Hey English learners, welcome to another phrasal verb episode.
I hope you're doing great and that you're ready to practice with more phrasal verbs today.
We're going to look at two phrasal verbs in today's episode.
The first one is bundle up and the second one is burn down.
So first let's define these phrasal verbs and see an example sentence of each one, and then we'll move on from there.
So bundle up means to put on a lot of warm clothes because the weather is very cold.
So, for example, I could say he bundled up before going outside.
And with this one, it's often used in the passive voice or in other words as like an adjective.
For example, he's all bundled up, for example.
So in these examples we're just saying that he put on a lot of warm clothes, maybe a sweatshirt and then a jacket and then a coat or whatever, or whatever.
He put on a lot of warm clothes before going outside.
So that's bundle up.
Burn down means to completely destroy a building or structure by fire.
For example, I could say the rioters burned down the government building.
So this means that the people who were rioting, they set fire to the government building and And the fire actually destroyed the building.
The building actually burned down, meaning it was completely destroyed by the fire.
So that's burned down.
Okay, now let me talk about a couple different things, and I'll use these phrasal verbs again and again so that you can hear them in different sentences.
And hopefully, by the end of this episode you'll feel very comfortable with these phrasal verbs and you'll be able to use them in your own sentences if you want.
So first, let me talk about a few of the coldest experiences of my life.
I felt really cold, regardless of the temperature, just when I myself felt cold.
So the first one that comes to mind is when I was in Paris the second time and I was there in November.
It wasn't even January or February, it was November.
So that should show you that I'm not very accustomed to cold temperatures, because normally people would think that November is not that cold, But for me that experience of being in Paris in November was very cold.
I thought I was bundled up pretty well when I was there.
I had seen that it was going to be pretty chilly, meaning pretty cold.
So I knew I needed to bundle up.
I told my wife that she needed to bundle up.
And, like I said, I thought both of us were dressed pretty well, that we were bundled up and ready for the cold.
But when we got there, I remember sitting outside at a park eating a hamburger.
And I remember that, despite the fact that we were both bundled up, we were both freezing cold, especially our hands, our faces, our feet.
We felt cold. so cold.
It was really surprising how cold I was.
It was kind of miserable, to be honest.
I had trouble even eating that hamburger because of how cold I was.
And what was funny was that there were two kids in that park playing soccer And those kids were not bundled up.
They were in t-shirts and shorts.
I couldn't believe it.
They were playing soccer in t-shirts and shorts.
They weren't bundled up and they were perfectly fine.
Yet my wife and I, who were bundled up, we were freezing.
And we realized that we just didn't know how to dress properly for cold weather.
We're not accustomed to that type of climate anymore.
So we don't have the proper clothes for that climate.
So, even if we're covering our arms and legs, we still feel the cold if we don't have clothes, the proper clothes for it, and so that was the case when we were in paris in november.
Another occasion that i can think of when i felt really cold was when i was camping in oregon when i was in college.
I remember going camping and I didn't bundle up properly.
I was just in typical clothes and we slept in a tent and I had a sleeping bag.
This is where you sleep, like the little thing you sleep in when you sleep in a tent.
I had a sleeping bag, but it was not enough for me.
I felt really cold in the middle of the night and I remember that I woke up and I felt myself shivering.
This is when you shake because you're cold and I had to go into the car and have the the hot air on to warm up and I realized that I should have bundled up for that type of weather.
I didn't have anyone to really make sure that I was dressed properly, so I didn't bundle up and I paid the price afterwards because I was freezing and I had trouble even going back and sleeping in the tent for the rest of the night.
So that was another experience that I had where I felt really cold and I should have bundled up and had the proper clothes on for that type of night weather in that situation.
And one other really cold experience that I remember was when I went to Joshua Tree National Park in California.
I went there with some other people.
And if I remember correctly, it was on New Year's Eve.
I think we spent two nights there, and one of the nights was New Year's Eve.
And this is the desert.
And a lot of people, if they've never been to the desert, they just assume that the desert is really hot, which it is, but at night it can get really cold in the winter.
So, even though the desert is a hot place in the summer, especially if you go in the winter, you should bundle up or not, during the day maybe, but at night you should be bundled up and ready for cold weather, especially if you're camping.
And so we were camping in this national park, and The first night one of the friends I went with, he and I, had to sleep in the car, I think, because there wasn't enough space at the campsite or something.
