Lingua Inglese - Come abbattere le frontiere

homepage
Place your mouse over them to see what they are (singular and plural form).		Job 1 - Compound nouns
Other exercises are at the bottom of this page.		Jumble - Job 1 Jumble - Job 2 Occupations - Fill in the blanks 13 exercises on jobs

JOBS AND WORK VOCABULARY

Accountant	Baker	Barber	Barman Barmaid	Builder
Look after the finances in an organisastion. They work in an office	Bake bread. They work in a bakery	Shave men's beards and cut men's hair. They work in a barbers	Serve drinks. They work in a bar, pub or restaurant

Butcher	Carpenter	Cashier	Chambermaid	Chef
Prepare and sell meat. They work in a butchers			Clean and tidy rooms. They work in a hotel	Prepare and cook food. They work in a kitchen

Cleaner	Dentist	Doctor	Electrician	Engineer
	Look after people's teeth. They work in a dentists	Look after people's health. They work in a hospital or surgery

Fireman Firewoman	Fishmonger	Flight attendant	Hair dresser	Judge
	Prepare and sell fish. They work in a fishmongers	Look after passengers. They work in an airplane	Cut and style people's hair. They work in a hair salon	Judge and sentence people. They work in a law court

Lawyer	Nurse	Optician	Painter	Photographer
Defend and prosecute people. They work in a law court and in a lawyers office	Look after patients. They work in a hospital or doctor's surgery	Look after people's eye sight. They work in an opticians

Plumber	Policeman Policewoman	Porter	Postman Postwoman	Receptionist
		Carry other people's bags and luggage. They work in a hotel or train station.		Meet and greet visitors. They work in reception.

Reporter	Sales assistant	Sales representative	Scientist	Secretary
	Sell goods and look after customers. They work in a shop			Arrange appointments, type letters and organise meetings. They work in an office

Surgeon	Vet	Waiter Waitress	Welder
Operate on people who are sick. They work in a hospital	Look after people's animals. They work in a veterinary surgery or vets	Serve people food and drink. They work in a restaurant

OTHER JOBS
Actor	Air steward	Architect	Caretaker	Driver Bus driver Taxi driver Train driver
Garbageman	Economist	Editor	Farmer	Jeweler
Miner	Politician	Tailor	Teacher	Telephonist
Telephone operator	TV Cameraman	TV presenter	Writer	Priest
Librarian	Physiotherapist	Child-minder	Janitor	Fire hydrant
Fire exstinguisher	Handcuffs	Detective	Fingerprint	Mechanic

Truck driver






Medical profession - People treat and look after others: doctor, nurse, surgeon, dentist and vet. The word vet is a short form for veterinary surgeon.

MANUAL JOBS - This are jobs where you work with you hands, and all the examples below are skilled jobs.

PROFESSIONAL PEOPLE -
	JOBS	DESCRIPTIONS
	architect	design buildings
	lawyer	represent people with legal problems
	engineer	plans the building of roads, bridges, machines, ...
	accountant	controls the financial situation of people and companies
	university lecturer	teaches in a university
	broker (stock market)	buys and sells stocks and shares

THE ARM FORCES -

GETTING A JOB - When Paul left school he applied for a job in the accounts department of a local engineering company. They gave him a job as a trainee. He did not earn very much but they gave him a lot of training and sent him on . training courses. Note training is an uncountable noun, so you cannot say "a training". You can only talk about training or a training course. Here you can use verbs do or go on - I did / went on several training courses last year.

MOVING UP - Paul worked hard as the company and his prospects looked good. After his first year he got a pay rise (more money) and after two years he was promoted. After six years he was in charge of the accounts department with five other employees employees under him.

living the company - By the time Paul was 30, however, he decided he wanted a fresh challenge. He was keen to work abroad, so he resign from his company and started looking for a new job with a bigger company. After a couple of months he managed to find a job with an international company with involved a lot of foreign travel. He was very excited about the new job and at first he really enjoyed the travelling, but ......

hard times - After about six months, Paul started to dislike the constant moving around, and after a year he hated it; he hated living in hotels, and he never really made any friends in the new company. Unfortunately his work was not satisfactory either and finally he was sacked (told to leave the company / dismissed / given the sack) a year later. After that, Paul found things much more difficult. He was unemployed (out of work / without a job) for over a year. He had to sell his car and move out of his new house. Things were looking bad and in the end Paul had to accept a part-time job on a fruit and vegetable stall in a market.

happier times - To his surprise, Paul loved the market. He made lots of friends and enjoyed working out in the open air. After two years, he took over (took control of) the stall. Two years later, he opened a second stall, and after ten years he had fifteen stalls. Last year Paul retired (stopped working completely) at the age of 55, a very rich man.

the office -


OFFICE WORK - Brenda works for a company which produces furniture. She works in an office, which is just opposity the factory where the furniture is made. This is how she spends her day: She works at a computer most of the time, where she writes letters and reports. She answers phone calls, mostly from retailers (shops selling the factory's furniture). She makes phone calls to retailers, and the factory making the furniture. She sends invoices to customers (paper showing products sold and and money to pay). She shows visitors around the factory. She does general paperwork, e.g. filing reports, writing memos, answering letters. She arranges meetings for her boss and other managers in the company.

the "shop floor" of the factory - This is where products are manufactured (made). Modern factories have fewer workers than in the past - this is because of automation (machines do most of the work), and most factories use an assembly line (an arrangement in which each worker makes a part of the product and then passes it on to the next person or machine). On an assembly line, workers fit / assemble the different parts, and supervisors (people in charge / control) check / inspect / examine each stage to make sure the product meets the standard (is good enough).

