Natural english with nick, a podcast for learning english quickly and effectively by exposing yourself to naturally spoken language that is both interesting and relatively simple to understand.
In today's episode, we're going to cover a lot of phrasal verbs, my friends, a lot of phrasal verbs, all in context.
My plan is to contextualize all of them so that you can better understand how they're used, because that is the most important thing of this podcast.
I want you to be able to understand what I'm saying so that eventually you'll be able to reproduce the sounds in terms of pronunciation, but also use the right expressions in the correct context is ultimately the goal of this podcast.
And that's why I provide you guys with a free transcription.
All you have to do is send me an email at natural.englishwithnick at outlook.com.
I will link it in the description of today's episode.
So all you have to do is click on the link or copy and paste it into your email.
And you can send me an email simply with the title of today's podcast that is yet to be decided.
Something to do with phrasal verbs.
Anyways, it will be there on Spotify, on iTunes, wherever you're listening to me from.
You'll be able to find the title obviously, of the podcast you're listening to.
Simply send that to me through the email and I will send you the transcription of today's episode, which will include a brief explanation of all the phrasal verbs that we're going to deal with today, using the verb to get, because that is the topic of today's episode.
In fact, we're going to cover the essential usages of the verb to get and many different expressions that encompass the verb to get.
So one last important reminder before we get started.
Please listen to this podcast multiple times.
It's not for my own ratings, my own ego.
It has nothing to do with that.
It's simply because I want you to be able to internalize the patterns that you will come across in today's episode.
There's going to be lots of different structures, lots of important vocabulary, lots of different things that you're not used to hearing, because in today's episode I'm going to use a little bit of figurative language.
I'm going to incorporate some informal expressions into And I'm also going to incorporate more formal language that is somewhat neutral, that you can use in any context.
And that is the beauty of the versatility of the verb to get, my friends.
When I was doing research for this episode, I realized that the verb to get has over 15 different usages.
And I decided to only pick 15 different expressions, not specifically referring to each usage as some of them are somewhat obsolete or confusing. ambiguous in their meaning i decided to stick to you know the most essential usages of the verbs so we can see them in context and really focus on what is most important and what you're most likely to come across in daily life in an english-speaking country and one last thing before we get started here if you could please leave me any feedback on any of the platforms on which you find my podcast It would be greatly, greatly appreciated, my friends.
I'm really an amateur at this and I want to be better when it comes to helping you learn English.
I want to portray things in a way that is very clear and to demonstrate to you that this podcast can genuinely help you to learn English.
And I think the only way to do that is by reaching more listeners and getting the appropriate feedback.
That's going to help me hone my abilities to do that for you.
Okay, that's enough of my rambling.
Let's get started, my friends.
So for those of you at an upper intermediate level, today's podcast will be perfect for you, I promise you.
All of the verbs that we're going to look at today, all of the new expressions, will be embedded in your head, hopefully after having listened to this a few times.
And all of the expressions are extremely practical.
They're verbs that you'll use in your day-to-day life.
So here's the first one.
To get ripped off. to get ripped off.
This one really only has one meaning, and it simply means to be made to pay more than necessary for something.
For example, you're a tourist, you're in Thailand and they charge you 50 of their currency for a hat.
And to you as a tourist who is unfamiliar with their currency, like me, you pay 50 for the hat.
It doesn't really occur to you to bargain with them and you end up overpaying.
But luckily you're fortunate enough to have friends in thailand and after you bought the hat you go meet your friends and your friends tell you that you paid way too much for that hat man.
You got ripped off for that hat, and that is the meaning of the verb, to get ripped off.
And the next one is to get kicked out of somewhere.
To get kicked out of somewhere, which means to be forcibly removed or told to leave from somewhere.
For example, jimmy got kicked out of math class yesterday.
Jimmy got kicked out of math class yesterday is how you'd say it in normal speech.
Out of often becomes outa in North American English.
Jimmy got kicked out of math class yesterday.
That simply means that he was asked to leave or forced to leave.
And the third one is to get laid off.
To get laid off.
This is used in a working context.
If someone gets laid off from their job, it means that they're services are no longer required, that they're being temporarily suspended due to lack of work.
For example, last summer I got laid off, so I didn't have an income.
It was difficult to get by.
Did you hear she's been laid off since last September?
Did you hear she's been, she's been laid off since last September?
And the fourth one is to get around, to get around.
This one has a few different meanings depending on the formality.
In more formal language, it simply means to use a means of transportation to transport yourself from one place to another.