And I remember being really cold in the car.
We didn't have sleeping bags.
We were dressed with long sleeves and pants, but we were not bundled up properly.
We didn't have enough warm clothes on to keep us warm.
So I remember that night in the car was really cold and I regretted not being properly bundled up and dressed in warm clothes.
The second night we slept in the tent with a sleeping bag, and that was better because of the sleeping bag.
But the first night was terrible because we were freezing.
Now let me talk about something that is almost the exact opposite.
Let me talk about fires.
Let me talk about fires in California.
Many of you are probably aware of the fact that we have a lot of fires here in California.
There are constantly fires, these big wildfires that do a lot of damage and burn down just parts of cities and buildings and things like that.
And there were some really bad fires in 2025.
You might remember seeing this on the news.
These were some of the worst fires, At least in my lifetime.
These were maybe the worst ones in Southern California.
They burned down many houses and many buildings.
They even burned down like huge parts of cities, particularly cities.
One city that I know of, Altadena, this was burned down.
I don't want to say it was completely burned down, but a huge part of the city was burned down.
You can look up pictures after this episode if you'd like and see the aftermath of the fires.
The aftermath refers to the damage that you can see after some disaster happens.
So if you look up pictures of Altadena, you can see that it looks like it was completely burned down.
It's just destruction everywhere.
Just burned down buildings and... damaged buildings and houses everywhere.
So the fires burned down big parts of different cities here in Southern California this year and I think even some celebrities were affected by this, because there are many celebrities in Southern California.
So there were fires close to some of the big mansions that celebrities have here.
So the fires were really bad this year and burned down many buildings and houses.
And I can also remember two experiences in my childhood when there were bad fires as well.
One was when I was nine and the other one was when I was 14.
So the second time I remember that my family had to get ready to evacuate.
Meaning leave the house because a fire is going to come burn it down possibly.
So we didn't actually evacuate, but we were ordered to get ready to prepare for evacuation.
So I remember packing up our van with our most important items and we were ready to leave because there was a big fire that was heading straight for where we lived.
And that fire definitely could have burned down our house.
I remember going outside on the morning of when we were preparing to evacuate.
And I remember seeing the fire in the distance coming down the hill in our direction.
And it is an image that I'll always remember.
It was very impactful for um at that age to see that fire in the distance coming down, coming in our direction, and what happened was that the fire changed directions at the last minute and burned down a lot of other houses, but it didn't come to our area.
So many houses were burned down but we weren't affected.
We had to prepare, but in the end, we didn't have to evacuate.
Our house didn't burn down, thankfully, and we continued on with our lives.
But many other people were not as fortunate and their houses burned down.
So many homes burned down during these seasons when there are wildfires in California.
It's something that happens quite regularly.
It's not just like the fires in 2025 uh, were just a one-time thing.
No, we constantly have wildfires in california.
It's a very normal occurrence here, and so, because of that, people need to prepare, because people's houses might get burned down in these fires.
So we have something called fire insurance, or there's different types of insurance that might protect against fires.
And this is a very important thing for homeowners in different parts of Southern California, because you can lose everything.
If a fire burns your house down and you don't have some type of insurance, you lose everything, right?
So it's not a great thing about living in California, but it's something that people need to be aware of and be prepared for in case a wildfire starts in your area.
And It's something that California will probably always deal with.
And we often have the perfect weather conditions for wildfires, unfortunately.
So that's something that we deal with here.
So I hope that as I was talking, you were able to hear these phrasal verbs again and again, and hopefully you understand them now and can use them in your own sentences.
And I want to encourage you to challenge yourself and try using content that's more difficult than my normal episodes or these phrasal verb episodes.
Try using my advanced podcast episodes.
They will help take your listening to the next level.
They'll help you start to understand faster English.
And also if you're interested in my pronunciation training, where I help you pronounce things more like a native speaker, then you can also access my pronunciation training through my membership.
So, Check that out.
The link to sign up for my membership and the different levels of the membership.
That link is down below.
And check out my U.S.
Conversations podcast in which I talk to different native speakers from around the U.S.
You learn a lot about this country.
It's a lot of fun and it's great practice for your listening.
So that link is also down below.
All right, thank you for listening to this phrasal verb episode and I'll talk to you in the next one.
