Fall Phrasal Verbs for Business English

Fall out

To argue and disagree with someone.
"She left the company after falling out with her boss."

Fall through

For a plan or agreement to fail.
"John agreed to sell his car to Tom but the deal fell through. Now John needs to find a new buyer."

Fall off

To decrease, fewer in number.
"We sell a lot of costumes before Halloween. Sales fall off after that."

Fall under

To have jurisdiction, control or responsibility for something.
"Which depart do employee contracts fall under, Human Resources or Finance?"

Fall back on

To use, reply or do something else after other things have failed.
"If the business fails, we will have to fall back on our savings."

Fall behind

To make less progress or be less successful compared to others who are doing a similar job or activity. To fail to do something in the time you should.
"Jenny is starting to fall behind her sales targets. She should have sold 75 by now, but she's only sold 50."

"Can you call Compusoft? They're starting to fall behind in their monthly payments. They should have paid us six days ago."

Now complete these sentences with the correct missing words:

• 1) They thought they had a buyer for the business but it fell ___ at the last minute.
  
  off
  behind
  through
  
  
• 2) We have another plan to fall back __ if this one fails.
  
  off
  on
  out
  
  
• 3) Whose jurisdiction does travel expenses fall ___?
  
  behind
  under
  on
  
  
• 4) I heard they have started to fall ___ on their rent. That's not a good sign.
  
  back
  under
  behind
  
  
• 5) Thomas is angry with Lucy. They fell ___ over the new marketing strategy.
  
  out
  through
  behind
  
  
• 6) iPhone sales started to fall ___ as people bought cheaper alternatives.
  
  off
  back
  out