Get down to business
Today’s expression is “to get down to business.” It’s an informal expression that you use when you transition from an icebreaker or a social activity to the main reason you’re meeting with someone.
I said earlier that each episode of “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” opened with Mr. Rogers coming through the door, replacing his suit jacket with a sweater, changing his shoes, and chatting with the audience. Then, he got down to business. That’s the point at which he began the main content of his program. When an episode of Plain English starts, you might be waiting to hear a sound like this…
…which is your signal that we’re about to get down to business, talking about the main topic.
If you meet with colleagues, it’s common for people to chit-chat a little as people are coming in the door. How was your weekend; what’s your family up to; how far are you into the new season of “The Crown” on Netflix? What, you haven’t started it? But you watched the first two seasons right? Okay, good. You know the cast on this episode is different, right? Yeah, it takes place years in the future. Yeah I did hear about that, how the male actor was making so much more than the female actor, even though the female actor played the Queen! Talk about an insu—
Ahem! Let’s get down to business. Let’s start this meeting. That’s what you say when you want people to stop talking about “The Crown” and focus on the purpose of the meeting. “Let’s get down to business,” you’d say.
You can also use this phrase more generally to mean that someone started thinking about something seriously, with determination. You might say a football team didn’t score in the entire first half, but as soon as the second half started, they got down to business and scored two goals within the first ten minutes. They got down to business because they finally showed some determination. They finally started to focus and produce.
Quote of the week
Here’s the quote of the week. Probably no surprise that I picked one from Fred Rogers. This quote was featured in the movie, Tom Hanks speaks it, but it is an actual quote from the Mr. Rogers. Here it is: “Forgiveness is a strange thing. It can sometimes be easier to forgive our enemies than our friends. It can be hardest of all to forgive people we love.” Indeed.
That’s all for today. Thanks for joining us. There’s also a documentary about Mr. Rogers called, simply, “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” and that’s on some of the streaming platforms. I haven’t seen that one yet, but I’ll try to make time for it in the next few weeks. But I’m really curious…is there someone like Mr. Rogers in your country? Some adult who just did really good children’s TV or radio? If there is, I’d love to know about it. Leave a comment at PlainEnglish.com/216 and leave a link so we can see who it is.
By this time, we know the winner of the big election in the UK. Well, I don’t know it, because I’m recording this beforehand. But you all know who it is, and we will delve into that subject, probably on Thursday’s episode. If not Thursday, then soon thereafter.
By the way, Plain English Plus+ members know what “soon thereafter” means because it was the subject of a video lesson we did in episode 213.
The video lessons are great for little phrases like that, “soon thereafter.” It’s not really an expression, more like a tool in your toolbox. And our video lessons are full of tools like this for your English toolbox. If you want to be able to use these useful tools yourself, then come join us at PlainEnglish.com/Plus.
See you next time!
Use realistic expressions like a native speaker
