Commonly Confused English Phrasal Verbs | English Vocabulary Help

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Have you ever used an English phrase just slightly incorrect and you look back at it and you think, oh how awkward was that?

And today's English lesson, I'm going to teach you 10 phrasal verbs that are confusing because they are so similar with one another and today's lesson will help you master the meaning of these 10 phrasal verbs and I'll show you how they can be are currently used even though they're similar to another phrasal verb.

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Now let's get started.

I want to teach you a 10 phrasal verbs that can be really confusing.

These, first two are misuse by English speakers, specifically English learners that are speaking English all of the time.

So the difference is between to figure out, first to find out.

So if you're figuring something out, you're processing some information.

If you're finding something out, it means you're getting new information.

So, for instance, you are gonna have a party for your friend and you need to figure out how many people are going to come.

This means, you need to look at your guest list and maybe look at your text message or your emails to figure out how many people are going to come.

You're going to process the information that you already have. Now, maybe you don't know who's coming, you might say, I need to find out who's coming.

this means you haven't emailed or texted or called anyone yet to ask if they're going to come, this is going to be new information.

If you're figuring out how many people are going to come, you're going to count up the number of people that have said yes.

I just figured out, I know what, I know anything.

Maybe you haven't heard from one of the guests that you invited to a party yet, so you'll text them and you can say any to find out if they are available to come.

So again, find out is new information, figure out is processing information that we already have. Sometimes figure out and find out can be used a bit interchangeably.

But for the most part, the context is going to be different.

So if you're trying to solve a problem, even if you've ever solved the problem before, you did not know how to do something, you're going to say I need to figure it out.

So maybe your printer is broken, you're trying to print out some documents.

And it's been broken for a while, but you've also had this printer for a while, you could say, I'm going to figure out how to fix this printer.

Or if you fix it, you can say, I finally figured out how to fix the printer.

Here, we can also say, I'm going to find out how to fix the printer, and this is maybe meaning that you're going to go find some directions or you're going to find the manual for your printer, so that you can figure out how to fix it.

So here, figure out and find out can be used a bit interchangeably, but if you're going to solve a problem, I would use Figure Out.

For instance, if your computer is broken or your phone's broken, you might say, I need to figure out what's going on with my computer, I need to figure out what's going on with my phone.

Here, using, I'm going to find out what's happening with my computer or find out with my phone, it sounds a bit awkward. Just doesn't make sense in the context here.

It's hard to explain, but when you're solving a problem, use Figure Out.

That's what native English speakers use.

If you hear some news about a friend member when we're getting new information, we often say we're going to find it out.

So our friend tells us that she is moving away from the country, you can say, I just found out she's moving.

New information, you found it out.

Maybe if you saw your friend packing up boxes, you could say I'm trying to figure out why you're packing up boxes.

This means you're trying to process the information that you see, and you can say, I figure it out.

She's moving because she was packing boxes.

So here you process the information or you solve the problem, but if your friend just says, I'm moving, you could say, Oh, I just found out you're moving.

Figure out versus find out.

Make sure you use these correctly because the context is a bit tricky here, and I hear English speakers misuse these two interchangeably all the time.

Although these next two phrasal verbs sound alike, they mean two completely different things, let's talk about what it means to look after versus to look into.

So, when you're looking after something or someone, you're caring about it.

For instance, you're looking after kids, you're looking after an animal, you're looking after your garden, you're caring about these things, you're taking care of them.

Looking into something means you're investigating it, or you're finding out new information about it.

He looks after me. Or looking into it.

If you have a younger brother or younger sister when you were younger you might say I used to look after my brother.

I used to look after my sister.

This means you took care of them as a child Now when we say we're looking into something we can mean we're going to seriously investigate it or research it or sometimes we use this phrasal verb in a really casual manner to say like oh, yeah Maybe I'll think about that later Especially when someone says, oh have you ever tried this you might say, oh I'll look into it This can sometimes mean you will actually, you know, research it later.

Or sometimes it means that, you know, you probably won't get to it.

But thanks for this suggestion.

So there's context here and we don't always say to someone, you know, I don't really care about that.

But a lot of times just to be kind say, ooh, I'll look into that.

The other day my friend was talking to me about some new chicken sausages that she bought from Costco, because she said, you know, they're high in protein, they're pretty healthy.

And I'll say, Oh, I'll look into that.

So that means, you know, maybe if I'm there, I'll look for them, I'll see if they look good.

But, you know, it's kind of just thanking them for the suggestion, thanking them for the information.

Saying you're going to research it, or we'll look at that information later.

So these two phrasal verbs, completely different, do not use them and you're changeably.

The next two phrasal verbs are, again, pretty similar and very, very confusing to English learners, so we're talking about taking over something, versus taking on something.

Both of these phrasal verbs can refer to responsibilities or to jobs, so if you take over something, you are assuming all of the control that you're taking it completely.

Now, if you're taking on something, it usually means that you're going to try to have a responsibility or try to have a new job.

Okay, Serge, take over.

they go there. Take on what?

And typically you're not controlling it completely.

If you say you're going to take it on.

Typically we use take on when we are accepting responsibility or accepting a task.

So if you say I'm going to take over the project, it means you're going to tell everyone, you know stop working on this project.

It's my project now, I will control it.

I will do all the work.

If you say I am going to take on this project, it means maybe no one was really willing to do it somebody asks you, hey can you get this done?

You say yes. I can do it, you're taking it on, you're accepting it.

So that's why you can't use take over and take on in the same way because take over.

It's a bit more aggressive at saying I'm controlling this, I'm in charge, I'm the boss to take on.

It just means like yes I can do it.

You're typically responding to someone when you say I can take on this responsibility.

These next two phrasal verbs are probably the trickiest in our talking about an end result or something that happens in the end that's surprising but they are definitely used differently.

So we're going to talk about turns out first ends up.

Do you know these phrasal verbs?

Have you used them?

I'm going to teach you now how to use them.

So let's start out with turns out.

Turns out usually is talking about a positive result in the end.

So there's three typical ways that we use the phrasal verb turns out.

We can say it turns out in an adjective.

It turns out it was hot or you can use it as a noun.

It turned out to be a great show or you can use a that clause, so you can say it turns out that she was telling the truth.

So we're talking about things that were results in the end that were typically kind of surprising and surprisingly positive.

So the phrase, it turns out that she was telling the truth or it turned out that he was telling the truth.

This is a common phrase that we use when we think that someone was lying, but we were surprised that they were actually telling the truth.

So it's a positive thing.

Oftentimes if you think the weather is going to be bad or you think it's going to be raining and you're surprised you'll use this phrase, It turns out that it was a beautiful day, or it turns out that it was great weather.

So when we use turn out, we're talking about the end result, typically positive, or we're talking about how a situation became more clear in the end.

Like, it turns out she was telling the truth.

So when we use end up, it's pretty similar.

We're talking about how someone finishes a situation, and a lot of times again, it's surprising.

And up can be used in a more negative way, it can be used in a positive way as well, but typically more negative.

It'll always end up winning.

So a really common way to use end up is we say we ended up going.

We ended up going somewhere that we weren't expecting.

So maybe you have plans to go to a Chinese restaurant.

But the restaurant was so busy that you ended up going to a different restaurant.

Or you ended up going to a Mexican restaurant instead.

So here, the result in the end ended up was different than what you expected.

And here, it's kind of neutral, you know, maybe you like Mexican food butter, or maybe you don't like Mexican food butter.

We don't know by the context here, but it's pretty neutral.

It's not a negative thing to go to a different restaurant.

Maybe it's kind of seen as a negative thing that you had to change your plan.

A lot of people go to college and study to do a job and they end up graduating and doing a completely different job.

So here we would use the phrase, end up.

He went to school to be an engineer, but he ended up being an Uber driver instead.

So here it's kind of seen as a negative thing when you put in all this work to study to engineer to end up just doing a job where you're driving and you didn't actually need to go to school our college to do it.

If you're traveling and your luggage gets lost by the airline, you could say, our luggage ended up getting lost and we had to buy new clothes when we arrived at our destination.

So here, the end result ended up as a negative situation.

So when we've used up, it's often, you know, a situation that ended in accident, or something surprising that's kind of neutral.

And when we use turn -out it's usually a positive result that, again, was surprising or unexpected.

And sometimes it can just mean things became clear or we started to understand the more in the end of the situation.

Sometimes when I go to a store, I want to just, you know, look around but I end up buying way too much. Has this ever happened to you?

Let me know in the comments.

Again, this is kinda a negative thing.

I don't wanna spend that much money if I'm not intending on it.

I'm kinda surprised that I bought something for so much money.

If you liked this lesson, visit englishwithkayla .com to join my membership and learn more about these phrasal herbs and other vocabulary lessons in my membership and I can't wait to see you guys in the next lesson.

Thank you so much for watching today.

Goodbye. You

[Mastering 10 Commonly Confused English Phrasal Verbs]-[Commonly Confused English Phrasal Verbs]

📋 Summary

Mastering 10 Commonly Confused English Phrasal Verbs

1. Figure Out vs. Find Out

2. Look After vs. Look Into

3. Take Over vs. Take On

4. Turns Out vs. Ends Up

Conclusion

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript