15 Important English Phrasal Verbs | English Vocabulary Help

English speakers never say, I need to review my grammar or let's conclude this meeting.

Have you noticed that they're using words like I need to brush up on my English grammar, or let's wrap up this meeting.

That's because native English speakers use phrasal verbs like the 15 that I'll teach you in today's lesson.

The phrasal verbs in today's lesson are some of the most important and some natural ones that you can easily add to your advanced English vocabulary.

If you want to learn more about this list and more with me Kayla, your teacher, Make sure to visit my website englishwithkaylacom, or it will be linked below.

Now, let's get started with the lesson.

The first phrasal verb in today's lesson is to brush up on.

If you are going to brush up on something, that something is either a skill that you've practiced before or some knowledge that you need to review.

Native english speakers use this phrasal verb because it's really casual.

It's almost like slang, but it just is easy to use and it's fun to say when you're talking about reviewing something.

This phrasal verb is really used commonly to talk about practicing languages.

Again, maybe you visited mexico many, many years ago with your family and you spoke spanish on the trip, But you need to brush up on your Spanish because you haven't used it since.

So it means you need to start to remember it and start to practice it. and brush up on that Spanish.

If you haven't interviewed for a job in a very long time, you may want to brush up on your interview skills.

This would be like practicing questions or reading about you know the best ways to answer questions in a job interview, whatever it might be, or even just polishing up your resume so it looks good.

So brush up on means to review or to practice something that you've done before.

Read some books.

Brush up on your history.

Another phrasal verb that goes right along with this one is to pick up a skill.

So if you pick up a skill, it means you gradually learn it over time, sometimes not super intentionally.

So again going back to languages, if you went on a trip and you stayed with people who spoke French, Maybe you started to pick up French.

You weren't going to a language class.

You weren't intentionally trying to learn it, but you were around people that spoke French so much that you started to pick it up, started to learn it little by little gradually, you'll pick up some social skills.

The reason why this phrasal verb is used so commonly with language is because the way that we usually learn language is not in a really formal setting.

And when we say we're going to pick up a skill or a hobby or whatever it might be, it means not in a super formal setting.

So maybe you're starting to pick up knitting.

That means you're just trying it out for the first time.

You know, maybe you've been watching your grandma and you're going to try to make something yourself.

Sammy couldn't pick up any new skills at all.

Or if you pick up piano, it means you didn't go to official formal piano lessons with a teacher.

Maybe you just listened to songs or watched YouTube videos.

And gradually, naturally over time, you started to pick up piano skills and get good at playing it.

So where'd you pick up the tracking skills, Kate?

The phrasal verb catch up.

So this one is used in two different contexts.

First, it means you need to either try to reach the same level as someone when it comes to like a skill or whatever it might be, or if someone's running ahead of you and you're trying to get to the same point as them at the same speed, you say I need to catch up to them.

It could be running or walking or whatever mode of transportation there.

Another way that we use catch up is when you're going to talk with an old friend or a colleague and you're trying to, you know, have the same knowledge, or you're trying to tell them about your life so they know what's going on in your life up to date.

I'll catch you.

This phrasal verb is really useful in social and work conversations.

That's why native speakers will be using it a lot when you're speaking English with them.

Just catch up.

Let's say you're in college or in school and you miss class a couple times in a row.

You're going to need to catch up.

So either you're going to need to go talk to your teacher or review the lecture notes, or talk with a classmate just to get you to the point where the rest of the class is.

You need to catch up.

Or we often say, I'm going to have coffee with an old friend and we're going to catch up.

That means just update each other on what's going on in our lives.

We'll catch up with you.

The next phrasal verb I would say is more commonly used in professional places, but you can use it in your everyday life as well.

The phrasal verb is to follow up.

So when you follow up with something or with someone, it means you're taking another action or having another conversation after something had already happened.

So in the business place, if you talk to a potential client and you think you're going to make a sale with them, but they didn't buy from you originally, you might say I'm going to follow up with you later and see how you feel.

This just means I'm going to call you again and talk about the same conversation.

I'll follow up with you later, Doug.

Or if you need to check in with someone after already having a meeting with them, just to see how they're feeling about something or if they understand it, you might say I'm going to send you a follow-up email.

This is a really common way to use this phrasal verb as well.

Sure.

Top up next week is good.

I'll follow up with an email.

Let's talk about what native English speakers mean when they say they're going to sort out something.

A lot of times when we're talking about sorting out, we say sorting out a problem or sorting out a situation.

You're kind of implying that there is a problem or something has gone wrong and you need to figure out what happened and try to come up with a solution or a plan.

Sometimes, if you have a scheduling issue whether it's in your personal life or professional life you scheduled two things at the same time, or you were scheduled for an appointment at the same time as someone else.

