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IEP TS
ACTIVE
VOCABULARY NOTES
access - get access to something (v.t.) The verb access exists, but it is a new verb limited to computer contexts: e.g.
“He accessed the data banks in the computer.” Also note that get access to something is an action, whereas have
access to something is a condition.
account for (v.t.) This verb has two possible general meanings:
(1) “The sales manager couldn't account for (“explain”) the sudden fall in sales revenue in the previous quarter.”
(2) “Sales to the U.S.A account for (“represent”) 25% of the company's total sales.”
acquaint (v.t.) This verb is usually put into the passive voice, in which form it has the meaning of “be familiar with”.
e.g. “Although the new sales manager had never worked in the auto industry before, he was acquainted with
(familiar with) the concept and the practice of a dealer network.”
acquire (v.t.) See the notes on get and develop.
advantage (n) See the note on disadvantage.
affect (v.t.) This verb is often confused with effect.(v.t.). Note the difference in meanings. Affect means “have an
impact on” (usually in a negative way) and effect means “implement”/“cause to happen”.
“The economic slowdown adversely affected sales.”
“The cost reductions were effected by making 10% of the staff redundant.” Also note the following sentence
pattern:
“The economic slowdown affected the company's sales in several ways: by reducing overall consumer demand;
by persuading wholesalers to delay making fresh orders until economic prospects became clearer; and by
increasing the ratio of bad debts”
agreement (n) Note the collocations and sentence patterns below:
“The two governments reached an agreement to improve their relations.”
“The two governments made an agreement to improve their relations.”
“The two governments took an agreement to improve their relations.”
“The two governments were in agreement about the need to improve their relations.”
“The agreement to improve the two governments’ relations did not specify how this should be done.”
aim (n) - aim at (v.t.)
aim (n) This noun has the same basic meaning as “goal” and “objective”: “the thing that a plan is intended to
achieve.” It also has the same collocations and sentence patterns as these two words. See objective for a list of
these.
aim at (v.t.) Note these sentence patterns:
“The company aimed at increasing its market share by 10% in one year.”
“The production manager is aiming at a defect rate of only 0.001%.”
“The new strategy was aimed at making the company a world player.”
“The new strategy was aimed to make the company a world player.”
analyze (v.t.) Note that this verb cannot be followed by “that” + CLAUSE:
“The consultant analyzed the company’s performance thoroughly.”
“The consultant analyzed that the company was inefficient.”
“Michael Porter analyzes competition among companies in terms of the industry structure in which they are
situated.”
answer (v.t.) - answer (n) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“He answered that he didn’t know anything about that issue.”
“He answered the question by saying he didn’t know anything ......”
“He gave the answer that he didn’t know anything .......”
apparent (a) - appear (v.i.) - appearance (n)
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apparent (a) Note first that this adjective is often used with an it subject. “It was apparent to the CEO that
competition was becoming more and more intense.” Note also the phrase, for no apparent reason. “The sales
manager was fired for no apparent reason.” See also AVS #6c2.
appear (v.i.) This verb is used in two main ways in business contexts.
(1) If it is used with an adjective or infinitive verb it has the meaning of "look". “The sales appeared healthy.” and
“The sales appeared to be going well.”
(2) Another use is to express “existence” or “existence that is noticed”. “Apple Computer Corp. suddenly
appeared on the computer market in the early '80s, though it had been set up a few years before.”
appearance (n) This noun can be used in the same two ways as the verb. Also note the idiom, to all appearances
which means “on the basis of the available evidence”. “To all appearances the group of companies controlled by
Robert Maxwell was financially healthy, but the eventual collapse of the group showed that this was not true.”
appropriate (a) N.B. the following grammatical possibility: “The company has tried to design cars which are
appropriate for the 21st century.”
arise (v.i.) In academic and business contexts this verb is associated with these nouns: “opportunity”, “problem”,
“question”, “situation”. It is often confused with happen because of the similarity in meanings. Note, however,
that happen is associated with events or developments in general, whereas arise is collocated with a limited range
of (often negative) new things that appear in a particular context. Arise has two sub-meanings:
(1) One meaning is “come into existence” or “come to someone’s attention/notice”. Here are some examples:
“A new problem has arisen.”
“If we agree to these price terms, the question of delivery dates then arises.”
“When the opportunity arises, we will enter this market.”
(2) A second meaning is “be caused by” or “created by”. Here are some examples:
“The planning problem arose out of/from the conflicts between the marketing and the finance departments.”
“The CEO promised to deal with the issues that had arisen out of his discussion with the Finance Director.”
arrange (v.t.) - arrangement (n)
The meanings of arrange & arrangement are fairly simple - “organize” “plan”, “prepare” - but they are used in a
variety of sentence patterns.
Here are some examples of prepositional and infinitive constructions:
“He arranged a meeting.”
“He arranged a meeting with his customers.”
“He arranged with his secretary to hold a meeting with his customers.”
“They arranged for a taxi to pick up the customers at the station.”
“He made arrangements for a meeting to be held the following week.”
“He made arrangements with his secretary to hold a meeting with his customers.”
“They made arrangements for a taxi to pick up the customers at the station.”
Here are some examples of clause constructions:
“He arranged that there would be a meeting .............”
“He arranged with his secretary that he would hold a meeting with his customers.”
“They arranged that a taxi would pick up the customers at the station.”
“He made arrangements that ................”
“It was arranged that .........................”
ask (v.t.) Reported speech - note the patterns and the three basic meanings below. See also the notes about question.
In these patterns ask means “question”:
“He asked (me) my opinion of the joint venture arrangement.”
“He asked (me) about my previous career as a circus performer.”
“He asked (me) how old I was.”
“He asked (me) if I knew Mr. Henderson.”
“He asked (me) whether the company was going to build the new factory or not.”
“He asked that I knew Mr. Henderson.”
“He asked that the company was going to build the new factory.”
In these patterns ask means “request”:
“He asked (me) for an ashtray.”
“He asked me to pass him an ashtray.”
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“He asked (me) that I officially inform the joint venture partner of the CEO’s resignation.” (Note the use of the
subjunctive form of the verb in the second clause.)
In this pattern ask means “invite”:
“The CEO asked the finance director into the room.”
assign (v.t.) Grammatically, this verb functions in the same way as “give”. e.g. “I assigned him the job of doing the
inventory planning.” e.g. “I assigned the job of doing the inventory planning to him.”
assist (v.t.) Grammatically, the distinction is between (1) actions and (2) things:
(1) “The parent corporation assisted the subsidiary in setting up the plant.” (2) “The parent company also assisted
the subsidiary with the costs of setting up the plant.”
The same rules apply to the verb, help.
assume (v.t.) Apart from its regular meaning of accepting without clear evidence that something is true, this verb has a
different meaning with nouns like power, responsibility and control. With these nouns it has the meaning of
“take”.
balance (v.t.) + (n - singular only). This word is very common in the world of business and has several possible
meanings:
balance (1) (v.t.) “The Japanese auto industry has always been able to balance demand and/with supply because it
forces its component suppliers to make rapid adjustments to its needs.” (Normal meaning)
balance (2) (v.t.) “The corporation had to balance the need for training against the money it cost.” (“The
corporation had to consider the importance of training in relation to its cost.”)
balance (3) (v.t.) “The government managed to balance its budget.” (An idiom which means that spending and
revenue were the same.)
balance (4) (v.t.) “The corporation's senior accountant succeeded in balancing the corporation's books.” (An
idiom which means that the accounting records were successfully arranged to show that the corporation's assets
and liabilities/equity were the same.)
balance (5) (n) “It was agreed that half of the payment would be made immediately in cash and the balance
would be paid in the form of a stock swap.” (Here balance means the “remaining part”)
balance (6) (n) A bank balance. This is the amount of money that remains in a bank account after a withdrawal.
balance (7) (idiom) Be/Lie/Hang in the balance. “The future of the company lies in the balance.” (An idiom
which means that the future direction of the company is unclear because there are two or more possible directions.)
balance (8) (idiom) On balance. “On balance, the CEO decided that the luxury end of the market should be
targeted for future expansion.” (An idiom which means that the CEO carefully considered all the relevant facts and
arguments before making his/her decision.)
bankrupt (a) - bankruptcy (un) The meanings of both the adjective and the noun are straightforward, but note these
collocations:
“The company is bankrupt.”
“The company will go bankrupt next week.”
“The company will go into bankruptcy next week.”
“A few American airlines have filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy laws.” (a legal
procedure)
barrier (n) Note the following sentence patterns which are typical of MBA usage: “The huge investment requirements
of the pharmaceutical industry represent a large barrier to entry (by new companies into the industry).”
“By establishing a large degree of control over the soft drinks distribution networks in the USA Coca Cola and
Pepsi Cola have raised the barriers to entry into the industry.”
base (v.t.) - base (n) These two lexical items are very common in academic and business usage. There are a couple of
variations in their meaning and there are quite a few different collocational patterns:
base (1) (v.t.) The verb can often mean “located” or “centered”. “The company’s headquarters operations are
based in Paris.”
base (2) (v.t.) The verb can also mean “logically based on” or “calculated from”.
“We based our decision on a wide variety of different criteria.”
“We based our profit forecasts for this year on the company’s profit performance in the previous year and on the
current sales figures.”
based on (3) [adverbial phrase related to (2)] “Based on the company’s profit performance in the previous year
and on the current sales figures, we have made profit forecasts for this year.”
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base (4) (n) “The company made Hong Kong its base for administrative operations.” “The company chose
Hong Kong as its base for administrative operations.”
become (v+c) This verb is used quite generally in English, but it is used somewhat less than equivalent verbs in some
other languages. Two areas of English usage where students have to be careful are (1) PROCESSES and (2)
COMPLEMENTARY RELATIONS.
(1) PROCESSES In some languages it is possible to collocate the equivalent word for become with another verb
to form a two verb phrase which describes a process. In English, when become is the first verb it is not possible to
use a two verb phrase to describe a process [type a]. English, instead, often uses continuous verb forms to indicate
process [type b]. It should be noted that it certainly is possible in English to collocate become with nouns and
adjectives in order to describe the results of processes or changes [type c]. It is possible for become to appear as
the second verb in a two verb phrase, a combination which is usually a mix of types b&c. Some examples of these
general observations are given below:
“The company is becoming to get profitable.” [type a]
“He is becoming to learn what to do.” [type a]
“The company is becoming profitable.” [type b: focus on the current process]
“He is learning what to do.” [type b: focus on the current process]
“The company has been becoming profitable.” [type b: focus on the past-to-present process]
“The company has become profitable.” [type c: focus on the present result of a past change]
“The company is starting to become profitable.” [types b&c together]
“He is starting to learn what to do.” [types b&c together]
(2) COMPLEMENTARY RELATIONS In English the use of become is restricted because it is a
“complementary verb”. This means that both the subject noun and the noun complement of become must be
logically equivalent. Examples of sentences in which there is no logical equivalence or insufficient logical
equivalence are given below. They are immediately followed by acceptable sentences. One typical solution is to
use a transitive verb because there is no need for logical equivalence between the subject and object of a transitive
verb. Another typical solution is to use an adjective complement for become.
“Illegal copying is becoming trouble.” [the relation between “illegal copying” and “trouble” is transitive: illegal
copying causes trouble in the form of loss of income for the copyright holder]
“Illegal copying is causing trouble.” [switch to a transitive verb]
“Illegal copying is becoming troublesome.” [adjective complement]
“Cray Corp. thinks that its existing customers will become favorable advertisements for its products.” [there is no
obvious logical equivalence between “customers” and “advertisements”]
“Cray Corp. thinks that its existing customers will become its best salesmen for its products.” [“customers” and
“salesmen” are both human, so they are logically equivalent, even if the idea of customers becoming salesmen is a
little exaggerated]
“Cray Corp. thinks that its existing customers will represent favorable advertisements for its products.” [Here
represent can be used because it expresses symbolic or indirect equivalence: the customers cannot become real
advertisements, but their favorable comments about the products will be advertisements.] See also the note on
represent.
believe (v.t.) - belief (n) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“He believes that the U.S. economy has a good future.”
“He believes in the future of the U.S. economy.”
“He expresses the belief that the U.S. economy has a good future.”
benefit (n) - benefit (v.t.) The meanings of both the noun and the verb are relatively simple: they relate to “advantage”
and “profit”. Note, however, the following collocations and contexts:
“Some governments try to ensure that economic growth benefits the poor as well as the rich.”
“In some societies the poor as well as the rich benefit from economic growth.”
“In its early days the U.S. computer industry benefited greatly from military research projects on data
processing.”
“The factory employees enjoyed the social and health benefits of no longer having to do night shift work.”
“The company decided to end night shift operations for the benefit of its employees.”
“The failure of IBM in the early 1980s to develop its own operating system for PCs was to the huge benefit of
Microsoft Corporation.” (this benefit was not intended by IBM - contrast with the examples above of intended
benefits)
“With the benefit of hindsight IBM would not have made the decision to allow Microsoft Corporation full rights
to market and sell the DOS operating system.” (a common idiom - check your dictionary for the meaning)
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“Although I thought he might be lying, I gave him the benefit of the doubt.” (a common idiom - check your
dictionary for the meaning)
bid (v.t.) + (n) The sentence pattern for the verb is the same as pay: e.g. “The Matsushita Corporation bid over $6
million for MCA.” The verb, make, is usually used with the noun: e.g. “The Matsushita Corporation made a bid
of over $6 million for MCA.”
bottom line (noun phrase) This idiomatic expression used to be purely an accounting term and referred to the bottom
line of a balance sheet where the total profit or loss calculation is shown. This expression is now generally used in
business and other professional contexts to indicate the primary factor in any decision or plan. This primary factor
is often the total expected profit or loss, but it can refer to other things.
“It is said that most investors in American companies are only interested in a company’s’ bottom line.” (only
concerned about whether the companies make a profit or a loss)
“Although the promotion committee considered a number of criteria, the bottom line was the promotion
candidate’s willingness to stay with the company for at least ten years.” (“the deciding factor”)
bring (v.t.) The simple core meaning of this verb is a combination of “come” and “carry”. In certain specific
collocations, bring can also imply some causal action, but it is important not to overgeneralize from these highly
restricted usages. The only good synonym of “cause” which includes bring is bring about. Below are some
examples of the restricted usages of bring:
(1) “The government is bringing computers into elementary schools.” [the government is not carrying them, but is
causing them to be installed in elementary schools]
(2) “The CEO brought the sales meeting to a successful conclusion.” [the CEO caused the meeting’s conclusion
to be successful]
(3) “We’re bringing the cost of computers down.” [causing them to be cheaper]
(4) “The CEO’s strong beliefs about the need to borrow heavily brought him into conflict with the Chairman.”
[his strong beliefs caused him to have a conflict with the Chairman]
Examples of errors include the sentences below:
“Easily available capital and widespread productivity improvements are two factors which bring [“cause”] intense
competition.”
“I want to bring my company [“help my company make”] better profits.”
bring about (v.t.) This means “cause something to happen”.