FINISHED GOODS - Goods (plural) is in general word used for things that are made to be sold. When the product. e.g. a radio, is finished, it is packaged (put in plastic and then in a box) and stored (kept) in a warehouse. When a customer, e.g. an electrician shop, orders some of these goods they are delivered to the shop (taken to the shop) using road or rail.

banks and businesses - Most businesses need to borrow money to finance (pay for) investments (things they need to buy in order to help the company, e.g. machines). The money they borrow from the bank is called a loan, and on this loan they have to pay interest, e.g. if you borrow £1,000 and the interest rate is 10%, then you have to pay back £100 in interest.

businesses and profit - One of the main aims / objectives (the things that you hope to do / achieve) of a company is to make a profit (earn / receive more money that it spends) - ± make a loss. If a company does not make a profit or a loss, it breaks even. Most companies are happy if they can break even in their first year of business. Companies receive money from selling their products - this money is called the turnover. The money that they spend is called expenditure. They spend money on these things: RAW MATERIALS (materials in their natural state used to make something else, e.g. coal and oil are important raw materials used to make plastics) LABOUR (employees) OVERHEADS (necessary costs for a company, e.g. rent for buildings, electricity, telephone)

rise and fall - Business people often need to talk about the movementof sales, prices, interest rates, profit and loss. Here are some of the words used to describe these trends (movements).
RISE / GO UP / INCREASE		RISE SLOWLY / GRADUALLY		RISE SHARPLY
FALL / GO DOWN		FALL SLOWLY		GO DOWN SHARPLY

Note - RISE, INCREASE and FALL are also used as nouns: a slow rise in the interest rates, a steady increase in sales, a sharp fall in profits, a dramatic (sharp) rise in inflation. We can also use be up / down: prices by are up 10%, profits are down by £2m.

businesses and the economy - In order to grow / expand (get bigger) and thrive / prosper (do well / be successful), many companies want or need the following: LOW INFLATION, so prices do not go up. LOW INTEREST RATES, so the company can borrow money without paying a lot of interest, ECONOMY and POLITICAL STABILITY, (things remain steady and stable and there are no sudden changes in the economy and political situation) A HEALTHY / STRONG economy (in good condition), and not an economy in recession (in a period of reduced and slow business activity) TAX CUTS (tax reductions / lower taxes), so they can keep more of their profit. This often depends on government expenditure, e.g. The government will not be able to reduce taxes if public expenditure continues to rise.

what is marketing ? - People talk about the marketing mix. This consist of (it is formed from and incledes): choosing the right product (what a company produces / makes or offer) selling it at the right price (what it costs to the buyer / consumer) using the right kind of promotion (the ways to make the product popular and well-known; this includes advertising) making it available in the right place (where you sell the product and how it reaches the consumer; also known as distribution) This "mix" is often referred to as the Four Ps, and marketing people have the job of matching these things to the needs of customers (the people who buy and use products). People who buy the products of a particular company are that company's customers / clients.

sales and market - There are a number of words which combine with sales and market to form compound nouns and word partnerships which are very common in marketing. sales figures: the amount you have sold. sales target: the amount you would like to sell in a future period. sales forecast: the amount you think you will sell in a future period, e.g. next year. sales representative: a person who sells a company's products, abbreviated to sales rep.. sales / marketing manager: the person who runs the sales / marketing department. market research: collecting and studying information about what people want and need. market share: the % of a market that a company has, e.g. a 20% market share. market leader: the company or product with the biggest market share.

competition - Ford Motors is the market leader in the UK industry. Its main competitors (the most important companies in the same market) are Vauxhall and Rover, and it has had to work very hard in recent years to maintain its market share. Every time a competitor launches a new product (introduces a new car onto the market), it is harder for Ford to stay in front.

a company's image - The image of a product / company (the picture or idea that people have of the product / company) is very important in sales and marketing. Some companies want a fashionable image (modern and up-to-date), others do not.

expressions connected with work-
To work shift-work (nights one week, days next) To be on flexi-time (flexible working hours) To work nine-to-five (regular day work) To go / be on strike (industrial dispute) To get the sack (thrown out of your job) To be fired (more formal than get the sack, often used as a direct address: You are fired!) To be dismissed (more formal than be fired) To be made redundant (thrown out, no longer needed) To be laid off (more informal than made redundant) To give up work (e.g. in order to study) To be on / tack sick leave (illness) To take early retirement (retire at 55) To be a workaholic (love work too much) To be promoted (get a higher position) To apply for a job (fill in forms, etc.)

collocations of words connected with work -
It is not easy to get / find work round these parts. I'd love to do that kind of work. What d' you make for a living? It is difficult to make a living as a freelance writer (earn enough money to live comfortably). I've been offered a job in Paris. She has not prepared to take on that job (includes the idea of "having personal responsability").