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Use of English
Most of us who speak fluent English tend to ignore
the little difference between English literature and
business English.
Some myths about communication
Speaking fluent English is considered to be a good
communication skill.
Mixing Hindi with English is fashionable.
O Communication skills are needed only for those
whose knowledge base is not strong.
O Communication skills are all about grammar and
punctuation.
O Your communication skills need to be strong only if
you are in PR profession.
O Technical people don’t need communication skills.
Business English essentially means doing away (stop
using) with Shakespearean or Victorian English, but
use everyday English that is understood by the
general readers.
Modern business language
It’s important to ensure that your language in all
business communications is accurate for several
reasons:
O To establish relationship.
O To communicate your ideas precisely.
O To convey a good image of your organization.
Grammatical terms
Here is an alphabetical list of all the part of speech
together with other terms you may find useful to
know. Here they are:
O Adjective: a word that says more about a noun,
qualifying or describing it.
Examples:
O An efficient secretary
O A bad man
O A hard-working student
O Adverb: a word that describes verbs, adjectives and
adverbs themselves.
O Examples:
O Ahmed ran quickly.
O This class is very hot.
O Ali thinks very logically.
Clause: a group of words with subject and a predicate
but it can’t stand alone. Examples:
O when I have time, I like watching television.
O Although I am late, I can explain this lesson.
Collective noun: a word used in the singular form to
express many individuals. Examples:
O Furniture, committee, crowd, equipment, baggage,
luggage
Conjunction: a word that links other words or group of
words together. Examples:
O But, and, so, then, or.
Infinitive: is the verb form introduced by the word “to”.
Examples:
O To go, To work, To finish, To play
O Mr. Ali wants to speak to his daughter.
Interjection: a word which expresses exclamation.
Examples:
O Ouch!
O Wow!
O Gosh!
Noun: a word used as a name of person, thing, idea or
quality. Examples: computers, money ,desks, secretary,
manager, frustration, street.
Participle: a verb form that also be used as an adjective to
qualify a noun. Examples: the laughing policeman, the
speaking clock, the hard working student.
Pronoun: a word that used in a place of noun to avoid
repeating the nouns. Example: we hurried. They are
pleased. I need it now.
Preposition: a word used in front of noun or pronoun to
show its connection to another word.
O Examples:
O My mother hid behind the door.
O I left the book at work.
O I wish to speak to you about your report.
O Sentence: a group of words that expresses a complete
thought.
O Examples:
O Marry went to the market.
O She cried.
Subject: one or two main components of a sentence.
This is the person, place, or thing that you are
speaking about. It may be a noun or pronoun or a
phrase used as a noun.
Examples:
O The consultant charged a fair price.
O football and the city is a popular TV show
O Choosing the right computer can be a difficult
process.
Verb: a word that expresses action or condition.
Examples:
O The computer developed a fault
O You will enjoy learning about modern business writing
O Subject and verb agreement
O Sentence is a group of words containing a complete
O
O
O
O
O
O
expression of a thought or idea. It should contain a
subject and a verb. Take a look at these simple
sentences:
The manager wants three reports.
Analysis of this month’s accounts shows an increase in
sales.
The chairman of the board of directors plans to
announce a large profit at the meeting.
The use of computers in homes has increased in
recent years.
Our sales of this exciting new product justify an
increase budget.
Communication between people in different countries
is made easier with e-mail.
Punctuation
O The sole purpose of punctuation is to help the reader
to understand clearly the meaning of what is written.
Full stop/ question mark/ exclamation mark
O …………………………….(.)
O …………………………….?
O …………………………….!
O
Remember
O When using open punctuation full stops are no longer
used to indicate abbreviations.
O Wrong
O G.E.C
O Pt.Ltd
O Mr.
Right
GEC
Pte Ltd
Mr
Commas
Today’s business writing is simple, concise and tidy.
That means a few commas as possible. However,
commas are used:
O To separate two or more nouns
Examples:
Please order some paper, envelopes and ribbons.
 To separate a descriptive group of words
Examples:
O Teresa Long, the new teacher, started work today.
O The Sales manager, Ms Sherran Finney, is in a
meeting.
To separate a word or group of words from the main part
of the sentence
Examples:
O A word processor is, in my opinion, all I need for my
work.
O A computer, on the other hand, has many more uses.
O To mark off words like ‘therefore’ ‘however’
‘consequently’ ‘unfortunately’ at the beginning or in
the middle of sentence. Examples:
O Unfortunately, I have an appointment on Friday. I can,
however, see you on Thursday.
Semi-colons
It’s possible to write perfect English without any semicolons, but they can sometimes be useful.
Semi-colons represent a pause longer than a comma
and shorter than a full stop. They are used to separate
two parts of a sentence where a coma would be
insufficient. Example:
O We must buy the new book; it will be very valuable for
reference purposes.
O A semi-colon is also used to separate items in a list
which already contains comas.
Example:
O Three new employees will be needed in a personnel,
purchasing and sales; one in marketing; two in
administration and one in computing.
Colons
A colon is most commonly used to indicate that something will
follow, for example a list or a quotation. Example:
O Many qualities are required: tact, diplomacy, patience.
Hyphen and dash
Hyphens are mainly used in compound words where two or
more words are treated as one. For example:
O Self-centered
O User-friendly
O Large-scale
O up-to-date
O Self-thought
O One-to-one
O Career-minded
Dash
Dash is used to show a change in thought in a sentence
as an alternative to brackets.
Sometimes a dash is useful because more emphasis
then a coma would add. For example:
O Communication is a two-way process –listening is just
as important as speaking
 Staff attended the anniversary celebration from all
over the world-it was great to meet them.
Bloopers and blunders, common errors and clichés
O Back
O Do you use expressions like return back or exchange
back? If so, you don’t need the word ‘back’. It is complete
redundant.
O Bathe- bath
O Because, although, since, unless, if, when.
Between or to
O ‘Between’ must be followed by ‘and’. ‘From’ must be
O
O
O
O
followed by ‘to’. For example:
There were between 200 and 300 people at the concert.
The seminar will be conducted from 9:30 to 5:30
bored and boring
Bring and fetch