fluent French and has had to endure my attempts at French pronunciation in the past. I can't even say French pronunciation. This is going to be terrible.So sorry, mom. But here it goes. RSVP. Stands for Rpondez s'il vous plaît. Rap on this, it will play.So that terrible French pronunciation of RSVP. Translates into English. Oz. Please respond or please respond. Reply. If I just tell you that I'm going to RSVP to an event, I just say I'm going to RSVP, this means that I'm going to tell the person who invited me that yes, I am going to attend. However, I can say that I'm going to RSVP YES Or, if I'm not going to attend, I can say that I'm going to RSVP no. And going to RSVP No. Which means to tell the host that I won't be attending. We often see this in wedding invitations these days, please RSVP. But it can definitely be found and used in other contexts. Actually, that's kind of funny, isn't it? We see RSVP, please RSVP in wedding invitations, but RSVP means respond, please.So what we're kind of saying is please respond, please. Not the craziest thing I've ever heard in linguistics and especially the English language, but at least something slightly funny there. At least I think it's funny. In our first example there, we heard "count me in". Count me in. This means that you should plan to include me in the activity that you're planning. Very often it is important for hosts to know how many people will be attending an event. Especially if they need to make sure enough seating is available. Enough tickets have been purchased, or enough food has been organized. Or maybe if you're going on an exciting team building weekend, they need to make sure that there are enough places booked on the white water rafting river adventure or whatever you're doing for your team building.So. If someone wants to know if you are going to attend their event, They might ask: Can I count you in? Can I count you in? To which you might reply, Yes. Count me in. Yes, you can count me in. We often hear people talk about a headcount in this situation. If someone needs a head count, they literally mean that they want to know how many people or how many heads will be at their event. Of course, one of the most important things that we need to discuss is saying no. Doing this in a professional way is surely essential.So with that said... Let's take a look at some natural and native ways to say that you will not be attending a meeting or event.Sorry, count me out. I've got far too much going on right now.Sorry, count me out. I've got far too much going on right now. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to decline your invitation. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to decline. Your invitation.Sorry to turn you down, but I've got something else on. Sorry to turn you down, but I've got something else on. In the previous set of examples, we had the phrasal verb to count someone in. To count someone in. And in the first example this time we heard 'count me out'. Count me out.So, if "count me in" means that I'm available and I'm going to attend your event, then you can probably guess that "count me out" means that I don't intend to be at your event. As with all phrasal verbs, "to count me in" and "to count me out" are both informal.So, With that said, Let's move on to something a little more formal. In the second example, we heard "I'm going to have to decline your invitation." I'm going to have to decline your invitation. The verb to decline. Is probably the most professional verb to use when saying no to an invitation. I've heard international English speakers use 'refuse' before, however 'refuse' can sound a little strong or even a little aggressive in some situations. If you want to sound a little more casual and informal, then you can use the phrasal verb to turn down. To turn down, which we heard in the third example.Sorry to turn you down. Sorry to turn you down. But Probably the best verb to use is decline. I'm sorry, but I'll need to decline your invitation. Let's have another little quiz now. And which word, beginning with the letter D... And we put before the word Book. To show that we've ...incidentally agreed to attend two meetings or events at the same time. For instance, I have one meeting that I intend to go to tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. And another meeting at the same time, 10 a.m. Tomorrow.Well, this word beginning with the letter D, is a word that means something exists twice. All was done two times. And this is the word: Double. Dibble. That's spelled. D-O-U. B-L-E. Double. You definitely don't want to double book yourself. To double book yourself. I've definitely been guilty of double booking myself from time to time. I've double booked myself from time to time. But I think we all do this sometimes, right?So don't forget that you can book a session with me to work on your English communication skills by going to www.com.uk. Breakoutbusinessenglish.com. That's the name of the podcast. Breakout Business. English. Dot Come. All click on the link in the show notes. I've worked with over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals, from new graduates all the way up to C-suite executives, CEOs, CFOs, CTOs, etc., and government leaders, to help them to achieve their goals. And I look forward to meeting you. That's everything for today. Remember that between episodes of the podcast, you can get videos every couple of days on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Just search for Breakout Business English. If there's a topic that you'd like to hear me talk about on the podcast, then I'd be excited to hear your ideas. Leave me a message or a comment on one of my YouTube videos and I look forward to hearing from you. Finally, if you are listening on Apple Podcasts, then I invite you to leave a review. Every review really does help me out and helps to push this podcast to new listeners. It means that Apple Podcasts and other podcast apps recommend this show to other people, which, well, at the end of the day, helps me to do my job and to earn a living.So, thanks for listening. If you found this podcast useful and you think that there are some valuable things in here, then feel free to write a couple of kind words. It only takes you a second and it really does mean a lot to me. And I thank you for that in advance. That's a great place to request a topic for a future podcast if you have something that you'd like to hear me talk about. That's it for today. Thank you so much for your time and for listening as always. And I'll talk to you again next time on the breakout business English. Thanks a lot, everyone. Talk to you next week.