This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 366.
Hit the big time with your Business English.
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hey Aubrey how are you doing I'm great are you planning anything fun this weekend well yeah you know I'm heading to the mountains as I usually do oh I heard you got a bunch of snow in Colorado yeah big time we got a ton of snow we actually didn't get that much snow but it was very cold the other day
in Colorado oh my gosh I love that you had to lie in order to use today's vocabulary big time because yeah we really say that more when it's like a ton of snow big time and sometimes we do i mean you in arizona you guys don't get much snow yeah every now and then in the north like flagstaff they'll
get quite a bit of snow but this year almost none the ski resorts are really hurting oh yeah they need that snow oh my gosh well we're getting in today to big time this phrase on business english i think that's really interesting to talk about this in the business context, especially Aubrey, don't you
think? Absolutely, right.
We use this to exaggerate sometimes, but we have a lot of phrases where we do want to share that, especially if you want to show excitement about something.
This is a fun way to do that, to generate that excitement.
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Aubrey, this episode was inspired by a listener question from sophia on youtube would you like to read it yes absolutely she said hi i'm sophia i have a question about the phrase big time how do you use it in different contexts could you give me some examples your podcast is the best and i'm looking
forward to hearing your response merry christmas and thanks amazing thank you for the question sophia and the lovely compliments we appreciate it yeah and it's so natural again this is another one that aubrey we never would of thought of teaching right if it weren't for amazing questions from our listeners
so guys keep your listeners coming keep your listeners yes keep your friends coming in as new listeners but also keep your questions coming in right to support at allersenglish .com and we'll make sure that gets to our team to to plan the episodes right the more specific the better right if sophia was just
like what about vocabulary for emphasizing there's so much right that when you can be really specific with your questions, it makes a great episode.
Yeah. So Aubrey, would you say, broadly speaking, the phrase big time, would you say it's casual or formal?
What do you think? I think more casual, for sure.
This felt very natural for you to use it, talking about the snow at a ski resort.
That's a pretty casual conversation.
Yes. But yeah, I want to hear some examples for how we use it at work.
I can imagine it being used in more formal situations too.
Oh, for sure. And it's just really about showing emphasis, right?
this is what it is i agree it's casual it's showing emphasis it's driving home your point maybe it's exaggerating which is something that americans do often whether it's in business or in life right um it kind of makes me think of that phrase aubrey go big or go home totally right and we do that at work
in the states and in life right we like to go big or go home in the states do you agree with that personally is that your full is that would you would that be considered a philosophy that you live by aubrey go big or go home what would you say yes well it depends right so i threw a party recently and i
did not go by that philosophy i'm like we don't need a ton of decorations and we don't need like fancy plates whatever i'm like people are going to be happy just to be here like we'll do a fun game we've got some drinks so i did not be like go big or go home that would be like going all out we need
all the decorations we need all the things and less is more sometimes the restrain is really nice and refreshing right holding back you don't need everything.
But this is what we're symbolizing here.
What we're trying to say when it comes to big time is something is big.
Right. So let's get into broadly, Aubrey.
What does it mean big time?
What do you think? Let's dive into that.
And we are going to share some other ways to express the same meaning when you don't want to be so casual.
So definitely stay to the end to get all of this great vocab.
Yeah. But yeah, big time when it's used as an adverb, right?
The dictionary says on a large scale to a great extent or in a major way.
Yes. So these are going to be a lot of business related examples.
And then of course, there are other ways to say it in real in outside of business.
But for example, his email writing skills have improved big time.
Now, again, you may not say this in a formal meeting, right?
Or an interview, right?
You may not say that about your business skills, or your email skills, but you could certainly say it around your colleagues, for sure.
Absolutely, right? To a coworker, maybe, you know, there are so many situations where we find ourselves speaking more casually because the situation is more casual.
We get to know our coworkers and have good relationships, and it just makes sense for our vocabulary to become more casual when the relationship is deeper.
It's also just kind of fun to stick that pronunciation, right?
Writing skills have improved big time.
It just feels good to say it, right?
It's satisfying in a way.
It really is. Or this year here at All Ehrlich English, we really got organized when it came to just weekly tasks that we have to do.
We used Monday .com.
Aubrey, what would be a sample sentence for that?
Yeah, I could say Monday .com helped us get organized in 2024 big time.
Big time. So again, you could also just say Monday .com helped us get organized in 2024, period.
But it's a little boring, right?
Wouldn't you say? this definitely adds more interest, right?
When you use interesting vocabulary like this, you're creating engagement, you're adding interest.
And I often will say, I think in a big time way.
Do you say that too?
Helped us get organized in a big time way.
Yeah. I love it. That's a bonus for today in a big time way.
