Up to speed

Business English | B2

Listening exercises with “Up to speed”

If someone is ‘up to speed’, then they are completely up to date or fully informed. e.g. “Now that everyone is up to speed, let’s discuss next year’s budget”.

If someone is not up to speed, then they are lacking information or need to be updated. We can talk about someone ‘getting up to speed’ to describe the process of becoming fully informed. e.g. “I need you all to get up to speed on this before the legal team gets here.”

We can also talking about ‘bringing sb up to speed’ when describing someone helping someone else to become fully informed. e.g. “Sarah has volunteered to bring you up to speed on Paris deal.”

Have a go at these micro-dictation exercises to hear this expression being used in context – how much can you understand?

Accent: North America