Business English- Key Words in Business Writing Tense Review Games

Key words in business writing tense review games

Game 1: Key words in business writing tense review card game

Take one of the cards and try to make example sentences with as many different tenses and verb forms as you can. You will get one point for each different tense or verb form that your partner accepts.

Suggested tenses and verb forms

• Infinitive without to
• Infinitive with to
• Imperative
• -ing form
• Present Simple
• Present Continuous
• Past Simple
• Past Continuous
• Present Perfect Simple
• Present Perfect Continuous
• Past Perfect Simple
• Past Perfect Continuous
• Future Continuous
• Future Perfect
• Passives

Tenses and verb forms above can be accepted as different even when their form is the same, e.g. both imperatives and infinitive with to being two points.

 

Verbs to change into different forms

accept	appreciate	arrange	ask
attach	attend	expect	forward
get	give	have	hope
invite	look forward to	meet	offer
plan	see	send	tell
wonder	work	write

 

Game 2: Guess the key word from the business writing phrases tense review

Student A

Choose one of the words below and read out sentences with a variety of tenses with the key word missing until your partner guesses the key word. Please say “dot dot dot” to show “…” in an unfinished sentence.

accept

• Please accept our apologies for…
• Any feedback you can give me on this would be gratefully accepted.

 

appreciate

• I would appreciate your help in this matter.
• I really appreciate all your help with this project.
• All your help with this project is very much appreciated.

 

arrange

• I will arrange for him to be available on the day you visit.
• Sorry for the delay in arranging this.
• Sorry for how long this is taking to arrange.
• I have arranged to visit one of your colleagues on Wed 25^th March

 

ask

• I’ll ask the person in charge to contact you as soon as they can./ I’ll ask my boss and get back to you.
• I’d like to ask whether you are available for additional freelance work next month.
• They are asking for a 15% discount on all future orders.
• You also asked me about our refunds policy./ Here’s the info you asked for.
• I was asked to write this report by the Head of Marketing.
• I have been asked to gather emergency contact information for all staff.

 

attach

• Please paste all information into the email rather than attaching documents.
• I have attached the document.
• The document is attached.

 

attend

• It would be our great pleasure if you could attend Mr Smith’s retirement ceremony.
• I attend the weekly update meeting on Monday.
• I’m attending the AGM on Monday.
• We met when we both attended the Tokyo trade fair.
• We met while we were both attending the Tokyo trade fair.
• I will be attending the AGM on Monday.

expect

• We expect a big order from them in the next few days.
• We are expecting a big order from them in the next few days.
• Unfortunately, the accommodation did not meet the high standards that I expected.
• You are expected to keep personal items inside your desk drawers rather than on the desk or cubicle walls.

 

forward (v)

• I will forward your email to John.
• Please forward this to your colleagues.
• I have forwarded your email to John.

 

get

• Can you get back to me in the next couple of days?
• I was thrilled to get your letter this morning.
• Thanks for getting back to me so quickly/ Sorry for not getting back to you sooner.
• Please get in touch if anything isn’t clear.
• I got the package this morning.

 

give

• Could you possibly give me two more weeks to finish it?/ Can you give me some more details on…?/ Any feedback you can give me on this would be gratefully accepted.
• I’m afraid staff are not permitted to give out that kind of information
• Please give my regards to Mr Smith.
• Due to the reasons (which are) given above,…
• I was given your name by…
• I have been given your details by…

 

have

• (I hope you) have a good weekend.
• I also have a few questions about the battery./ Do you have any ideas how we can proceed?
• hope you had a good weekend.

Are there any differences in meaning between phrases above that are similar to each other, e.g. the ones in italics? 

Switch worksheets and do the same, this time making sure you start with the most difficult examples.

 

Student B

Choose one of the words below and read out sentences with a variety of tenses with the key word missing until your partner guesses the key word. Please say “dot dot dot” to show “…” in an unfinished sentence.

hope

• I hope we get the chance to meet again soon./ I hope this email finds you well./ I hope you and your family are well.
• I’m hoping for a better response this time.
• I was hoping to be able to move my other meeting, but…
• I had hoped to be able to move my other meeting, but…

 

invite

• We’d like to invite you to…
• Thanks for inviting me to…
• We are inviting experts in this area to take part.
• We have been invited to organize a meeting for…

 

look forward to

• I look forward to hearing from you soon.
• I’m looking forward to hearing from you soon.
• I was looking forward to your feedback.
• I had been looking forward to your feedback.

 

meet

• I will be able to meet with you very soon indeed as I will be in the very same building on Monday./ Thanks for taking the time to meet me last week.
• Thanks for meeting me last week.
• The committee meets every Thursday in room 3B.
• We are meeting again on Friday to discuss the remaining issues./ I’m afraid I’m meeting another client at that time.
• It seems ages since we last met.
• I’m afraid I will be meeting another client at that time.

 

offer

• To make up for this, we’d like to offer you a full refund and public apology.
• We offer three different models of mp3 player.
• We are offering the chance to win three mp3 players.

 

plan

• I am planning to finish the meeting at 12:30./ I plan to finish the meeting at 12:30.
• I had planned to finish the meeting at 12:30./ I was planning to finish the meeting at 12:30.

see

• As you can see from the attachment,…/ I'll see him on Tuesday so I'll ask him then./ (I’ll) see you on Monday./ Hope to see you again soon./ See you then./
  It was so nice to see you again last week.
• I look forward to seeing you again soon.
• Please see the attached brochure for more details./ Please see the information below.
• I’m seeing him on Tuesday, so I’ll ask him then.
• I saw your advertisement in the Guardian yesterday and am writing to apply for the position mentioned there, job reference number PT7889./ How long has it been since we last saw each other?

 

send

• We will send the originals by snail mail.
• Unfortunately, the product which you have sent me doesn’t seem to work.
• The amount which was sent doesn’t seem to match that on the invoice.

 

tell

• Could you tell me…?/ You can probably tell that I had to rush the last few pages.
• You told me to contact you if I had any further questions about…
• I was told that I should write to you about…

 

wonder

• I wonder whether it is possible to…
• I’m wondering if I can…
• I was wondering if you could…

 

work

• Unfortunately, the product which you have sent me doesn’t seem to work.
• My name is… and I work for…
• I don’t know if you remember me or not, but we worked together in the late 90s in Rome.
• I was working on the report when suddenly I realised…

 

write

• Sorry to write to you out of the blue, but…
• Thanks for writing back so quickly.
• I am writing to you concerning the recent bad publicity on your products.
• As requested, I’ve written a report on changes in the industry since 2011.
• This report was written in order to…

Are there any differences in meaning between phrases above that are similar to each other, e.g. the ones in italics? 

Switch worksheets and do the same, this time making sure you start with the most difficult examples.