“The new products’ failure in export markets has brought about a crisis for the company.”
buyer’s market (noun phrase) This idiomatic phrase means a market in which supply is greater than demand and,
thus, is favorable to the buyer. See also seller’s market.
carry out (v.t.) See also the note on do. This verb refers to the activity of doing something which conforms to an
instruction, guideline, plan, promise or threat. in professional contexts, it most often refers to activities which
conform to orders, instructions and plans.
“The subordinate carried out his boss’s instructions faithfully.”
“The new government says it is going to carry out its election promises.”
catch (v.t.) This general verb has a large number of different meanings, the majority of which are associated with the
actions of “finding” and “taking”. Check your dictionary for the full list. Below are some examples of some
restrictions on collocations in this “find” and “take” usage area:
“My bank is always trying to catch [“attract”] new customers.”
“Cray Corp’s strategy is to catch [“satisfy”] the unique needs of supercomputer users.”
Catch can also mean “understand”, as in the following examples:
“I couldn’t catch what he said.”
“I couldn’t catch all of his ideas.”
challenge (n) - challenge (v.t.) This word has two meanings. The meaning familiar to most English learners is “a
difficult and exciting goal”. The other, less familar meaning, is the “rejection of something as true or right.” The
first meaning is most often expressed by the use of the noun form. The second meaning is usually expressed by
the use of the verb form.
challenge (n) Typical collocations are shown below:
“We have to meet the challenge of increasing productivity by 10% every year.”
“The CEO set his subordinates the challenge of doubling their divisions’ sales every six years.”
“A mountaineer at the foot of Everest realizes he faces a big challenge.”
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challenge (v.t.) Here are some correct and incorrect examples:
“The trade union challenged the right of the company to reduce overtime rates.”
“The current management fashion of advocating ‘core competencies’ is rarely challenged.”
“We have to challenge (“try hard to achieve”) our sales targets.”
“I like to challenge my job (“try hard to achieve my job goals”).”
See also the Guide to Advanced Reported Speech on the network server.
chance (n) see the note on opportunity
circumstances (n plural) see also the notes on conditions and situation
The meaning of this noun overlaps those of conditions and situation, though it can be distinguished from both of
them. Like conditions, the point of view of circumstances is to regard the context as external to the subject. This
distinguishes it from situation, which often regards the context as both internal and external. What distinguishes
circumstances from conditions is the inclusion within circumstances not only of general things but also of
particular facts. While conditions are used in contexts which have at least some stability over a certain period of
time, circumstances can be used in contexts which have a very short time frame, such as contexts related to a
particular (and perhaps short-lived) event. The examples below illustrate this distinction:
“Current job market conditions favor those who have information technology skills.”
“Last week the company’s circumstances worsened considerably with the tightening of bank interest rates, a fall
in demand from overseas customers and announcements by competitors of price cuts.”
classify (v.t.) This verb’s meaning is straightforward, but note its collocation with the adverbial phrase, according to,
and with various nouns which can indicate categories. See also AVS #5 for a lot more information and examples.
“We classified the industries according to their size.”
“We classified the industries according to whether or not they were growing.”
“We classified the industries according to various categories such as size and current growth rate.”
clout (un) In business and political contexts this word means “influence and power”. e.g. “Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola
have a lot of clout with soft drink bottlers and retailers in the USA because of their dominant market shares.”
come from (v.i. + adv phrase) see the note on derive
command a price When a company commands a premium price for its products it is able to charge a high price
because it enjoys an advantage over its competitors such as superior product quality, better name recognition,
unique product features etc..
commit (v.t.) This verb does not only mean do (see the note).
1) Generally, it means to “do something bad”: e.g. “He committed a crime.” and “He committed the basic
mistake of not researching the market before launching the product.”
(2) In a business context it can mean “allocate”: e.g. “The company decided not to commit any resources to the
proposed investment program until the new technology had been proved.”
(3) A little more generally, it can mean to “make a decision to be loyal to, or follow a consistent policy regarding,”
a person or course of action: e.g. “Sony Corporation committed itself to a major investment program in its
American subsidiary, Columbia Pictures.”
company (n) The meaning of this noun is simple, but note the following verb/noun collocations:
“The company was established/set up in 1967 by James Brown. With the help of a large bank loan, he expanded
the company by opening new facilities in three different locations. In order to finance faster expansion, the
company went public in 1976. When this expansion ran into problems in the late 1970’s, the company was taken
over by Big Corp. and it was restructured according to Big Corp’s managerial principles. Increasing competition
and declining profitability in the late 1980’s led to the decision to downsize it, but this move did not succeed in
preventing a further deterioration in performance. Finally, in 1992 it was bought out by its managers, who tried,
but failed, to prevent it going bankrupt in 1995.”
compensation (un) The following verbs are usually used with this noun: claim, demand, get, pay, receive. e.g.
“Corporations in America have to pay compensation to people who have suffered from any pollution caused by
the corporations.”
comprise (v.t.) N.B. the meanings of comprise and constitute are usually opposite. For example, consider these two
sentences: (1) “The assembly line comprises an assembly section, a paint shop and a quality inspection station.”
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and (2) “An assembly section, a paint shop and a quality inspection station constitute the assembly line.”
Comprise and consist of usually have the same meaning. See also the note on include and AVS #5a3.
compromise (v.i) - compromise (v.t.) - compromise (n) Note that the two verb forms have different meanings and
that the noun form is associated with the intransitive verb meaning.
compromise (v.i.) This means reaching an agreement with someone else that involves accepting less than you
want.
“Although we couldn’t agree completely about the major issues we wanted to sign a contract that day, so we
compromised.”
“We agreed about the major issues and decided to compromise on the minor ones.”
compromise (v.t.) This means doing something which causes other people to have doubts about your honesty,
integrity and consistency.
“The company compromised its reputation for social responsibility when it closed the plant and fired 2,500
workers.”
compromise (n) This means an agreement that involves accepting less than you want.
“In democracies, politicians have to make a lot of compromises with other politicians and with political lobbies.”
“The company executives and the trade union negotiators reached a compromise about the issue of annual bonus
payments.”
concentrate (v + adv phrase) This is used with the preposition, on, but note the two possible patterns: (1) “We
concentrated on improving the quality control.” and (2) “We concentrated all our resources on improving the
quality control.”
concern (v.t.) - concerned with (v.t.) - concern (n)
This word has several possible meanings, but there are four common ones.
concern (1) (v.t.) This verb usually means “worry”:
“One of the things that concerns the government is the rise in inflation.”
“The government is concerned about/by the rise in inflation.” [passive voice]
concern (2) (v.t.) This verb can also mean “relate to” or “involve”:
“This issue concerns the chairman as well as the CEO.”
concern (3) (v.t.) When the object is a person it can also mean “care about”:
“The government is concerned about the welfare of old people.”
“The government concerns itself about the welfare of old people.”
concerned with (4) (v.t.) This phrase means pay attention to something because it is important:
“The company management is more concerned with profits than the welfare of its work force.” (the welfare of its
work force is not considered important)
concern (n) The noun can indicate the same four meanings:
(1) “One of the government’s concerns is the rise in inflation.”
(2) “Sales forecasts are the concern of the marketing department.” (its responsibility)
(3) “The government has a lot of concern about the welfare of old people.”
(4) “The company management’s concern is more with profits than with the welfare of its work force.”
conclude (v.t.) - conclusion (n) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“He concluded that the audit was totally accurate.”
“He concluded his evaluation of the audit by stating that it was totally accurate.”
“He came to/reached the conclusion that the audit was totally accurate.”
conditions (n plural) see the notes on situation and circumstances
conduct (v.t.) See also the notes on do and carry out. This verb is used with the following kind of nouns: activities,
policy, business, study, survey, meeting, campaign etc. It refers to the two actions of organizing and carrying
out a formal activity. It collocates most strongly with formal activities which involve information gathering and
analysis such as surveys, studies and research and with formal activities that involve coordination such as
meetings, campaigns, and orchestras.
confuse (v.t.) N.B. the two sentence patterns.
(1) “The American sales manger confused Hokkaido and Kyushu.” (He mixed up the two places.)
(2) “The Japanese sales manager confused Washington State with Washington D.C.” (When he heard or read
about the first Washington, he thought the reference was to the second Washington.).
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confusion (un) N.B. the sentence patterns: “There was a lot of confusion about/over Hokkaido and Kyushu”
and “There was a serious confusion of Washington State with Washington D.C.”
Also N.B. the difference between the two forms of the adjective, confused and confusing.
consider (v.t.) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“He considered the situation carefully.”
“He considered how the company might increase its profitability.”
“He considered the chief financial officer (to be) a good executive.”
“He considered that the company should increase its profitability.”
“He considered the chief financial officer as a good executive.”
See also the Guide to Advanced Reported Speech on the network server.
consistent (a) N.B. the following frequent sentence patterns: “The Conservative Government of the U.K. always tried
to encourage the fastest possible rate of economic growth that is consistent with low inflation.” (i.e. the fastest
possible rate of economic growth that does not cause inflation) and “The old argument that the appreciation in the
value of the Japanese Yen would cause the Japanese trade surplus to disappear is not consistent with what
actually happened.” (i.e. in spite of a strong Yen, the Japanese trade surplus did not disappear and this fact seems
to contradict the old argument)
constitute (v.t.) See the note on comprise above.
constraint (n) N.B. the following examples of usage:
(1) “One of the constraints on profitability was the inability to predict changes in demand with any accuracy.”
(2) “The attraction of high technology products like personal computers is that they are not subject to the
constraint of finite demand. Technological advances create an entirely new market that did not exist before.”
(3) “Severe competition puts a tight constraint on profitability.”
contact (n) This noun is often used in verbal phrases, two of which are important:
(1) “I got in contact with the public relations manager of the company.” (I communicated with him)
(2) “I am in contact with the Chinese Government about the possibility of setting up a joint venture.” (This
expresses a condition, not an action. It means that the lines of communication are open and are being used, though
actual communication may not necessarily be happening at the moment the statment is made.)
Also note the following collocations:
(3) make contact with someone/something (“locate someone/it & start communication with him/it”)
(4) lose contact with someone/something (the opposite of (3))
(5) come into contact with someone (“meet/encounter someone & communicate with him/her”)
contract (v.t.) N.B. the usual sentence pattern : “They contracted (with Nike) to supply several thousand pairs of
sports shoes every month to a Japanese intermediary.”
cope with: This verb is similar in meaning to deal with and handle in terms of summarizing a sequence of successful
actions and responsibility. The main difference is that cope with indicates that the sequence of actions is very difficult.
Here are two sentence examples:
(1) “The government coped with the earthquake disaster quite well.”
(2) “The company’s production facility couldn’t cope with the sudden surge in orders.”
Cope with is also used when someone faces a very unpleasant situation. In this use, cope with indicates acceptance of
the situation more often than it indicates success. Here is an example:
“Unemployed people have to cope with loss of social esteem as well as loss of income.”
cost (v.t.) - cost (n) The verb has two different meanings and the noun appears in various collocations and forms.
cost (1) (v.t.) The first meaning is the common one. Note the negative form:
“The first research project cost a lot of money.”
“The second research project didn’t cost much money.”
“The second research project only cost $10,000.”
cost (2) (v.t.) The second meaning is “estimate” or “budget”. Note that the past tense of this verb is regular, in
contrast to the past tense of (1):
“We costed the first research project at $100,000.”
cost (3) (n) The singular form of the noun means “amount of money paid” (usually for a specific purpose):
“The total cost of the first research project came to $110,000.”
“The second research project was carried out at a cost of $10,000.”
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costs (4) (n) The plural form of the noun means “amount of money paid in running a business or maintaining a
home” (usually for non-specific purposes):
“The company decided that it had to raise prices in order to cover its costs.”
“We have to keep costs under control.” “We have to keep costs down.”
“Cray Corp. spends a huge amount of costs on R&D.” [“money”]
“Cray Corp. has to absorb huge R&D costs.”
Also check your dictionaries to discover the meanings of these idioms:
at all costs, at any cost, at no cost, at cost price, count the cost
credit (un+n) This noun is used in a lot of business contexts in different collocations which have different meanings!
(1) sell/buy something on credit (buy now and pay later)
(2) be in credit e.g. “My bank account is in credit.” (My bank account still has money in it.)
(3a) to someone's credit e.g. “The finance minister had several budget achievements to his credit.” (The finance
minister had already achieved several government budget successes and these enhanced his reputation.)
(3b) take/give credit e.g. “The advertising agency took all the credit for the new product's success because noone gave credit for its success to the marketing manager.” (The advertising agency accepted the praise for the
product's success because no-one praised the marketing manager.)
(3c) be to someone's credit e.g. “It is to Sony's credit that it recovered from the bitter disappointment of the
market failure of its ‘Beta’ video system.” (Sony deserves praise for this recovery)
(3d) do someone credit e.g. “Its famous quality control programs do Motorola credit.” (These programs cause
other people to praise Motorola)
(4) on the credit side e.g. “On the debit side, the company's current profitability was terrible, but on the credit
side, a lot of promising products were coming out of the R & D department.” (on the bad side - on the good side)
critical (a) This adjective has two basic meanings: one meaning is “extremely important” [example 1] and the other
meaning is derived from the verb, criticize, and relates to “severe and negative evaluation” [examples 2 & 3]:
(1) “International banking has become a high risk business in which critical decisions are made nearly every
year.”
(1) “The speed at which new products can be delivered to the market is now critical to the success of a PC
manufacturer.”
(2) “The management consultant was very critical of the company’s slow marketing efforts.”
(2) “The management consultant’s evaluation of the company’s marketing efforts was critical.”
customer (n) Note that companies do not catch, take or get customers. They identify them and then attract or (more
agressively) win them.
cut across (v.t.) This verb has the same meaning as “transcend”. If, for instance, a person's job responsibilities cut
across normal departmental divisions, it means that the responsibilities are not restricted by the divisions (perhaps
because the job is very important).
“At Toyota the boss of a project team which is designing a new car has powers which cut across departmental
boundaries. For example, the engineers in the project team report only to him and are no longer under the control
of the managers in the engineering division at Toyota.”
deal (n) Note these collocations when deal means “agreement” in (1)-(4):
(1) Make a deal with someone
(2) Cut a deal with someone (same meaning as (1), but more colloquial)
(3) The deal is on (the agreement is complete OR the two parties appear to be near an agreement)
(4) The deal is off (The opposite of (3))
deal has other meanings besides “agreement”:
(5) A good/great deal of something e.g. “There was a great deal of concern that the company's competitive
position was getting weaker.” (a large amount of concern)
(6) A good/bad deal [slang] (treatment, allocation of rewards) e.g. “The foreman though he had got a bad deal
because he had all the responsibility for making sure that production deadlines were met, but the production
manager received all the bonuses for good production performance.”
(7) A raw deal [slang] (basically the same meaning as (6) - it means “a very bad deal”)
(8) “Big deal!” [slang] (This is a sarcastic response to another speaker's statement. The purpose of the sarcasm is
to belittle the significance of the statement.) e.g.
“I worked ten hours yesterday!”
“Big deal! I've been working ten or eleven hour days my whole life.”
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deal with (v.t.) and handle (v.t.) See also the note on do.
These two verbs are very convenient because they both have summary functions. In general, both words
summarize the sequence of actions required when we successfully do something which is not simple. In addition,
both words often indicate that the subject has a responsibility for this sequence of actions.
