Top 100 Business English Collocations
CEFR B1-C1 • Vocabulary • Verb+noun pairs that signal fluent business English
What is a collocation, and why does it matter?
A collocation is a pair (or group) of words that native English speakers consistently use together. Some pairings are correct. Others are technically grammatical but mark you instantly as a non-native speaker. The verb you use with a noun is rarely random in business English.
You make a decision. You don't do a decision. You reach an agreement. You don't achieve an agreement. You raise a concern. You don't tell a concern. The grammar of each wrong version is fine. The collocation is broken. A native English speaker will hear the wrong combination the way you would hear someone mismatch verbs in your own language.
This page is a working reference of the 100 collocations that come up most often in business email, meetings, performance reviews, and proposals. Each block has the verb, three or four nouns it pairs with, and a real-world example sentence so you can hear the rhythm.
Group 1: Decisions, plans, and agreements
The verbs that pair with abstract business nouns trip up almost every non-native speaker. The patterns below cover ninety percent of what you'll need.
| Verb | Common nouns | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| make | a decision, a choice, progress, an offer, an exception | "We need to make a decision by end of day Thursday." |
| take | a decision (UK), action, responsibility, the lead, a chance | "I'll take responsibility for the rollout — let me run point on it." |
| reach | an agreement, a decision, a conclusion, a consensus, a milestone | "We reached an agreement on price during yesterday's call." |
| come to | an agreement, a decision, an arrangement, terms | "Legal and procurement came to terms on Friday afternoon." |
| draw up | a contract, a plan, a list, a budget, a proposal | "Can you draw up a one-page plan for the Q3 launch?" |
| set | a goal, a target, a deadline, a budget, an agenda | "Let's set a realistic deadline rather than the aspirational one." |
| meet | a deadline, a target, a quota, expectations, demand | "The Mumbai team consistently meets every deadline they accept." |
| miss | a deadline, a target, an opportunity, the mark | "We missed the original deadline by two weeks because of the data migration." |
Hear the rhythm
Group 2: Meetings and conversations
Native speakers don't do a meeting or say a presentation. The verbs are specific, and they are not always the most obvious translation from your native language.
| Verb | Common nouns | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| hold | a meeting, a discussion, a conference, a workshop, talks | "We hold a thirty-minute standup every Monday at nine." |
| have | a conversation, a chat, a discussion, a one-on-one, a check-in | "Let's have a quick chat after the all-hands." |
| schedule | a meeting, a call, a sync, a follow-up, an interview | "I scheduled a thirty-minute call for Wednesday at two CT." |
| attend | a meeting, a conference, a session, a training, an event | "Three engineers from our team attended the AWS re:Invent keynote." |
| chair | a meeting, a panel, a committee, a session, a discussion | "Marina chaired the steering committee for two years before stepping down." |
| give | a presentation, a talk, feedback, an answer, an update, a demo | "Can you give the team a five-minute update on the migration?" |
| raise | a question, a concern, an objection, an issue, a point | "Raj raised a valid concern about timeline risk in yesterday's review." |
| take | notes, minutes, questions, the floor, a vote | "I'll take notes — Priya, would you mind keeping time?" |
Hear the rhythm
Group 3: Negotiations, sales, and deals
Sales English has its own collocation rules, and the wrong combination can land like a translation error in front of a client.
| Verb | Common nouns | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| close | a deal, a sale, a contract, a round, a quarter | "We closed the Acme deal on the last day of Q2." |
| sign | a contract, an agreement, a deal, a lease, an NDA | "They signed the master services agreement yesterday." |
| negotiate | a contract, a price, terms, a salary, a deal | "I negotiated the price down by twelve percent on the renewal." |
| quote | a price, a figure, a number, a rate, a fee | "They quoted us forty-two thousand for the implementation phase." |
| place | an order, a bid, a bet, an emphasis, a value (on) | "The procurement team placed the order on Tuesday morning." |
| fill | an order, a position, a role, a gap, a request | "We can fill the order within five business days." |
| land | a client, a deal, a contract, a job, a meeting | "Sandeep landed the largest enterprise deal of the year." |
| win | a contract, a deal, a bid, business, a customer | "We won the contract against four other vendors." |
Group 4: Performance and feedback
Annual reviews, calibration discussions, and one-on-ones are the highest-stakes language moments most non-native speakers face. The collocations below are the difference between sounding like a leader and sounding like you've translated word-for-word.
