BE 418: How to Make Business English a Cinch
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 418, How to Make Business English a Cinch.

Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English. Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business. For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party, this is Real Business English with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Aubrey, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.

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Hey there, Aubrey. What's shaking? Not much. I have a question for you. Okay. What is a task that you do often that is a cinch? A cinch. Tying my shoes is a cinch. That's a good one. I know. That is not a cinch for my kids. They are struggling at learning to tie their shoes. Are they? Oh, no.

Come on. That's so funny. But yes, I agree. That's a cinch. This is a great phrase in English that just means very easy. But there's two different meanings. So we're going to talk about cinch and some related vocab today. I love it. Very interesting high-level word. Guys, hit the follow button right here on Business English so you don't miss a single episode of the show. All right? Yes. Awesome. This came up in the Q&A. One of our students had heard this word.

cinch used a couple of different ways, which does make it confusing. Yeah. Right. So first let's dive into the first meaning here. Like we said, a cinch means extremely easy. Yeah. For example, you might say, I thought it'd be difficult to increase productivity, but it was a cinch. Yes. I love it. Or she thought it'd be a cinch, but it turned out to be extremely difficult. And I want to, as a bonus, draw attention to it'd be.

She thought it'd be a cinch. Oh my gosh. What is that, Aubrey? What's the grammar behind that? It would be. She thought it would be a cinch. I mean, she expected it to be a cinch, right? But we often will combine it and would to a contraction like this. She thought it'd be a cinch and it all gets run together. Love that. But there is a second meaning here and it is to make certain.

Right? Yeah, this is what made it sort of confusing for our student because they're hearing it both ways. So for example, you might say, when UCLA offered her a full ride scholarship, it cinched her decision. So here it's a verb. It means it made it certain it made it an easy decision. Oh, so good. Or she was debating between a few jobs, but the latest offer cinched it. That means it locked it in, right? It said, yes, that's the one.

Right? So if you're being offered, like you're interviewing multiple places, you have these different offers, you can't decide, there will be something that will cinch it for you. There's something that's going to be the decision maker. Love it. Okay, so cinch, guys, try to go ahead and use this, right? This is

very native and natural. It's high level, but it's easy to use, right? Yeah, it's spelled. It looks kind of strange when you see it written C-I-N-C-H because it's just kind of spelled strange. You might assume it starts with an S, but it doesn't. But this is very high level. We use it a lot at work. And

But it feels sort of impressive. So yes, add it to your conversation. You get a lot of leverage, a lot of mileage out of that, I think. And then the second one is a snap. Also, so it's a noun, something that is easy, right? For example, that task was a snap, right? A snap. Easy to do. But it just means that task was easy. But it's such a more fun way to say that. It's fun to say snap. That task was a snap. Yeah.

It's kind of boring to say it was easy, right? Easy, right? There are so many better ways to say it. Or you might say he expected it to be a snap, but it ended up taking three weeks to complete. So you expected something to be easy and then it wasn't. It happens to be a lot worse. Yes. Oh, gosh. Everything that looks like a simple cross off your list ends up being like a three-week project, right? Yes. Right? How did that happen? That was supposed to be a snap. I know.

I know. It's like, is it me? Right? What's wrong? Next one in a snap is an adverb phrase, which

which means easily. So for example, he finished the task in a snap, meaning quickly and easily, right? Exactly, right. So we have these two separate ones. If it's just a snap used as a noun, means easy, right? He expected it to be a snap. He expected it to be easy. But then if we use this adverb phrase, we're describing something that was done easily, quickly, right? He finished the task in a snap.

Nice. And then we have kind of a slang, easy peasy or easy breezy. Sometimes we hear this right from native speakers. They just want to express that something is easy. No problem. Right? Yeah. I use these a lot. I love this. You might say, great job on that presentation. You made it look easy peasy. I think they're fun because they rhyme. Yeah, they're fun. It's fun to make a rhyming phrase, right? Or she thought the job would be easy breezy, but it's not. Okay.

Yeah, same thing. So all of these are very interchangeable, right? You could say she thought the job would be a cinch, but it's not. Same thing. She thought it'd be easy breezy, but it's not. Yes. And then piece of cake. And I think we have we talked about this in All Ears English? I'm not sure. But guys, if you're not following All Ears English, you must open your search bar right now and find All Ears English and hit the follow button.