Handle has two peculiar meanings which sometimes distinguish it from deal with: (1) handle can emphasize that
the subject brings a difficult sequence of actions to a successful conclusion; (2) handle can add extra emphasis to
the idea that the subject has a responsibility for the sequence of actions. Deal with also has some peculiar
meanings, two of which are indicated at the end of this note.
Here is a typical example of a summary function which both words can perform:
“After identifying the operations management problem, Mr. Smith will analyze it, suggest some possible solutions
and make a final recommendation.” This can be summarized as:
“Mr. Smith will deal with/ handle the operations management problem.”
The following sentences represent examples of uses where deal with and handle are essentially synonyms for
each other. All of these examples relate to business contexts.
(1) be responsible for and do everything that is involved in a particular task:
“Mr. Hashimoto dealt with/ handled all the overseas clients of the company.”
“We dealt with/ handled over 25,000 orders last year.”
“The customer’s request for favorable credit terms was dealt with/ handled by the Finance Department.”
(2) the same meaning as (1) except that it is done in a particular way:
“The discovery of the employee’s theft of money from the company left the manager with a difficult decision: he
could deal with/ handle it as a purely internal matter or he could ask the police to deal with/ handle it as a
criminal matter.”
(3) do a sequence of things within the normal routine or capacity:
“Our warehouse can deal with/ handle up to 3,000 orders and 500 trucks per day.”
“The demand was so great that it was more than the factory could deal with/ handle.”
(4) relate to people well so that they usually do what you want without the use of force or pressure:
“The Personnel Manager was well-known for his ability to deal with/ handle people.”
(5) understand and present facts, figures and ideas well and clearly:
“He dealt with/ handled the statistical part of the presentation very well.”
Here are examples of the two peculiar meanings of handle:
(1) deal with a difficult problem or situation successfully:
“It’s a difficult job, so I’m not sure if I can handle it well or not.”
“Mr. Hashimoto and his team handled the joint venture negotiations very well.”
(2) emphasize that someone has responsibility for a set of actions
“The fraud investigation team were informed that the chief accountant handled the special bank accounts by
himself.”
Here are examples of two peculiar meanings of deal with:
(1) have business relations with someone
“When Mr. Hashimoto wanted to get some technical information about the joint venture, he dealt with Mr. Jones,
who worked for the other joint venture partner.”
(2) a synonym for the “relate to” meaning of concern (see the note about concern)
“The last part of the report deals with foreign exchange hedging.”
debt (n+un) This noun appears in several different collocations:
(1) be in debt (owe money)
(2) get/fall into debt (an action which leads to the owing of money)
(3) be out of debt/ get out of debt (the opposite of 1 & 2)
(4) owe a debt of gratitude to someone (be very grateful and feel that you must return a favor)
(5) be in someone's debt (be grateful to someone)
define (v.t.) If you define a word, expression or idea the usual sentence pattern would be, for example: “‘Finance’ can
be defined as the management of money, loans, credit and investment.”
derive (v.t.) & (v.i. + adv phrase) This verb functions as a sort of abstract form of come from. The latter verb is
often used mistakenly in abstract contexts where derive is appropriate. Derive basically means “develop from
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something else”. Also note that the phrase, is based on (see the note about base), can often be substituted for
derive. Examples are given below:
“My idea of a fragmented APEC derives from (comes from) the observation that APEC members have little in
common except a desire to boost their economies and a fear of larger neighbors such as China.”
“His confidence derives from [is based on] the knowledge that he will be promoted to CEO very soon.” [come
from is possible here, but sounds rather informal]
determine (v.t.) - determinant (n) - determination (un)
determine (1) (v.t.) The most frequent meaning of determine is “cause in a regular, repetitive and proportional
way”:
“In a natural environment the main factors which determine the population of a species are rates of reproduction,
access to food and the number of predators.”
“In modern democracies, economic factors usually determine whether or not governments win elections.”
determine (2) (v.t.) In business contexts one important meaning is “cause a decision”: e.g. “The company's
inability to compete in the broad markets with the industry's major players determined its strategy of focusing on
specialized products.” and “The behavior of its competitors determined how and when it would enter the new
market.”
determine (3) (v.t.) The other meaning of determine [+clause] you should be aware of is “decide”/“discover”:
“The company determined that the strategy should be changed.”
“The manager determined that the cause of the strategy's failure was the lack of attention to production quality
control.”
N.B. the adjective, determined, usually has a different meaning - check your dictionary!
determinant (4) (n) This noun relates to the first meaning of the verb.
determination (5) (un) This noun has two possible meanings
(5a) One meaning relates to the “decide”/“discover” meaning of the verb:
“The U.S. government made a determination that China had sold sensitive nuclear technology to Pakistan.”
(5b) a special meaning is “a very strong desire to achieve something”:
“The CEO showed great determination to improve the productivity of the engineering division.”
develop (v.t.+v.i.) - developed (a) The verb is frequently used in all academic and professional contexts. It has several
meanings, but all of these are related to a central meaning of “go through a process to create something”. This
emphasis on process means that develop is collocated with object nouns which represent complex creations. You
should therefore distinguish its meaning from the meanings of other verbs, such as get, make, acquire and obtain,
which represent relatively simple getting or making actions.
develop (1) (v.t.) It can mean “get”/“acquire” with nouns which refer to complex personal qualities/attributes. e.g.
“After ten years' experience as a top executive he had developed a lot of management skill and experience.”
develop (2) (v.t.) It can mean “expand” with nouns such as “business”, “industry”, “market”. e.g. “The auto
market in Japan has been developed by government and auto manufacturers to the extent that it is several times
bigger now than it was 20 years ago.”
develop (3) (v.t.) It can mean “build up”/“refine” with a wide range of nouns. e.g. “The desk-top computers of
today have been developed from the old valve computers that used to fill a whole room only 35 years ago.” e.g.
“He always encouraged his stock market analysts to develop the skill of identifying those companies which were
employing good business strategies, but had not yet made good profits.”
develop (4) (v.t.) If you develop an “idea” or an “argument”, it means that you make it clearer or more detailed by
speaking or writing about it. e.g. “The chief production engineer presented a document in which he developed a
strategy for increasing production speed by 50% within two years.”
develop (5) (v.t.) If you develop a “piece of land”, you clear it and build something on it.
develop (6) (v.t.) If a machine develops a “fault” or “problem”, the machine is affected by it.
develop (7) (v.i.) Generally, the intransitive form means evolve. e.g. “Technology has been developing for
thousands of years, but it is only in the last one hundred years that each generation has been faced with completely
new technologies.”
develop (8) (v.i.) If a “country” develops, it industrializes.
develop (9) (v.i.) If a “problem” or “crisis” develops, it starts to exist and gets worse.
Also note restrictions on adverbs with develop (v.t.+v.i.) - developed (a). One good example is highly. It is
possible to place this before the adjective, developed, as in the example:
“Everyone agreed that he had a highly developed plan.”
“Japan is a highly developed country.”
But it is not possible to use this with the verb develop:
“He developed the plan highly.”
“He developed his argument highly.”
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“Japan has developed highly.”
Acceptable alternatives are adverbs like well, thoroughly and the adverbial phrase, to a high level:
“He developed the plan thoroughly.”
“He developed his argument well.”
“Japan has developed to a high level of economic and social sophistication.”
diagnose (v.t.) This word has a medical origin, but it's often used in business contexts too. N.B. the usual sentence
pattern: “The consultant diagnosed the administrative problem as a lack of coordination among the major
departments of the company.”
differentiate (v.t.) This verb is relatively simple, but extremely common in business contexts. It means “to create or to
demonstrate a difference between one thing and another”. e.g. “Until Microsoft put the ‘Windows’ software
system on the market, Apple Computer Corp. differentiated its PCs from other PCs by providing a ‘menu’
command system which did not rely on keyboard commands.”
difficult (a) see the note on easy
difficulty (n+un) see AVS #2
dimension (n) This noun has two basic meanings.
dimension (1) (n) This means the “size” or “extent” of something. e.g. “The dimensions of the problem were
soon apparent: the entire production process would have to be reorganized.”
dimension (2) (n) This means an aspect of something which influences the way you act or think about it e.g. “The
integration of computers and video will add a whole new dimension to information technology.”
disadvantage (n) The meanings of advantage and disadvantage are simple, but they can appear in a variety of
sentence patterns. The ones below are among the more frequent of these patterns:
• “One advantage of establishing an agency is (that) it can be done quickly.”
• “There are disadvantages in/to setting up a joint venture. One disadvantage is (that) decision-making is often
slowed down because it has to be shared between the two venture partners.”
• “Setting up an agency in New York would create a lot of advantages. One advantage would be the size of the
New York market. On the other hand, it would also involve some disadvantages, such as the high cost of doing
business in that city.”
• “Being a late entrant into a market is not always a disadvantage. It can represent an advantage when a company
can learn from the mistakes of early market entrants.”
• “Company A enjoyed the advantage of being debt-free, whereas Company B suffered the disadvantage of a
heavy debt burden.” [see also enjoy and suffer]
• “The company was at an advantage compared to other companies because it had no debt.”
• “Interest rate restrictions had put banks at a disadvantage in competing with stock markets.”
• “The interest rate restrictions worked to/were to the advantage of stock markets and to the disadvantage of
banks.”
•
•
[advantage only] “We took advantage of the new business opportunities to increase our market share
substantially.” [we exploited the new business opportunities]
[disadvantage only] “Companies which operate in high wage economies have to overcome the disadvantage of
high wage costs by achieving high levels of productivity.”
discuss (v.t.) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“The professor discussed the issue of profit maximization.”
“I discussed with him a lot of the problems.”
“The professor discussed how to maximize profits.”
“The professor discussed about the issue of profit maximization.”
“The professor discussed that the issue of profit maximization was difficult.”
See also the Guide to Advanced Reported Speech on the network server.
do (v.t.) In many languages the word which is equivalent is to do is extremely common. For example, the Japanese
equivalent, suru, collocates with about half of all Japanese nouns. While the English do is also common, it
collocates with only about 7% of all English nouns, though this 7% represents some of the most frequently used
nouns in English. The other 93% of nouns collocates with a large variety of specialized verbs. The verbs which
represent specialized versions of do are among the most important and frequently used of this 93%. Key examples
which are covered by these notes are carry out, commit, conduct, deal with, handle and perform. In general,
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do collocates with nouns which are general, informal and/or do not collocate well with the more specialized
verbs. Check your dictionary for examples of such nouns.
doubt (v.t.) - doubt (n+un) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
doubt (v.t.)
“He doubted the truth of the statement.”
“He doubted whether the statement was true (or not).”
doubt (n+un) As can be seen from the examples below, the countable and uncountable forms have the same
meaning. Examples (1)-(6) have straightforward meanings. Note the use of the negative form to indicate
certainty.
(1) “The consultant had doubts/a doubt about the company's proposed strategy.”
(2) “The consultant expressed/raised doubts/a doubt about the company's proposed strategy.” (he
communicated the doubts he had)
(3) “Despite the assurances of the CEO that the proposed strategy was based on intensive market surveys, there
were still doubts/ was still a doubt about it in the consultant's mind.”
(4) “The consultant told his assistant that there was/ he had no doubt that the proposed strategy would fail.”
(also: little doubt, not the slightest doubt)
(5) “The consultant told his assistant that he was in no doubt that the proposed strategy would fail.”
(6) “The consultant told his assistant that, without a/ beyond all doubt, the proposed strategy would fail.”
Examples (7)-(10) indicate less straightforward meanings:
(7) “The Mexican Finance Minister cast doubt on reports that the peso would be devalued within the week.” (he
said things that encouraged his audience to suspect the truth of the reports)
(8) “The peso crisis in Mexico put/left the future of the NAFTA in doubt.” (because of the crisis the future of
NAFTA was considered uncertain)
(9) “The peso crisis in Mexico left the future of the NAFTA open to doubt.” (same meaning as 8)
(10) “The Mexican news media decided to give the Mexican Finance Minister the benefit of the doubt.”
(although the news media were not completely convinced by the Finance Minister's statement, they decided to
accept the statement as true)
draw (v.t.) The meaning of this verb is straightforward, but it appears in a number of collocations and idioms. Here are
some common examples:
“He drew a distinction between hard work and efficient work.” (“made a distinction”)
“After considering all the facts and figures, he drew the conclusion that the company was falling behind its major
competitors.” (“reached the conclusion”)
“The management consultant drew the CEO’s attention to the huge costs of the company’s headquarters
administration.” (“pointed out” “brought to his notice/attention”)
“Investment banks have to draw a clear line between habitual caution and carefully calculated risk because no
international investment bank can afford to be very cautious in today’s very competitive banking market.” (an
idiom - “make a clear distinction between”)
easy (a) Easy and difficult, are examples of adjectives which describe degrees of ease and comfort. In very short and
simple sentences such adjectives are often inserted in the regular Subject + Verb + Adjective pattern, e.g.:
“Driving is easy.”
“Learning Japanese is difficult.”
Sentences which contain this type of adjective, however, often comprise several words or are part of complex
sentences which include both human and activity subjects. In such cases, native speakers of English usually prefer
to start the sentence, clause or phrase with it rather than with a long subject. For example, it is possible to write:
“Developing a new computer software program is difficult and time consuming.”
A native speaker,however, would probably choose to express this as:
“It is difficult and time consuming to develop a new computer software program.”
This preference for the it pattern increases when the sentence complexity increases. Here are an error example and
two correct alternatives:
“Large Japanese industrial corporations are easy to get access to finance sources in the securities market.”
“It is easy for large Japanese industrial corporations to get access to finance sources in the securities market.”
“Large Japanese industrial corporations can easily get access to finance sources in the securities market.”
In the last example sentence the writer avoids the adjective problem entirely by using can and the adverb before
the verb. Check your dictionary to see which adjectives have simple adverb equivalents!
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The degrees of ease and comfort group includes these adjectives: boring, convenient, inconvenient, fun,
hard, interesting, nice, pleasant, tough, unpleasant.
The other group of adjectives which can often be found in the same sentence pattern is the modality and volition
group, which includes these adjectives: appropriate, compulsory, crucial, essential, fitting, imperative,
important, impossible, improper, necessary, obligatory, possible, proper, unnecessary, vital.
Please note that these two lists are not exclusive. Also note that these adjectives are used in this pattern when the
speaker wants to make a statement which is general and is not restricted to any particular time. See below for the
pattern used for the opposite sort of statements.
An alternative it + adjective pattern is it + adjective + that + clause. The difference between this pattern and the
one above is that this pattern is used when the speaker wants to express an observer’s detached comment about a
particular fact, situation, or activity.
“It was historically important that Europe was a collection of small states who competed fiercely with each
other.”
“It is crucial that he completes this report within the next two hours.”
“It is appropriate that the manager who caused the company to go bankrupt has also suffered heavy personal
financial losses.”
See AVS #6c for more information about complex adjective constructions.
effect (n+un)+(v.t.)
effect (v.t.) See also the note on affect. Note that the verb and the noun have very different meanings. The verb
means “cause”/“implement”, whereas the noun usually, but not always, means “result”/“impact”. Also note that
the verb is considered very formal these days and is being used less and less frequently.
effect (n) The countable noun form means “result”/ “impact”:
(1) “IBM's decision in the early '80s not to develop its own PC operating system software had the effect of
instantly opening the growing PC market to literally hundreds of other competitors.”
(2) “The rapid development of the PC and the workstation in the '80s had a very bad effect on IBM's mainframe
business.”
effect (un) The uncountable noun form also usually means “result”/ “impact”:
(3) “IBM's desperate efforts in the late '80s to halt the slide in its mainframe business had no visible effect on the
computer market.”
The uncountable form is found in more collocational combinations than the countable form. These collocations
can lead to some variation in meaning:
(4) “The CEO put the new rules into effect.” (implemented the rules)
(5) “The new rules came/took/went into effect yesterday.” (the new rules started being implemented yesterday)
(6) “The new rules started with effect from yesterday.” (same meaning as #5)
Also note the following phrases which are often used in which effect means a summary:
(7) in effect/ to that effect/ to the effect that (these phrases indicate that the report/argument represents a rough
summary which lacks all the relevant details)
“In effect, I said that I was bankrupt.”
“I said I was bankrupt, or words to that effect.”
“There was a rumor to the effect that I had gone bankrupt.”
effort (n+un)
effort (n) The countable noun form means [a] “attempt” or [b] “activity that requires hard work and/or a lot of
resources”
(1) “Steel companies in Japan have made an effort to diversify their business operations by creating numerous
subsidiary companies.” [a]
(2) “Steel companies in Japan have created numerous subsidiary companies in an effort to diversify their business
operations.” [a]
(3) “In the days before Toyota showed that die-changing could be automated, it used to take/require a huge
effort to change the dies used in stamping car bodies and engine frames.” [b]
(4) “Setting up the first NUUMI factory in California was an effort.” [b]
effort (un) The uncountable noun form means “activity that requires hard work and/or a lot of resources”
(5) “Bonuses were given to reward initiative, skill and effort.”
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(6) “Little effort used to be made by foreign car makers to break into the Japanese market.”
(7) “It was only with effort that Nissan succeeded in breaking into the American market in the late 1960s.”
Also note these two idioms:
(8) “A lot of overseas car makers had decided that it wasn't worth the effort to break into the Japanese car
market.” (The rewards did not justify the amount of hard work and money that would be necessary to achieve
them.)
(9) “Nissan made the effort to break into the American market, even though there were few prospects of success.”
(Nissan devoted enough time, energy and money to break into the American market.)
emphasis (n) N.B. emphasis is usually collocated with the verbs, place and put: e.g. “Sony Corporation places a lot
of emphasis on product innovation.” Also note that the verb is used without a preposition: e.g. “Sony emphasizes
on product innovation.”
encounter (v.t.) - encounter (n) The verb means to “experience something" or to “meet something or someone in an
unplanned way”. Note that meet is collocated only with people or in special idioms such as “to meet with
difficulties”. See also the notes about enjoy, experience, incur & suffer. The noun has the same meanings as the
verb. Here are some examples:
“The management consultant encountered a lot of difficulties in his assignment with the joint venture company.”
(“experienced/ met with a lot of difficulties”)
“On his first day in Beijing the computer company representative encountered a lot of other representatives who
were all there to compete for the same contract.” (“met them in an unplanned way”)
“The management consultant had a lot of difficult encounters in his assignment with the joint venture company.”
“On his first day in Beijing the computer company representative had encounters with a lot of other
representatives who were all there to compete for the same contract.”
See also the note on experience.
enjoy (v.t.) This usually means to “experience pleasurable things”. In business contexts it can be used with impersonal
subject nouns:
“The company enjoyed good profits.”
“The Japanese enjoy a high standard of living.”
The opposite verb is suffer.
equip (v.t.) - equipment (un) See also AVS #8. Note the difference in meaning between equipment and nouns like
facilities (see the note on facility) which have a broader meaning. Note that equipment is uncountable. Also note
the collocations in the following examples:
“The factory assembly line is equipped with modern robot welding machines.”
“The factory is equipped to produce up to 10,000 cars per day.”
“Nothing in his previous experience equipped the manager for the huge challenges he faced in his new job.”
“Modern robot welding equipment has been installed in the factory.”
“We installed a new piece of equipment in the factory.”
establish (v.t.) The basic meaning is “create”, but this verb has slightly different meanings in different contexts.
(1) The most general meaning is to create something which is intended to last a long time. e.g. “The company was
established in 1942.” and “The Japanese consumer electronics industry has established a clear global
superiority.”
(2) A more particular meaning is to “be well-known for something”. e.g. “Sony has established itself as an
innovative consumer electronics company.” and “Sony established the Walkman as a classic product for young
consumers.” and “The Asian Tigers - South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia - established themselves as
low cost manufacturing bases in the 1970s.”
(3) Another particular meaning is the discovery of facts which show that something is definitely true. “The Chief
Financial Officer of the company established that the charges made by a number of suppliers were excessive and
recommended that they should be sued.”
estimate (v.t.) - estimate (n) - estimated (a) The meaning of all the forms of this word are the same and
straightforward. Note the collocations and patterns below:
“The management consultant estimated the company’s prospects as poor.”
“He estimated that it would cost about $5,000.”
“My estimate is that it will cost about $6,000.”
“He made an estimate that it would cost about $5,000.”
“The estimated cost is about $5,000.”
“The strike caused losses estimated at $5 million.”
a=adjective adv=adverb n=countable noun un=uncountable noun v+c = verb + complement
v.i.=intransitive verb v.t.=transitive verb
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evaluate (v.t.) - evaluation (n) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“The professor evaluated the student’s assignment very highly.”
“The professor evaluated the student’s assignment as very good.”
“The professor gave a good evaluation of the student’s assignment.”
“The professor gave an evaluation that the student’s assignment was good.”
“The professor evaluated that the student’s assignment was very good.”
expect (v.t.) - expectation (n) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“He expected the company to succeed.”
“He expected that the company would succeed.”
“He had an/the expectation that the company would succeed.”
“There was an/the expectation that the company would succeed.”
experience (v.t.) This is a very general verb which is similar in meaning to encounter. The only difference is that
experience also relates to the feelings of the subject.
(1) “Nike's American staff in China experienced a completely different way of conducting business.”
But note the contrast between examples (2) & (3):
(2) “Nike's top executives in China experienced a lot of anxiety about the slow pace of business in China.”
Contrast (1) & (2) with this example:
“Other American executives encountered a lot of anxiety among Nike's top executives.” (The other American
executives did not feel anxious: they noticed the anxiety of the Nike executives.)
See also the notes about meet, incur, suffer, enjoy and undergo.
explain (v.t.) - explanation (n) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“He explained that the bankruptcy of the company was caused by the failure of its customers to settle their
accounts quickly.”
“He explained the bankruptcy by pointing out that the customers had failed to settle their accounts quickly.”
“He gave/offered the explanation that the bankruptcy of the company was caused by the failure of its customers
to settle their accounts quickly.”
express (v.t.) This verb has two different meanings: “say” and “show”.
(1) “Say” - Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“He expressed the belief/idea/opinion/ that ...”
The noun, expression, is not normally collocated with a verb in reported speech structures.
(2) “Show” - Apart from its normal meaning of “say”, express is often used to mean “show”. Consider the
following examples: (1) “Sony's obsession with innovation is expressed in its belief that it is the educator of the
consumer electronics industry.” ; (2) “In communist economies production targets are expressed solely in terms of
physical quantities. Other criteria, such as quality and variety, are ignored.” Note also the use of the noun,
expression: “Sony's obsession with innovation is an expression of its belief that it is the educator of the consumer
electronics industry.”
facility (n ) - facilities (n plural) See also AVS #8.
Note the following common meanings:
facility (1) (n) This usually means an “extra service” or “extra function”:
“In addition to its core life insurance business, the company also provided loan facilities to its policy holders.”
“The tape recorder also has an external speaker facility.”
facility (2) (n) It can also mean a factory or a building which has a special purpose:
“The company set up a new production facility in China.”
“The army built a new facility to store and test large weapons.”
facilities (n plural) This plural form of the noun has a broad meaning which includes “buildings, equipment and
services which have a particular purpose”.
“Entering the semi-conductor manufacturing business requires a huge investment in research, design and
production facilities.”
factor (n) This noun means an agent which has causal power. Do not confuse this noun with nouns which have a
purely descriptive function such as component, category, element and so on. A typical error is presented below:
“Skil Corporation should identify the following factors [components/elements/parts] of its business operations:
raw material needs, tool categories, distribution channels, etc..”
a=adjective adv=adverb n=countable noun un=uncountable noun v+c = verb + complement
v.i.=intransitive verb v.t.=transitive verb
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factory (n) Note these verbs which are often collocated with factory:
build a factory/ establish a factory/ set up a factory/ begin production at a factory/ expand production at a
factory/ shift production from one factory to another factory/ stop production at a factory/ close a factory
See also the notes on company & equipment
fit (v.t. + v.i.) The meaning of this verb is quite simple. It basically means “match” in the sense that something has the
same shape and size as something else. Here are two typical examples:
“The shoes fit me very well.”
“Bill was very keen to do the job, but he really didn’t fit the job description.”
The problem for students is that they often assume that this verb includes the meaning of “change”. This is not
correct. A typical error and the correct version are presented below:
“We have to fit the company to its new circumstances.”
“We have to restructure the company to fit its new circumstances.”
function (n) + function (v.i.)
function (1) (n) The noun is usually used with the meaning of “object”/“purpose”: e.g. “The function of a stock
market is to provide freely available and up-to-date information on the cost of company shares.”
function (1) (v.i.) The verb form means “has a definite purpose”: “A stock market functions as a provider of
freely available and up-to-date information on the cost of company shares.”
function (2) (n) The noun form can also be used with the rather different meaning of a “result” which depends for
its nature on something else: e.g. “The prices of international currencies used to be almost solely a function of
international trade flows. More recently, in an era of free money markets, these prices are almost solely a function
of international capital flows.”
function (3) (v.i.) The verb form has the second meaning of “behave”: e.g. “The CEO knows how the
administration of his company functions.”
get (v.t.) This verb has a large number of different uses. The focus of this note is on the contrasts in meanings among
get, obtain, acquire and develop. First, see the note on develop. By contrast with develop, get and obtain
represent “getting” actions which are relatively simple both in terms of the complexity of the action and the time
needed for it. The difference between the two verbs is that get is used in informal and neutral contexts while
obtain is used in more formal contexts. You should check a good dictionary to identify the range of specialized
uses for acquire.
goal (n) see the note on objective
handle (v.t.) see the note on deal with
hedge (v.t.) - hedge (n) Besides meaning a kind of “bush”, this word has other meanings which you will frequently
encounter.
hedge (1) (v.t.) The first meaning is a form of “insuring against loss by balancing risks” and is often found in
financial contexts. e.g. “A lot of companies hedge against fluctuations in the Yen-Dollar exchange rate by
keeping equal amounts of both currencies.” N.B. the idiom, “hedge your bets”, is related to this meaning.
hedge (1) (n) “One of the principles behind diversification is that it is one way to provide a hedge against the
adverse effects of unpredictable changes in market conditions.”
hedge (2) (v.t.) The second meaning relates to “avoidance” or “indecision”. Typically, someone refuses to answer
a question or refuses to make a clear decision or commitment. e.g. “The CEO hedged the questions about rumors
of massive redundancies in the company.” “The Chairman of the company hedged on his earlier promise to ensure
that a full investigation was made into allegations of illegal conduct by some of the company's managers.”
hedged about/around/in (3) (passive verb) This simply means “restricted”. e.g. “The contract was hedged
around with all kinds of provisions that made technology transfer impossible.” “The warranty is hedged in with a
lot of restrictions.”
help (v.t. + v.i.) see the note on make
hope (v.t.) - hope (n) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“He hoped to succeed very soon.”
“He hoped that he would succeed very soon.”
“He hoped the company to succeed very soon.”
“He hoped that the company would succeed very soon.”
“He expressed the hope that the company would succeed very soon.”
a=adjective adv=adverb n=countable noun un=uncountable noun v+c = verb + complement
v.i.=intransitive verb v.t.=transitive verb
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idea (n+un) The meaning of this noun appears straightforward, but there are many idiomatic variations. Also note
that the uncountable form seems to exist mainly as a synonym for “knowledge” (see example 7 below).
Below are some examples of the regular countable form in sentences:
(1) “He had a lot of ideas about how to improve the company's performance.”
(2) “He came up with the idea of selling off all the peripheral business activities of the company.”
(3) “The studies he had made of Kao Corporation's business strategy gave him the idea of applying a core
technology to the development of diverse products.”
Below are some examples of collocations with the idiomatic uses of the noun:
(4) “I have an idea that many banks and financial institutions in Japan are in serious financial trouble.” (“I have
this impression”)
(5) “What gave you the idea that many banks and financial institutions in Japan are in serious financial trouble?”
(“What gave you this impression?”)
(6) “The consultant gave the company a rough idea of how much it would cost to relocate the plant in the
Philippines.” (“estimate”)
(7) “The Japanese government had no idea that the two credit unions were bankrupt. (“had no knowledge”)
(8) “He studied Coca-Cola's marketing and distribution systems with the idea of copying Coca-Cola's basic
strategy.” (“with the intention of”)
(9) “The general idea was to copy Coca-Cola’s basic strategy.” (“the basic intention”)
(10) “The new employee soon got the idea that the most important factor in achieving promotion was avoiding
criticism of the boss.” (“understood”)
(11) “Don't put strange ideas into his head; he's stupid enough to try and implement them!” (“don't make
strange suggestions to him”)
(12) “What's the idea! Get your hands off my wallet!” (slang expression used to indicate anger)
impact (n singular + un) This noun is usually collocated with the verbs, have and make. The difference in nuance
between these two verbs is that make suggests some sort of intention behind the action, whereas have can suggest
either intention or lack of intention:
“The end of the cold war in the late 1980’s had a great impact on the U.S.A.’s view of the importance of foreign
policy.”
“Our new marketing campaign has had/made a huge impact on sales.”
imperative (a) + imperative (n)
imperative (a) Note first that this adjective is often used with an “it” subject and can be followed by “that +
clause” or by “for + object + infinitive verb”, e.g. “It was imperative that the production costs should be
reduced.” and “It was imperative for the company to reduce its production costs.” See the note on easy for an
explanation of the difference in nuance between these two patterns. See also AVS #6c3.
imperative (n) This noun is used quite a lot in business contexts. As a noun it has a meaning similar to “priority”
but with a greater sense of urgency. e.g. “The company was fast approaching bankruptcy, so the first imperative
was to persuade its most important creditors to extend their loan repayment deadlines.”
impose (v.t.) This verb means “enforce” and it is associated with unpleasant conditions and rules. e.g. “The sales
manager imposed a tough discipline on his staff.” and “Because of the delays caused by the customer's frequent
changes of contract specification, the contractor imposed a 20% surcharge on the agreed contract price.”
include (v.t.) The meaning of this word needs to be distinguished from the meanings of comprise and constitute and
related words. The latter verbs are used when the writer or speaker wants to indicate that all the contents of a
group or category have been identifed. By contrast, include is used when writer or speaker wants to indicate that
only one or some of these contents have been identified.