I know it. I don't say it, but I love it.
It's good. It works.
And that kind of gets into using it as an adjective, right?
So when we use this to describe a noun, right?
So for example, having advanced spreadsheet skills is a big time asset for anyone in the corporate world.
I think a lot of people don't really know how to do formulas in Excel.
And if you do know how to do really advanced formulas and pivot tables, you have a huge advantage.
Absolutely. That is a big time asset.
Yes. And that's how I, when I say in a big time way, I'm using it as an adjective to emphasize this, the way, right?
It's a big deal. I love that.
What's another example for an adjective, of Aubrey.
Yeah, you might say, I didn't know that Joe MacDonald was speaking at the podcast conference.
He is big time in this industry.
Yeah. So just describing Joe, he's a name.
He's big time in this industry.
Yes. And then we also can use it as a noun.
Aubrey, what does this look like?
Yeah, this would be a destination or maybe the highest point.
So we have this phrase where will say to hit the big time, which means you have reached the pinnacle of your career.
You've reached like a great deal of success.
Yeah. So what does it take to hit the big time in Hollywood, for example?
Right. I wonder what that what that's like for the life of an actor.
You know what I mean?
I wonder, for example, for Brad Pitt, at what point did he hit the big time?
What was the movie that got him super famous?
Right. Arguably, I would say Legends of the Fall.
He was one Or maybe Thelma and Louise in these films, he was young and just kind of starting out, but immediately people recognized, oh, he's great.
He's handsome. And then he hit them.
I'm pretty quick with those early films, I think.
I love that. I think the word breakout film could be used in that way too.
This was their breakout performance, right?
It's the first time we've been introduced to this person and we love them.
Yeah. Yeah. And we'll also say this, like if you get a contract or a project at work?
You could say, we've hit the big time with this contract.
It might be like work for an entire year.
That's a great example.
And you'd be like, okay, we've hit the big time.
Oh, for sure. Or we could also say, make it to the big time.
So hit the big time is great, but we can also say, make it to the big time.
Make it to that place where you're just playing at a higher level.
What would that look like?
Totally. Yeah. You might say for many years interning in the fashion industry in New York, he finally made it to the big time and got hired by a global fashion firm.
So yeah, when we're just starting out and we're building our career, you're taking these steps up the ladder and then you can say either hit the big time or made it to the big time when they get like a big promotion or are working for a bigger company.
Yeah. Aubrey, did you do an internship when you were in your 20s or just out of high school or college?
Did you do that route?
I never did an internship.
I had definitely jobs that were more rungs on the ladder.
Did you have an internship?
I did a few small ones after high school and after college and after graduate school, actually.
Some of them were, some of them were more volunteer.
One of them was for credit too, even for my graduate program, just to get credit.
So that wasn't paid.
So all across the board.
But essentially, that's really what we're doing when we're in school.
We're trying to make it to that place, that destination, whether we call it the big time or not.
We're trying to get to that point in our careers.
Yeah, absolutely. Yes.
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Exclusions apply. Okay, Aubrey.
So what are some other ways?
I will admit that this is a little more casual, right?
So as we've said, we don't want to go saying this all the time everywhere unless we know people well.
What are some other more formal ways we could say this?
Yeah. If you are in an interview or presenting in a meeting, you might want to avoid this, you could instead say significantly, right?
His email writing skills have improved significantly.
Or even if you're in a panel and you're talking about a candidate, right?
To say, oh, his expertise is significantly more impressive than this other candidate.
You would probably avoid big time because you're in such a more formal scenario.
It would be weird. It would be strange.
Yeah. So we want to really put a caveat on this episode that if you're in front of people you don't know well, if you're at a conference or something, you want to button it up and maybe use something like the word significantly.
Now, there's another phrase that I thought of in a major way.
This one feels less casual than big time, right?
It feels less slangy, but it doesn't feel quite as formal as significantly.
What do you think? I like this as a semi -formal option, right?
There's so many opportunities to be semi -formal where you don't want to be super slang, really casual, but you're also not in a situation where you need to be that formal.
So I like this as an option.
Yeah. You know, we talk about this a lot in our business English course.
It's not one way or the other.
It's not formal or casual.
A lot of things fall into this semi -formal place.
And we do show you that in our business English course, go over to alloursenglish .com slash business.
Let me see. I lost my place here, but here's an example within a major way.
We could say we've noticed better performance with our new laptops in a major way.
And again, you can really emphasize that, you can punch that, again, pronunciation -wise.
Right, Aubrey? Exactly, right.
And if you're just talking to a co -worker and it's more informal, could say like, oh, we've noticed better performance big time.
But that is quite a bit more casual.
This is elevated a little bit to say we've noticed better performance with this in a major way.
