This is the Business English Podcast, episode 532.
Final and formal ways to say something has ended.
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Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
Doing great, Michelle.
How are you?
How's it going?
I'm doing well.
Yeah, I'm doing well.
Lindsay, what is something it could be either at All Ears English or just in your regular personal life, that we used to do at All Ears English, or you used to do at home that we no longer do.
Oh, that's a good question.
We used to write a blog post for every episode, but these days we've cut that down a little bit.
We take the The best episodes of the week, and we write blog posts on those.
Yeah.
That's a good example.
Yes, I remember that.
So today we're going to talk about what it means when somebody says no longer, you no longer do something.
I said, what do we no longer do?
How does that sound to you, Lindsay?
It sounds good.
It sounds final.
Yes, yes, it does.
Yes.
And this could be useful for both business and outside of business.
Very, very common and useful.
For sure.
Guys, we're going to get into this phrase no longer and where it belongs in the sentence, what it means, what its connotations are in this episode.
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All right.
Yes.
Good.
All right.
So what does it mean?
Yeah, you said it sounds very final.
If I said that we no longer do, what does that mean?
It means that there's been some sort of change, like a formal change.
And something is no longer is the geez I'm trying I'm using the word to describe the word is not happening anymore right yes, or it doesn't exist anymore right um so, for example, he no longer works for the company, or we no longer use that software or, as of tomorrow, we will no longer be calling customers individually.
It's got a formal air to it yeah, yeah.
And so instead of saying like oh, we don't uh, like he doesn't work for the company anymore right, we don't use that software anymore.
Um, it's very professional sounding.
Yeah.
You can say anymore.
It's just a little more conversational, right?
It's more, um, yeah.
Okay.
So what else do we need to know here?
Yeah.
So, well, just the structure here, it would go like subject, right?
The person, um, no longer.
And then the verb.
So she no longer reports to her supervisor directly.
Um, Or, you know, or even with to be he is no longer working from home.
Yes, exactly.
Or our employees can no longer work from home.
That might be stated in some kind of a company policy.
Yes.
Right.
Yes.
So that's what I was thinking.
It's this is very common for writing.
Right.
If it's some sort of book like a company manual book.
Um, very useful.
They're very like very good for writing.
Yeah.
If I'm going to implement it.
Let's say I'm in HR and I'm in charge of uh writing that email.
That is the return to work policy for the company right after COVID and people are still working from home.
Um, I'm not going to write our employees can't work from home anymore.
I'm going to write our employees can no longer work from home.
Right.
Yes.
It's interesting.
It's elevated in that way.
So yeah, it's just an elevated way to say not or something doesn't do something, or yeah, instead of saying he doesn't work for the company, we don't use that software.
And, you know, yeah, this focuses on the change that occurred.
So it's very useful.
Yeah, it's all about change.
It's all about change.
And it's also a little bit like masking things, a little diplomatic.
Like, let's say if someone asked for someone, oh, she no longer works for the company.
Um, it's, it's instead of saying like she quit or we fired her or something like that.
It's a bit coded, like you're kind of hiding things.
Right.
I was going, I was going to mention that earlier.
It's kind of neutral, sounding like you're not you're, you're protecting and maybe you're protecting information, but it's.
It's also unemotional.
You're not giving, you're not giving away your cards.
Oh, just this is what it is.
And I'm just telling the facts.
Yes, exactly.
Which is, there's a time and a place for that.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
In business.
I mean, you don't need to give the details of why the person no longer works there.
It's not relevant for them.
No.
Right?
Yes.
Right.
Exactly.
So if somebody calls up and they're looking for Billy Joe and like, he quit last week.
Oh, sorry.
Like, hey, is Billy Joe there?
Oh, no, sorry.
No, he no longer works for the company.
Exactly.
Instead of saying, oh, he quit.
No, no.
Yeah.
We don't need that.
Right?
Good.
No, no.
Yeah.
I mean, what's something you no longer do in your personal life?
I guess I no longer walk as much as I used to.
