English Language Practice Pages

BUSINESS ENGLISH FROM YORK ASSOCIATES, YORK, UK.

Words that confuse.

Economy and finance

The Economy

When we talk about the economy we mean the nation’s economic situation. An economist gives advice to governments and companies about trends in national and world economies.

Confusingly, most countries economies are run by a Minister of Finance. The word economical is often used by cutomers to talk about the energy of efficiency of products. In times of difficulty, we all have to economise.

Finance

When we talk about finance, we usually mean the financial state of a company or an individual. It is often used in the plural - “my finances are not too good”! Most companies have a Finance Department headed by a Finance Director. This department is responsible for the companies financial situation. This will involve day-to day accounting but also decisions about financing new projects.

Exercise

Complete the sentences with words from the box and then check your answers.

economy - economic - economical - (to)economise - finance
finances - finance - financial - (to) finance

The US has grown rapidly in the second half.
Many British companies are headed by a Director with a background.
He studied at university and then went on to become a Consultant.
In order to this new project we are going to have to raise money in the markets.
The Ministry of has recently made some confident remarks about the country's future.

Our are in a terrible state. We'll have to a lot.
It's no good asking an . They always disagree with each other.

The new machines are extremely . Our energy costs have been halved.

This exercise forms part of a forthcoming publication "Business Vocabulary in English" published by York Associates. For more information about their publications go to the York Associates WWW site.