I love how it's really between the two.
Yes, I love it. All right, let's get into a role play, Aubrey.
So we are in the startup world.
Let's go to the startup world.
Maybe we're in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
There's a ton of startups there, maybe Silicon Valley even.
And we work for a small AI startup that is trying to get series A funding.
And that's like kind of a first round after angel round funding, right?
So you're the founder, Aubrey, and I'm employee number three.
Okay, perfect. All right, let's do it.
All right. Hey, feeling ready for the investor pitch on Friday?
Yeah, but I'm super nervous.
Nelson and Smith are big time when it comes to the investing world.
Yeah, but we have a great idea here.
It's going to change the world in a major way.
I know. The trick is making them see that, though.
If we want to make it to the big time, we have to put ourselves out there and hope for the best.
All right. Well, wish me luck.
Good luck. You'll crush it.
Nice. Love this. You'll crush it.
I love that. I love that.
So Yeah, that's a great what does that mean?
Let's just break that one down for our listeners right now.
It means you are going to do well, you're going to have success.
But it's so interesting how we rarely will say something like that.
It just kind of sounds too Oh, yeah.
No, I don't know. Not corny, but just like too overly formal, right?
Instead, we'll say you're gonna kill it, you'll crush it.
You'll kill it. There's so many more natural ways to say that.
Yeah, and it is casual for sure.
But in the right, you know, a startup environment is often very casual, right?
So if you know, if you have the intuition that you're in a casual environment, you have a small team, totally okay to use that.
All right. You just have to go with your gut there.
Right. Okay. So what did I say?
What did you say first, Aubrey?
You said, yeah, I'm super nervous.
What'd you say? Nelson?
I said, Nelson and Smith are big time when it comes to the investing world.
So this is using it as an adjective to describe these two investors, right?
Yes. So it's another way of saying like, they're a big deal.
They're important. They're like the most famous, for example, just imagining they're the most famous venture capital firm, right?
So you're going to be a little nervous.
Yes. And then I said, yeah, but we have a great idea here.
It's going to change the world in a major way.
And that is our semi -formal option for today.
Love that one. Exactly.
Right. You could say it's going to change the world big time, but that is quite a bit more casual.
I really love this semi -formal option.
Yeah. And probably at a startup like this, you could get away with saying that it's going to to change the world big time?
Sure. But we want you to have options, guys, depending on your workplace.
We also don't want to be so repetitive, right?
If in this same conversation, and you said big time again, it's almost strange.
Switch it up here. Yeah.
Let's go back to big time in the noun form.
So you would say, next I said, if we want to make it to the big time, we have to put ourselves out there and hope for the best.
So that was the destination, right, Aubrey?
Exactly right. That's how we use it as a noun to say if we want to reach our goals, if we really want to compete with other major companies, other competitors in our field.
I would say if we want to make it to the big time.
Yes. Is there another episode our listeners could check out?
Yes. You guys scroll up.
If you missed episode 350, how to ask for brevity in English.
This is really great.
Such good vocab for if you just don't have the time and need to ask someone to be brief.
Yeah. I kind of think these phrases like big time, crush it, are kind of brief, right there.
It is kind of a short, succinct way of saying something.
So that's where that came in that tie in there, right?
Totally. Sometimes you have to ask people to just say less, just talk a little bit less.
So go and search for 350 episode 350.
That's such a good point.
Imagine if you're saying this about being reaching the big time.
And instead, the other ways to say it is like, if we really want to be successful in our field and reach the place we want to be, you have to use so many words we're replacing it with a much briefer version and much cooler too all right albury where should we leave our listeners today now i love that phrase
go big or go home yeah you may want to apply that sometimes we're often like this in the u .s right i'm gonna like do the best i can put in full effort if not why try yeah exactly and you know if something matters to you if something is a big deal don't be afraid to say that i think maybe some people
feel a sense of shame to express that they're excited about something.
And that is such a shame, right?
That's so sad. I want people to feel like they can express their excitement about things, right?
Absolutely. I agree.
And I think it makes you a more fun and interesting person when you are willing to put yourself out there, right?
If you are trying to hide all of that, then you're going to have less to say.
Or for example, in this scenario, where you're going to try to pitch in front of venture capitalists, you might hold back because you're worried if don't get it then it didn't matter anyways no don't go that route say that it matters to you right and say it in english in a succinct punchy way and this is how
we do it yeah love that but be careful not to overuse this it's sometimes too casual so i love that we have some alternatives here today because you know overall you want to connect and so you want to use the right vocabulary for the situation yes i love it all right aubrey thanks for being on business
english and I'll see you back here very soon.
Awesome, see you next time.
All right, bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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