It's not the best example.
Like when I lived in New York, I walked a lot, I guess.
But I still walk.
So it's not like I no longer walk.
I do walk.
I walk my dog every day.
I walk around my neighborhood.
It's just that when I lived in New York, I walked a ton.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Me too.
Yeah.
And yeah, for me, I no longer live in New York City.
No longer live.
The old days, right?
The good old days.
Yep.
All right.
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Other things we could say if we don't want to always say we've already established that you know the difference between no longer and not anymore.
Right.
But sometimes we speak to people at work.
Right.
We don't write things.
Yes.
We're not always on stage delivering a fancy speech or writing a return to work policy by email.
So for those moments, what can we say?
We don't have daily meetings anymore.
You can say that.
See, so it's not like.
Yeah, that's fine.
It's not like this word stays out of business entirely.
No.
Oh, not at all.
Right.
Like, are we speaking or are we presenting or being more formal?
She isn't responsible for the party planning anymore.
Or you could ask someone, oh, do you like working there?
Not anymore.
Right.
Yeah, so that's your response.
Is what is right, exactly right, exactly.
So not anymore, could be your response.
Um, we have a few other ones that you i mean these are kind of more specific to certain situations but like to say something has been discontinued.
Um, that's about a product.
Right, that product has been discontinued yes, or has stopped.
We've stopped focusing on what we can't control or to say something has ended.
We have ended our relationship with our sister business.
All very final, right?
Yes.
Yes.
Very final decisions.
Decisions.
All right.
Let's go to a meeting, Michelle.
Shall we?
All right.
Okay.
So I called her client and I found out something wild.
What?
Janice no longer works there.
No, I'm shocked.
I was too.
So we don't have our main contact anymore.
Well, that's unsettling.
It's also odd because they made a post that one of their products has been discontinued.
Yeah, weird.
And they've stopped their newsletter.
I noticed that.
I hope our relationship with them hasn't ended.
Okay.
Yeah, this is a liability for companies.
Sometimes companies have just one point of contact with another company, right?
And that's a little dangerous because if that person leaves, you know, you're kind of in trouble.
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, I could see that this is kind of unsettling.
So I said, I found out something wild.
And you said, what?
And I said, Janice no longer works there.
Yeah, we'll have to do another episode over on All Ears English Michelle, about wild, about how trendy that word is right now.
Wild, yeah.
I don't think we've done it.
Maybe check with Aubrey and see if she had any ideas about that because...
That is something we've got to cover because it's hot right now.
And we don't know how much longer it's going to be hot.
So yeah.
So then you said, I was too.
I said, I'm shocked.
And you said, I was too.
So we don't have our main contact anymore, right?
Uh-huh.
And then I said you said it's also odd, because they made a post that one of their products has been discontinued.
So there's some fishy stuff going on.
Fishy stuff going on.
Exactly.
And you said odd.
And that's very natural and native.
You just said one word as your sentence.
Odd.
Period.
They've stopped their newsletter.
Right?
Yes.
And then you said, I noticed that.
I hope our relationship with them hasn't ended.
Nice.
Guys, another place to go for another great episode.
If you're feeling the momentum from this episode, go to 527.
That was Are You Right on Time or Running Behind?
All about schedules and timing, which matter a lot, at least in Western business culture, right?
Yes.
Yes, exactly.
So yeah, takeaway for today, I would say, yeah, these are all pretty final sounding.
You know, you want to consider, are you a little bit more elevated?
Are you a little bit more neutral?
How do you make these decisions?
And not anymore is totally fine as well.
But No longer is really, really great for writing.
Yes, love it.
Really good stuff.
We want to give you lots of language resources for formal context delivering a presentation, writing a formal policy handbook or an email.
And then, of course, everyday connections in the office, coffee break talk.
Those all matter equally, right?
Yes. good yes exactly all right well thanks for chatting about this with me today and i guess we no longer need to continue this episode we no longer do we can hit stop and start our next one all right bye lindsay bye Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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