You might say we need to sort this out.

So that just means we need to figure out how we're going to get everything done, even though we made a mistake originally.

We need to sort out the problem.

We'll get that sorted out.

Or if there's a minor problem while you're trying to do something with a plan and you want to reassure someone that you can get it solved later, you can say don't worry, we'll sort it all out later.

That means it won't be a problem.

We can stop and think about it at a different time.

This is a really common way to use this phrasal verb as well, to sort it out.

We'll sort it out later.

A really common phrasal verb for investigations.

I think of, like going to the doctor and they're trying to figure out what's wrong with you is to rule out.

So when we say that we're going to rule out something, it means we're going to eliminate it as a possibility.

Oftentimes, if you go to the doctor and you have a really sore throat, they will say we're going to do a strep test.

And if it comes back negative, we can rule that out and figure out if it's a different problem.

So that means they're going to do a test to try to eliminate a solution. to rule out cancer.

Oftentimes too, you can use this in your decisions, and it could be something as simple as where are we going to eat tonight?

Well, let's call and see who's open that will rule out our options.

This means that will eliminate the options that are not possible.

Maybe it's a little later.

So some of the restaurant options might be closed.

So you're ruling those out.

You're putting them aside because you can't even use them.

So it will make your decision easier if you rule out options that aren't available or they're not really realistic.

I guess that rules out the Federal Reserve.

Maybe you're deciding where you want to go to college or university.

And you might say I don't want to rule out any options until I look at the finances, the pricing on each of the colleges.

So that means you want to keep your options open.

You don't want to rule out or eliminate any choices.

Well, I guess that rules out Miss Lonely Heart's.

One thing that's important in life is to be consistent if you want to achieve your goals or you have any plans to get things done.

So a really great phrasal verb that English speakers use all the time to talk about this is stick to.

We need to stick to the plan or I need to stick to my routine.

This means just doing something consistently and not deviating or going away from it.

For me, I love to stick to a routine.

I like to go to bed at the same time every night and wake up every morning at the same time.

Otherwise I sleep in, I don't get as much done, or if I stay up too late, then I'm tired the next day.

So I really try to stick to my routine or do it consistently every day.

Stick to the list.

A lot of people.

When they are trying to lose weight or trying to improve their health even they need to stick to their diet and their workout plan.

If they deviate, then they might stop doing it entirely.

So that means they have to do it consistently.

And if you know you've read James Clear's book, you know that you can't skip a habit two days in a row.

You can skip it one but don't do it two days in a row.

Stick to the basics.

Sometimes, if you come up with a plan, maybe it's at work or maybe it's just for a day in your personal life with your friend.

You're going to see a movie and then go to dinner at a different place.

You have it all planned out.

And then someone says, well, should we do this instead?

And you think, no, we already planned it out.

Like we should stay with what we're doing.

You should say, we're just going to stick with the original plan.

Stick with the original plan or stick to the original plan.

You can say this phrasal verb with either stick to or stick with.

Stick to the plan.

Speaking of habits, a lot of people are trying to develop a habit to cut down on certain.

Or maybe you're trying to cut down on sweets so you're not drinking pop or eating dessert.

You're trying to reduce the amount of sweet food or sugary food that you eat.

So this phrasal verb?

It's supernatural, especially when we're talking about eliminating or just reducing these bad things in our life.

You'll cut down on the drinking.

Many people that I know are trying to cut down on their screen time and they're trying to improve their reading habits.

So you can see that this phrasal verb is used a lot of times when we're talking about health or habits, or healthy habits, both of them.

This is when it's most frequently used to cut down on bad things.

After you make a decision, or after you solve a problem or go through, you know, a hard period in your life, you might say that now it's time to just move forward.

This phrasal verb, it's really optimistic.

It's really positive.

It's saying, you know, we had this hard thing happen or we had this problem.

Now that we've solved it, we're just going to keep going and we're almost going to act like nothing has happened.

We're going to try to keep going positively forward.

We just say, let's move forward now that we've figured out the problem.

Can we move forward?

Maybe you're talking to your friend after they had a tough breakup, or maybe they lost their job or something and they've been recovering for a while.

And now you tell them it's time to just move forward with your life.

Do something positive.

So that's how we use this phrasal verb.

We can use it in a really dramatic way.

Or just simply, if we plan out what we're going to do with our group at work for a project or just solving a minor problem, we can say okay, now that we've got that sorted out, we can move forward.

So there's two phrasal verbs used in action for you there.

Let's move forward.

One thing that I hear a lot of older parents say is that someday you'll look back on the years that your kids were really young and you wish you could go back, even though those years are difficult and challenging just because kids require so much care at a young age.

