📘 Better Than Grammarly: Real Email Phrases for Professionals

Let’s talk about the tool everyone secretly uses: Grammarly.

It catches your typos.
Fixes your commas.
Adds “kindly” to your requests like seasoning.

But there’s one thing Grammarly can’t do:
Make you sound like a confident, fluent human in a real workplace.

Because even if your grammar is perfect, you can still sound:

Too formal
Too cold
Too apologetic
Or like ChatGPT wrote it on a sleepy Tuesday

Today’s post? Fixes that.

Here are real phrases professionals actually use to sound natural, polite, and powerful — without sounding robotic, weak, or fake nice.

🛠 Grammarly Can’t Help With This

Grammarly might say both are “correct”:

“Please advise.”
“Let me know if you have any thoughts.”

But only one of them doesn’t make you sound like a passive-aggressive lawyer.
(Hint: it’s not the first one.)

If you’re working in English but didn’t grow up with it, tone is your secret weapon.
Get it wrong, and people misread your emails.
Get it right, and they trust you more — even when you’re saying no.

📝 5 Real Phrases You Can Steal Right Now

1. For a clear ask:

“Can you let me know by Friday if that timeline works for you?”

✅ Specific. Direct. Still polite.
🚫 Not: “Just checking if you had a chance…”

2. For offering help (without sounding like you’re begging to be useful):

“Happy to jump in on that if it helps — just let me know.”

✅ Casual but generous.
🚫 Not: “Let me know if there’s anything at all I can do!!!”

3. For saying no, nicely:

“I’m currently focused on [X], so I won’t be able to take that on right now.”

✅ Boundaries. Professional. No drama.
🚫 Not: “Sorry! I’m swamped!!”

4. For following up:

“Just circling back to see if you had a chance to take a look.”

✅ Friendly. Natural.
🚫 Not: “Following up again on my previous email about…”

(Also see “Let’s Circle Back”: Corporate English Phrases That Confuse Newcomers if that one makes your brain hurt.)

5. For a confident close:

“Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.”
OR
“Let me know either way.”

✅ You’re not begging. You’re expecting a response.
🚫 Not: “No worries if not!”

Grammarly Checks Your Grammar. We Check Your Voice.

Most professionals we work with don’t need help with English basics.
They need help sounding like themselves — confident, clear, and ready for leadership.

👔 That’s what we do.

📞 Book a call with us, and we’ll show you exactly what to say (and what to cut) to make your English work for you — not against you.

👉 Schedule your Clarity Call here

💬 And if you haven’t read the first two in this writing series:

Start there. Laugh. Learn. And delete “please be advised” from your vocabulary forever.

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