Business English | Reporting Verbs

Three years ago, we covered the basics of reported speech, but asked, told, and said aren't the only reporting verbs in English. A shout out to my former student Jasmine D-M who inspired this post🍻.

Review: Past Tenses

Back in February, we looked at different verb tenses. Today, we'll focus on past simple, past continuous, past perfect simple, and past perfect continuous.

Business English: Reported Speech

Please read the short dialogue below.

April 1st, 2016

Jiro: So, did Ms Rashid tell you what she needed for the conference next month?

Kim: Yes, I spoke with her yesterday evening. She asked if we could book a hotel conference hall in 
          the city center. I told her it would be more expensive, but she said location was more      
           important than price

Jiro: Good. Has she confirmed how many people will be attending the conference?

Kim: She said there would be 250 people attending.  Have you found a suitable hotel to book?

Jiro: Yes, I have. The Meridian Hotel. The manager said there were two conference halls available. But, he asked if we could confirm the booking by tomorrow morning.

"have gone" vs "have been": What's The Difference?

A short, simple graphic explaining the difference between "have gone" and "have been" by FingerTips English. 

 

Please continue for a grammar review and a short exercise.

Tenses: Time Lines & Examples

A graphic on past, present, and future tenses. Pictures can make language and grammar very clear, especially when we're talking about time. 

Please study the timelines and examples below.

Storytelling: Past Continuous vs Past Simple

 Today's post will show you the basic grammar commonly used for telling stories. Storytelling skills are very useful even in business situations where you may have to write reports or explain actions.

Let's look at the two-panel comic below.

Match the correct sentence to the first two panels of the comic.


1/ Yan read a book when the phone rang.

 
2/ Yan was reading a book when the phone rang.

 Click on "read more" to see the answer.