Speak Like a Manager: 9 Easy Business Phrases with ‘ON’

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Welcome back to another lesson in my Speak Like a Manager series.

Now, all these lessons are designed to improve your business English.

So whether you're communicating with someone yourself or whether you're trying to understand

someone in the workplace, all of these lessons will give you words and expressions that you

can use to sound much more professional.

And you can also use them if you're just applying for a job, if you're interviewing for a job,

or if you're trying to get a promotion and you want to sound more professional and effective.

So, in today's lesson, we're focusing on nine expressions.

They're short, they're only two words, and they all begin with the word "on".

So let's have a look.

So what I'm going to do first is I'm just going to read them, and I want you to repeat

them after me so that you can pronounce them correctly.

And then I'll explain every single one so you know exactly how to use it.

The first one, "on business".

Say it after me.

"On business", good.

Number two, "on purpose", "on purpose", good.

Number three, "on duty", "on duty", good.

Four, "on sale", "on sale".

Five, "on call", "on call", good.

Try to make your pronunciation match mine, pay attention to any differences, okay?

The next one, "on arrival" or "on departure", "on arrival", "on departure", okay, good.

The next one, "on hand", "on hand".

And the last one, "on edge", okay, "on edge".

Now that you know how to say them and pronounce them, let's make sure that you understand

Now, you might be familiar with some of these, you've probably heard them, but maybe you're

not 100% sure, so let's be 100% sure, and some of them might be completely new.

So, here we go.

So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to use it in a sentence or a question, see if you

can understand it, and then I'll explain.

So, let's say you call a place and say, "I'd like to speak to Mrs. Wilson."

You call an office, and the receptionist answers, and she says, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Wilson is away

So, what does that mean, "on business"?

It means for work purposes.

For the reason of work.

That means she's not on holiday, she has gone away on a business trip or for a conference

or a convention or something to do with work.

So, the expression "on business" basically just means all of that.

"She did it on purpose."

What does it mean to do something on purpose?

So, "do something on purpose" means you didn't do it by mistake or by accident.

You did it intentionally or deliberately.

It was not by mistake.

It was not meant to do that.

They did it on purpose.

Now, usually when you hear this expression, it's not very positive.

It means somebody did something bad to make...

To cause trouble for someone or something.

They did it on purpose.

It was not a mistake.

So, it usually has a bit of a negative idea that goes with it.

Number three, "on duty" or "on duty".

It depends if you pronounce the "t" or not.

Doesn't matter.

Both are correct.

So, if I ask, "Who's on duty tonight?

Who's on duty tonight?"

That means who is working tonight?

Whose time is it to work tonight?

So, usually this is when you have perhaps a factory where...

Or a hospital where people are working around the clock.

And they're working different shifts.

Somebody's working from 8 to 5, or 9 to 6, or somebody's working 12-hour shift, and you

want to know who is going to be working at that particular time.

So, you say, "Who's on duty?" or "Who's the supervisor on duty?

Who's the manager on duty?"

So, you could say, "What's on sale today?"

Now, be careful between the meaning of "on sale", which means at a reduced price, at

a lower price, and the other expression, which is called "for sale".

"For sale" just means that something is available and they're selling it.

But it doesn't mean that it's at a lower price, so don't mix them up.

Because everything in the store is for sale.

That's what a store is for.

That's what a shop is for-right?-to sell things.

But maybe you want to save money, so then you want to look for the items which are on

sale, which are available at a lower price than normal.

So, be careful of that difference.

Now, "on call" is somewhat similar to "on duty", but it's a little bit different.

So, "on call", usually people like doctors or specialists are on call.

For example, it means that person is not there right now, let's say in the hospital, but

if there's an emergency, then that specialist will be available to come to the hospital

So, they are on call.

That means they might be somewhere else, but they are available when needed.

So, who's on call?

That's the exact meaning of "on call".

And as I said, usually it's people who are specialists or something like that.

Very often in the medical field, you'll find individuals and professionals who are on call,

but it could be also even a customer service department, so that somebody is on call all

But usually, it's more for specialists.

"On arrival" and "on departure".

So you've seen these words, "arrival" and "departure", right?

When you're traveling at the airport.

So, when you're leaving, that's the departure section, and when you arrive, that's the arrival

But this expression, "on arrival", just means when you arrive, or when you depart, or when

So, for example, somebody might say to you, "Call me on arrival."

We will send a company car to pick you up, and just call us on arrival, and the chauffeur

will pick you up.

"On arrival" means when you arrive.

Again, these are just expressions that are used very commonly at work, so it's good that

you're familiar with them and you're 100% sure what they mean.

Next one, "on hand".

On hand, what does that mean?

This is my hand.

But what does that expression "on hand" mean?

"On hand" means that something or someone is available if you need it.

And they are not like this on call somewhere else, but they are usually somewhere nearby.

For example, your assistant is available...

Sorry, your assistant is on hand if you need her or if you need him.

Your staff is available if you need them.

They are on hand.

Or you could say some equipment is on hand in case there is a problem with your laptop.

We have another laptop on hand.

We have other equipment, we have first aid supplies on hand.

Available and usually somewhere nearby.

That means something is on hand.

And the last one is "on edge".

"On edge" is a little bit different.

So "on edge" means that somebody is nervous or a little bit stressed out.

So for example, okay, she has a very big presentation tomorrow and so she's feeling a little bit

It just means that she's feeling nervous, she's feeling a little bit unsure, a little

So, that's the expression "on edge" which means to be nervous.

All right, so did you get those?

Let's review quickly.

If something is available at a lower price, it is "on sale".

I'm going to go through them a little bit quickly and then we're going to do another

quiz afterwards, okay?

If you want to say that your staff is available if you need them, they are here, they are

Somebody didn't do that by mistake, they did it intentionally.

They did it deliberately, they did it on purpose.

So, if a specialist is available, he's not in the hospital, but he's available or she's

available, if necessary, that person is "on call".

Somebody is away, but not on a holiday, they've gone away for work reasons.

They are away on business.

Somebody's got a really important job interview tomorrow and they're feeling a little bit

nervous, so they are, what?

And after that, and when you...

When your plane lands, call us, so call us, what?

I think I did them all, but in any case, we're going to do another review right now to make

sure that you did.

So, are you ready to master these expressions?

You don't need to watch 20 videos to do it.

You just need to watch this one steadily and do the right things, and you can have these.

You can learn these and you can start using them today, tomorrow.

And impress people at work.

So, there are two ways in which I suggest you could do these.

One is that if you need...

If you feel like you need a little more time to work out the answers, so pause the video.

I'm going to stand right here so you can look at it.

Pause the video right now and work it out, get a piece of paper, write down the expressions,

write down what you think the answers will be, because what we're going to do is we're

going to read through them, and in these sentences, we are not using the expressions, so I want

you to find which expression we need to use to replace the word that's here, or the word

So, if you need some time, pause now, work it out, and then join me as I go through them.

Because we'll be going through them a little bit fast.

So, here are the expressions that we learned.

"On business", "on duty", "on call", "on hand", "on purpose", "on sale", "on arrival", "on

Now, number one.

"Who's working in the factory tonight?"

So instead of saying that, you could say, "Who's", okay?

Which one is it?

"Who's on duty?"

"Who's on duty in the factory tonight?"

"They did it intentionally.

They did it deliberately."

Which one is that?

"They did it on purpose."

Now, I did say to you that a lot of times this is a negative term, but it doesn't have

to be that way.

Somebody may plan a particular project in a certain way because they believe it will

work more effectively that way.

They did it on purpose, so it's not always negative, but often it is, so just keep that

"Our phones are available at a lower price this week."

"Our phones are available at a lower price this week."

So we could say, "Our phones are on", what?

Good, "on sale".

You got that one.

"He was nervous before the interview."

Which expression could we use?

"He was on edge."

"He was on edge before the interview."

Sometimes we also say, like, if we go to a scary movie or something, "Oh, I was so scared,

I was sitting on the edge of my seat."

That means, like, I was really nervous, I wanted to know what happened.

I was on the edge of my seat.

So this idea of being on the edge of something kind of implies or suggests some kind of nervousness

I hope that you are not going to be on edge when you use these expressions because you

will know them.

And you'll be confident.

"The cardiologist is not here right now, but is available if necessary."

The cardiologist means he or she is a heart specialist.

A specialist in illnesses of the heart.

So, the cardiologist is not here right now, but is available if necessary.

So what's that expression?

The cardiologist is not here right now, but is on...

Now, I wrote all this just to make it clear to you.

Which one you should use, which expression you should use.

But actually, in real life, somebody may just say, "The cardiologist is on call."

And that already means that he or she is not here right now, but is available if necessary.

He or she then has to, in fact, follow certain rules, like they can't drink alcohol, they

can't take drugs, they can't do anything; they have to be available and fresh and awake

to come to work and perform professionally.

That's what it means when someone is on call.

Number six, you can exchange money when you arrive.

So, what's an expression for that with "on"?

You can exchange money on arrival.

That one wasn't too hard because we had the word "when you arrive".

Now, the other one was also "on departure".

Number seven, extra security guards were present and available during the concert.

So, we could say instead, "Extra security guards were on", okay, there are not that

many options left right now.

So, which one do you think it is?

I've already been crossing out the ones we used, so we could say that the extra security

guards were on hand.

On hand during the concert.

That means they were there in case they were needed.

But they were physically there, unlike the cardiologist who might have been at home and

would come in only if he or she was called.

And number eight, I think you know the answer to that one because there's only one answer

"I'll be away for work reasons this week.

I'll be away on business."

So, "for work reasons" means on business.

So, start to use these expressions.

First and foremost, make sure you understand them 100%, and if necessary, you know, watch

the video again, that's okay.

And during the week, try to start using a few of these expressions.

Use one every day.

And that's fine.

You don't have to try to learn everything at once.

Sometimes just taking one expression and using it is much more powerful than having a hundred

expressions in your notebook.

Because in their notebook, they're going to stay in your notebook, but we want them here

and we want you using them as well.

And as I said, the first step is to understand them when someone does use them and you're

like, "Oh, yeah, I know that.

I watched that on EngVid."

"I know that expression."

And next time, you may have the confidence and enough understanding to actually use it.

So, keep doing that.

And if you'd like to continue improving, go to our website at www.engvid.com.

There you can do a quiz on these, first of all, so you really master them.

And subscribe to my YouTube channel so you can get lots of other videos in this Speak

Like A Manager series and in general.

Lots of videos that will shorten your path to mastering English.

Thanks very much for watching.