Summary

Companies use the SWOT analysis to identify their strengths and weaknesses and define their business strategies in order to maximise their benefits. The commercial transactions take place in the markets, the place where the agents implied in commercial activities (mostly sellers and buyers) carry out their interactions. A market with a great potential is that of the emerging countries, where investors find very attractive conditions: low salaries and a great consumption demand. A new type of market that has emerged with the rise of the new technologies is the digital market, which reaches the whole world and it is permanently open. The basic commercial activities taking place in the markets are selling and buying. These activities are regulated by some rules that are reflected in the sales process, which includes some stages ranging from the moment of placing an order until the delivery of the goods.

Time is an important factor in business relationships. To introduce the adverbials of time, the English language uses the prepositions of time. Each preposition has its own meaning, but there is frequent confusion between the prepositions in, on and at because they have very similar meanings, which are all translated by the Spanish preposition en. The best way of using these prepositions is by learning which adverbials use one or the other. For example, dates are introduced by the preposition on (as in The meeting is on the 12th May) whereas clock times are introduced by the preposition at (for example: The meeting is at 10 in the morning).

The sentences that form a text are not independent from one another, but they are linked by logical ideas that contribute to create the meaning. In a language, the words and expressions that link the different ideas are called connectors. Many of these words are conjunctions, like and, but, because or however, but they can also be relative pronouns like who and which, prepositions like when, before and after or adverbials like afterwarfds, then and next. These words show the relationship between two ideas. They can tell us, for example, whether two actions happen simultaneously or one after the other, or whether one action is the result of the other. The correct use of connectors, combined with the use of punctuation, is very important, especially in written texts.

In the same way as the sentences that compose a text must come in a certain order, the words that form a sentence must also be placed in a certain order. If not, the sentence might have no meaning. The order of words is usually called the syntactical structure, which is peculiar to each language. In English, the basic order of the statements is: Subject + Verb + Object(s) + Adverbial(s), with some peculiarities when there are two objects (a direct and an indirect object) or two or more adverbials. On the other hand, the usual order of the questions is: Verb + Subject + Object(s) + Adverbial(s). There are two types of questions: wh- questions, which iclude an interrogative pronoun (like what), and yes/no questions, which do not have an interrogative pronoun. A special feature of the English questions is that they are always constructed with an auxiliary verb. If the main verb in the question is not an auxiliary, then we must use a form of the auxiliary do. Unlike Spanish or Catalan, the English sentences must always have a explicit subject, both in writing and in speaking.

The verbs are important words in all the sentences. They explain what action is done by the subject or what the subject feels. The verb form (or verb tense) also indicates whether we speak about the present or the past, or whether we see the action as finished or unfinished. To speak about the present we use two verb tenses called ‘present simple’ and ‘present continuous’. The present simple has the same form as the base form (or infinitive), but in the third person singular we must add -s (for example: he works). The present continuous is a complex tense, so called because it is formed by two words: the present tense of the verb to be and the gerund, which is invariable and always ends with -ing (for example: he is working). The basic difference is that the present simple expresses actions that happen regularly and the present continuous expresses actions that are taking place at the moment of speaking. for this reason, the present simple is usually associated with the frequency adverbs (never, seldom, sometimes, often, always) and the present continuous usually appears with adverbs of time like now or at this moment.

On the other hand, there are many verb tenses used to speak about the past. Two of these tenses are the ‘past simple’ and the ‘past continuous’. Most verbs form the past simple by adding -ed to all the persons (for example: he worked), but there are some verbs, which are called irregular, because they do not follow the rule. The irregular verbs often have a different word to express the past simple (for example: go > he went). Many verbs with a basic meaning are irregular, like be, go, see, buy and many others. The only option to know the past forms of these verbs is to learn them by heart. On the other hand, the past continuous is formed by the past tense of the verb to be (irregular: was/were) and the gerund of the verb (for example: he was working). The use of these verb tenses reflects that of the present tenses: the past simple refers to finished actions in the past and the past continuous speaks about actions that were not finished at a specific moment in the past. The two tenses are usually combined in the same sentence to described a long continuous action that was taking place in the past when a short action came to interrupt the longer action, as in this example: I was working when the visitors arrived.

A language is used in a variety of communicative situations. What is appropriate in one context may not be appropriate in another context. A great difference comes with the use of language in formal and informal situations. The English are traditionally very much concerned about formality and social etiquette, and the language reflects this concern. In certain situations, for example, when speaking to a superior at work or dealing with customers from another country, we must use a formal language; when we talk to workmates, friends or family members, we must use an informal language. Business letters are always formal, but mails tend to be more informal. The main characteristics of the formal language are the use of specific words and expressions (for example, could you…? or I would like…) and the avoidance of contractions in the written form (I am instead of I’m). On the other hand, the informal language uses other type of expressions (Can you…?, I want…) and generally makes contractions between two words (I’m, he’s, I’d). There are different degrees of formality. We must choose the most appropriate form depending on each particular context. Another important difference in the use of language is that between the oral language and the written language. The differences between these two types have very much in common with that between formal and informal: oral language is usually informal and the written language is usually more formal. In general, when we write in informal language, we are in fact reproducing the speech. The written language is generally subject to formal conventions like the use of punctuation, connectors and certain words which are not commonly used when we speak. Similarly, the oral language is full of words and expressions that we do not normally use in the written language.

Learning a language is a very complex task, especially when the learning takes place in a classroom, be it physical or virtual. The students must use some extra resources to complement his/her study. These extra resources are generally referred to with the generic term ‘reference material’. This includes grammar books, websites, dictionaries and automatic translators. The most widely-used of these is undoubtly the automatic translator. It is certainly very useful for understanding relatively short texts when the meaning is the most important thing. However, we should be very careful when using the automatic translator for writing texts because it generates many mistakes. This means that we must be prepared to revise the text and make all the necessary corrections. This requires a good level of both languages (the original language and the target language). An automatic translator might be useful for an advanced student, but it will not be so for a beginner.

In the world of business administration, the most common example of a written text is the business letter and, more recently, the email. At work we may need to write letters and emails for many reasons, and each one will require a specific type of language. However, there some characteristics which are common to all texts. For example, business letters are quite formal and must all include the receiver’s address and the date, as well as an appropriate beginning (generally: Dear Sir or Madam or Dear Mr Smith) and appropriate ending (for example: Yours sincerely or Yours faithfully); emails are usually less formal. In very informal emails and letters, there are clear differences in the beginnings (Hi, Hello) and the endings (Bye, Cheers, Love). Nowadays, with the irruption of the smartphones and the messaging applications (like Whatsapp), a new type of text is quickly developing: the text messages. This type of text is even creating a new type of language, which is characterised by the general use of short forms (sometimes without using vowels, as in ADN (Any Day Now) or BBL (Be Back Later) and by the use of numbers to represent words or sounds: 4=for, 2=to, 8=L8 (=late). In text messages, emotions are usually represented by emoticons.