“His remuneration package comprises a basic salary, two bonuses and various fringe benefits.”
“His remuneration package includes two bonuses.”
Note the use of include with two objects: e.g. “The company includes two sales departments in its marketing
division.” Note the use of in in the passive form: e.g. “Consultation and maintenance are included in the contract
price.”
inconsistent (a) See the note on consistent.
incur (v.t.) Like suffer this verb is used to describe something unpleasant which happens to someone. The difference
between the two verbs is that suffer relates to the experience or feeling, whereas incur relates only to the event.
e.g. “The company incurred a lot of losses on its new products before it saw a profit on them.” See also the notes
about encounter, enjoy, experience, incur.
a=adjective adv=adverb n=countable noun un=uncountable noun v+c = verb + complement
v.i.=intransitive verb v.t.=transitive verb
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indicate (v.t.) - indication (n)
See the Guide to Advanced Reported Speech on the network server for details about the meaning.
Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“The 40% increase in profits last year indicated (to us) that the cost-cutting strategy had been successful.”
“The 40% increase in profits last year indicated (to us) the success of the cost-cutting strategy.”
“The 40% increase in profits last year gave an indication (to us) of the success of the cost-cutting strategy.”
influence (v.t.) - influence (n+un) The most important point to note is the small, but significant, difference in meaning
between influence and “harder” words such as effect and impact. Whereas effect and impact suggest a direct
relation between cause and result and indicate that this relationship is clearly visible, influence suggests nothing
about the directness of the relationship and definitely indicates that this relationship is not clearly visible. The
most obvious example of the use of influence to indicate a mostly opaque relationship is its use in political
contexts. Here are two examples:
“The auto company used its influence among some members of parliament to prevent the auto safety legislation
from being passed.”
“It is often said that big business has/ exerts a lot of influence on politicians.”
The following examples of errors are taken from business contexts. The correct version follows the incorrect
original.
“The recession causes a direct influence on our income.”
“The recession has a direct effect/ impact on our income.”
“In addition to the influence of this recession, the stock market in Japan has not functioned well in recent years.”
“One effect/impact of this recession has been that the stock market in Japan has not functioned well in recent
years.”
“Because of such problems, our decision making will be influenced.”
“These problems will affect our decision making.”
Here is an example of a correct use of influence in a business context:
“While changes in government economic policy can have clear, and sometimes dramatic, effects on specific
economic indicators such as interest rates, tax rates and exchange rates, they can only influence business activity
as a whole because no-one can predict clearly how businesses will respond to these economic stimuluses.”
inherent (a) - inherently (adv) The meaning of this word is fairly simple - something is inherent if it is a natural and
necessary part of something else - but it used in a fairly wide range of contexts. e.g. “Luxury service businesses are
inherently inefficient.” e.g. “Inherent in the CEO's assumptions was a belief that his middle managers would be
more motivated by fear than by rewards.” e.g. “Inflation is an inherent part of economies in countries whose
governments print money instead of collecting taxes.”
initiative (n) - initiative (un) This noun has a variety of meanings and collocations.
initiative (1) (n) The first meaning is a mixture of “independence and leadership” that enables a person to deal
with issues and find solutions to problems without guidance from other people:
“The junior manager used his own initiative to streamline operations in the department.”
“On his own initiative the junior manager streamlined operations in the department.”
initiative (2) (un) The second meaning is related to meaning (1). It means “independence and leadership” in a
general sense:
“In the U.S.A. the employee who demonstrates that he has initiative will usually get promoted.”
initiative (3) (n) The third meaning is the first action or move by someone:
“In the negotiations about the joint venture structure, the Americans took the initiative and proposed to their
Japanese partners that the ownership be divided 50/50.”
initiative (4) (n) The fourth meaning is an advantage or superiority that enables someone to control a situation:
“There was no doubt that the company had/ held the initiative in its negotiations with the union.”
initiative (5) (n) The fifth meaning is an attempt to get a problem-solving process moving:
“Both the Israelis and the Palestinians welcomed the American initiative to hold meetings at the White House.”
integrate (v.t.) Note the two specific types of meaning:
(1) Merging two things. e.g. “The company integrated the production and quality control processes.” (the two
processes merged).
(2) Making one thing a part of another. e.g. “The company integrated the painting work into the assembly line
process.” (the painting work became a part of the assembly line process).
integration (un) e.g. “The integration of the painting work into the assembly line process went smoothly.”
a=adjective adv=adverb n=countable noun un=uncountable noun v+c = verb + complement
v.i.=intransitive verb v.t.=transitive verb
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intend (v.t.) - intention (n) Note the sentence patterns below:
“The CEO said that he intended to increase profits by 20% next year.”
“The CEO said that he intended that profits should increase by 20% next year.”
“The CEO said that he had every intention of increasing profits by 20% next year.”
interest (n+un). This noun has several possible meanings in a business context. The most important are the following:
interest (1) (n) It can mean a share of ownership/control in a company: e.g. “Ford Motor Co. has a large interest
in Mazda Motor Co. of Japan.”
interest (2) (n plural). It can mean the existence of business connections/activities that do not necessarily involve
ownership : e.g. “Nike has extensive business interests in China.”
interest (3) (un) This means loan interest: e.g. “He paid interest on the loan at the rate of 15%.”
interest (4) (n singular+un) It can be part of a verbal phrase, “Have/take an interest in something.”
interest (5) (n) It can be part of an adjectival phrase which means “for the purpose of” : e.g. “In the interest of
maintaining good relations with an important customer the company decided not to impose a price surcharge.”
involve (v.t.) This verb is very common in all contexts, but especially common in business contexts. The most
important of its many meanings are as follows.
involve (1) (v.t.) “comprise” or “include” when the clause subject is an activity: e.g. “Setting up an assembly line
involves a tremendous amount of logistical planning.” See also AVS #5a3.
involve (2) (v.t.) “participate”: e.g. “The sales manager was involved in/involved himself in every step of the
company's entire strategic planning process.”
involve (3) (v.t.) “bring in”: e.g. “The CEO's major achievement was to involve everyone, from the upper levels
of management to the shop floor, in the production planning process.”
issue (n)This noun has a surprising variety of related, but different, meanings. There is also quite a lot of collocational
variety.
Basic meaning (“matter”)
(1) “The accountant raised the issue of the company's strange accounting system.” (“introduced the issue for
discussion”)
(2) “The CEO dealt with the issue of the company's poor image by hiring a corporate communications consultant.”
Other meanings
(3) “The other executives said the company's image was not the issue - low efficiency was.” (not the “important
point”)
(4) "The other executives said the CEO could not evade the issue."
(could not “refuse to deal with this important problem”)
(5) "The CEO took issue with the other executives about their analysis."
(he “disagreed and argued with” them)
(6) "The CEO made an issue of the other executives’ large bonuses."
(he “made an unnecessary fuss about” this matter)
keep (v.t.) This is a very common verb with a large number of possible meanings, depending on its combination with
other words. There are two general uses of keep.
keep (1) (v.t.) The first is the v+n+a pattern and means “to maintain” e.g. “Nissan has kept its quality control
systems up-to-date.”
keep (2) (v.t.) The second is the v+gerund pattern and means “to continue doing something again and again”. e.g.
“Most Japanese manufacturers have kept improving their quality control systems.”
keep (3) (v.t.) Two special uses of keep which are often found in business contexts are keep records (write and
maintain records) and keep track of something (monitor something in order to know exactly what is happening).
know (v.t.) The main difficulty with this word is its meaning. In many languages the equivalent word can mean both a
condition and an action. In English, however, know can only represent a condition which is the result of other
actions such as find out, inform, learn, teach. Also note that can cannot normally be used with know. Here are
some examples of its use and non-use:
“I know a lot about the steel business because I studied it at university.”
“We can know [“learn”] a lot about the world by accessing information networks.”
“Through knowing [“learning”] about new data processing systems I will be in a better position to help my
company modernize its operations.”
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v.i.=intransitive verb v.t.=transitive verb
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Other examples of “condition” verbs [technically referred to as “stative” or “state” verbs] and their preceding
action verbs are shown below. In cases where the verb represents a passive action, rather than a pure condition,
this is indicated.
belong (join etc.)
deserve (earn, perform well, etc.)
doubt (learn etc.)
hate (experience etc.)
have + own (buy, get, obtain, etc.)
hear (-) [a passive action]
like (experience etc.)
For now, avoid using can with these verbs. Although there are cases when it is O.K. to use can with them, for
example when can indicates permission rather than ability, it is almost impossible to state these exceptions as a
general rule.
Also note that these “condition” verbs generally cannot be used in the continuous tense form. Here are some error
examples:
“I am knowing [know] him.”
“I am belonging [belong] to a judo club.”
latitude (un) N.B. the sentence pattern: “The department had considerable latitude in what equipment it bought and in
how it used it.”
learn (v.t.) See the note about know.
level (n) The focus of this note is on the misuse and overuse of level, in the form of the noun phrase, high level, and
the non-existent adjectives, “level” and “leveled.” Here are two examples. Each one is followed by the correct
version(s).
“The factory’s operations had high level sophistication.”
“The factory’s operations had a high level of sophistication.”
“The factory’s operations were highly/ very sophisticated.”
“He was a high leveled manager.”
“He was a top level*/ senior manager.” [a manager with a high rank]
“He was a very competent/ able manager.” [a manager who had a lot of ability]
* level here is the first noun in a two word noun compound
leverage (un) - leveraged (a)
leverage (1) (un) This normally means “power”/“influence”: e.g. “Koito used its leverage with its institutional
shareholders, notably Toyota, to prevent T. Boone Pickens from getting a seat on the board of the corporation.”.
leveraged (2) (a) More recently, it has also been used as an adjective, leveraged, with a rather different and
specifically financial meaning of “based on loans”: e.g. “In the 1980's in the U.S.A. there were a lot of leveraged
buyouts - takeovers of other companies that were financed primarily by loans.”
line (n) This noun has a very large number of different meanings and is found in a wide variety of phrases and idioms.
In a business context there are three common meanings:
(1) a production or assembly line in a factory
(2) a product line, which is a series of related products manufactured by a company
(3) a line of business, which means the area or kind of business.
Also note these phrases:
(4) in line with, which means “consistent with”:
“Actual sales are in line with the forecasts we made earlier this year.”
(5) out of line with, which means “inconsistent with”:
“The aggressive behavior of the personnel department is out of line with the softer personnel policies the
company’s top managers are trying to implement.”
(6) on the line, an idiom which means “at risk”:
“By investing all of its resources in the development of one new product the company was putting its whole
future on the line.”
Check the meaning of these phrases and idioms in your dictionary:
a=adjective adv=adverb n=countable noun un=uncountable noun v+c = verb + complement
v.i.=intransitive verb v.t.=transitive verb
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along the right lines, down the line, draw the line, the line of least resistance, lay it on the line, read
between the lines
make (v.t.) This note focuses only on the difference in meaning between make, help and allow when these verbs are
used in complex constructions. The main error committed by English learners is to overuse make. Below are two
error examples which are followed by the correct versions and some explanation:
“The Japanese government has to make the Japanese economy recover.”
“The Japanese government has to help the Japanese economy to recover.”
“The Japanese government has to allow the Japanese economy to recover.”
[The Japanese government cannot make the Japanese economy recover because no single agency alone can force
an economic recovery. The Japanese government, however, can implement measures which will probably help
the economy to recover. In other words, these measures will contribute to an economic recovery, but without a
contribution by other factors these measures will not be sufficient to achieve a recovery. Finally, the Japanese
government can allow the economy to recover by not doing anything which would prevent recovery.]
See also AVS #1 for more examples of causative constructions which use make and help.
matter (n + un) The meaning differs according to whether the noun is countable or not:
matter (n) “When the chief accountant discovered that the employee had stolen large sums of money it was
decided that the police should deal with the matter.” (“affair”, “event”, “problem”)
matter (un) “The report contains a lot of confidential subject matter.” (“content”, “substance”)
In addition, there is a large number of idioms - these are just a few:
(1) “It is only a matter of time before there are more computers than people.” (“inevitable that there will be” - the
result is inevitable, the only issue is time)
(2) “A lot of people claim that China's economic growth will continue to be very fast for a long time, but I think
that's a matter of opinion.” (i.e. it’s “an issue of interpretation”, rather than of facts)
(3) “Ever since the end of World War II most large Japanese companies have been unwilling to fire employees as
a matter of principle.” (because not firing employees “is regarded as a fundamental principle”)
(4) “These days, the provision of TVs in hotel rooms is done as a matter of course.” (this provision “is regarded
as routine”)
(5) “Establishing a joint venture in China is no easy matter.” (it “is not easy”)
meet (v.t. + v.i.) Besides its familiar meaning of “meeting people”, meet can have other meanings.
meet (1) (v.t.) It can mean “satisfy” (see satisfy):
“We have to meet the terms and conditions of the contract.”
meet (2) (v.t.) It can mean “deal with challenges or problems”:
“Computer companies are meeting new technological and marketing challenges all the time.”
meet (3) (v.t.) It can mean “pay costs or expenses”:
“It was agreed that the customer would meet all the costs incurred by the cancellation of the contract.”
meet with (4) (v.t.) This means “receive a particular response” or “experience a particular outcome”:
“The marketing manager’s requests for cooperation always meet with silence.”
“The new advertising campaign met with some success.”
See also encounter and experience
Check the meanings of these idioms in your dictionary:
make ends meet, meet someone halfway, meet your match
mention (v.t.) - mention (n) Note the meaning and the reported speech patterns:
It means a “brief reference” to something. Typical errors are presented below:
“In his strategy report he mentioned [“stated”, “pointed out”, “explained”, “emphasized”] that the key issue was
how to reduce manufacturing costs so that they represent only 30% of total costs.”
“Two main reasons for this decline will be mentioned [“given”, “presented”].”
Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“The company chairman mentioned the decline in profits.”
“The company chairman mentioned that profits had declined.”
“The company chairman made a brief mention of the decline in profits.”
See also the Guide to Advanced Reported Speech on the network server.
mind (n + un) The simple, non-idiomatic, countable noun collocates with the verb, have:
(1) “He has a good mind.”
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v.i.=intransitive verb v.t.=transitive verb
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(2) “He has one of the best minds in the university.”
There are a lot of idiomatic collocational patterns:
(3) “He made up his mind to quit his job.”
(4) “When he realized he had no money, he changed his mind about quitting his job.”
(5) “She was in two minds about whether to go to college or not: she wanted to go, but she couldn't see how she
would be able to pay the fees.”
(6) “The sales manager set his mind on achieving the sales target.” (“he was determined to” do it)
(7) “The leader of the electric car engineering team put his mind to the task of creating an efficient storage
battery.” (“he devoted effort and attention to”)
(8) “The prime minister wrote his daily diary with future publication in mind.” (for this purpose)
(9) “At question time in parliament, the prime minister said that the idea of publishing his diary had never
crossed/entered his mind.”