For example, in a bus.
Say you're taking a tour bus around the city of London England, and you ask the tour guide what's the best way to get around town.
What's the best way to get around town?
He could reply, well, if you want to get around London, I definitely recommend taking the metro.
And the fifth expression is to get a glimpse of.
To get a glimpse of, which simply means to take a quick look at something.
For example, I'm walking in the forest and a deer jumps in front of me, but I wasn't paying attention, so I only got a glimpse of it, meaning I only saw it out of the corner of my eye very quickly.
The next expression is to get a promotion.
To get a promotion simply means to get a wage increase or to be moved to a more favorable position within a company, and the next expression using the verb to get is to get a loan, something that unfortunately, many students like me know very well.
To get a loan means to ask the bank for money, and the bank, in most cases, will give you a loan with an interest rate usually a fixed interest rate and you have to pay the loan back to the bank so that you can get the money when you need it.
So say, for example, you're going to get a loan for school.
You need to go to the bank, ask them for a loan, and then you will pay that money back with interest.
That's what it means to get a loan.
And the next one we have here is to get out.
To get out, which means to leave.
For example, get out of here in the imperative.
Get out of here, which means leave, simply.
But it can also be used in an interesting sense, like in this expression.
That's kind of more of an exclamatory expression that's meant to convey some kind of surprise, a positive surprise like Get out.
No way.
That's incredible.
That's crazy.
When you can't believe what someone's saying, you can say, get out.
No way.
You'll sound really natural if you do.
You'll sound like a typical North American.
Another very typical way to use this expression is by saying get out of the way.
Get out of the way.
If someone is walking into traffic and they might get hit by a car, you could say look out, get out of the way.
Get out of the way, which means be careful.
Make sure you look both ways before you cross the road.
And the next one isn't all that difficult to understand.
I just wanted to add a little bit of variety so you can see how versatile the verb to get can be.
So to get the flu or to get a cold or, for example, to get COVID, means to contract the virus or to contract The flu.
My uncle Donnie has been bedridden.
He hasn't been able to get out of bed for weeks.
He must have gotten the flu.
To be bedridden means to not be able to get out of bed because of your illness.
To be really sick.
And the next use of the verb to get is to say to get to go somewhere, for example, or to get to do something, which means to have the chance to do something, to be fortunate enough to do something.
For example, this summer I get to go to Paris.
I wish that was true.
This summer I get to go to Berlin.
This summer I get to go to Prague.
That means I have the opportunity to go there.
And the next one is to get good marks.
To get good marks or to get bad marks or to get marks in general, which means to get good results from a written exam or test or something like that.
For example, Angela gets really good marks in math class.
That means that she's really good at math.
Academically, I've never gotten good marks in school.
I was really good in the sciences, but I never got good marks in English.
And the very last one we're going to cover today is to get in the sense of to understand.
So after all these expressions that I've explained to you, do you get the gist of what I'm saying?
Do you get the gist of just how versatile the verb to get is in English?
Well, at least I hope so.
Now let's get to the short story so we can better understand how these verbs are used in context.
If you're new to this podcast or if you're just, in general, unfamiliar with this way of learning languages, I encourage you to simply sit back and enjoy this listen and try to absorb as much of the language as you can.
Your brain will naturally get used to the patterns the more that you repeat the content that I make for you guys.
I hope it's enjoyable.
I hope you learn a lot.
Again, before we start here, please send me an email at naturalenglishwithnick at outlookcom if you would like the transcription of this episode.
That will include the transcription for this story that's about to take place.
Have a good listen.
Thanks guys.
Mr and Mrs Blackwood awaken on October 17th 2008 after a night of tosses and turns, cold sheets and flickering eyelids.
The sky is ominous, with an orange-like tint that seems to spread across the sky like a slab of marmalade on flax toast.
The wind shook the window shutters that sent a whistle through the room like a morning kettle.
Mr Blackwood walks downstairs, pours himself a coffee, opens a newspaper and begins to read the headlines.
Mrs. Blackwood washes her face and follows him into the kitchen only moments later.
Honey, honey, did you hear the news?
Mayor Sean Thornton finally got kicked out of office after four years of terrorizing this little town we call home.
He ripped off everyone from humble taxpayers, good-hearted law-abiding citizens, to civil servants alike.
And remember when I got laid off last August?
Man, the cuts he made, the people he screwed.
I tell you that crooked bastard never showed an ounce of sympathy for the backs that built this town, let alone for the countless hours of unpaid labor his subordinates had to go through during the recession last March.
It seems like young people nowadays get the flu and quit their jobs just like that.
Many hard workers can't even afford to get the car of their dreams, a house with a deck, or even to have kids and get a dog.
What happened to the American dream, I tell you?
In our day, you could find a skilled contractor like that.
It was easy.
Easier than sitting at a desk and getting a check.
An all too common trend these days.
It's hard to even get some sleep in this time of uncertainty.
If you can't get money, you can't get things, and therefore you'll never be happy.
How could you?
You can't get anywhere in this life without money.
Money is like the lubricant of the gears of society.
It will loosen the lips of politicians, make you work a little extra harder, stay a little bit longer in that office, keep the world in balance and keep you happy.
I can't believe these people nowadays that willingly work a minimum wage and aspire to be nothing more.
Whatever happened to a good old day's work, doing something meaningful that helps your neighbor and your community, not to mention this new generation of stiff-suit graduates?
They just don't get it that a degree isn't a lottery ticket, that a slip of paper won't give them the life of their dreams.
If you want things, you have to work for them.
It's as simple as that.
Look at us.
That degenerate Thornton is letting them off scot-free.
I mean, how are they even supposed to commute to their fast food jobs anyway?
There's no taxpayers' money left in the budget even to get them around town.
Mrs Blackwood nodded and said Well, Mayor Thornton has definitely had his less-than-proud moments in this town, and his reputation has suffered for them.
But I met him twice down at the City Hall bake sale last summer and he was nothing but a pleasant and soft-spoken man.
Last year, in fact, he even gave a third of his earnings to a local homeless children's fund.
That seemed to have been forgotten during the joblessness last year's recession brought us.
You can't pretend we are living poorly, dear.
Our fence is twice that of our neighbors.
Our roofs stretch high into the sky, with its dramatic peaks and slants that seem to pierce the evening sky.
Our porch's extravagance is unmatched and even unimaginable to our neighbors on Pembroke.
Remember dear, that you were once a young man, a man who had doubts, took risks and was daring enough to show his imperfections, compromise his growing, indefinite self-image for what he wanted, what he thought was right.
Remember when you got your first loan in 79 and how ecstatic you were, how that extra offering was nothing less than unworldly for the times was yours and you had the power to do with it what you wanted.
How about when you got your first promotion after getting that job in Maryville?
You sacrificed everything, the kids, me, the life we had made with each other, for your vision.
Maybe Thornton had a vision.
Maybe Thornton is yet a flawed, misunderstood young man whose age is not yet caught up with him, who is still strong-willed, determined and fiercely breathing in his own ego every step of the way.
Mr. Blackwood was stunned beyond words.
Mrs Blackwood had not said more than ten words in a row in the last twenty years of their marriage, ever since the kids moved out, ever since it wasn't about making sure the kids were getting good marks going down to the market to get groceries to fill their seemingly deprived stomachs a suffering that they had truly never known.
Everything had changed.
Things became more systematic, passionless and at every turn of the four corners of the single front room in which they spent nearly all their time.
At that moment, Mr Blackwood realized the grandiose display for which he longed but could never satisfy.
The house he had built on slabs of powdered concrete was crumbling before his eyes, faced with the reality that his life had been nothing more than a game of chase, for which he self-declared himself as it, and the childhood of his kids is nothing more than a faint archive of bike rides, bedtime stories and birthday cakes.
For the first time in his life, he felt an eerie sense of freedom, as though a wave of existential carelessness swept him into the depths of a sea of his own choosing.
And even though the tide never lets up, Mr Blackwood immerses himself in the sick passion of the present, as if treading water was the addiction, not chasing the boats that create the waves.
The calm water will surround you when you stop flailing your arms and let your intuition guide your efforts and sacrifice.
Mr Blackwood, flooded with these thoughts, says nothing and slams the paper down on the table and leaves the room.
Mrs Blackwood slips some fine gin into her coffee sighs and sits on the mahogany chair at the dinner table facing the window.
She sips and she plans her next move.
And that marks the end of this podcast, my friends.
I hope you enjoyed and thank you for sticking around to the end.
Again, if you have any questions, please send me an email.
I will link it in the description box of today's episode.
I hope you learned a lot.
And feel free to follow me on Instagram at languageguyfromcanada, on which I'll post updates from time to time, and I also practice languages on my page.
So if you'd like to see me speak other languages other than English, feel free to stop by my Instagram page.
Thank you so much again for listening and take care.
Bye-bye.
