About the audio
All the audio on this page comes from the American English voice of your device (text-to-speech). There are no audio files, so every word, line and sentence can play, even the sentences you write.
- Listen as many times as you want. Play one line, the full dialogue, or one word from the vocabulary.
- Hear your own answers. In Personalize, the page reads your sentences, so you hear your real work English before your next bid meeting.
- Build long sentences. In My Script, Listen slowly and the backchaining steps help with long lines and numbers.
- Answer by voice. In Trainer Pro, a coworker asks a question out loud. Tap Click & Say and say your answer. The page understands numbers, dates and names in different forms.
- One voice for each character. Women have female voices and men have male voices, and every character in a dialogue sounds different. If your device has fewer voices than characters, two characters share a voice with a different pitch.
- See what is playing. The button that is playing turns coral with moving bars, and the line is highlighted. Tap it again to stop.
- Change the speed. Use Slow (at the top of the page) to follow the marks, and Normal for shadowing. The dialogues also show ‿ linking: where the end of one word connects to the next (check~it out, next~time, did~you).
- Same spelling, different sound. Some words change pronunciation with their meaning or grammar, like estimate /ˈɛstəmət/ (a cost estimate) and estimate /ˈɛstəˌmeɪt/ (estimate the cost), or project /ˈprɑdʒɛkt/ (a big project) and project /prəˈdʒɛkt/ (project the costs). The audio always plays the pronunciation used in the lesson.
- Check your pronunciation. Say it uses your microphone to compare your sentence with the script.
Works best in Chrome, Edge or Safari. The voice can be different on each device. No sound? Check the volume and the silent mode of your phone. For Say it, allow the microphone.
Key Vocabulary
Start here. Learn and practice the key words and expressions of this topic before the dialogues.
Tip: on your phone, turn it sideways for Space Quiz.
Vocabulary warm-up
Play before the dialogues. Every game uses all the vocabulary and expressions of this topic and picks new words each time.
Drag across the letters to select a word.
My Script: Bid Talk
Key lines for bid reviews, proposals and go/no-go decisions. Build each sentence from the end, one piece at a time, then say the full line.
Let's talk
Answer with your teacher. Use the vocabulary and grammar from this topic.
False friends
These words look like Spanish words, but they mean something different.
| English | Looks like… | Actually means… |
|---|---|---|
| actual | actual | real, verdadero (current = actual) |
| realize | realizar | darse cuenta (carry out = realizar) |
| compromise | compromiso | acuerdo con concesiones mutuas (commitment = compromiso) |
| eventually | eventualmente | finalmente, con el tiempo (possibly = eventualmente) |
Cultural note
In U.S. bidding, owners expect you to comply exactly with the specs, not to interpret the "spirit" of the requirements. If something is unclear, you send a written question (an RFI) before the deadline.
A no-bid (deciding not to bid) is a normal, professional decision. You don't need long explanations or apologies: Thank you for the invitation. We'll pass on this one.
Read and pronounce
Listen to the model, tap Say it and say each sentence out loud. Bold words are the strong ones, gray words are soft and quick, and the underlined word carries the main stress. The app checks your pronunciation and marks any word it did not hear clearly.
Did you get a chance to go through the bid package?
We need to cover all our bases before we submit.
We're not lowballing it, but we're not leaving much on the table.
Let's get finance to double-check everything before it goes out.
Let's loop in the project manager, just to be safe.
Honestly, I think the timeline on this one is unrealistic.
Let's run the numbers one more time before we decide.
The scope's pretty tight. We need to cover all our bases before we submit.