(10) “The company chairman told the CEO to keep/bear his advice in mind.” (“note and remember the advice”)
(11) “The salesman tried to think about his sales quota, but his mind was on other things.” (“he was thinking
about other things”)
necessarily (adv) This adverb usually has an argumentative function. It is used to indicate that the relation between
two things or ideas is “logically necessary”. e.g. “Reducing production and warranty costs necessarily involves
setting up quality control systems.” (i.e. without the quality control systems you cannot reduce the costs). e.g.
“High labor costs do not necessarily result in high production costs, if the unit labor costs are moderate.” (i.e. high
labor costs do not always result in high production costs)
notice (un) In most collocations, this noun refers to “awareness” or “advance warnings”.
The collocations below refer to “awareness”:
(1) “The marketing manager took notice of the latest consumer spending analyses.” (he “paid attention to” these
analyses]
(2) “The CEO took no notice of the latest consumer spending analyses.” (he “paid no attention to” these analyses)
(3) “During the BPR planning exercises a lot of examples of inefficient and wasteful procedures came to the
CEO's notice.” (the CEO observed them or they were mentioned to him)
(4) “Even before Barings Bank went bankrupt, a lot of commentators had brought to the public's notice the loose
regulation of derivatives and futures markets outside the U.S.A.” (these commentators had made the public aware
of this)
(5) “It escaped the OSE regulator's notice that Barings Securities had liabilities for several billion dollars worth of
futures contracts on the Osaka Stock Exchange.”
The collocations below refer to “advance warnings”
(6) “The American Securities and Exchange Commission has served notice that it will no longer tolerate the kind
of illegal activities committed by Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken.” (“given a warning”)
(7) “The goods had to be delivered at short notice.” (“with little advance warning”)
(8) “The personnel manager announced that the staff restaurant had been closed until further notice.” (“until the
next announcement at some unknown time in the future”)
objective (n) This noun and goal are usually used with these verbs: achieve, attain, fall short of, meet, reach,
realize, set. Here are a few examples:
“He achieved the main goal of increasing the product’s market share by 10%.”
“He was disappointed because he fell short of his objective of selling 500 units in one month.”
“The CEO set his subordinates the goal of generating 30% of the company’s profits from new business.”
obtain (v.t.) See the notes on get and develop.
offer (v.t.) - offer (n) This word is used in two main ways.
(1) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“He offered $500 million for the company.” [He said he was willing to pay $500 million for the company.]
“He offered to help with the sales campaign.”
“He offered that he would help with the sales campaign.”
“He made an offer to help with the sales campaign.”
(2) It is also often used as a synonym for provide, but with the positive nuance that the thing which is provided is
important, useful or attractive. Look at the examples below:
“The new line of computers offers improved performance at a lower price than the old line.”
“The new strategy offers the company the hope that it will be able to recover the market share it has lost over the
last five years.”
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Note that offer collocates with a wide range of positive nouns such as advice, congratulations, dream,
opportunity, reward and so on.
opinion (n) This often appears in reported speech - note the patterns below:
“He gave/ expressed/ offered/ the opinion that the sales campaign had gone badly.”
“He had no opinion about the cause of the sales campaign’s failure.”
opportunity (n) The meanings of chance and opportunity overlap to a large extent, but opportunity is favored when
multiple possibilities are the direct result of systematic action and chance is favored in contexts which emphasize
“unexpectedness”, “randomness” or “statistical possibility”.
(1) Lets look first at the areas of overlap:
“The annual trade fair was a perfect chance/opportunity for the company to demonstrate its new products.”
“While we were in Tokyo we had the chance/opportunity to visit the Tokyo Tower.”
“The recent manufacturing advances mean that the company has a great chance/opportunity to increase its sales
rapidly.”
(2) Now lets look at the differences in the uses of the two words:
“Women around the world are demanding equal opportunities/chances.” [these are multiple possibilities which
result directly from systematic government and business action]
“The newly agreed trade treaty should offer plenty of opportunities/chances for exporters in both countries.”
[these are multiple possibilities which result directly from systematic government action]
“It was only by chance that we discovered that this company had developed the process we needed.” [the
discovery was not planned and was unexpected]
“The chances/opportunities of a new venture capital company remaining independent for more than five years
are quite low.” [statistical possibility]
(3) Lets consider the various collocations that chance and opportunity appear in:
Both nouns are paired with the verb, have. e.g. “I had the opportunity of going to an American university for
three months and then had a chance to play in its football team.” (the possibilities existed)
Both nouns are paired with the verb, take. e.g. “I took the opportunity to go to an American university for three
months and then took the chance to play in its football team.” (I did the things that were possible)
Both nouns are paired with the verbs arise and present when the concept is “happen”. e.g. “I will get a new job as
soon as the chance/opportunity arises.” “We will enter the Chinese market as soon as a chance/opportunity
presents itself.”
Both nouns are paired with the verbs, lose and miss. e.g. “We lost the chance/opportunity to increase our sales.”
[we knew about the possibility, but we failed to take advantage of it] “We missed the chance/opportunity to
increase our sales.” [because we were not fully aware of the possibility, we failed to take advantage of it]
(4) The following collocations apply to chance only:
take a chance means “take a risk”. e.g. “Up until the introduction of the Windows system for PCs, Apple
Computer Corp. took a chance that its computers’ superior operating system would defend it against low-priced
competition.”
stand a chance means to have a small possibility of success and stand no chance means to have no possibility of
success. e.g. “Unfortunately, most of the competitors did introduce new and improved products into the market.
The CEO immediately realized that his company's existing products stood no chance of competing unless their
prices were slashed to loss-making levels.”
take your chances means that you take advantage of all the opportunities and the chances you have. e.g. “Bill
Gates has succeeded in building up Microsoft into the world’s biggest software company because he has taken all
his chances, whereas other software entrepreneurs have tended to follow a more conservative and low-risk
approach to their business.”
opportunity costs (plural noun phrase) This phrase is very common in business contexts. It means the costs that are
incurred when an alternative business opportunity cannot be exploited. In most cases these costs are not negative
income, but profits that are lower than would have been expected if the other opportunity had been exploited.
Consider these two examples:
(1) A company decides to invest in the production of cheap refrigerators and makes a profit of about 3% of its
investment. If it had invested the same amount of money in the production of luxury refrigerators, it would have
made a profit of about 6% of its investment. The difference between the two profit rates of 3% represents the
opportunity costs to the company of its decision.
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(2) A construction company receives a contract to start building a house in three months’ time. In order to
build the house it turns down a different contract offer to build a road. Two months later the customer cancels the
house construction contract. The customer claims that he should only pay the expenses incurred by the
construction company over the previous two months. The construction company, however, argues that it should
receive more than its actual expenses because the construction market is now stagnant and it has no hope of getting
a new contract immediately. In other words, the construction company argues that, in addition to actual expenses,
it should be compensated for the opportunity costs it suffered because it turned down the road construction
contract offer. The construction company, therefore, claims, in addition to actual expenses, an amount equal to the
profit it could have expected from the road construction contract and another amount equal to the costs of
employing its full-time workers for another four months.
order (v.t.) - order (n) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“The CEO ordered his subordinates to work harder.”
“The CEO ordered that his subordinates should work harder.”
“The CEO gave an order to his subordinates to work harder.”
“The CEO gave an order that his subordinates should work harder.”
outstanding (a) This word has two common meanings.
The first is “excellent”.
The second is “remaining”: e.g. “The company has repaid half of its debts, but the other half is still outstanding.”
pace (n+un) The meaning of pace is simple, but it appears in a surprising number of fairly common collocations.
(1) “These days, any computer company that fails to keep pace with technological changes for more than a year is
likely to fail.”
(2) “Technological change within the computer industry has been gathering pace ever since the early '80s, with
the result that the rate of change is now incredibly fast.”
(3) “Apple, Motorola and IBM decided to force the pace of technological change even more by investing heavily
in a joint project to develop new RISC architectures for microprocessors.” (make the change happen more quickly
than usual)
(4) “The rate of technological change in the computer industry is now so fast that there are some companies that
can't stand the pace.” (some companies can't “maintain that pace”)
(5) “These days, few computer companies can move at their own pace because the competitive pressures are very
intense.”
(6) “The product development engineer put the prototype through its paces in front of an audience of high level
executives.” (he showed this audience how well the prototype could perform)
part (n+un) Part is most commonly found in phrases, most of which have straightforward meanings, but it is also
found in a few verb and noun collocations.
The verb and noun collocations:
(1) “All the finance managers took part in the discussions about the best way to raise investment capital.”
(“participated in”)
(2) “Accountants are no longer simple bookkeepers: they are playing an active part in general management.”
(involved in it and having an effect on it)
(3) “Despite the fact that he was opposed to the reorganization of the sales and marketing divisions, the senior
sales manager did his part to help implement it.” (“did what was required of him”)
(4) “The senior marketing manager wanted no part of/in the reorganization of the sales and marketing divisions.”
(“did not want to be involved in it”)
Regular phrases containing part:
(5) “The huge losses incurred in currency exchange transactions were due to incompetence on the part of the
manager of the investments section.” (they were due to the manager's incompetence)
(6) “We spent the better/best part of a year trying to establish a representative office in Shanghai.” (“more than
half”)
(7) “The whole of a company is greater than the sum of its component parts.” (This is true because the
relations among the parts, as well as the individual parts themselves, constitute the company)
Idiomatic phrases containing part:
(8) “The problems at the Shanghai office were blamed in part on language difficulties.” (the language difficulties
were “partly” to blame for the problems)
(9) “The problems at the Shanghai office were blamed in large part on the hostility of the Chinese authorities.”
(the Chinese authorities were “largely” to blame for the problems)
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(10) “For the most part, their attitudes were very conservative.” (their attitudes were “mostly” conservative)
(11) “High stress levels appear to be part and parcel of a modern executive's lifestyle.” (high stress levels appear
to be “an inherent part of” the lifestyle)
perform (v.i.+v.t.) - performance (un) The basic meaning of perform is “do”, but it has a much more specialized use
than do (see the note). Its main function is to indicate that the “doer” is responsible for doing a formal activity and
will probably be held accountable for the activity and its results. For this reason, perform tends to be collocated
with nouns such as duty, function and service.
“The new prime minister promised that he would perform his duties to the best of his ability.”
“Most modern organizations offer special rewards to employees whose performances exceed expectations.”
permit (v.t.) - permission (un) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“The executive permitted his secretary to take three days holiday.”
“The executive permitted that his secretary could take three days holiday.”
“The executive gave his secretary permission to take three days holiday.”
Indirect permission:
“The CEO permitted all executives to allow their secretaries three days holiday.”
“The CEO gave permission for all executives to allow their secretaries three days holiday.”
plan (n) Do not collocate the noun, plan, with the verb, do. Instead, use any of the same verbs that can be collocated
with strategy.
point (n+un) Point is most commonly found in verb and noun collocations, though there are also a few well-used
phrases that contain it.
Verb and noun collocations:
(1) “I see your point about the need to hedge currency risks in international operations.” (I “understand” what
you say)
(2) “He got my point about the need to hedge currency risks in international operations.” (he “understood” what I
said “after some explanation”)
(3) “You have a point when you say that every international business has to invest heavily in financial expertise.”
(what you say is accepted as significant or true by me)
(4) “I take your point about the need to invest heavily in financial expertise, but this alone won’t guarantee
success in international business.” (what you say is accepted by me as true, but I do not necessarily regard it as
being as significant as you believe)
(5) “Some executives at companies which engage in international business have missed the point that they need
to invest heavily in financial expertise.”
(they have “not accepted it is significant or true”)
(6) “The CEO made/proved his point to the board of directors about the need to fire the sales manager by
showing them the latest poor sales figures.” (the CEO supported his position with a strong argument/ evidence)
(7) “The company president's speech about the company's current problems was frank and to the point.”(in
addition to being frank, it was “relevant and didn't waste words”)
(8) “After some polite small talk, the senior accountant came/got to the point and stated that someone was
stealing company funds.” (he “started talking about the important matter”)
(9) “The CEO was so upset by the false expenses claims that were being made by some salesmen that he made a
point of checking a few of the claims by himself.” (he checked the claims in a very formal and systematic way in
order to communicate his attitude)
(10) “There's no point in establishing a representative office in Shanghai now when there is no prospect of
getting any business in China in the short and medium terms.” (“there is no purpose or usefulness in” doing this)
Note also these phrases (this is not a complete list)
(11) “From my point of view, what you're suggesting is terrible.”
(12) “Yes, we're encountering a lot of problems in China: a case in point is the twenty-two hours it took me to
establish telephone contact with our office in Canton.” (a very particular example)
(13) “I agree with your pessimism about China up to a point, but I think it's necessary to take a more optimistic
long-term view.” (I agree with you “to some extent, but not completely”)
(14) “The high point of our first year in China was the opening of our office in Canton; the low point was the
resignation of manager of the Canton office” (the best and worst moments)
(15) “The selling points of the Walkman were its convenience and its stylish design.” (the features or attributes
that ensured its sales)
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prevent (v.t.) Note the grammar: e.g. “A lot of governments try to prevent corporations from polluting the
environments around their plants.”
price sensitive (a) This adjective relates to consumers or markets whose purchasing decisions can be easily affected by
price (as opposed to quality, reliability and other factors). e.g. “The market for small cars in Japan is very price
sensitive: consumers will typically shop around and compare prices before making a purchase decision.” and “The
purchasers of luxury cars are not generally price sensitive because they are usually rich and are willing to pay a
lot of money for a car that provides both status and comfort.”
problem (n) see AVS #2
profit (n) The following collocations are often found with this noun:
“The company made a huge profit on its foreign exchange dealings.”
“IBM generated huge profits in the 1960’s and 1970’s.”
“Despite the difficult economic circumstances, the company achieved a slight increase in profits.”
“The company reported a small profit at its annual shareholders meeting.”
promise (v.t.) - promise (n) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“The secretary promised her boss that she would finish her work before taking her holiday.”
“The secretary promised to finish her work before taking her holiday.”
“The secretary made a promise to her boss that she would finish her work before taking her holiday.”
“The secretary made a promise to finish her work before taking her holiday.”
provide (v.t.) This verb is extremely common in business contexts because it means “give”/“supply”, but does not
have the purely person-to-person gift giving association of meaning of “give”. e.g. “Koito provides Toyota with a
lot of electrical and electronic components.” or "Koito provides a lot of electrical and electronic components
to/for Toyota.” or “Assembly line work usually provides little non-financial satisfaction to/for factory workers.”
or “The survey provided few answers to/for the question of how best to motivate assembly line workers.”
question (v.t.) - question (n) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“The Chairman questioned the CEO about his plans.”
“The Chairman questioned the CEO (in order) to find out if his plans were ready.”
“The Chairman asked the CEO some questions about his plans.”
“The Chairman asked the CEO some questions (in order) to find out if his plans were ready.”
Also note the meaning of this pattern:
“The Chairman questioned whether the plans would ever work.” (The Chairman “expressed doubts about
whether” the plans would ever work.)
raise (v.t.) This verb normally means “increase”, but matched with certain nouns, it can have other idiomatic
meanings. The most relevant among these are the following.
(1) raise money/capital etc. (“get money/ capital”)
(2) raise a difficulty/problem/issue (“indicate/bring up a difficulty ...”)
reach (v.t.) This verb is often collocated with the following nouns:
agreement, conclusion, decision, point, understanding, etc..
