Collocations about Meetings

Collocations about Meetings

Hello English learners. Welcome to a new lesson. We will look at some commonly used collocations related to meetings you should know.

Here is the list:

• Arrange/set up/fix a meeting
• Bring forward a meeting
• Call off/postpone a meeting
• Run/chair a meeting
• Attend a meeting
• Miss a meeting
• Participate/take part in a meeting
• Annual/monthly/weekly/biweekly meeting
• Face-to-face/one-to-one meeting

Arrange/set up/fix a meeting

Meaning: to organize a meeting.

• Could we arrange a meeting with Mr Smith for Thursday morning, please?
• Let’s set up a meeting with the web designer and ask for his opinion.
• My secretary will call you to fix a meeting.

Bring forward a meeting

Meaning: to organize a meeting earlier than it was planned.

• They brought forward the meeting from Friday to Wednesday.
• The meeting was brought forward so that everyone can attend.

Call off/postpone a meeting

Meaning: to cancel a meeting, to reschedule it for later.

• The meeting was called off at the last minute.
• Due to an illness, the meeting will be postponed to a later date.

Run/chair a meeting

Meaning: to lead a meeting, to be in charge of the meeting.

• The president of the union will run the meeting.
• Do you find it difficult to chair an online meeting?

Attend a meeting

Meaning: to go to a meeting, to be present at a meeting.

• Did you attend the meeting yesterday? What was it about?
• Many people have travelled a long way to attend the meeting.

A person who attends a meeting is called an attendee.

• We are expecting to have around 200 attendees at the meeting.

Miss a meeting

Meaning: to not go to a meeting.

• You’d better hurry up. We don’t want to miss the meeting.
• I’m sure you don’t have a good excuse for missing a meeting.

Participate/take part in a meeting

Meaning: to be involved in a meeting discussion. Participate and take part have the same meaning but participate is more formal.

• All the attendees were encouraged to participate in the meeting by discussing the subject.
• All women were asked to take part in the meeting discussion.

Annual/monthly/weekly/biweekly meeting

Meaning: use the words to say how often the meetings take place.

• All employees were invited to attend the annual meeting.
• I’m giving a presentation at the monthly meeting in Stockholm next Wednesday.

Face-to-face/online meeting

Meaning: a face-to-face meeting happens when attendees are physically present and an online meeting takes place via the Internet.

• Face-to-face meetings are effective because they provide better communication.
• One advantage of online meetings is time-saving.

In a/the meeting vs at a/the meeting

When you are referring to a meeting as an activity, use in a/the meeting. However, if you mean a location, use at a/the meeting.

• We discussed many important topics in the meeting yesterday. 
• I couldn’t call you yesterday because I was at a meeting.

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