This is the All Ears English Podcast.
Clean up your English with these phrasal verbs.
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With your American hosts, Lindsey McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA.
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Are you messy or tidy?
Today, you will learn how to talk about cleaning habits using real English with five phrasal verbs to really get to know someone.
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Connection, not perfection.
Hello, Michelle. How's it going today?
Good, Lindsey. I like your shirt.
Oh, I like yours. Good color choice today.
So funny. Our listeners, guys, if you're listening today on YouTube, you'll know that Michelle and I both happen to be wearing red shirts today, randomly.
Yes. It's very, it was the first thing I noticed.
So that's very fun.
But I have a question for you, Lindsey.
Okay, I'm ready. Are you good at cleaning?
Oh my gosh, I am not very good at cleaning.
I like cleaning. I like the satisfying part of cleaning, like vacuuming, because you can see your results.
But in terms of pulling things back and getting under things, I will just go around things when I clean them.
So I'll leave the dust underneath the item.
Do you know what I mean?
I'm not very thorough.
Not very thorough. Okay.
Okay. What about, do you have a cleaning schedule?
How regimented are you when it comes to cleaning?
Yeah, we try to clean on Sundays.
So not super regimented, like it has to happen.
If we're out on a hike or something, we won't do it.
But generally, I like to have the house clean on Monday morning.
So Sundays, if we're home, we'll get the garbage and do some vacuuming and that sort of thing.
What about you? Do you have a schedule when it comes to cleaning?
I don't. But I'm going to get better.
What I've realized is because, guys, we've talked about my topsy turvy summer, I am in an Airbnb, so a lot of my stuff is in storage.
And I've realized that I don't need as much stuff as I...
Oh, great realization.
Yes. Such an important insight, Michelle.
Oh my gosh. Yeah. So that's been a little bit interesting.
I kind of feel like, okay, well, when I move, maybe I don't need all that other stuff.
Everybody just leave it because I don't even know what it is that I don't have.
Really? It's such a good feeling.
That's why I miss the days of traveling abroad and just having what's on my back, my backpack.
You know, you really just don't need that much stuff to be happy in life, you know?
Yeah. It's so true.
It is. So today we are going to actually talk about cleaning.
We are going to go over phrasal verbs.
We know you guys love learning phrasal verbs.
They're super useful.
And so we are going to teach some of the most useful cleaning phrasal verbs today.
Yes. And if you haven't already listened, check out episode 256 of the Business English podcast, which is one of our other shows.
And it's get organized with this Business English vocabulary.
Good. I love it. And guys, while you're over there on Business English, hit follow on that show and then come back and make sure you are hitting follow on this show so you can get our episodes automatically.
Okay. That's right.
Michelle, why are phrasal verbs so hard by the way?
Why do we struggle so much with phrasal verbs?
Well, because it can be hard to know based on the verb and the preposition what it actually means.
There's no real way to know that.
And then grammatically, they can be tricky.
So there's a lot of reasons why they're tough.
And when you're learning English, you might not necessarily notice them.
Notice that you might hear these two words and not realize that it's a phrasal verb.
So it's so true. It's so true.
They're not intuitive, right?
No. They're not translated logically.
They don't make any sense.
So these are phrasal verbs that we want to learn in context, guys.
And that's what we're going to do today.
So for anyone who cleans their house or cleans in general, these are going to be super useful.
I mean, we all at some point have to clean our houses, right?
Absolutely. Right. And this is a good connection skill because I know it sounds funny.
Oh, cleaning is a good connection topic, but it is.
Lindsay and I, we got into a whole discussion already from the beginning.
So I'm someone who believes that pretty much anything can be a good connection.
It's so true. It is so true.
And we show you how to do it here.
So let's dive in. I think our listeners are ready, Michelle, for the first one.
So let's start broad.
What is it? So the first one is just clean up.
Now you've probably heard this one, right?
This is a more broad one, like Lindsay said.
It's more general. So it's basically a clean.
So you could say I have to clean up this place before my parents get here.
Yeah. And could we say I have to clean this place up too?
Is it separable? Clean this place?
Yes. Yeah, totally.
So I like this. Does this mean heavy scrubbing or does this mean straightening out or any of the above?
What'd you say? I would say it means any of the above.
I wouldn't say it means scrubbing, right?
Like completely hard cleaning.
I would say maybe somewhere in the middle.
What do you think? Okay.
Yeah. I think it's pretty broad in terms of what you might do.
I think of it a little bit more picking up, kind of organizing a little bit.
I have to clean this place up.
Getting your clothes off the floor.
Yeah, exactly. If I'm going to really get into scrubbing the floors, I think I might choose a different word and maybe we'll learn that word today.
But cleaning up is a broad term.
It kind of just means clean, right?
I have to clean this place.
Yeah. It doesn't add a lot of extra value by saying up.
And that's the interesting thing about phrasal verbs, Michelle.
Why do we need the up?
Yeah, it's very interesting.
I have to clean up this place.
Yeah. Versus I have to clean this place.
It adds zero value other than maybe it just becomes a little more casual.
That's exactly what I was thinking.
Yeah. Yeah. We just love adding those prepositions, but sometimes it does add value and it changes the meaning.
That's why I'm glad we're talking about phrasal verbs today.
So yes. All right. The next one is tidy up tidy.
So that's T I D Y. So what is tidy up?
This is a little more dainty.
This is a little bit more about putting the finishing touches on something.
Okay. So let me tidy up for a minute before you come in.
This feels more rushed, a little quicker, lighter.
What else, Michelle?
What comes to mind?
Just a few minutes.
Okay. You know what I'm thinking of?
What the movie love actually.
Okay. Do you remember Laura Linney when she has her love interest come back?
Oh yeah, of course.
And then she comes, she runs up to her room and she hides her teddy bear and she's tidying up, right?
Right. She's not exactly cleaning up because cleaning up implies more of a commitment, right?
A little bit longer, a tidy up.
She was just kind of quickly gathering her things together, putting on the finishing touches.
Right. Right. Oh, that scene is so sad.
I think that's really sad.
Anyway. Okay. Um, so I'm trying to think if I would say that, no, it's really just a space.
Right, Michelle? Right.
I think it would be more of a space.
Um, but scrub off could be a space or I guess technically you could scrub off your makeup.
Yeah. So that's the next one for you guys today.
Scrub off. This implies you get it.
You're really getting into it.
We've got a bucket of water.
We've got some soap.
We've got a sponge maybe, right?
Or maybe, uh, yeah, people, a lot of people have a Swiffer now.
I wouldn't even call that scrubbing off.
I would know that's even easier than that.
I think when you have a pet stain, like if your dog goes to the bathroom on the carpet, you're getting down on your hands and knees and you're scrubbing the carpet, right?
So that's really different.
So look at this. We've got clean up, tidy up and scrub off.
Michelle, do we have more after the break here too?
Oh my gosh. We do. We do.
All right. Let's take a quick break and then we'll come back.
Okay, Michelle, we're back to get into a few more phrasal verbs.
What is next? Okay.
So we have a couple left.
So this one is rinse off.
So this is interesting because it also deals with water, but rinsing and scrubbing, would you say they're really the same?
Mmm. Rinsing and scrubbing.
I would say no, because the, the key difference is how you use the water, right?
So when you rinse off, it's more you're splashing water onto something.
You're using the water to clean something off.
Whereas with scrubbing, you're using your hand and you're really getting into it.
Right. Loosening the fabric.
Yeah. Right. You could rinse off dishes in the sink.
Um, but if you were scrubbing, you would be scrubbing off dirt.
Like let's say if you have something really, you were cooking.
Oh, isn't that the worst?
If when you get something kind of stuck in the pan or on the plate and then scrub off or door, I don't know, Lindsay, do you have a dishwasher?
Yeah, we do. Sometimes when that happens, I think to myself, why did I even cook?
Yeah. Well, are you okay?
Be honest. Have you ever?
I'm always honest with you, Michelle.
I know. I know. Have you ever, because the answer is for me, yes.
Have you ever put something in the dishwasher and then it comes out and it's still there and you know that it has to be scrubbed off, but you just think, let's just put it back in and hopefully it'll work itself out too.
Put it back in the dishwasher.
Oh yeah. For sure. For sure.
And it never does. It never works itself out.
But I like this word because it's interesting.
You know, I've heard people say, use this word rinse off in more broad ways.
For example, I've heard people say, oh, I'm just going to hop in the shower and rinse off.
And I never say that.
I just say, I'm going to take a shower.
And you know, do you feel like if you say I'm going to hop in the shower and rinse off, does it mean you're going to fully like wash your hair and do a full showering or does it feel a little lighter?
Just maybe kind of feels a little lighter.
And maybe you went for a run and you washed your hair the night before, but you just want to get that sweat off.
You're just rinsing off.
Exactly. Exactly. So there are some real nuances.
Even when we talk about bathing between showering and rinsing off.
Super interesting. I love it.
Yes. Yes. And then the next one is clean out.
Okay. So this is interesting because we have clean up and now we have a clean out.
Completely different.
Interesting. So what is to clean out something?
This is more of a purge, right?
This is more of a purge.
This is when we have our spring cleaning, we're going to clean out my closet.
You're going to clean out something when you use, right?
It's not just I'm going to clean out period.
No, there has to be something.
You're going to clean out my car.
I'm going to clean out my closet.
I'm going to clean out the, you know, I don't know what the pantry Michelle, the fridge, right?
These are drawer. Yeah.
Oh, my, oh, my purse.
Oh, that's a bad. Oh, that's a good project.
Yeah. There's always something sticky in there from because of my kids.
Like it's always like, Oh, I didn't realize I had that gummy bear in there.
Or I didn't, of course, I'm sure.
I'm sure. And when you say I'm going to clean out my car, could you also say I'm going to clean up my car at the same time?
I mean, can you use both?
Yes, I think clean up my car maybe implies more.
Maybe you're getting one of those little vacuums.
Okay. Maybe you are just like wiping off the windshield, something like that.
But cleaning out the car is there's a bunch of how good, how clean is your car, Lindsay?
Do you keep, do you tend to store things in there?
Are you? Yeah, it tends to acquire things.
It's not the worst.
I'm sure there are worse cars, but it's not the best either.
Our car is not, you know, pristine and perfect.
Only after it goes to the, you know, we go to the car wash and get an internal cleaning.
Yeah. But yeah, so when I think about clean out, I think about having a trash bag next to me and you're physically removing junk.
Yeah. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're doing the wiping and the washing.
It's more about removing junk.
Okay. Yeah. So yeah, you could say, let's clean out the car.
There's too much trash in here.
Totally. And it's a great feeling, isn't it, Michelle?
Yes, it is. It definitely is.
So yeah, like I said, this is a good connection topic.
Lindsay, we have all these car, we have these car, all these conversation questions that I listed at the end, but we got into them naturally.
And we did that because we were having fun talking about it because even though it sounds like something you want to necessarily chat about, it is kind of fun topic.
It's a great topic.
You know, for example, Michelle, are you someone that tidies up every day, a little bit every day, or do you just kind of let things kind of pile up?
And then at the end of the week, for example, you would just take care of things.
Not really, because we've talked about not cleaning as much, no cleaning schedule, right?
Yeah. Sometimes when I do a big clean, I think to myself, okay, every day, it's going to take five minutes at the end of the day and it never works out.
But I have big plans, Lindsay.
I'm going to change my life.
She's getting into it.
Well, it's a good time to, you know, because you're moving now, you know, things are changing.
I love the time when you move or when you come back from a big trip or even a vacation, it's a moment to make changes.
It's very exciting, right?
Yeah, definitely, definitely.
So all right. Well, let's do a role play here.
Okay. Put it all together here.
We are sisters and we are getting ready for our parents to come visit.
All right. Here we go.
So, okay. We really need to clean up around here.
This place is a disaster.
I know. I know. Okay.
Well, I'll start with a foyer.
I only need to tidy that up a little.
Okay. Just be sure to clean out the hall closet.
Oh, right. There's a stain on the floor.
I need to scrub off.
Yeah. I'll rinse off the dishes.
Thanks. Oh, we have a lot to do.
Yes. That would be, did you ever have your parents come and visit you at college and your dorm is just a disaster?
You feel like you have to clean up your dorm and tidy up and get ready for them to come?
Not just in college now.
Forget college. Yeah, forget college.
But yes, definitely.
So you always feel like, oh, you don't want them to see how you really live.
I know. It's so true.
It's so true. Let's go through this.
So very interesting because I think Aubrey and I have had a debate on this and maybe I'm losing the debate now that I've heard how you pronounce F -O -Y -E -R.
I say foyer. I say foyer, but maybe that's like my stuffy New England roots.
I don't know. So Aubrey says foyer.
I think so. I think so.
Yeah. When I said it, I wasn't sure if I, which way I should say it, but I say foyer.
But yes, I know foyer, but I don't.
Yeah. It's weird, right?
Because it doesn't follow American English pronunciation rules.
If you say foyer, right?
It sounds French and maybe it is a French word.
It probably is. Now I'm curious.
Yeah. We'll have to have a debate on this.
Maybe another episode, guys, hit the follow button right here.
So Michelle, what did we say first here?
Okay. So you said we really need to clean up around here.
So again, this is, you know, go around.
This is the more broad term.
We're going to spend some time doing this.
It's more of a commitment.
And then I wanted to highlight this because you said this place is a disaster.
And that's something that people say when something is very messy.
Oh, it's a disaster.
Oh yeah. There are a lot of things you could say.
That could be another episode for sure.
People might use movie quotes or crazy things, but yeah, there's a lot that you could say when you look around at your house and you think, Oh, something needs to be done.
And this is another connection moment because it's very human.
I mean, when we live in a space, it's going to get dirty.
We're not perfect.
