This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 478.
Avoid These Verbs in Business Emails.
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Hello, Lindsay.
How are you?
Good, Aubrey.
How's it going?
I'm great.
I have a question.
Do you ever get emails that have language that is much too informal?
Yeah, for sure.
Sometimes it really stands out too.
Or it's really weird when the whole email is formal and then there's one thing that's informal.
It's even worse.
Yes.
Right.
It makes it even more glaring.
For sure.
I'm excited about this.
Today we're sharing an email that I received where this happened, and we're going to share several words that are absolutely fine when we're speaking, but you would never want to write in an email.
And better options.
Yes.
All right.
So I'm going to go ahead and read the email.
Now we've changed the name, the company name, a lot of things here.
So nothing will be distinguishable to respect everyone.
But this, we just captured this because it's a great example.
Again, this is a business email, right?
Just to lay some context.
And one that I actually received.
Right.
Exactly.
So it says, Hey, Aubrey, I'm Maria, co-founder of Grow Your Podcast.
We have a network of 83,000 podcast professionals.
We're wondering if you're currently looking for guests for your podcast.
We'd love to showcase you in our network and help you find quality guests.
Let me know if you're interested in joining.
Cheers, Maria Fraser.
And again, it's not her real name, but just an example.
Yeah.
So notice anything that stands out as too informal, Lindsay.
I do right away.
It's glaring.
It's right here.
It's let me know.
Let me know.
And the way she spelled that.
L-E-M-M-E.
So of course, that's let me know.
And when we say it, we often do say let me know.
And if you are using voice to text, it might even write it as let me write like this.
But this is much too informal for a professional email.
Yeah.
And the contrast of most of the email is professional, but that one phrase really doesn't fit.
And so it just makes the whole thing unprofessional and it reduces credibility.
So we're going to go into why and how and how to avoid this.
But guys hit the follow button first right here on Business English so you don't miss a single episode.
Yes.
And it's interesting to point out that I wouldn't even write this word in an email to you, Lindsay right.
We know each other well.
We're coworkers.
We exchange quite informal emails.
But if I needed to say, like, let me know about this, I would write, let me know.
I would never write lemme, L-E-M-M-E.
Well, the truth is, it's not that much of a shortcut.
That's true too.
It's not less letters.
It makes me wonder if she was actually trying to be kind of friendly and get close to you in a sense, you know, rather than like if she almost made that mistake on purpose.
It didn't work.
Right.
Possibly.
That's possible.
Or maybe she was using voice to text.
Maybe.
But either way, I think this is really important to highlight that you should never write this in an email.
No matter how informal your email is, all of the words that we're sharing today, these contractions or shortening when we're squishing words together.
They're great for speaking.
They do speed up our speech, but we never write them.
Even in a text, I wouldn't write lemme.
I would still write let me.
I know.
It's just like, It kind of devalues everything you're saying.
It kind of just like cheapens what you're saying in a way.
So we're going to explain this a bit more.
But Aubrey, there's a poll we wanted to share, right?
Yes, exactly.
We had an interesting Spotify poll where we asked if it's impolite in your culture to ask someone to give a simple yes or no answer.
I also posted this to social media and I was really interested in the answers because I could imagine this being very cultural.
So this was from Business English 456, how to be polite in English when you need a quick answer.
Go check that out if you missed it, because in the States at least, it's quite impolite to say I just need a yes or no answer.
So what were our poll results, Lindsay?
Yeah, a lot of our listeners agreed with us regardless of culture.
So yes, it is.
It is impolite to ask someone to give a simple yes or no answer.
Again, we're not asking if giving a simple yes or no answer.
We're saying, is it impolite to ask someone else to give a simple yes or no answer?
Let's make sure we're clear here, right?
Right.
Is it impolite to just say that?
I just need a yes or no answer.
Exactly.
And no is 33%.
Yeah, yes was 66% and no was 33%.
So very interesting.
Thank you, everyone who answered that poll.
Come to Spotify and answer our poll questions.
We love seeing your feedback.
Yeah.
I mean, even though culture is real, I mean, that's more of a human respect thing.
So I'm not surprised that that's global.
That's universal.
Yeah.
It makes sense for sure.
All right.
Let's dive into these words that are too informal for emails and what you should be writing instead.
Okay, so the first one is the mistake we found here.
Let me know, right?
Do not say in an email or a text let me know if you're interested in joining, or let me know anything.
Exactly, right?
Instead, you should just write that out.
Let me know.
Let me know if you're interested.
And lemme like that should be reserved for spoken English only.
Yeah, I agree.
Gonna is the next one.
Yeah.
So, for example, do not say, we're going to have the Q4 meeting today at 3.
That would reduce your reputation at work a little bit, I think.
It's just weird.
It's too informal to ever write that, right?
Instead, write, we're going to have the Q4 meeting today at 4 or the Q4 meeting will be today at 4.
These really aren't longer and gonna should be reserved for spoken English.
Completely.
Yeah.
Wanna is another one.
Again, you're welcome to go to town with spoken English, but you know, not for writing.
So wanna, I want to check in about the status of the report.
Just write want to, I want to check in about the status of the report.
Exactly.
And when you read that email aloud it might say it might sound like wanna, I want to check in, which is fine.
But when you write it, you should be writing these words separately.
I want to check in.
And we should also note that this applies for Slack or any kind of office messenger.
If you message in Teams, this applies as well, because it's essentially the same thing as writing an email.
Exactly.
Text, Slack messaging, inter-office exchanges, all of this, you should write out these words.
I mean, we have to be careful because I know that Slack or Teams, that can feel more intimate.
Maybe it's just you and a coworker.
It can feel more familiar, but there's still a barrier and you still have a reputation at work right.
Exactly.
Exactly.
A lot of these, native English speakers don't write them.
They will say them, absolutely, but they reserve them for spoken English.
Next one is gotta.
Tell us about that one.
Yeah.
So this is informal for have to or need to.
For example, we got to meet so that everyone can meet the new hires.
You wouldn't write that, right?
Instead, you would write, we need to meet so that everyone can meet the new hires.
Yeah.
It just sounds too spontaneous, too lighthearted, I guess, kind of.
That's fine to say it, but don't write it.
Yeah.
Say it in the meeting.
Don't write it after the meeting, right?
Exactly.
Sort of.
Sort of.
It's interesting.
This one got a.
It is so informal that if I'm in a meeting I still I don't know if I would say we gotta like this.
We gotta meet.
I'll say this in everyday conversations, but in most business conversations, I think, instead I would either say we need to or we have to.
Yeah, I see what you're saying.
I think we still have a filter.
This one's even more informal, right?
We monitor ourselves.
We decide...
When can we drop down even in spoken, right?
Which is another episode for another day, but it's true.
Yeah.
Interesting.
Yeah.
And I think part of why this one is so much more informal is because you actually, in order to be grammatically correct, you'd still have to say we've gotta, we've gotta do this.
And we're usually dropping that and saying, we gotta.
So then it's like colloquial speech with like poor grammar as well.
So usually we're not using that at work.
Yeah, I agree.
I agree.
I guess I guess the line there would be text messaging with friends.
You know, you can get away with that.
Right.
So that's a different.
So that is writing.
Right.
What do you think, Aubrey?
Can you get away with that?
I agree.
And this one is interesting because it is a little bit shorter instead of we have to do this or we need to do this in a text.
When you're being quick, you might write.
We got it.
We got to be there by seven.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We got to get together next month when we're back from vacation.
Right.
Exactly.
Right.
Yeah.
What about sorta?
Sorta.
Yeah, this is interesting.
So this is informal for somewhat or in a way.
So, for example, the design is sort of close to what we need, but not quite.
So you might say this in a meeting, but instead of writing that, you would write instead.
Maybe the design is somewhat close to what we need, but not quite.
Yeah.
And Aubrey just talking about the stakes here, like if you're a leader in a company and you write this to your colleagues, the people within your organization, how does it make them see you?
Yeah, that's a really good point.
It's not professional.
It doesn't feel polished, right?
And it's often sort of disrespecting the tone of everything that's happening, right?
It's like, why am I bothering to be here for this meeting if we're that casual?
Could you have just emailed me?
Yeah, I totally agree.
I totally agree.
So there's a lot at stake here, I think.
And then kinda, did we do kinda yet?
No, this is the last one.
So informal for kind of, or again, somewhat.
So you might say, I'm kind of concerned about the budget for this project.
But if you're writing that in an email you would either write, at least write out kind of.
But even better would be somewhat.
I'm somewhat concerned.
That's another good option.
And that will force us also to expand our vocabulary, right?
Right.
Yeah, but this is interesting.
Lindsay, should all contractions be avoided?
What about I'm and your?
No, we're not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater as they say, right?
So you can definitely stick with your in business.
I am, I'm.
There's plenty of them that you can stick with.
Exactly.
A lot of those subject and verb contractions together for both writing and speaking.
It's actually overly formal to separate them.
This is a mistake often made by language learners, whereas native English speakers will always, in both speech and writing, use the contraction.
Yeah.
So this is an incredibly useful episode that I'm excited for our listeners to respond, to write it down and check your own writing and see if you might be making this mistake and make that correction right away.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
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Okay.
So here in our role play, we are in a phone call on a phone call between me.
I'm the project manager and you, you're the team lead.
Yeah.
