My English insights
I learned English the hard way, over a long time. And I’m still learning it, since I have no particular gift for languages. I never really needed the language much — dictionaries were at hand, I rarely had to speak — but suddenly I had to. Here are some phrases I often heard in real speech. Maybe they’ll be useful to someone.
| English | Meaning |
| Fingers crossed | “Here’s hoping” — wishing for success |
| War room | A meeting where a specific problem is being solved |
| To bug smbd | To bother someone (Sorry for bugging you…) |
| Give me a moment/sec | Just a minute… |
| To hand off | To pass something to someone |
| I’m good/fine/OK | No, thanks. For example, if something is offered, you can say this instead of “No, thanks” |
| To jump in (a call) | To join in (usually a discussion or an ongoing project) |
| No rush | No need to hurry |
| Take your time | No need to hurry |
| Let’s keep rolling | Let’s keep going |
| To wrap it up | To sum up / In conclusion… |
| It makes sense | Got it (sometimes literally “it’s logical, reasonable”, but often people ask “does it make sense?”, meaning “am I explaining clearly?”) |
| Baseline | A reference point, baseline values |
| Call it a day | To wrap up, to end the meeting |
| To step in | To join a project |
| At the end of the day | Ultimately |
| Looking forward to it | Can’t wait |
| To touch base with smbd | To have a quick chat with someone about something… |
| It slipped my mind | I can’t recall it… |
| To square away | To sort something out |
| Off the top of my head | To recall/come up with something on the spot |
| Running late | Being late |
| You’re breaking up | You’re cutting out (bad audio) |
| Every now and then | From time to time |
| KK | OK, Cool! — in chat; in live speech it may sound like “Kay, cool” |