This is the Business English Podcast, episode 126.
Drop by for tips on this business English phrasal verb.
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Hey, Aubrey, how's everything going today?
I'm great, Lindsay. How are you? I'm feeling pretty good.
I'm glad to be on the microphone. Best part of the week, without a doubt.
So do you have any questions to start off the episode today?
Yes, I have a fun question to introduce our episode.
Lindsay, do you have friends that you drop in on unannounced?
I really don't. Yeah, there's no one that, you know, because I live in the city and people live in all different places.
There's no one living next door or down the street.
There really isn't anyone right now that I drop in on unannounced.
What about you? You probably do. I do, actually.
For a long time, I was the same as you, right?
When we lived in New York. No, absolutely.
I would like text and friends would be expecting me.
Because like you said, if you're going to have to travel a little bit of distance, you don't want to go and then they're not home, right?
That's correct. But we've become friends with neighbors where I'll pop in all the time and just drop in on them without a text.
We've even gotten with a few neighbors where you just were like walk-in basis.
You just like walk in their front door and you're like, hey, who's home?
I know it's kind of crazy. That's so funny.
So do people lock their doors in your neighborhood?
I mean, no, there's five families now that we're friends.
We vacation together. We play pickleball on the cul-de-sac and all of them, nobody locks their front door because our kids are in and out.
Like they just wander and they'll go swim at somebody's house and then they'll wander to somebody else's to play.
And, and so then the adults have started doing the same thing where we'll just like drop in on somebody and just kind of yell like, Hey, what's up?
That's cool. So it's a nice little community.
That's pretty amazing. Yeah. It is nice.
I feel like it's rare. It's new for us. We hadn't had that before.
Yes, I love it. So I asked you the question drop in on.
Is this what we're getting into today? Yes, we have a great question about a couple of phrasal verbs.
And we're going to dive into the difference between drop in, drop by and drop in on.
They are all a little bit different. So this is going to be interesting today.
All right, good. But first, I want to let our listeners know, guys, if you want a better way to go deeper with the All Ears English podcast, again, you should listen to All Ears English as well as Business English.
But to go deeper with that show, you can actually listen in our app.
Aubrey, tell us about our power list, our vocabulary power list.
Yes. Every week, I actually choose high-level words from each episode.
So you're listening to the episode while you follow along in the transcripts, and we've highlighted high-level, less common vocabulary that is defined with an example sentence.
You can add it to your personal list, and it's the easiest way to review vocabulary.
Practice using it. Remove it when you have it mastered so that you can actually be incorporating this vocabulary into your English.
Yes, it's such a good way to learn. So guys, go to allearsenglish.com slash APP.
We have an app for iOS and Android. It is a great time to start your account, sign up.
You get a seven-day free trial and you will definitely deepen your English with new vocabulary.
So good. So good. Aubrey, do we have a student question as well?
Yes. So this question was left on YouTube.
I love it. Abdikafi Mohammed. I'll go ahead and read the question.
It's a really interesting one. It said, I'm hooked on the All Ears English podcast.
It's super outstanding. I have a question.
What's the difference between drop by and drop in?
I'm a little bit confused by it. Thank you.
And I immediately thought, oh, man, I use these all the time at work, especially when we were working in person in offices.
I know I used these phrasal verbs a lot talking about dropping in on colleagues, coworkers.
And and then I started thinking about the difference between that and drop in on.
So I think this is going to be great to go through all of these and the subtle differences.
Yeah. And we're probably using this if it means we're connecting in person.
So I love it. This is all about getting into the world in person, connecting directly with someone, because this is not about virtual actions.
Exactly. Yeah. These are like physical visits, right?
When you're actually going somewhere. And it can be to a store, restaurant.
There's lots of things, but we often use it talking about dropping by someone's office. right both of these uh phrasal verbs have a very friendly nature to them right very friendly like visiting building relationships informal casual so i'm excited to see how it applies to the business world let's go for it for sure let's do the first one drop by so this means to make a brief informal visit we also use stop by the same word i'm going to stop by or i'm going to drop by And we'll often use these at work, right?
You might say, I asked my boss to drop by my office after the meeting.
And that means this was not planned the day before this is, right?
You're meeting, you're like, oh, can you drop by?
And that means it's gonna be brief. It's going to be a quick informal chat about something you need to discuss.
Okay, so not planned the day before. So pretty spontaneous as well, right?
Very much so, mm-hmm. Yeah, here's another sample sentence.
I'll drop by your office tomorrow to give you that report.
Yeah. So I'll just quickly come into the office, maybe on my way to something else, right?
Exactly. And it's interesting to think about the difference between this and come by.
I'll come by your office would imply a longer visit, a longer something that we need to chat about.
Drop by really means it's going to be brief.
It's going to be a quick something I need to tell you, something I need to give you.
If you say, I'll drop by your office, this does not mean it's a long visit, right?
They could be busy doing lots of things and you can drop by.
It's going to take a minute and you'll So in your mind, in my mind, I use come by and drop by.
I could use them kind of interchangeably, but you think you generally use it more.
Come by would be a longer stop, like staying with the person longer, you think?
Yeah. So I had to think about this quite a bit.
And I was like researching, thinking, how do we really use these?
And they are a little bit interchangeable for sure.
But if you were at work and someone said, I'll come by your office tomorrow so we can discuss blank.
In your mind, you're thinking, I need to plan on 15 minutes to a half an hour.
Maybe that's going to be like something that is a little more in depth.
We're going to, I'm going to need to plan a little time there.
Whereas if someone says drop by, you wouldn't, you would be like, Nope, I don't need to plan time for that.
They're coming for just a minute to tell me something quick or to give me something.
It would be very brief. Yeah, that's fair.
That's fair. I think for sure. I think that meaning, that brief meaning is more with drop by.
In my mind, come by could be short, could be long, but drop by is definitely almost like they're just dropping themselves in and then boosting themselves out again.
Right. Exactly. And then let's go into this other one, drop in.
Very similar, often interchangeable, but there is a little bit of a difference.
So... What's this one mean? All right. So this, yeah.
So we said to arrive unannounced or without an appointment.
Very interesting. I had never thought about the difference between these two.
For a brief informal visit. Okay. So it will be a similar amount of time that you're going to come by, but it's not announced.
Whereas drop by, you know, someone might be like, I'll drop by tomorrow, like our examples.
Whereas drop in, that hasn't happened. You haven't told someone you're going to drop by.
You just- go to their office without telling you're coming.
You just drop in on them. Yes. Yeah. Interesting.
Okay. Let's give some examples. So here's the first example.
I was walking past your office and thought I'd drop into chat.
Do you have a minute? Yes. Or drop in anytime and we can go over the plan for the new project.
So both of these, you see how it doesn't need to be a specific time.
You're just telling them, come by. And we use that one as well.
Come by, drop in, both mean like unannounced, no appointment, just come by.
Yes, I love it. So is there any grammar differences here that we need to know?
Are there any grammar differences? This is interesting.
The grammar is slightly different. You can use drop by with a direct object, which means it's a transitive verb, but it can also be intransitive.
So what that means, if you say like, I asked my boss to drop by my office, the direct object is the office, right?
Drop by what? Drop by where? Oh, my office.
And drop by can be used with that, but drop in cannot.
You could not say, you know, I asked my boss to drop in my office.
It's like, we're missing a preposition. Something's wrong here.
Right. So usually it's drop in on someone, right?
Yeah, the drop in on. And that's why we're going to go into drop in on because it is a little different.
There's a little different meaning there.
So here's our pro tip, guys. When in doubt, just use drop by.
It always works with the grammar. You can always say drop by with or without that direct object.
So the two examples we gave for drop in, I'm just going to say them real quick with drop by.
They would also work, right? I was walking past your office and thought I'd drop by to chat.
Do you have a minute? Totally works. Drop by anytime and we can go over the plan for the new project.
Totally works. So in that way, they're interchangeable.
You can use drop by anytime you would use drop in, right?
Similar enough. Okay. But if you try to interchange drop in, sometimes the grammar will be wrong because you need this other preposition.
So let's go into why we can't... What's just a little bit different with drop in on?
Yeah, this one is a little wordy. You might get a little tongue twisted here, Aubrey.
So again, to arrive unannounced for a visit at someone's home, right?
And that's the difference, right? So... This is what's tricky as I looked into this because they're on forums online.
You guys may have seen this a lot. There are a lot of questions are like, what's the difference between drop by and drop in and then drop in on what's different?
Oh, we don't ever use drop in on at work. to talk about going to someone's office.
We're always talking about someone's home.
Just like I asked you in the beginning, is there anyone you drop in on?
We only use this for a person's home. It's really interesting when you start thinking about examples.
And if ever you say drop in on, it sounds weird if you're talking about someone's office.
Drop in on you. Right. Because the idea that's created with drop in on is that I'm dropping in on your abode, like your where you live, your place, which is not your office, hopefully.
Exactly. Right. So you might say, my friend doesn't like me to drop in on her before 9 a.m.