I had this be a phone call because with someone that I haven't met yet, because we'll use similar language, formality as in an email.
If we're like exchanging emails between people who don't know each other, just like this email, I shared a phone call between two people.
We don't know it would be the same level of formality of language.
Yeah.
I think that makes sense.
All right, let's do it.
So Here we go.
Hi, Aubrey.
Thanks for taking the time to chat with me.
I just wanted to check in on the timeline for the product demo.
Are we still on track?
Yes, we're making good progress.
I need to confirm a few details before we move forward with the testing phase, though.
Of course.
Let me know what you need.
Sure.
First, I'd like to ensure we're aligned on the key features.
There are a couple that somewhat meet the original specs, but the client might expect more refinement.
That makes sense.
We need to finalize the testing environment setup ASAP so we don't lose the time next week.
Lose time next week.
Can you let me know by the end of the day when it will be ready?
Yes, will do.
Yes.
Yes.
Okay, great.
Thanks.
Awesome.
So this is interesting.
These could be exchanged emails, right?
If you're emailing back and forth, or maybe you jump on a phone call.
Either way, it's interesting.
A lot of these informal verbs for speaking.
We still would say them when we're having a conversation with someone we don't know.
Yeah, I agree.
So it's all about here, the level of formality.
How well do you know the person?
Is this the first call?
Exactly.
Are you just getting to know them?
Or have you been working together for a very long time?
So that first thing you said, I just wanted to check in on the timeline.
If it's someone you know well, you talk to often or outside of work, we probably would say wanna.
I just want to check in on the timeline.
But when we're speaking for the first time, we're elevating our speech.
You probably would say it this way.
I just wanted to check in.
And just to make sure we're clear, again, you probably would say it verbally, right?
Not write it.
You still wouldn't write it.
Right, Aubrey?
Exactly.
That's a good point.
So this is for this phone conversation, right?
Then you might say it, but when we're writing an email, even if it's someone you know well, you would never write wanna.
I just wanna check in on this.
Exactly.
All right.
So then you're saying, yes, we're making good progress.
I need to confirm a few details before we move forward.
Right.
So what you're avoiding writing here, you would not write, I'm gonna confirm a few details.
Instead, I need to or I have to.
Totally agree.
All right, then what?
And then you said, let me know what you need.
So instead of lemme, lemme know, right?
You might say that to someone you know well, but you wouldn't write it.
Let me know what you need.
Exactly.
And then you said first I'd like to ensure we're aligned on the key features, which is very professional, right.
Instead of saying, I wanna ensure.
And that would be hard to say too, because you're finishing with a vowel, starting with a vowel also difficult to say.
So we're not using that.
And it's interesting.
You're using the verb ensure because you are elevating your speech.
You're in this business conversation with someone you don't know.
So it'd be especially weird to say, I want to ensure.
Right.
You'd probably if you're in a daily conversation, I want to make sure.
And you wouldn't use this more formal verb.
So that's interesting to think about, too.
When we're elevating our verbs like that.
We would definitely make sure to have this more formal language.
Yeah.
Right.
It would be weird if you elevated the verb and then use the more.
Right.
I want to ensure we're aligned.
That would be strange.
Where are you coming from here?
Right.
Exactly.
And then you said there are a couple there are a couple that somewhat meet the original specs.
So you're trying to say kind of or sort of.
Exactly.
And instead of writing kinda, sorta, we would instead write somewhat.
And same on this phone call, we would say somewhat maybe instead of kinda or sorta.
Yeah.
And what's the last one that we said?
And then you said we need to finalize the testing environment instead of we gotta, right?
It'd be very informal to say we gotta finalize the testing environment.
So instead, we need to or we have to and definitely don't write gotta.
I don't write it for sure.
Aubrey, is there a Spotify poll we want to announce today?
I'm excited.
Yes, we are going to ask the question, do you have difficulty knowing how formal to be with emails?
Yes or no?
I think this is really tricky, especially depending on who you're emailing.
That will have a lot to do with how formal your language is.
Yeah, there's a lot of calculations we need to make here.
So there's a lot to think about.
So go back, listen to the episode again if you need to.
Guys, go over to 470, three English words to avoid when pursuing clients.
Learn about that one too.
Oh yeah, if you missed that one, scroll up.
You want to hear those for sure.
Yes.
What's our takeaway today, Aubrey?
Yeah, connecting with coworkers often depends on being appropriate, with our level of formality, both being informal enough in more casual situations and formal enough when necessary.
But it really is important for these words to really reserve them for spoken English and don't write them in emails or any kind of work correspondence.
Awesome.
Good stuff for today, Aubrey.
That is a wrap for today.
We'll see you back on here very soon.
Awesome.
See you next time.
All right.
Thank you.
Bye.
Bye.
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