COLLOCATIONS
WORK and BUSINESS
1. make yourself indispensable at work
• so good or
important that you
could not manage
without him, or her
• nonreplaceable
• irreplaceable
• She soon became an
indispensable member
of staff.
• A knowledge of
classical music is
indispensable to anyone
who wants to apply for
this job.
2. to work overtime
• to spend time
working after
the usual time
needed or
expected in a
job
• They’re working overtime
to get the job finished.
• Many employees work
countless hours of unpaid
overtime.
• Many of our offices will
be working overtime until
the end of the year.
3. to have a permanent
contract
• a legal
document that
states and
explains a formal
agreement
between two
different people
or groups and
lasts for a long
time
• I got a permanent
contract today after
six months of
temporary contract.
4. to land a plum job
• informal
• a good job that other
people wish they had
• a very good job
• He landed a plum role
in a TV mini-series.
5. hands-on experience
• someone who has handson experience of
something has done or
used it rather than just
read or learned about it
• Many employers
consider hands-on
experience to be
as useful as
academic
qualifications.
6. to do menial tasks
• menial work is boring
• makes you feel tired
• unimportant and is given a low
social value
• does not need any skills or
talent or training
• badly paid
• Even well-trained women
were forced into menial labor.
• It's fairly menial work, such as
washing dishes and cleaning
floors.
• a menial job/task
7. to do an unpaid
internship
• a period of time during
which a student works for a
company or organization in
order to get experience of a
particular type of work:
• The business students
often do an unpaid
internship during their
long vacation in ecommerce companies.
• a paid/summer internship
• an internship program
8. entry-level job
• the lowest level of an
organization, type of
work, etc.
8. entry-level job
• You find entry-level
jobs in most industries
and careers. In food
service, an entry-level
position may be a
cashier. Acquiring
these entry-level jobs
in the industry you
wish to work enables
you to gain hands-on
experience and prove
your capabilities before
getting higher-level
positions.
9. to gain useful experinece
• get/gain experience
• He suggested that I
should gain some
experience in a related
industry like travel.
• As we gained
experience of
interpreting the data we
were able to work faster.
10. to cover employee’s
expenses
• money that you spend
when you are doing your
job, that an employer or
other organization pays
back to you:
• She was invited to speak
at the conference, with
an offer to cover all her
expenses.
• Employers are to cover
employees’ expenses
when they travel on
business.
11. to do a short-term placement
• a temporary job that someone does in an organization, usually
to gain some work experience:
• He got a two-week placement in the accounts department.
11. to pay the minimum wage
• the lowest amount of
money that an
employer can legally
pay to a worker
• Most of the junior
office people are paid
the minimum wage.
• Most of the new jobs
in the area only pay
the minimum wage.
COLLOCATIONS
MONEY
make
a loss
a profit
• a situation in which a
business spends more
money than it earns
• money that you gain by
selling things or doing
business, after your costs
have been paid
make
your
target
• to sell as much as you have been asked to
You have to sell enough trips and tickets to
make your target this week.
ends
meet
•
to have only just enough money to buy the
things you need
It’s not easy to make ends meet with a big
family, but somehow we manage.
•
a mint
to earn a very large amount of money,
especially by doing something very
successfully.
We'll make a mint if we can manage to
secure a trading partner in China.
I hear Sarah is making a mint with sales from
her latest novel.
get
a (pay)
rise
• an increase in the
amount of money you
earn for doing your job
a
pension
• a sum of money paid
regularly to a person who
has retired (= stopped
working because of
having reached a certain
age)
get
perks
• in addition to the salary, these
are employee benefits such as
the use of an expensive car,
meal breaks, health insurance,
paid vacation, etc.
a financial
incentive • extra money paid to encourage
or motivate people to do
something, especially to make
them work harder, or produce
more
work
on
commission
for nothing
• to receive payment
according to how much
you sell
• without any payment
Some of the men
volunteered to work for
nothing.
work
for a
pittance
for
peanuts
• a very small amount of money,
especially wages, that is less than
someone needs or deserves
He works hard but he's paid a
pittance.
• informal - a very small amount of
something, usually money
Some of the best investments are
made for peanuts.
Their earnings are peanuts compared
with the salaries of the top managers.
COLLOCATIONS
MONEY and BUSINESS
build
• We want to build a brand name
around a unique culture.
a brand
a business
a customer
base
• How to build a business? The choices in
sales and marketing and advertising
are covered in this book.
• People build a business for their
families.
• conˈsumer base (also customer base)
[countable usually singular]
all the people who buy or use a particular
product
• Computer manufacturers’ general
marketing problem is capturing and
retaining a customer base.
found • to found: to start something
a charity
a
business
a
company
such as an organization,
company, school, or city,
often by providing the
necessary money SYN
establish
• Founded in 1935 in Ohio,
TechnoPro Anonymous is
now a world-wide
organization.
• Eton College was founded by
Henry VI in 1440.
follow
your
dream
• «Follow your heart and your
intuition. They somehow
already know what you truly
want to become. Everything
else is secondary.» Steve Jobs
your
heart
your gut
instinct
• gut instinct (informal ): a
reaction or feeling that you
are sure is right, although you
cannot give a reason for it
He had a gut feeling that Sarah
was lying.
sustain
a business
plan
• sustain.: MAKE SOMETHING
CONTINUE to make
something continue to exist
or happen for a period of
time SYN maintain
economic
growth
financial
losses
• IF a company sustains losses
or other difficulties, it has
them
• Like other insurance
companies, we have
sustained heavy financial
losses.
recruit
a new
manager
students
talent
• to recruit: to find new
people to work in a
company, join an
organization, do a job
etc. to hire/employ sb
• We’re having difficulty
recruiting enough
qualified staff.
• Many government
officials were recruited
from private industry.
Gain
to get sth
feedback
•
insight
recognition
to gain insight: to learn or find out about
something
In order to gain insight into the problem, the form of
the method with digit signal processing technique is
analyzed.
By analysing simple situations, with essential features
in common, we can gain insight into the behaviour of
these complicated creatures.
•
recognition: the act of realizing and accepting that
something is true or important.
The company has gained recognition for its customer
service.
He has gained recognition and respect as a scientist.
1. to realise the potential
• potential syn:
possible
2. to see a return
• To start making a
profit, the amount
of profit that you
get from something
• The markets are
showing extremely
poor returns.
3. fluctuations in a revenue
• revenue: income
• money that a
business or
organization
receives over a
period of time,
especially from
selling goods or
services
4. to have a great rapport with sb
• rapport: friendly
agreement and
understanding
between people →
good relationship
• He had an
excellent rapport
with his customers.
• He built up a good
rapport with the
children.
5. be fresh out of somewhere
• someone who has
completed a
university degree,
• having just arrived
from somewhere:
• We hired her fresh
out of college.
6. to give a flying start
• to make a very good start
to something, quickly
making good progress
• She's given a flying start in
her new job.
• The appeal has given a
flying start, with over
£200,000 raised in the
first week.
• The runners gave a flying
start and looked like
beating the record.
7. to gauge consumer opinion
• to judge how people feel about something or what they
are likely to do
• to measure how people feel about something or the
effect that something is likely to have on them
• It is difficult to gauge what the other party’s next move will be.
• I looked at Chris, trying to gauge his reaction.
• He is testing, trying to gauge the mind of the jury.
• The magazine commissioned research to gauge opinion on how
British industry is meeting its environmental responsibilities.
• We’ve done extensive testing to gauge consumer reactions.
COLLOCATIONS
ADJECTIVES
a. restless (adj)
•
•
•
•
uneasy
nervous
anxious
unwilling or unable to stay still or
to be quiet and calm, because
you are worried or bored:
• He's a restless type - he never
stays in one country for long.
• She spent a restless night (= she
did not sleep well), tossing and
turning.
• The children had been indoors all
day, and were getting restless.
b. tenacious (adj)
• stubborn
• persistent
• holding tightly onto something, or
keeping an opinion in a
determined way:
• The baby took my finger in its
tenacious little fist.
• There has been tenacious local
opposition to the new airport.
• As a reporter, David was tougher
and more tenacious than the other
three.
• Anyone who has tried to remove a
hermit crab from its shell will know
how tenacious these creatures can
be.
c. prosperous (adj)
formal
• wealthy
• affluent
• prospering
• successful, usually by earning a
lot of money:
• a prosperous
businessman/landowner
• In a prosperous country like
this, no one should go hungry.
• The region is becoming more
prosperous.
d. perseverant (adj)
• trying to do something or
continuing to do something in a
determined way, despite having
problems:
• Farming is for people who are
ambitious and perseverant.
• Captain Benson praised his
men's courage and perseverance
in dealing with a very dangerous
situation.
• Stories about hard times teach
the value of perseverance and
hard work.
e. hypercompetition (n)
e. hypercompetition (n)
•
a situation of extreme competition,
where companies must try even
harder than usual to have better
products, sell more, etc.:
•
The telecom company is preparing
for another year of “hypercompetition”, focusing not only on
adding new subscribers but also on
creating new services for existing
users.
Hypercompetitive environments
require businesses to stay flexible,
innovative and creative.
Meanwhile, in the hypercompetitive
Chinese market, the F4 is suddenly
an old model.
•
•
f. competent (adj)
•
•
•
•
•
•
efficient
qualified
skilled
suitable
able to do something well:
a competent secretary/rider/cook
• Charlie can cope here without you - he's
perfectly competent.
• They are a very competent group of
people, but they lack flexibility and
originality.
• He is an agricultural science graduate
from Cambridge University and feels
competent to assess evidence and act
logically.