But you wouldn't say, oh, my friend doesn't like me to drop in on her at work.
No, it just doesn't sound right. We just use drop in on to talk about, like you said, your place of residence.
Yeah, it's like the concept of a home base.
Like this is your place. It's not your desk at work.
You know, it's not a cafe. It is your home.
That's very distinctive. Yeah, interesting.
You might say every week I drop in on my grandma and we know you mean, you know, at home where she's living.
So this is an important tip for you guys with business English.
When in doubt, use drop by. That always works for both grammar, whether you're using a direct object or not.
Drop in, you can use without a direct object, right?
And then drop in on, save this for talking about somebody's home.
Yeah. So I want to encourage our listeners, just start trying these.
The way we build fluency with new and challenging vocab like this is by using it, right?
Check in with the native speaker, ask them if you've said it correctly, but you have to start using it, guys.
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Absolutely. We'll use all of these in this role play.
And in this role play, you and I are coworkers at a startup.
Okay, here we go. All right. Hey, Lindsay, thought I'd drop by your office to see if you've had a chance to go over those numbers.
Oh, hi. No, I haven't. If you drop in tomorrow, I should be done and we can discuss them.
Sounds good. Oh, by the way, are you going to Charlie's party this weekend?
I'll probably drop by, but it's my niece's birthday, so I won't be able to stay long.
Oh, fun. How old will she be? Nine. I'm going to drop in on her tonight and give her a present.
Nice. We were able to use all of them. Let's go through these.
So first, I just said, oh, thought I'd drop by your office to see if you've had a chance to go over those numbers.
And this is unannounced, right? Drop by can be both.
Either you've said, I'm going to drop by tomorrow or unannounced, both work.
And here you do have it transitive with this direct object, drop by your office.
You could not say, thought I'd drop in your office.
No, doesn't work. And then I said, oh, hi.
No, I haven't. If you drop in tomorrow, I should be done.
Right. So again, if you drop in tomorrow.
Right. So that's the drop in there. Yeah.
No announced time. Right. It could be any time you're saying drop in any time.
It doesn't have to be set. We know it'll be quick so we don't have to make an appointment.
Okay. Excellent. And then I said, I'll probably drop by, but it's my niece's birthday.
So I won't be able to stay long. Right. So this is a perfect phrasal verb for that, where you're saying, oh, I might either would say stop by or drop by, meaning I'll come for a little bit, but I can't stay long.
Right. It's going to be brief. Yeah. And then what's the last thing I said?
Yeah. And then you said, I'm going to drop in on her tonight.
So this is perfect for here because this will be at her home, wherever she lives.
You're going to drop in on her and give her a present.
Yeah, that's the key, right? Again, we said drop in on guys is only really at someone's home.
That's the key. So what's the takeaway, Aubrey?
This is great. Complicated. Hopefully we've got some clarity now.
Yeah. And what's really fascinating is in a lot of forums, I saw native speakers respond and say, these are interchangeable.
There's no difference. And I was like, I don't know.
And the more I looked into it and thought about examples and thought about how we really use them, there is a difference.
And it sounds strange if you use the wrong one.
So it's really worth learning, right, that they're similar, but the grammar is a little bit different and the meaning for each is a little bit different.
But just like you said, Lindsay, the goal is to start using them.
It's fine if you make a mistake. Ask the native speakers if you're using them correctly.
Our pro tips today will help you when in doubt.
Use Dropby. Yeah, I like that you had that pro tip here, Aubrey, for our listeners, because we're always looking for kind of shortcuts or mental shortcuts, ways we could just make things easier.
I love this episode because we've got drop in, drop by, right, where maybe we use those in the office and then drop in on.
We know that one goes more into the home.
And a lot of our conversations do span between work and life nowadays.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Just like this role play where you're talking about, oh, I'm going to drop by your office and then what are you doing this weekend?
And you end up talking about dropping in on your niece, right?
This is very common where the threads go all over the place when you're at work.
Yeah. So guys don't leave behind, you know, maybe you're really focused on your career English.
You're going for that promotion, going for that raise.
That's awesome. But don't leave your personal life behind at work.
Like you want the words to be able to mention what you're doing over the weekend, right?
We, That's how we build these business relationships.
I love that. Yes, absolutely. I agree. So use these, right?
And take those chances to flow between talking about stuff happening at work and then what you're doing in your personal life to build that connection, make it deeper.
Yeah, it's that constant flow between the two.
So good. All right, Aubrey, thanks for hanging out today and I will see you on the next one.
All right. Awesome, see you next time. Bye.
Take care, bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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