Examples:
“I reached the conclusion that all our efforts had been wasted because nothing concrete had been achieved.”
“We reached an agreement to offer a 5% discount on purchases of 500 units or more and a 10% discount on
purchases of 2,000 units or more.”
“The negotiations had lasted for 10 days and had reached the point at which all the negotiators were desperate to
reach a decision or give up.”
See the notes about return for reach the point of no return
recover (v.t. & v.i) - recovery (n-singular) The main difficulty in using the verb is the difficulty in understanding the
difference in meanings and uses of the transitive and intransitive forms.
(1) recover (v.t.) The transitive form means “get something back” and is used only when (a) it is clear that the
subject is the agent of the action and (b) the “something” which is lost is clearly defined. Here are two correct
examples followed by one error example:
“The company recovered the losses suffered through its foreign exchange dealings by means of clever derivatives
transactions.”
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“The computer engineer managed to recover the data that had been erased from the computer disk.”
“Japan needs to solve a lot of problems in order to recover the economy.”
[(a) Japan cannot be the sole agent of recovery because economic recovery depends on a complex mix of factors;
(b) the loss is not defined.]
(2) recover (v.i.) The intransitive form means “move back to the former state or position” and is used only when
the former state or position is a general condition. Here are two correct examples followed by two error examples:
“The economy has recovered over the last nine months.”
“The company is recovering from the huge losses it incurred three years ago.”
“The losses are recovering.” [“losses” cannot be the subject of recover]
“The losses are being recovered.” [v.t. form]
“The CEO has recovered from his low bonus.” [it is not clear what kind of former condition the CEO has
returned to]
“The CEO has recovered from the shock of his low bonus.” [now it is clear what kind of former condition the
CEO has returned to]
(3) recovery (n-singular) Note these collocations:
“The company is making a good recovery from its weak sales performance of last year.”
“The company is undergoing a slow and difficult recovery.”
redundant (a) There are two basic meanings. (1) Something which is redundant is unnecessary because its function is
performed by something else. (2) Another more infrequent meaning is the duplication of a function in order to
ensure continued operation and safety in case of a system failure.
(1) “When two companies merge one of the biggest decisions that has to be made is determining to what extent the
existing operations of the two companies are redundant.”
(2) “The space shuttle has a lot of redundant components which are installed in order to provide safety back-ups
in case of component failures.”
regard (v.t.) - regard (n) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“Akio Morita regarded the ‘Walkman’ as Sony's greatest product.”
“Akio Morita regarded the ‘Walkman’ as superior to other Sony products.”
Akio Morita regards that the Walkman is Sony's greatest achievement
He regarded the problem
“Akio Morita had a very high regard for the Walkman.” [He thought it was very good.]
relationship (n) Note these collocations with various verbs:
“The company has established/formed (made) a good relationship with its suppliers.”
“The company is developing/enhancing the relationship it has already established.”
“Because of fierce price competition in the industry, the company is now reviewing its relationship with its
existing suppliers.”
“The company has decided to terminate its relationship with its existing suppliers as soon as the current contracts
expire.”
relative (a) This word is used a lot in analytical business contexts. It has two basic meanings.
(1) “The company was a relative newcomer to the soap industry.” (i.e. it was not a very recent newcomer, but a
newcomer in comparison with other companies)
(2) “There was a lot of discussion about the relative merits of the two companies.” (i.e. the merits of the two
companies measured in comparison with each other). Also note this sentence pattern: “There was a lack of
managerial expertise relative to the company's need for it.”
report (v.t.) - report (n) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“The salesman reported (to his boss) that that week's sales were slow.”
“The salesman reported (to his boss) about/on that week's sales.”
“The salesman made a report to his boss .............”
represent (v.t. & v+c)
represent (1) (v+c) In English, when using simple complementary verbs such as be and become, it is important to
make sure that when the complement is a noun it is logically equivalent to the subject noun. The note on become
gives some examples of this requirement for logical equivalence. Represent is an example of a complementary
verb which, because it expresses an indirect or symbolic relationship between subject and complement, is to some
extent exempt from the requirement for logical equivalence. Here are some examples:
“The recently announced quarterly earnings figures represent (are) hope for a troubled company.”
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“The new policy changes instituted by the company represent (are) the company’s changed attitude to doing
business.”
“The Internet represents (is) the 21st century way of communicating and retailing.”
represent (2) (v.t.) Another important meaning of this word is “typify” or “embody”. One thing or a set of things
is regarded as indicative of a much larger pattern of things. There is some overlap in the meanings of (1) and (2).
Here are two examples of (2):
“The accounting manager’s views represent the thinking of the whole accounting department.”
“Marketing field researchers try to interview a small group of consumers who represent all consumers in the
market segment which is being investigated.”
resolve (v.t.) This verb has two common meanings.
(1) The first means “decide”: e.g. “The departmental manager resolved to meet the CEO immediately/that he
would meet the CEO immediately.”
(1) The second means “find a solution to something”: e.g. “The CEO resolved the problem by promoting the
departmental manager.”
return (n+un) Apart from its everyday meaning of “come/go back”, this word has some specialized business uses.
return on investment: this is the profit made on an investment
“The rates of return in the pharmaceutical industry used to be very good.”
tax return: in the U.S.A. this is the document sent to the government which lists income and expenses for the year
the law of diminishing returns: This is the principle that initial investments generate the largest benefits and that,
thereafter, investments of equal size will generate smaller and smaller benefits. This law does not apply to purely
financial investments in stocks and bonds etc.!
“It was fairly easy to reduce the defect rate of our products from 10% to 2%, but reducing the rate from 2% to 1%
required an equal amount of effort and investment. I guess this improvement process is subject to the law of
diminishing returns.”
risk (n) - risk (v.t.) The basic meaning is straightforward, but note these collocations for the noun and the sentence
patterns for the verb. Note that the difference between run a risk and take a risk is that the former always refers
to the unpleasant consequences of the risk, whereas the latter need not refer to these unpleasant consequences.
“The risk of failure was very high.”
“Banks always run the risk of huge losses when they lend very large amounts to single customers.”
“By announcing that the new product would be ready the following month, instead of the end of the year, the
company took the risk of disappointing its customers.”
“The derivatives dealer took a huge risk by not hedging his investments.”
“At the risk of upsetting its customers, the company decided to increase its prices.”
“By entering the market very late, we risked failure.”
“The company risked everything on its belief that the market would expand quickly within the following year.”
run into (v.t.) This verb has two meanings commonly found in business contexts.
(1) The first is run into difficulties/trouble, where run into means “encounter”. See also AVS #2.
(2) The second use of the verb is to indicate approximate amounts : e.g. “The cost of the investment program runs
into billions of dollars.”
sacrifice (v.t.) - sacrifice (n) The meaning is straightforward, but note the sentence patterns and collocation with the
noun:
“The company knew that in the long term it had to increase its market share, but its debt repayment problems
forced it to make a short-term sacrifice of market share to profits.”
“We sold all our stocks and shares, we mortgaged the house, we cashed in our insurance policies. In short, we
sacrificed everything we had in order to raise the capital we needed.”
satisfy (v.t.) - satisfaction (un) This word has three basic meanings:
(1) fulfill/meet requirements
“Japanese manufacturers are famous for their ability to satisfy even sudden surges in demand for their products.”
“We have to satisfy the terms and conditions of the contract.”
“The customer insisted on the satisfaction of the terms and conditions of the contract.”
(2) make someone feel content
“The improvements to the product met with the satisfaction of all the customers.”
“The improvements to the product were to the customers’ satisfaction.”
(3) convince someone that something is true
“The Chairman satisfied the shareholders that the company was doing its best to increase dividend payments.”
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“The Chairman explained to the satisfaction of the shareholders that the company was doing its best to
increase dividend payments.”
say (v.t.) - say (n singular + un) The verb is used for reported speech - note the patterns below:
“The CEO said to the Board members that he was very disappointed by the company's performance.”
“The CEO said to the Board members about the company's performance”
The noun form, say (n singular + un), means “an opportunity to participate in a decision”:
“The factory workers wanted to have a say in the organization of the line operations.”
“The factory workers complained that they had no say in the organization of the line operations.”
There is a huge number of idioms which include say. Please check your dictionaries for examples of these.
scale (n + un) This noun has a number of variants.
scale (1) (un + n singular) One meaning is “degree” or “extent”:
“Most energy supply industries such as oil and gas have to operate on a large scale. One small scale exception is
the wind power generating industry.”
“The sheer scale of General Motors' operations makes it difficult to introduce changes across the whole company
at one time.”
scale (2) (n singular) Another meaning is a “range” or “hierarchy”:
“In the restaurant industry there are luxury restaurants at one end of the scale and fast food restaurants at the
other end of the scale.”
economies of scale (3) (n plural) In Japan this phrase is better known as “scale economies”, but this latter phrase
is not used very much by native speakers
seller's market (n) This idiomatic phrase means a market in which demand is greater than supply and, thus, is
favorable to the seller. See also buyer’s market.
set (v.t.) In business contexts this verb is often used with the following kinds of noun: assignment, conditions,
deadline, objective, price, priority, rule, target, task. The core meaning of set is “fix something in terms of
parameters or of time or of place.” Look at the following sentence patterns:
“His boss set him the target of expanding sales by 50% within two years.”
“I set him the task of conducting a survey of all the customers.”
“We set the price of the new computer model at ¥200,000.”
“The contract which was signed set tough conditions for pricing and delivery.”
“We have to set our priorities so that they match our customers’ priorities.”
set against (v.t.) The first fact or argument has to be considered in relation to a second one and, as a result, the first one
may seem less important. e.g. “The slight increase in profits has to be set against the probability that market
conditions will deteriorate in the near future.”
set up (v.t.) If you set up an organization, a company, a factory, an assembly line, etc. you make all the arrangements
and preparations which enable it to start.
settle (v.t. + v.i.) This verb has five basic meanings and one popular idiom that are relevant in business contexts.
settle (1) (v.t. + v.i.) live/be located in one place
“After experimenting with various branches and representative offices in different parts of the U.S.A., the bank
decided to settle in New York.”
“The bank decided to settle its main operations in New York.”
settle (2) (v.t.) end a dispute
“The CEO settled the argument between his two subordinates by telling them they were both wrong.”
settle (3) (v.t.) finish something by putting everything in order
“We try to settle our accounts at the end of every quarter by paying all our outstanding bills and asking our
customers to pay their outstanding bills to us.”
settled (4) (v.t. passive) “become used to living/being located in a particular place”
“The headquarters managers argued that there would be no problem in re-locating the plant in California since all
the workers at the existing plant would be guaranteed jobs at the new plant, but I pointed out that the workers felt
very settled in Iowa and were unhappy at the prospect of moving.”
settled (5) (v.t. passive) “decided”
“It was settled that the plant would not be re-located to California.”
settle a score (6) (idiom) “get revenge”
“A lot of software companies in the U.S.A. complain that Microsoft Corp. manipulates the software market
unfairly; they would like to have the opportunity to settle their scores with it.”
a=adjective adv=adverb n=countable noun un=uncountable noun v+c = verb + complement
v.i.=intransitive verb v.t.=transitive verb
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situation (n) see also the note on circumstances
The meanings of conditions and of situation overlap to some extent, but it is important to understand a difference
in their scope. The 1995 edition of the Collins COBUILD English Dictionary makes the following major
distinctions between their meanings:
situation
conditions
1 events which are happening in a particular place & 1 the external factors (not events) which affect
time
something
2 usually temporary
2 not usually temporary because factors are usually
long-term things
This distinction between events and factors represents the main difference in the meanings of the two words, but it
should also be noted that the meaning of situation is a little more complex than the meaning indicated by this
summary.
In addition to events, a situation can also comprise factors. Unlike the factors indicated by conditions, however,
these factors are not always external factors. In general, we use situation when we have in mind a combination of
events and factors which describe the characteristic features of a particular place and time. Conditions, by
contrast, never include events and only sometimes have a short duration.
See your dictionary for examples of the ways in which these two words are used. Below are some examples of
these words’ uses in business contexts. The first two examples illustrate clearly the difference in scope between
the two words. The last two examples illustrate the possibility for convergence in the use of the two words.
“The union official identified a number of bad working conditions within the factory: poor ventilation, inadequate
lighting, machines without safety guards and a crowded and jumbled machine layout.”
“The union official described the current situation at the company as poor. It was poorly managed, its employee
relations were tense, its factories lacked up-to-date equipment and it was going through a financial crisis.
Furthermore, three of the company’s better managers had just resigned.”
“The company’s performance is being affected by adverse economic conditions/ by the adverse economic
situation.” [The speaker will use situation when he/she is referring to events as well as to factors.]
“The CEO decided to wait for favorable conditions/ for a favorable situation before announcing the closure of the
factory.” [The speaker will use situation when he/she is referring to events as well as to factors.]
Also note the difference in the use of prepositions with these two nouns:
“In the current situation, it is impossible for the company to make a profit.”
“Under the current situation ...........”
“In the current conditions of growth and intense competition which affect the computer industry .........”
“Under the current conditions of growth and intense competition which affect the computer industry .........”
speak (v.t. + v.i.) - speech (n+un) The verb is used for reported speech - note the patterns below:
“The CEO spoke to the Board members about the company's performance.”
“The CEO spoke to the Board members that he was very disappointed by the company's performance.”
The noun, speech, has two forms, one countable and one uncountable. The countable noun means “a formal talk”.
It can be collocated with a verb:
“The Chairman of IBM made a speech at the XY Computer Conference.”
The uncountable noun means “the act of speaking” and is not usually collocated with a verb.
strategy (n) Although this noun is simple, please note the types of verbs that are collocated with it. These verbs are
listed in the same order they might be used from the start of a strategy to its finish.
•
think about a strategy or borrow/adopt a strategy
•
outline the strategy
•
develop the strategy
•
formulate the strategy, present it to others and discuss it
•
set out the strategy = formulate the strategy and present it to others
•
revise the strategy
•
finalize the strategy
•
implement the strategy/ put the strategy into practice / translate the strategy into reality
•
make adjustments to the strategy
a=adjective adv=adverb n=countable noun un=uncountable noun v+c = verb + complement
v.i.=intransitive verb v.t.=transitive verb
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•
make radical changes to the strategy
•
phase out the strategy / abandon the strategy
Also note that the same types of verbs can be collocated with nouns which have similar meanings: plan, approach,
program, recommendations, etc..
substance (n+un). This noun has three common meanings:
substance (1) (n) This is used in science to mean a kind of solid, powder or liquid: e.g. “Cigarettes contain some
harmful substances like nicotine.”
substance (2) (un) It can mean “significance”/“importance”: e.g. “His proposal contained real substance because
it showed in detailed, practical ways how the company could reduce costs immediately by over 10%.” and “The
other proposal lacked substance.”
substance (3) (n singular). It can mean the “main idea/thing”: e.g. “The substance of his argument was that
without an immediate 10% reduction in costs the company would go bankrupt.”
suffer (v.t.) This means to “experience unpleasant things”. e.g. “The company suffered a huge loss in the previous
quarter.” and “The marketing campaign suffered a serious setback when a major competitor undercut the
prevailing price.”
