business english: practice your prepositions

Business Englishwith

Fern Kushner

www.englisch-lernen-online.com

Prepositions can be tricky!

Take this quiz to practice prepositions in business phrases.

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Decide which answeryou think is best.

Then click to the next slide to checkyour answer.

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Someone calls your office and wants to talk to your colleague.

What do you say? “I’m sorry, he’s not ___ his desk right now.”

• on• by• at

“I’m sorry, he’s not at his desk right now.”

You sit at a table, like this man here, or at a desk.

Your boss really needs the report you are working on.What does she say?

“Please send me the report ______ Fridayat the latest.”

• until• by• to

“Please send me the report by Fridayat the latest.”

This means you should have the report ready on Friday or before.

Friday is the deadline.

Rachel is the newest member of Bob’s team at work.What does he say to her?

“The whole team is looking forward ___ meeting you tomorrow!”• to• on• about

“The whole team is looking forward to meeting you tomorrow!”

(This means the other team members are happythat they will get to meet Rachel tomorrow.)

Jason is getting ready to goon a business trip.What should he say?

I’ll be ___ a conference next week.• on• at• to

I’ll be at a conference next week.

When you go to an event, you usually use at with the name of the event. So the right answer is:

“Thanks for calling. I am out of the office and can’t take your call right now. Please leave me a message after the tone, and I’ll call you ___ Monday.

Make sure your business contacts stay informed about your plans. What word is missing from this out-of-office message?

• at• to• on

I’ll call you on Monday.

Use on with days of the week. The correct version is:

Look for chances to use these phrases in your work activities:• emails• phone calls• conversations

Remember, practice makes perfect!

• customized learning materials• online one-to-one lessons• in-company business English classes

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