Grammar Teacher » Business New http://grammar-teacher.com help for students of English Tue, 08 May 2012 08:38:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Business English idioms – heart http://grammar-teacher.com/business-english-idioms-heart/ http://grammar-teacher.com/business-english-idioms-heart/#comments Mon, 14 Mar 2011 11:28:18 +0000 admin http://grammar-teacher.com/?p=302 Continue reading →]]> Learn new expressions in English with these exercises:

If you get discouraged, you ‘lose heart’.

  • When I saw how good the other contestants were I began to lose heart a bit.
  • Don’t lose heart. We can still do well.

At the moment you feel disappointed or discouraged your ‘heart sinks’.

  • My heart sank when I saw how much work was left to do.
  • Her heart sank when she heard the bad news.

If you really really want to do or have something, you ‘set your heart on’ it.

  • I’ve set my heart on getting a Ferrari before I am thirty.
  • She set her heart on getting that job so she’s very disappointed.

If you find encouragement from something, you ‘take heart’.

  • I took heart from your words of encouragement.
  • We should take heart from our improved performance in Italy.

If you cannot refuse somebody something, even though you know it is not a good idea, you ‘didn’t have the heart to say no’.

  • She really wanted to borrow it and I didn’t have the heart to say no.
  • When he pleaded with me, I didn’t have the heart to say no.

If something will make you very sad, it will ‘break your heart’.

  • It breaks my heart to sell my car but it’s become too unreliable.
  • It breaks my heart to leave here. I’ve really enjoyed it.

If you care a lot about something, it is ‘a subject close to your heart’.

  • Fighting world hunger is a subject close to my heart.
  • Punctuality is a subject close to my heart.

If somebody is very kind and generous to others, they have ‘a heart of gold’.

  • He appears bad –tempered but he’s got a heart of gold.
  • Under that gruff exterior lurks a heart of gold.

If you are no longer motivated to do something, your ‘heart is not in it’.

  • I’m going to give up this job. My heart is not in it any more.
  • She went through the motions but her heart just wasn’t in it.

Your truest inner feelings are your ‘heart of hearts’.

  • In my heart of hearts, I never really wanted to leave here.
  • I’m happy in my management job but in my heart of hearts I’d rather still be a researcher.

If you change your mind, you ‘have a change of heart’.

  • We weren’t going to give him the promotion but then we had a change of heart.
  • After a change of heart, she finally agreed to move to Berlin.

If you are well-intentioned, your ‘heart is in the right place’.

  • He is a bit rude sometimes but his heart is in the right place.
  • She makes a lot of mistakes but her heart is in the right place and she always does her best.

If you memorize something word by word you learn them ‘by heart’.

  • I’ve decided to learn the English irregular verbs by heart.
  • There is no need to tell me about it. I’ve read so much about it that I know all the details by heart.

If you have an intimate discussion about your true feelings, you have a ‘heart-to-heart’ talk.

  • Something is bothering him. I’m going to have a heart-to-heart talk with him and find out what it is.
  • We need to have a heart-to-heart discussion and clear the air between us.

‘At heart’ can mean fundamentally, in one’s deepest feelings.

  • He is a good all-round manager but at heart he’s an engineer.
  • I want you to know that we have your best interests at heart in sending you to Berlin for a year.

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exercise 5

]]> http://grammar-teacher.com/business-english-idioms-heart/feed/ 2 Business expressions with ‘back’ http://grammar-teacher.com/business-expressions-with-back/ http://grammar-teacher.com/business-expressions-with-back/#comments Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:39:37 +0000 admin http://grammar-teacher.com/?p=253 Continue reading →]]>

Learn new expressions in English with these exercises:

I don’t suppose I need to tell you that ‘back’ can mean the part of your body that you can lie on or, more generally, the opposite of ‘front’.

  • I’ve hurt my back and I can’t lift anything heavy.
  • You’ll find it in the back of the garage.

‘Back’ is used in lots of idiomatic expressions. How many of them do you know?

If you ‘put your back into’ something, you work really hard.

  • If we want to dig that pond today, we’re going to have to really put our backs into it. The ground is so hard.

If somebody is giving you orders/nagging you etc., you can ask them to ‘get off your back’. This is not very polite!

  • I know you are my boss but could you just get off my back for a bit and let me work in peace?

If you do something well you ‘deserve a pat on the back’.

  • He deserves a pat on the back for the way he has got everybody working so hard.

Sometimes people criticize you but not to your face. They talk ‘behind your back’.

  • I hate people who won’t say anything to your face but talk about you behind your back.

Sometimes we agree to do something for somebody if they agree to do something for you – ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’.

  • I’ll stand in for you at the meeting if you’ll work late for me on Thursday. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.

If you stop doing something that you used to do regularly, you ‘turn your back on’ it.

  • I used to go out to nightclubs every night but I turned my back on all that when I started working for this company.

If somebody who is not popular is leaving, you ‘won’t be sorry to see the back of him’.

  • My boss is getting promoted and moving to Madrid. I won’t be sorry to see the back of him. He was always criticizing me.

If somebody makes you angry, they ‘get your back up’.

  • He really gets my back up when he starts saying how women are inferior to men.

If you are in a very bad situation, you have your ‘backs to the wall’.

  • Either this works or the company closes. Our backs are to the wall.

If somebody does something bad to you, you may want to try to ‘get your own back’.

  • He played a joke on me but I got my own back by having a lot of horse manure delivered to his house.

Sometimes we try not to worry about things but a small worry remains ‘in the back of my mind’.

  • I know he will probably do a good job but in the back of my mind I can’t help thinking about the problems he had last year.

If you know something really well, you know it ‘like the back of your hand’.

  • I know my way around New York like the back of my hand.

If criticism has no effect on somebody, it is ‘like water off a duck’s back’.

  • I told her yet again about being late for meetings but it’s like water off a duck’s back with her.

If a place is very isolated geographically, it is ‘in the back of beyond’.

  • They set up their new factory in the back of beyond. There is no airport for two hundred miles.

If you do not have a major role in an activity, you ‘take a back seat’.

  • I don’t have the time to do much on this so I suggest I take a back seat and you drive it forward.

exercise 1
exercise 2
exercise 3

exercise 4

exercise 5

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