| Verb | Common nouns | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| give | feedback, a review, an evaluation, praise, recognition | "I'll give you direct feedback in the one-on-one tomorrow." |
| receive | feedback, recognition, praise, an award, a promotion | "Marcus received excellent feedback from the entire steering committee." |
| conduct | a review, a survey, an interview, an analysis, an audit | "HR conducts performance reviews every March and September." |
| set | expectations, goals, priorities, boundaries, standards | "Let's set clear expectations for what 'done' looks like on this project." |
| meet | expectations, requirements, standards, criteria, qualifications | "Her work consistently meets the senior engineer bar." |
| exceed | expectations, targets, quotas, goals, the bar | "The team exceeded their Q3 quota by eighteen percent." |
| demonstrate | leadership, ownership, expertise, commitment, results | "Anika demonstrated strong leadership during the outage on Saturday." |
| show | initiative, leadership, commitment, improvement, promise | "He's shown real improvement in the last two quarters." |
Hear the rhythm
Group 5: Money, budget, and finance
| Verb | Common nouns | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| raise | capital, funds, money, prices, salaries, awareness | "The startup raised twelve million in their Series B last month." |
| cut | costs, prices, salaries, headcount, budget, corners | "We need to cut operational costs by ten percent before year-end." |
| boost | revenue, sales, productivity, morale, performance | "The new commission structure boosted sales by twenty-three percent." |
| generate | revenue, leads, profit, interest, demand, traffic | "The webinar generated four hundred qualified leads in two days." |
| allocate | budget, resources, funds, time, headcount | "We've allocated ten percent of next year's budget to R&D." |
| approve | a budget, an expense, a request, a hire, a plan | "Finance approved the additional headcount on Friday." |
| track | expenses, spending, hours, progress, performance, KPIs | "We track every dollar of vendor spending in the same dashboard." |
| balance | the books, a budget, priorities, work and life, a portfolio | "It took us six weeks to balance the books for fiscal year close." |
Group 6: Projects and teams
| Verb | Common nouns | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| launch | a product, a campaign, an initiative, a service, a feature | "We launched the mobile app in twelve markets simultaneously." |
| kick off | a project, a quarter, a meeting, a campaign, a sprint | "The rebrand kicks off Monday with a two-hour stakeholder workshop." |
| roll out | a feature, a policy, an update, a tool, a rollout | "IT rolled out the new VPN client across all regions last weekend." |
| lead | a team, a project, an initiative, a discussion, a transformation | "Aiyana leads our platform engineering team of fourteen." |
| manage | a project, a team, expectations, risk, change, time | "She manages a globally distributed team across three continents." |
| oversee | operations, a project, a team, the rollout, compliance | "Tom oversees the entire customer success organization." |
| scope | a project, the work, a feature, requirements, the effort | "Before we commit, let's scope the integration work properly." |
| deliver | results, value, a project, a presentation, a product | "The team consistently delivers high-quality work under tight deadlines." |
Group 7: Risk, problems, and solutions
| Verb | Common nouns | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| identify | a problem, an issue, a risk, an opportunity, a gap | "The audit identified three critical security gaps." |
| address | a concern, an issue, a question, a risk, a problem | "We need to address the latency issue before the launch." |
| resolve | an issue, a conflict, a dispute, a problem, a complaint | "Customer support resolved the billing dispute within twenty-four hours." |
| mitigate | risk, damage, exposure, impact, concerns | "The legal team mitigated the licensing risk by adding two clauses." |
| face | a challenge, a problem, opposition, criticism, scrutiny | "The sales team faces a tough Q4 against a slowing market." |
| tackle | a problem, a challenge, an issue, a project, a backlog | "Let's tackle the data quality issue first — it blocks everything else." |
| flag | a risk, a concern, an issue, a problem, a question | "I want to flag a timeline risk on the integration phase." |
| escalate | an issue, a concern, a complaint, a problem, a ticket | "If we can't resolve it by Friday, we'll have to escalate to the VP level." |
The seven mistakes that mark you instantly as non-native
These are the seven most common collocation errors I hear from professionals at international companies. Learn the right version once and the wrong version stops feeling natural.