If the unpleasant thing can be regarded as a kind of illness, rather than a single event, suffer from is used: e.g.
“French auto manufacturers suffer from a comparatively low level of productivity.”
See also the notes about encounter, enjoy, experience, incur.
suggest (v.t.) - suggestion (n) This word is often used in reported speech - note the patterns below:
“I suggested to my colleagues that we should start the sales campaign as soon as possible.”
“It was suggested that it would be better to abandon the advertising campaign and, instead, to focus on
persuading retailers to stock the goods.”
“I suggested to my colleagues to start the sales campaign as soon as possible.”
“I made/offered the suggestion that we should start the sales campaign as soon as possible.”
“The suggestion was made/offered that we should start the sales campaign as soon as possible.”
sustain (v.t.) - sustainable (a)
sustain (1) (v.t.) The problem with this word is that it is confused with maintain. Although there is some overlap
in the meaning of the two verbs, there is also a clear difference in nuance which is quite important in business
contexts. Maintain is the stronger of the two because it means to “preserve something” or to “keep something
going and not let it get weaker”. Sustain, by contrast, means to “keep something going, though it might get
weaker”. Sustain also tends to imply that considerable effort has been required to keep something going. e.g.
“The company has maintained a market share of 25% for over 20 years.” “The company has maintained a
constant market presence for a long time.” “The company has sustained a presence in the market for a long time,
though recently, in the face of severe competition, its market share has declined.”
sustain (2) (v.t.) A second meaning of sustain is a formal version of suffer. e.g. “The company has sustained
severe losses this year.”
sustainable (3) (a) This adjective is related to the first meaning of the verb and is used to describe something that
can be kept going. Sustainable losses are losses that the company can suffer and yet keep its operations going.
e.g. “The losses suffered in the new luxury segment of the market were sustainable because the other operations
of the company were all very profitable.”
tailor (v.t.) This verb has the general meaning of making something suitable for a particular purpose by designing it in
a specialized way. e.g. “The peace treaty has been tailored to provide strong guarantees of security to the two
countries.”
take place (v.i.) Like arise, this verb has more specific uses than happen. Two of these specific uses deserve
attention.
(1) The thing which happens is a planned event:
“The board meeting took place at 5:00 p.m.”
(2) The thing which happens is a long-term and/or complex development. It is not, however, planned by a single
agent:
“A visible shift from manufacturing to services has been taking place for a long time.”
talk (v.t. + v.i.) - talk (n) Reported speech - note the patterns below:
“He talked (to us) a lot about the need for a consistent evaluation system.”
“He talked (to us) a lot that there was a need for a consistent evaluation system.”
a=adjective adv=adverb n=countable noun un=uncountable noun v+c = verb + complement
v.i.=intransitive verb v.t.=transitive verb
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“The chief engineer gave a talk to some employees about the new PC.” (a talk is more formal than a
conversation but less formal than a speech)
tell (v.t.) - telling (un) - telling (a) The verb is used for reported speech - note the patterns below:
“The CEO told the Board members about the company's performance.”
“The CEO told the Board members that he was very disappointed by the company's performance.”
“The CEO told about the company's performance”
“The CEO told that he was very disappointed by the company's performance”
“The executive told the salesman to improve his sales.” (“The executive ordered the salesman to improve his
sales.”)
The noun form, telling, is either restricted to the telling of stories or restricted to idioms. The most frequent
idiomatic usage is:
“There's no telling how bad the company's results this year will be.” (it is impossible to predict this)
Also note the adjective form, telling:
“It was a telling presentation: the audience was persuaded." (“effective”)
"It was a telling comment: nobody had been aware of this aspect of his personality before" (“revealing”)
term (n) This noun has several meanings. An important meaning is a “specialized name for something which can be
precisely defined”. e.g. “The term, ‘leveraged buyout’, is used by bankers and financiers to describe the purchase
of a company with borrowed money.”
term (v.t.) If you term something, you give it a name. e.g. “A purchase of a company with borrowed money is termed
a ‘leveraged’ buyout by bankers and financiers.”
think (v.t.) - thought (n+un) - thinking (un) The verb is often used for reported speech - note the patterns below:
The Cobuild Dictionary lists twenty-five separate meanings or uses for the verb! The notes below focus only on
the main grammatical patterns and their uses.
“The marketing executive thinks that it will be difficult for the company to enter the mass market.”
“The marketing executive does not think that it will be easy for the company to enter the mass market.” (same
meaning as the preceding sentence)
Note how the different prepositions can be used with think and how each one carries a different meaning:
(1) “The marketing executive thought a lot about the mass market.”
(2) “The marketing executive thought of all the reasons why the mass market would be difficult to enter. He then
thought about each reason very deeply.”
(3) “The marketing executive thought of the mass market as being like a game of American football - tough and
bruising.”
In (1) & (2) think about expresses some deeper analysis of the issue(s). Think of expresses a less profound
mental activity such as remembering something or simply identifying something (2), or attributing a quality to
something (3).
The noun forms, thinking & thought, are sometimes collocated with a verb:
“He engaged in some deep thinking/thought about the issue.”
“He communicated/expressed his thinking/thoughts about the issue in the form of a complex diagram.”
The phrasal verb, think much of, is often used mistakenly instead of pay attention to, take into consideration,
place emphasis on, give priority to, etc.. An error example is followed by two correct examples:
“Nike opened its new residential headquarters in Shanghai because it thought much of the life of expatriates
rather than their location near its plants’.”
“Nike opened its new residential headquarters in Shanghai because it paid more attention to the lifestyle needs of
its expatriate staff than to the need to locate them near its plants.”
“Nike opened its new residential headquarters in Shanghai because it gave more priority to the lifestyle needs of
its expatriate staff than to the need to locate them near its plants.”
tradeoff (n) - This idiom expresses the idea of a compromise between two or more objectives. The compromise is
made because it is not possible to fully achieve all the objectives at the same time. e.g. “We had to make a
tradeoff between profitability and market share and, in the end, we decided to place more emphasis on the former
than on the latter.”
a=adjective adv=adverb n=countable noun un=uncountable noun v+c = verb + complement
v.i.=intransitive verb v.t.=transitive verb
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trade off (v.t.) The meaning is basically the same as the noun, but emphasis is placed on the idea that the first
objective is being subordinated to the second objective. e.g. “The executives reached the conclusion that they
would trade off profitability against market share.” (The executives decided to try and increase market share,
even if that meant lower profitability.)
translate (v.t) - translation (n) This word is normally associated with a transformation from one language into another
language, but in some contexts it can indicate other transformations, some of which may have a cause and effect
relationship. e.g. “The government’s economic policy successes soon translated into favorable opinion polls and
election victories.”
treat (v.t.) This verb has five basic meanings, three of which are very general.
(1) regard something in a particular way:
“The CEO treated the losses incurred by derivatives trades as a very serious issue.”
(2) deal with or handle something in a particular way:
“The accountant decided to treat the purchase of software as a form of capital expenditure rather than as a form of
current expenditure.”
(3) behave in a particular way toward someone:
“The employees said that they were treated with respect.”
“The company treated its employees as members of the company family.”
(4) medical treatment:
“The Chairman was taken to hospital and treated for a stroke.”
“The CEO decided that absenteeism was a disease that had to be treated.”
(5) add something to materials or clothes to change their properties:
“Lumber used in house construction should be treated with chemicals to make it resistant to fire and to insects.”
turn (v.t.) - turn (n) Apart from its familiar physical meaning of “90 degree or 180 degree movement”, the verb has
four main non-physical meanings. The noun is found in a number of different phrases, three of the most common
of which are listed below.
turn into (1) (v.t.) means “be transformed into”/“become something different”:
“The initial excitement about the outstanding profit performance soon turned into disappointment when it was
realized that all the profits were generated by sales of the company’s assets.”
“At high pressure, water turns into steam at temperatures well above 100_.”
turn to (2) (v.t.) means “change the focus of attention”:
“The president’s thoughts turned away from immediate concerns to visions of where the government should be
in five years’ time.”
turn from (3) (v.t.) means “change activity”:
“Most manufacturers in advanced industrial countries have already turned from high volume mass production of
cheap goods to more sophisticated and value-added forms of manufacturing and services.”
turn to (4) (v.t.) means ask someone for help or advice:
“The CEO turned to the Chairman for help in this difficult and stressful situation.”
turn (5) (n) means the end of one period of time and the beginning of another:
“At the turn of the 19th century......” “At the turn of the decade........”
in turn (6) (adverbial phrase) means “in sequence”:
“The sales manager talked with each of his salesmen in turn.”
take turns/ take it in turns (7) (verb phrase) means share work in sequence:
“The four departmental managers took it in turns to act as the committee chairman.”
Also check the meanings of these idioms in your dictionaries:
turn a blind eye, turn the tables, about-turn
turn down (v.t.) Apart from meaning “lower the sound volume of a radio etc.”, this verb can mean refuse an offer:
“The sales manager decided to turn down the job offer from the other company.”
turn out (v.i. + v.t.) In business contexts this verb has these principal meanings:
turn out (1) (v.i.) means “become” or “happen”, when the actual outcome was not expected:
“Despite the shareholders’ fears, it turned out to be a good year for the company.”
turn out (2) (v.i.) something unexpected or significant is discovered:
“At first sight, it appeared that the group of companies had very strong balance sheets, but after a careful audit of
the group’s accounts it turned out that the companies were all in debt.”
“The cement we purchased turned out to be very inferior in quality.”
turn out (3) (v.t.) means produce in large quantities:
a=adjective adv=adverb n=countable noun un=uncountable noun v+c = verb + complement
v.i.=intransitive verb v.t.=transitive verb
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“These days universities turn out graduates by the hundreds of thousands.”
turn over (v.t.) This verb phrase has four basic meanings.
(1) move the entire inventory from the warehouse or shelf to the consumer:
“It is not uncommon for convenience stores in Japan to turn over fresh food items two or three times a day.”
(2) give something when it is officially requested (see also hand over):
“Very reluctantly, the government minister turned over control of his share portfolio to an independent
administrator.”
(3) change the function of something:
“The factory used to produce refrigerators, but we’ve turned it over to the production of microwave ovens.”
(4) “consider very carefully”:
“The investment analyst turned over in his mind all the various risks.”
undergo (v.t.) This verb belongs to the semantic group of verbs which are located around experience and encounter
(see the notes on these words). It has a partially negative nuance and a formal usage. Its basic meaning is “be
affected by a process which may be unpleasant but is regarded as necessary.” Here are two examples:
“After undergoing the training he was able to function as a loan officer.”
“The company’s management structure underwent a complete transformation.”
underlie (v.t.) - underlying (a) This word poses two problems for the student. First, the meaning is not as simple as
the basic components, “under” and “lie”, seem to indicate. Second, the verb and the adjective have overlapping
meanings rather than the same meanings.
underlie (1) (v.t.) If a underlies b, then a is the cause or basis of b. e.g. “It is the huge size of the company which
underlies its failure to innovate as fast as its competitors.” and “Stable prices and currencies underlie the decline
in the price of gold because the latter has always been regarded as a safe investment in times of economic
instability.”
underlying (2) (a) With the adjective the meaning is a little broader and includes any feature of the subject which
is regarded as fundamentally characteristic of it. There is the added dimension that this significant feature may not
be immediately apparent because there are other superficial features which distract attention. e.g. “Americans and
Russians appear to be very different, but there are underlying similarities between their two cultures.” “Despite a
lot of ups and downs over the short term, the underlying trend of gold prices is downwards.” “Ajax Chemicals
looked to be just another bulk chemical producer, but the underlying spirit of the company was one of restless
innovation.”
value (v.t.) - value (un + n) The meanings are straightforward; just note the collocations.
“The Personnel Manager valued the work done by his secretary.” [he appreciated her work very much]
“The mergers and acquisitions specialist valued the company at $100 million.”
“The mergers and acquisitions specialist placed a value of $100 million on the company.”
“The purchasing staff decided that the spare parts in the old factory’s inventory warehouse had no value/ were of
no value.”
Check the meanings of these phrases in your dictionary:
give good value, is good value for money, take something at face value
vary (v.i.+v.t.). The meanings are simple - the intransitive form means “differ” and the transitive form means “change”
- but note the sentence patterns:
(1) “Profitability varies from company to company.”
(2) “The exchange rate of most western currencies varies according to the changes in monetary flows among
them.” and “The size of computers varies depending on their functions.” (according to indicates a more exact
mathematical relationship than depending on).
The same grammatical patterns apply to the transitive form.
want (v.t.) - want (n singular + un) - wants (n. plural)
The verb has two meanings, “desire” and “need”
“The CEO wants more profits.”
“The CEO wants to increase profits.”
“The CEO wants his marketing and sales teams to increase sales.”
The CEO wants that his sales teams should work harder
“The sales want increasing.” (“The sales need to be increased.”)
Also note this idiomatic verb form which means “lack”/“need”:
a=adjective adv=adverb n=countable noun un=uncountable noun v+c = verb + complement
v.i.=intransitive verb v.t.=transitive verb
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“The marketing department wanted for nothing: it got everything it asked for.”
want (n singular + un) means “lack”:
“There was a complete want of planning in the sales department.”
“There was no want of resources: the company was very rich.”
wants (n plural) means “desires”:
“Consumers are never satisfied: as they grow richer they develop new wants.”
way (n) This note does not deal with the “direction” meaning of way. The use of this noun is often overgeneralized by
non-native speakers. Please note these two restrictions on its use.
(1) Compared to nouns like system, method and procedure this noun has the nuances of being less precise and,
therefore, not easy to copy.
(1a) When used to indicate a relative lack of precision, way often appears in contexts where a precise system or
procedure does not exist, but the need for it is recognized.
“We realized that we had to find a way to improve our efficiency and the efforts we made eventually led to the
creation of a new inventory control system.”
“We discussed for hours the best way to restructure our distribution system so that it would be consistent with our
overall strategy.”
“Do you know a good way of starting a car in very cold weather?” “Yes, in fact there’s a well known method that
was originally developed in Russia.”
(1b) Way is also used to indicate a manner of doing things which is not easily reproducible in the way that nouns
like system, method and procedure are reproducible because they refer to arrangements which can be easily
copied.
“The company’s way of doing business was different from that of most of its competitors.” [the nuance is that this
“way of doing business” is not easily reduced to a reproducible system]
“Matsushita’s way of doing business is based on the philosophy of its founder.” [the same nuance as in the
example above]
“He had a strange way of speaking.” [an individual manner]
(1c) This noun can be used to indicate procedures which seem unlikely to become standardized.
“The way I fixed the problem with the television was to kick it hard.”
(2) It is sometimes confused with experience, know how to, etc.. Here is one error example followed by three
correct alternatives:
“Indonesian companies are not familiar with the way to fire workers.”
“Indonesian companies have no experience of firing workers.”
“Indonesian companies don’t know how to fire their workers.”
“Indonesian companies are not familiar with the American employment system of hire-and-fire.”
a=adjective adv=adverb n=countable noun un=uncountable noun v+c = verb + complement
v.i.=intransitive verb v.t.=transitive verb
Richard Smith, 2009