Three Ways Travel Professionals Sound More Intelligent With Clients

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By Patricia Fripp

Throughout the business community ambitious travel professionals who work in highly competitive environments know the impression they give in their business communications often makes the difference between winning the business and losing to their competition.

As a travel professional, when you make the following grammar mistakes you will sound less intelligent than you actually are. Effective communication, both in speaking and writing, make an important and significant impression. Most likely your English teacher gave you the following advice. In case you have forgotten, here are three business communication tips to improve the impression you make to your prospects, clients, and senior executives.

Tip #1 – Use Pronouns Properly

How often do you hear people say comments like:

The owner promoted him and I. (“The owner promoted I”?)

The client took Sally and he to lunch. (“The client took he to lunch”?)

That’s very important to we commuters. (“That’s very important to we”?)

Pronouns change when they play different roles in a sentence. Note that “you” and “it” stay the same, however you use them.

Pronoun Same Pronoun

Used as Subject Used as Object

I me

he him

she her

we us

you you

they them

it it

For some reason, people who aren’t sure which to use can end up over correcting. “I” and “he” sound more elegant, so these people come up with sentences like the first three examples above.

The most confusion seems to arise when there are two people receiving the action. The simplest technique is to eliminate the one that isn’t a pronoun to see if the sentence “sounds right.”

WRONG: The owner promoted him and I. (“The owner promoted I”?)

RIGHT: The owner promoted him and me.

WRONG: The client took Sally and he to lunch. (“The client took he to lunch”?)

RIGHT: The client took Sally and him to lunch.

WRONG: That’s very important to we commuters. (“That’s very important to we”?)

RIGHT: That’s very important to us commuters.

Tip #2 – Be Wise with Who and Whom

To know which to use, substitute “he” for “who” (both end with a vowel) and “hiM” for “whoM” (both end with M) while you figure out what is acting on what.

I know he paid him.

I know who paid whom.

Even people who master this trick can get confused when who/whom is used in a question. Simply turn the question around into a statement and follow the above rule.

To who/whom are you speaking?

STATEMENT: You are speaking to he/him. (Correct choice is “him,” so you’ll substitute “whom.”)

Who/whom ya gonna call?

STATEMENT: Ya gonna call he/him. (Even Dan Aykroyd could get it rightin Ghostbusters.)

“Whom” almost always follows a preposition, those words that transfer action from one thing to another. Words like to, from, for, in, and out.

Tip #3 – Watch Your Language with Lay and Lie

Unless you’re lucky enough to be multi-lingual, English is the main tool you use to transmit your ideas to others. Yet you don’t need a Harvard degree to sound intelligent. It’s just a matter of mastering a few tricks, AKA grammar rules.

Let’s consider “to lay” and “to lie.” The first verb transmits or transfers its action to something (“transitive”), while the other doesn’t (“intransitive”). There’s also “to lie,” meaning to fib, which further muddies the waters.

In school you probably confronted dozens of charts showing how “to lay” (set), “to lie” (recline), and “to lie” (fib) work when describing the past, present, future, singular and plural (a process called “conjugation”). Instead of memorizing charts, here’s a four-line verse to remember that will make you a master of these tricky common verbs:

Yesterday, Todd lay in bed.

We laid an icepack on his head.

Today he lies beneath the sod.

We lay a wreath to honor Todd.

When Ken Burns’ 1990 documentary, The Civil War, first aired, many viewers commented on the astonishingly literate and grammatically perfect letters written home by soldiers who had had no formal schooling beyond the age of ten or twelve. In the nineteenth century education was a serious and intensive process, and people were expected to continue learning all their lives through reading, conversation, and study.

As a travel professional, you are constantly working to educate others, sharing your ideas and expertise. One additional gift you can offer your listeners (and readers) is clear, powerful English.

My wish is you as a travel professional, is that you found these grammar tips practical, educational and entertaining. Written and verbal communication should never be boring. Before you send that intelligent-sounding email, write a letter, or talk to an important client why not review the list?

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Clik here to view.Patricia Fripp is an expert in sales presentations and business communications. Travel professionals can benefit from her advice and receive Continuing Education Credits through XTRAcredits.com. If you want to connect to your audience, be a super star sales presenter, and use storytelling to drive business check out www.FrippVTCE.com