You don't do decisions in English. You make them. Always.
"Hold" sounds slightly more formal; "have" is the everyday version. Both are correct.
You give presentations, talks, and updates. You don't say them.
"Tell" never combines with "question." Use ask in casual contexts, raise in formal ones.
Research is the rare noun where "do" is correct, not "make." Conduct is the formal version.
You win deals and contracts, but you earn or make a salary.
This direct translation from a few languages is one of the most jarring mismatches.
A quick framework for when you don't know the right verb
If you're writing or speaking and you don't know which verb pairs with the noun, default to one of these three safe options before you guess:
- Have — works for many abstract nouns: have a conversation, have a meeting, have an opportunity, have an impact.
- Make — works for decisions, choices, plans, offers, mistakes, suggestions, and progress.
- Take — works for action, responsibility, the lead, notes, time, and a chance.
If none of those feel right, ask. "What's the verb you'd use here?" is a perfectly professional question, and it teaches you the collocation in the context where you'll actually use it again.
Practice: Test yourself
Tap each question to reveal the answer.
Where to go next
Build vocabulary by topic, then layer in the verbs that make it sound native:
- How to Write a Professional Email in English — see these collocations in real templates.
- Present Perfect vs Past Simple in Business Emails — the tense decision behind every "have made" vs "made."
- Phrasal Verbs for Software Development — push out, roll back, spin up, deploy.
- Back to Vocabulary Hub
- Business English Hub
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a business English collocation?
A collocation is a pair or group of words that naturally occur together and sound fluent to native speakers. In business English, collocations typically combine a verb with a noun in a fixed pattern — for example, make a decision (not do a decision) or reach an agreement (not arrive an agreement). Using the correct verb is what separates intermediate from advanced business English, according to the Cambridge Grammar of English.
What are the most common business English collocations for meetings?
The most frequent meeting collocations include: hold/attend/chair a meeting, set/follow the agenda, reach a consensus, take the minutes, table a proposal (British English: postpone; American English: put forward), and wrap up the meeting. These patterns appear consistently in business corpora analysed by the Longman Business English Dictionary.
What is the difference between a collocation and an idiom?
A collocation is a predictable word partnership whose meaning is transparent — make a profit means exactly what it says. An idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning cannot be deduced word by word — ballpark figure does not literally involve a ballpark. Collocations are essential for professional fluency; idioms are optional and can sound informal or confusing to non-native listeners, as noted in Cambridge English research on EFL learner corpora.
How do you learn business English collocations effectively?
The most evidence-based approach, supported by vocabulary acquisition research (Nation, 2001; Schmitt, 2010), involves three steps: (1) encounter collocations in authentic business texts — annual reports, emails, meeting transcripts; (2) record the full verb+noun unit in a notebook, not the words separately; and (3) practise in output — write sentences or speak in meetings using the target pair. Spaced repetition tools such as Anki or Quizlet can reinforce retention once you have the correct form.
Which CEFR level is needed to use business collocations fluently?
The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) places accurate collocation use at B2 (Upper-Intermediate) and above. At B2, learners can use a range of vocabulary appropriate for formal contexts with only occasional confusion. At C1 (Advanced), learners select collocations flexibly across different registers. Productive mastery of the 100 most common business collocations is a reliable B2→C1 step-up marker, according to the Council of Europe CEFR companion volume.
What is the most common collocation mistake non-native speakers make in business?
The single most frequent error in learner corpora is verb substitution — using do where native speakers use make or a specific verb. Common examples: do a decision (correct: make a decision), do a meeting (correct: hold/have a meeting), do a contract (correct: sign/draw up a contract). This pattern is documented in the Cambridge Learner Corpus, which analysed over 50 million words of learner writing from non-native business English users.