Meaning & use
liaise
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Meanings
verbintransitive
To keep in regular contact with another person or group so that you can share information and work in step.
Grammar: Almost always followed by with: liaise with the council.
Patterns
- liaise with someone
- liaise with someone about something
- liaise between someone and someone
The project manager will liaise with the design team every week.
Please liaise with the school before arranging the trip.
Our office liaises with local police about road closures.
verbintransitive
To act as the go-between who passes messages between two parties.
Grammar: Used with between: liaise between the families and the clinic.
Patterns
- liaise between someone and someone
She liaises between the hospital and patients' families.
An officer was appointed to liaise between the two armies.
He liaises between our engineers and the customers.
Word forms
| third person singular | liaises |
|---|---|
| past tense | liaised |
| past participle | liaised |
| -ing form | liaising |
Common combinations
- liaise closely
- The two departments liaise closely on safety issues.
- liaise with colleagues
- I need to liaise with colleagues in Berlin.
- liaise with the police
- Organizers must liaise with the police before the march.
- liaise regularly
- Teachers liaise regularly with parents.
- liaise on a project
- We liaise on the project through a weekly call.
Synonyms and how they differ
- coordinate
- Coordinate means to organize things so they fit together, while liaise stresses the contact between people.
- communicate
- Communicate is broader and can be one-way, whereas liaise suggests a working relationship.
- cooperate
- Cooperate means working together, while liaise focuses on staying in touch to exchange information.
- consult
- Consult means asking for advice or opinion, not simply coordinating.
Word family
- liaison noun
- communication or cooperation between groups, or a person who provides it
- liaising noun
- the act of keeping in contact
Commonly confused: liaise or liaison?
liaise vs liaison
Liaison is the noun, with an extra i; liaise is the verb. Learners often misspell liaison as liason.
Practice
The manager asked Priya to ___ the supplier about delivery dates.
Choose one answer.
Liaise is intransitive and takes with before the person or group. The bare form is ungrammatical, and to or on are wrong prepositions.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “liaise”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.