5 exercises on the natural language of professional meetings: agenda management, raising concerns, scheduling, and closing. Many questions have multiple correct answers — it's about understanding the register differences.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Let's ___ the main agenda item first and handle AOB at the end.
Start with, address, and tackle — all correct meeting verbs:
All three collocations are natural and widely used to open discussion of an agenda item. Each carries a slightly different tone:
Start with: The most neutral and procedural. Often used by a meeting chair to introduce the first agenda item. "Let's start with the deployment timeline." Signals sequence and structure.
Address: More formal. Implies the item requires attention and resolution. "We need to address the staffing gap before the end of the sprint." Common in business English and formal meeting contexts.
Tackle: More dynamic and informal. Implies the item may be challenging and requires energy to resolve. "Let's tackle the hard questions first." Common in product and engineering team meetings.
Other agenda management verbs:
cover an agenda item → "We have 5 items to cover today"
move to the next item → "Let's move to item three"
skip an item → "We'll skip this for now — no updates"
table an item → (BE) defer to a future meeting; (AmE) bring to the table = discuss now — be careful with this regional difference!
AOB = Any Other Business — the last agenda item where participants can raise topics not listed.
2 / 5
Could we ___ this discussion to the next sprint planning meeting?
Defer and push — both correct for postponing a meeting discussion:
Defer and push are both standard collocations for moving a discussion to a later date, but they come from different registers:
Defer: Formal business English. Used in meeting minutes, formal agendas, and professional written communication. "I propose we defer this item to the next planning session." Implies a deliberate decision to handle it later. "Defer" collocates strongly with discussions, decisions, and items.
Push (to/until): Informal, very common in tech team communication. "Can we push this to next week?" Natural in Slack, stand-ups, and informal meetings. "Push" implies moving the thing forward in time (away from now).
"Move" is also correct and neutral — "move this to Thursday's meeting" — but was listed as option A, not a "both correct" answer. It is equally valid.
Other postponement expressions:
park something → set aside temporarily, return to it later: "Let's park that thought for now"
take offline → discuss outside the main meeting: "Let's take this offline"
carry over → move to the next meeting formally: "This item was carried over from last week"
3 / 5
I'd like to ___ a concern about the proposed timeline.
Raise, bring up, and flag — all standard collocations for surfacing a concern:
All three verbs are natural and widely used in professional meetings. Each comes from a slightly different register or metaphor:
Raise a concern: The most formal and professional colloaction. Standard in business English, performance reviews, project management, and written reports. "I want to raise a concern about scope creep." "Several team members raised concerns about the timeline." This is the go-to choice for formal meetings.
Bring up a concern: Neutral and natural. Works in all contexts. "I'd like to bring up a couple of concerns before we finalise the plan." Very common in conversational English.
Flag a concern: More modern and common in tech/startup culture. The metaphor is "raising a flag" to signal attention is needed. "I wanted to flag a concern about the dependency on the third-party API." Used in Slack, PR comments, and team discussions. Also: "flagging this for awareness."
Related collocations:
raise / voice an objection → more formal pushback
surface an issue → "I wanted to surface a risk before the sprint starts"
highlight a risk → draw attention to a danger
escalate a concern → bring it to a higher level of management
4 / 5
Let's ___ a follow-up meeting for Thursday to review the proposal.
Schedule, book, and plan — all correct for arranging a meeting:
All three verbs collocate naturally with "meeting" and are heard regularly in professional English. Regional and contextual preferences exist:
Schedule a meeting: The most universally professional term. Standard in American English and widely used globally. "Let's schedule a follow-up for Thursday." The word "schedule" implies putting it in the calendar system.
Book a meeting: More common in British English. Also collocates with rooms: "book a meeting room." "I'll book a slot on Thursday." Natural in UK-based companies and common in global teams.
Plan a meeting: Implies thinking ahead about the structure and participants, not just the time. "We're planning a retrospective for end of sprint." Less about the calendar action, more about the intent. Still correct but slightly less specific than "schedule" or "book."
Calendar invitation vocabulary:
send / share a calendar invite
accept / decline / tentatively accept a meeting
reschedule a meeting → move to a different time
cancel a meeting → remove it entirely
block out time → reserve time in your calendar for focused work
Other meeting arrangement expressions: "Does Thursday at 3pm work for everyone?" / "Let's find a slot." / "I'll send a calendar invite."
5 / 5
To ___ : we agreed on a 2-week sprint, daily standups, and a Friday demo.
Summarise and recap — the two natural meeting closing phrases:
Both summarise and recap are standard and widely used to close a meeting by restating the key points and decisions:
Summarise: Formal and professional. The standard British English spelling (US: summarize). Used in formal meetings, minute-writing, and client presentations. "To summarise the key decisions from today's meeting…" Can also be used mid-meeting: "Let me summarise what we've covered so far."
Recap: Less formal but extremely common in tech teams and startup culture. Short for "recapitulate." "Quick recap of what we decided…" "Can someone give a quick recap?" Very natural in stand-ups and retrospectives.
"Conclude" means to end or reach a conclusion through reasoning — it is not naturally used as a meeting closing phrase in this pattern. "To conclude" works in presentations and speeches ("In conclusion…"), but "to summarise" or "to recap" is more natural for meeting wrap-ups.
Meeting closing language:
"To summarise / To recap the action items…" → standard closing
"Wrapping up — does anyone have anything else to add?" → informal
"Before we close, let's confirm the action items."
"That covers everything on the agenda."
"I'll send out the minutes / the action items after this call."
What does the "Meeting Phrases — Key Collocations" exercise practise?
5 exercises on the natural language of professional meetings: agenda management, raising concerns, scheduling, and closing. Many questions have multiple correct answers — it's about understanding the register differences.
How many questions are in this exercise?
This exercise has 5 questions, each multiple-choice with an explanation shown after you answer.
What English level is this exercise for?
This exercise is tagged Beginner. If the vocabulary feels difficult, browse Meetings Communication for a related exercise to start with instead.
Is this exercise free to use?
Yes. Every exercise on CoderSlingo, including this one, is free with no account, sign-up, or paywall.
Do I get feedback if I answer incorrectly?
Yes — whichever option you choose, right or wrong, you'll immediately see an explanation clarifying the correct collocation and why the other options don't fit.
Can I retry this exercise?
Yes — once you finish all the questions, a "Try again" button on the results screen resets the exercise so you can practise as many times as you like.
Do I need an account to track my progress?
No account is required. Your progress and score for this session are tracked in the browser as you go, but nothing is saved once you leave the page.
Is "Meeting Phrases — Key Collocations" part of a larger series?
Yes — it's one exercise in Meetings Communication. See that category page for the full list of related collocation exercises.
Can I link directly to this exercise?
Yes — this exercise has its own permanent URL, so you can bookmark it or share the link directly with a colleague or study partner.
Where can I find more exercises like this one?
See Meetings Communication for related exercises, or browse the main Collocations hub for other IT English word pairings.