Business English Vocabulary: 14 More Binomial Expressions You’ll See in Business English

In this post, I’d like to share 14 more binomial expressions commonly used in English. I want to show you in particular how these binomials are used in a business context. ‘back and forth’, ‘by and large’, ‘safe and sound’, ‘out and about’, ‘more or less’, ‘wear and tear’, ‘hustle and bustle’, ‘ups and downs’

1. All or nothing – something you would do completely or not at all.

We cannot take an all or nothing approach in our business. We must be prepared to compromise.

2. To be at someone’s beck and call – when you are at someone’s service to do what they want you to do.

If he wants to work all the hours of the day that’s up to him. The trouble is he expects us all to be at his beck and call day and night.

3. Bells and whistles – special features that are added to a product or service. It’s often used in Marketing language.

You can order the basic service or for an extra £20 you can get all the bells and whistles included in the package.

4. Bread and Butter – a job or activity that provides the main income for a business Small businesses are our bread and butter and we would be reckless to upset them.

5. Cut and dried – we can use this expression in two ways. Simple to understand: Their instructions are cut and dried. They want us to deliver to by Monday at the very latest or we might as well forget the deal.

Final decision no room for change: We need a cut – and- dried decision by the end of the week.

6. Dos and don’ts – the general rules that businesses have of what can and cannot be done.

There are some basic dos and don’ts of email marketing that most people accept.

7. Last but not least– something that is equally important even if it’s mentioned at the end.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank the events team for organising a fantastic evening.

8. Life-and-death (adjective) – Something that is important and serious.

The refugee crisis is a life-and -death matter. We cannot treat it so lightly.

9. Make or break – an expression that is very common in business to mean a situation or event or period that is extremely important because it can make something succeed or fail. It’s often used in the following ways:

A make or break decision/situation.

A make or break deal – This is a make or break deal. We must make this work for us. Christmas is often a make- or-break time for small retailers.

10. Nuts and bolts – the practical facts of something instead of the theory.

When you look at the nuts and bolts of running a business, you soon realise it’s not as easy as it sounds.

11. Part and parcel - a feature of something that cannot be avoided.

Working long hours is part and parcel of running your own business.

12. Song and dance – a long and complicated story or statement that sometimes is not true.

Oh, she made such a song and dance (statement) about how busy she was and how she couldn’t possibly take on more work.

He gave me a song and dance (story) about how difficult it was to get good workers these days.

13. Fight tooth and nail – work very hard to get something.

We fought tooth and nail to get to where we are now and I am not going to give up now.

14. touch and go – an uncertain situation.

For a few days the negotiations were in real danger of collapsing. It was touch and go. Scary!

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