I know we talked about cake. We talked about takes the cake. We actually didn't talk about piece of cake, or at least I plugged it into chat GPT and it said no. We haven't talked about it, which is funny because this is very common, almost to the point of being cliche, but I still use it. I still hear it and be like, that's a piece of cake. This task will be a piece of cake. Just means really easy. No, it is yummy.

Maybe it's a cliche, but it's a fun one to use. It is fun. I still use it. And then, or whenever I think of something, whenever I think something will be a piece of cake, I get proven wrong. Like you were saying, right? I think it's going to be a cinch. It's going to be a piece of cake. And then it takes three weeks and a lot of headaches. When you look at a task, you don't think about all the tentacles that that task has. Usually my tasks have tentacles.

I love that metaphor. Imagining it's like a squid with all these tentacles wrapping around and grabbing and clogging everything up. It's so true. That has to get done first. And then that has to happen. Oh, but maybe we should do this first, right? That's how our work lives go down. I have a feeling that our listeners have solidarity with you here, right? We all are dealing with that. Just things you expect to be so simple. You think it'll be a cinch. And then there's all these problems you didn't anticipate. We've all been there. Yep.

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Did you have to take the certification exam? Yeah, it was a snap. What about you? Oh, I haven't taken it yet. Mark also said it's a cinch though. Should be a piece of cake. Oh yeah, it was easy peasy. You won't have a problem. Nice. Nice. So this is especially where you need all of them because if you're talking about something being easy, it would be terrible if we just said, oh yeah, it was easy. Mark said it's easy. Oh, it

Oh, it'll be no problem. It's going to be easy, right? We need options. Yeah, don't be boring, especially at work where you're trying to build relationships, right? Exactly.

Yeah. So you first said, "Oh, it was a snap." That's a great way to say, "Oh yeah, it was super easy." Exactly. And then you said, "I haven't taken it yet." Mark also said, "It's a cinch though." Right? And then you said, "Should be a piece of cake." So you're saying for you, it should be a piece of cake, right? Exactly. I'm expecting it to be easy because now you and Mark have both told me, "It's a snap. It's a cinch." And it's interesting too to think about these words sort of imply that it won't take very long either. Easy

as in like not difficult but also a snap kind of implies you're going to be able to do it quickly too wouldn't you say i would say so yeah snap easy and quick which is the best if i took like let's say i take a math class in college and i'm telling someone that it was easy like it wasn't difficult the tests were easy i still wouldn't call it a snap if it's a college class it's going to take four months yes because a snap is like oh you can get it done really quickly no i agree

I guess it's kind of modeling when you snap, like if you have buttons on a jacket, you snap, it's very clean. It's very crisp. It's like done. Boom snaps together. You hear it. It's satisfying. Or snap your fingers, which I can't actually do. I truly like, you can't really hear it. You can't snap your fingers.

Can you do it loud? Do it in your mic. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's a good snap. Interesting. Okay. Can you whistle? I've never been able to, I can whistle. I won't whistle in the mic. Okay. I can whistle, but I can't snap my fingers. Really. My kids make fun of me. They can really well. That's pretty funny. Interesting. Okay. Good to know. Good to know. A little trivia for Aubrey trivia. Love it. Um,

And then finally you said, yeah, it was easy peasy. And again, you could say any of these there. It was easy breezy. It was a piece of cake. It was a cinch. You just need lots of options here so that you don't have to, so that you're not repetitive with your vocabulary. Yeah, because we're still kind of, we're kind of belaboring this topic, right? We're talking about it for a while. So you need other ways to say it.

kind of exactly and here we have the episode you were talking about lindsay over on all ears english lindsay and michelle did an episode 2393 sweeten up your english with these expressions and they talked about not piece of cake but take the cake proof is in the pudding some of these really fun expressions so be sure to check that one out for some other fun idioms about cake and sweets all right go on over there guys and check it out make sure you hit follow on the show while you're over there aubry where shall we leave our listeners today

Yeah, I think this is such a great way to connect about things that are easy or telling someone about something that you know they have to do that is going to be a cinch, a piece of cake, easy breezy. What a great way to connect, right? Anyone that tells me something like that, I'm like, thank you. Yeah, I don't have to stress about that. Right. It builds connection. It builds confidence. It helps you understand that they know you because they know what will be easy for you.

right? Because they wouldn't say it if it might be hard. So it definitely builds relationships and connections. So guys, go for it. Try to use this and good stuff. All right. Awesome. Thanks, Lindsay. Super fun vocab today. See you next time. Bye. Bye.

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