Hey everybody, welcome to another phrasal verb episode.
I hope you're all doing well and I hope that you're in the mood to practice with some phrasal verbs.
Actually, in today's episode we're just going to look at one phrasal verb, but we're going to look at three different meanings of this one phrasal verb.
This is very common in English where one phrasal verb has multiple meanings.
So, even though there are a certain number of phrasal verbs in English, many of those phrasal verbs have more than one meaning.
So it's almost as if there are a lot more phrasal verbs than the number that we actually have.
Today's phrasal verb is apply to, and you'll probably remember that the last phrasal verb episode was about the phrasal verb apply for.
So one of the meanings of apply to is similar to apply for, but not quite the same.
And then there are two other meanings that I'll talk about.
So the first meaning of apply to is to formally ask to join some program, organization or company as a student, participant or worker.
So for example, I could say, I applied to McDonald's, but they didn't hire me.
So remember that last week you learned that that apply for is used to talk about the actual thing that you're requesting.
For example, I applied for a job at McDonald's.
But when I just want to say the place, the company in this case, I can say I applied to McDonald's.
Does that make sense?
So I applied for a job at McDonald's, but I applied to McDonald's.
Okay, so that's the first usage.
The next usage of apply to is that if something applies to someone, that means that it involves that person or it is relevant or important to that person.
For example, this law only applies to people who are 18 years old or older.
So this sentence is saying that this law is only relevant to people who are 18 or over.
So if you're under 18, then this law isn't relevant to you.
You don't have to pay attention to it.
So the law is only relevant or it only involves people who are 18 or over.
Okay, so that's the second usage of apply to.
And the third one that we're going to look at.
This is kind of a bonus one because it's a very specific situation.
It's not maybe the most important phrasal verb usage, but apply to can also be used to talk about putting or spreading something on a surface.
For example, apply this lotion to your skin every three hours.
So, you apply the lotion to your skin.
That just means that you put it on your skin and you spread it on there.
Okay?
You could also use this without to depending on the sentence and the structure, like you can just say apply this lotion three times every day, right?
Okay, so now I'm going to talk about a couple different things, and I'm going to use these phrasal verbs over and over again.
First, I want to talk about my experience trying to get my first part-time job.
This is actually real.
This story is not fiction.
When I was around 16 years old 17 years old I wanted to get my first part-time job and actually my parents made me get my first part-time job.
This is really common in the US.
A lot of parents make their kids get a job when they turn 16.
So I applied to a clothing store.
I remember and I applied to some other places, but I remember applying to this clothing store in particular that I thought would be a good place to work at.
But it turns out that I actually wasn't old enough for the specific position.
So I wasn't able to operate this certain machine, I guess, that they had.
I don't remember what the machine was, but there was some type of equipment or machine or something that I wasn't old enough to operate at the age of 16.
So I applied to that company and they appreciated my interest, but they said I couldn't work in that particular position.
And I remember applying to a very popular store here, a food store called Trader Joe's.
This is actually one of my favorite places.
We shop here every week.
I applied to Trader Joe's, but I made a big mistake during the interview. because they actually accepted my application and gave me an interview but i had this mistake i made this mistake during the interview because the interviewer wanted to make sure that i actually liked the store and that i was a customer at the store because i said that i loved trader joe's so he kind of tested me on that and he said okay what is your favorite product of ours and i was so nervous and i couldn't think of anything in the moment and so i looked behind the person who was interviewing me and i saw this certain food product on the shelf and i just said that product And he knew that I just looked behind him and said that.
He didn't embarrass me, but I know that he knew that.
So it was embarrassing for me.
It kind of made it seem like I didn't actually know anything about Trader Joe's.
I didn't shop there.
In reality, I loved Trader Joe's even at that age.
Uh, but I just couldn't think of it.
I couldn't think of a product in that moment.
So I applied to Trader Joe's but I didn't get that job because of the interview.
And I applied to some other stores but I didn't hear back.
When you hear back, this means that you hear a response from someone.
So I applied to some other stores but I didn't hear back.
And then finally, I applied to a store called Hollister.
This is a clothing store here.
And I applied to that store because a friend of mine worked there.
And because of that influence, because he put in a good word for me, as we say...
I got the job.
When you put in a good word for someone, this means that you tell the person in question that your friend or whoever is a good worker.
They're responsible whatever.
They're a good candidate.
You put in a good word for your friend.
So he put in a good word for me and I got that job done at Hollister.
So finally, I applied to a company that actually gave me a job, and that was my first job and one thing that I noticed working at Hollister and even just during the time that I was applying to different companies, One thing I noticed was that there are a lot of rules for minors when it comes to working.
By the way, we use the word minor to refer to someone who is not an adult.
They're below, they're under the age of 18.
So a lot of rules applied to me in particular because I worked at Hollister when I was 17.
So because I was that age...
I was a minor, there were a number of rules that applied to me that didn't apply to a lot of the other workers, because I think most of the other workers were adults.
Because I was 17, for example, I had a very strict amount of time that I was able to work per shift.
I was only able to work for three hours and 59 minutes.
So this rule applied to all the miners there.
We could only work for three hours and 59 minutes.
And if we worked one minute extra, then the company would get in trouble.
So we always had to clock out at 3 hours and 59 minutes after we clocked in.
When you clock in, this means that you start your work.
So you put your info in the computer machine or whatever that says that you're working.
And then clock out is the opposite when you start. end work.
You put in your info and it records that you are leaving work.
So this was a very strict rule that applied to all of us who were 16 or 17.
And I think lunch breaks are a rule that actually apply to everyone.
I don't think that This one is based on age.
So, regardless of who you are, this rule applies to you that you have to take a 30-minute lunch break if you work more than a certain number of hours.
I don't remember what that number is, but I do remember this rule because later, when I worked at another job as an adult, when i had an eight hour shift, for example, i had to have a certain amount of time for lunch.
So that was a law that applied to everyone and i'm sure there's still a similar law nowadays.
So lunch breaks And, like I mentioned, when I didn't get that first job that I applied for, when I applied to that clothing company, it was because I wasn't able to operate certain equipment, a certain machine.
So that was a law that applied to minors, that we couldn't operate like heavy machinery or whatever.
So that was a law that applied to me and for that reason I didn't get the job.
Once I turned 18, some of these rules and laws no longer applied to me, so I pretty much had the freedom to work in any position that I wanted to work in.
And Oh, and one other thing is selling certain products.
So this is a law that applies to minors and not just to minors, but maybe people who are 20 years old or 19 years old.
There are still certain products that they're not allowed to sell.
Right.
So that's another law that applies to minors.
And so, like I said, once I became an adult, and especially After the age of 21, there were no more restrictions for me.
And so it's very different when you work at that age.
You can have a full-time job with any company.
And it's a lot different than when you're 16 and you have to follow these specific rules.
Or some people, they get a permit to work before they're 16.
So maybe they're 15 and then they get a special permit that allows them to work.
And there are definitely laws that apply to these workers who are under the age of 16.
So there are specific laws that apply to them as well.
So that was kind of my experience trying to get my first part-time job and seeing what rules applied to me and what rules didn't.
One other thing I wanted to talk about, to talk about the thoughts.
Third usage of this phrasal verb.
This is a completely different topic.
And this is putting sunscreen on my kids.
This is relevant to me.
So when you have small kids, this is something you have to remember to do.
When you go outside, especially in the summer, you need to apply sunscreen to every part of their body.
You need to apply it to their arms.
You need to apply it to their legs.
You need to apply it to their feet face, of course, to their feet.
So you apply it to every part of the body, just like you would for your own body, except that it's easier to apply sunscreen to your own skin than to apply it to your children's skin, because When you have young children, they don't always cooperate.
And let's be honest, nobody likes sunscreen.
I'm an adult.
I'm a full-grown adult.
And I still hate applying sunscreen to my face and my neck and my ears.
I do not like putting it on.
So of course kids especially little kids they don't like this either.
But if you don't do this, if you forget to apply sunscreen to every little inch of their body and then you spend hours outside in the summer, then your kids will get burned and you'll feel horrible afterwards because really it was your fault, you didn't put sunscreen on your kids.
But actually there are some kids, especially here in the US, who have very fair skin.
When we say fair skin, we're saying very light, very white skin.
So like my niece, for example, she has very fair skin.
And even though her parents try to apply sunscreen to every little inch of her body, she still gets sunburned.
So it's not cool because, regardless of whether or not she has sunscreen, she still gets a little burned.
So just a reminder to all you parents to put sunscreen on your kids when you go outside.
All right, I hope that you were able to really hear this phrasal verb in many sentences and that now you feel more comfortable with the different usages of apply to.
And hopefully you can use it in your own sentences now.
And before we end, remember that you can use my advanced episodes if you're ready to practice with English spoken fast.
Even if you don't feel ready yet, you should push yourself because you might not ever feel ready.
So you need to push yourself to start to use that content. if you want to improve.
So the link to sign up for those is down below.
And you also have the link down below for my US Conversations podcast, in which I talk to people from all over the United States.
And we have a lot of fun talking about different cities and states and different topics.
And it's great practice for your listening.
That link is down below as well.
All right, thank you so much for listening to this phrasal verb episode and I'll talk to you in the next one.
