Business idioms

Bottom line: final result, net income. Money talks: those who have money also have power. Money to burn: a lot of extra money. Monkey business: dishonest practices. Cost an arm and leg: to be very expensive. In the pipeline: in progress, being prepared. Selling the hotcakes: getting sold quickly, in large numbers. "The latest cell …

Passive form

Simple tenses: to transform simple tenses in the passive form, use linking verb + past participle. Simple present Active: Ben swims five laps every morning. Passive: Five laps are swum by Ben every morning. Simple past Active: Ben swam five laps yesterday morning. Passive: Five laps were swum by Ben yesterday morning. Simple future Active: …

Reported Questions

As with reported statements, the tense of the verb in the direct question often changes when it is turned to a reported question. When the question is answerable by yes or no, use if. Jennifer: "Do you have a reservation, Mr Thomas?" (direct questions) Jennifer asked if he had a reservation (reported question) When the …

Reporting Verbs

Deny and Admit To deny means to say that something is not true. "I did not leak information to our competitors". He denied that he had leaked information to their competitors. To admit means to say that something is true. "I leaked information to our competitors". He admitted that he had leaked information to their …

Reported Speech

Reported speech is used to talk about what someone said in the past. The tense of the verb in the direct quote often changes in reported speech. Simple present to simple past "You are late", the bos told him. The boss told him he was late. Simple past to past perfect "The shipment arrived at …