So the phrasal verb here is to look back on.

So this is when we're thinking about or talking about things in the past.

A lot of times we can look back on things and think positively about them, like our kids being young.

Or we look back on our own childhood and we like how things went.

But sometimes we can reflect in a way where we would change things positively. many years ago.

So I look back on when I was in college and I wish I would have just studied more.

I wish I would have networked more meaning, you know, gone out and met people that could help you in your professional life.

Whatever it might be, you're looking back on things fondly, or you know positively, or you're looking back on things and you're wishing that you could change your own behavior.

So this phrasal verb to look back on something, some sort of memory or time period in your life it's used a lot when we're, you know, reflecting on things or we're trying to think about what we would do differently or what went really well.

Linda will look back on this night and be very sorry.

A really important phrasal verb in English that you should know is to point out something.

A lot of times we talk about pointing out a mistake.

This means you're drawing attention to it.

You're letting someone know that there's a mistake, whether you're reading something that they wrote or you're looking at something that they designed, whatever it might be.

You just want to let them know if you're pointing it out.

I'd be pointing out constellation.

You can point out something really positive that someone has done, especially if you're a leader or boss of a group.

So maybe in your workplace your manager might say I want to point out your really great work on this report.

This means that you're just highlighting it.

You're letting everyone else know that you had great work.

So you can point out mistakes, which is really common, or you can point out something positive, or just something that someone would not have noticed.

Like, I just wanted to point out that really cool bird over there.

Which, you know, if you're a bird person, you might do.

Okay, just pointing it out.

To come across as.

This is an interesting phrasal verb.

It means you're seeming or appearing to be something or to be like something.

So I don't want to come across as rude, but I just need to let you know that whatever it might be.

So this is just used to say, like, I don't want to appear rude because I'm not really rude.

Or you might tell people I might come across as confident, but I'm actually really worried about what people think of me.

So this means, you know, I appear to be confident, but in reality, I'm not.

I come across as a hypocrite.

This phrasal verb is mainly used to just talk about how you are appearing to other people socially.

That's why we commonly use this phrasal verb to say oh, they came across as really rude or they came across as really cold.

This means kind of closed off and not very friendly.

Or you could say they came across as friendly, but they left pretty quick, so I'm not sure if they were having fun.

You come across as uneducated.

To wind down.

This phrasal verb means to relax or just to find calmness after something stressful or a lot of work.

A lot of people say that they need to wind down at night.

So they can't just go into their bedroom, lie down and fall asleep immediately.

They either need to watch TV or they need to wind down by reading.

This just means a relaxing time.

Winding down or all vinyl reunion weekend, points high class of 86.

Oftentimes people talk about winding down in the evening because you're going from being really active and working really hard to having to get into that sleep period.

So there's that in-between time that we talk about winding down.

If kids are really hyped up, we say, okay, it's time to wind down now.

Let's read a book.

Let's cuddle.

Let's lay down.

Whose career is winding down?

And let's go back to that phrasal verb that we talked about at the very beginning of this lesson to wrap up.

When you say that you're going to wrap up something, it just means you're going to conclude it or you're going to finish it.

You're going to do a quick summary and then you're going to end it.

But don't worry, I'm not going to wrap up or finish this lesson yet.

We still have one more phrasal verb.

Now look, wrap up whatever you need to wrap up down here.

I promise I won't drag on.

Do you know this phrasal verb?

If we say that someone is dragging on, it just means that they go on talking longer than is expected and it's getting kind of boring.

Or if you say this day is dragging on, again, it's like, it's... taking a really long time.

It's very boring.

It's used in a negative way.

If someone's dragging on.

Could drag on for quite a while.

If something feels endless, you might say it's dragging on.

For me, it feels like winter is dragging on and I just want it to be spring.

So it just means like it feels very long.

It feels like it's not actually going to have an end.

It's just this new case looks like it's gonna drag on into next year.

If you want to start sounding more natural in English, make sure you're using phrasal verbs in your everyday vocabulary.

Use this list that we learned today.

And if you want to learn more about this list and really master it, make sure to visit englishwithkaylacom and I'll teach you more about these phrasal verbs and many other phrasal verbs there.

I'll see you guys in the next lesson.

Thanks again for watching.

Goodbye.

[Mastering Natural English: 15 Essential Phrasal Verbs for Advanced Fluency]-[15 Important English Phrasal Verbs]

📋 Summary

Enhancing Your English: A Guide to Essential Phrasal Verbs

Learning and Skill Development

Communication and Professional Interaction

Problem Solving and Decision Making

Habits and Lifestyle

Reflection and Future Outlook

Managing Time

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript