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Welcome to the Coffee Break English show.
I'm Nick. I'm a new member of the Coffee Break English team.
And I am Annabelle and I'm here as a learner.
And today, I'm very excited because I think we are going to cover something that I personally struggled with in English.
In this special festive episode, we're going to look at some very useful phrasal verbs.
Oh, I love phrasal verbs.
I sometimes hate them a little bit because for me, they are tricky, they are complicated, but we are going to see them in a context, right?
Yes. And that's understandable.
Phrasal verbs are very difficult, but if you have them in a clear context, they are not so difficult to learn.
And today we're going to talk about the holidays.
Oh, excellent. Before we move on, maybe we should remind them, like if you are watching the video version, subscribe to our channel on YouTube.
Or if you're listening to the podcast version, subscribe wherever you're getting the podcast.
Yeah? Yes, absolutely.
Shall we get started?
Let's go. OK. So, Annabel, I'm going to tell you about what is important to me at Christmas time.
OK. And I want you to listen out for the phrasal verbs in my text.
Then we'll go through the lines one by one and we'll explain some of those phrasal verbs so they are really clear.
You're ready? Oh, yes, I'm excited.
Let's go. So, I'm so excited.
It's finally my favourite time of year.
I have been dreaming of the festive period all year and wanted to share why I love it so much.
First of all, I just love giving people presents and seeing their faces light up when they open them.
But I am quite forgetful, so before I set off to visit my family, I always try to remember not to leave the presents behind.
Another thing I love is all of the fantastic food, even if it means I need to cut out unhealthy food from my diet in January.
My number one favourite thing about this time of year is seeing my family.
I'm really looking forward to spending time with them, but I'm not looking forward to January.
No, I loved your text and especially I love that you put like so many useful phrasal verbs.
Excellent. Do you remember everything I said?
No, my memory is terrible, but I think you said that we are going to see them.
Absolutely. So let's look at them line by line.
Good. So the first one, try and see if you can spot the phrasal verb.
I have been dreaming of the festive period all year and wanted to share why I love it so much.
OK, I think I have this one and it's dreaming off, to dream off.
Yeah. And actually, I thought that it was actually like dreaming that you were telling me what your dream was about.
But recently I like I found out that that was not the meaning.
No, no, it's not quite the meaning.
What we really mean is it's something that I'm thinking of, particularly something that I desire in the future.
OK, OK. So an example could be when I was young, I dreamed of becoming a football player.
Oh, is that true? Yes, true.
OK, well, we're not going to talk about football, but no.
OK, so to dream off is to wish to want, no?
Yeah. OK, OK. I like it.
Shall we continue? Shall we go into the next one?
I just love giving people presents and seeing their faces light up when they open them.
OK, I think this one is light up and I like it because, like, you know, the light, it's very like visual.
It's just like to light up that you can see the sparkles in their faces.
Yeah, exactly. Absolutely.
So this one can be metaphorical or literal.
OK. So we use it when we're describing the face and the eyes.
It's not really describing the body.
This means that we can see our eyes light up when we when we find out something exciting or we open a present, for example.
When we use it literally, if our if our jumper lights up, we have lots of lights on our jumper, OK?
Or if you see in the winter, the town lights up.
OK. Then all of the lights come on in the town.
OK. So when it's not physically like, it's a metaphor, then it's only is it only going to be face and eyes?
Exactly. It means that we look excited and particularly our eyes or our face looks really excited and happy.
Oh, I like that one.
OK. Yeah. Next one.
Yes. So in fact, here we have two.
So listen carefully.
But I am quite forgetful.
So before I set off to visit my family, I always try to remember not to leave my presence behind.
OK, so I think the first one is to set off.
Yes, great. Absolutely.
OK. And that is like to leave a place to start a journey.
Yeah, exactly. It means to start a journey, to leave where you are and go on a journey.
OK. And the next one.
The next one is to leave behind.
Yes, I think it's easier, at least from my point of view, because you literally just like leave something behind you.
Yeah, absolutely. But it has two meanings.
OK. So we can leave an object behind.
Maybe we forget the object and we leave it and then go to a new place.
Or we can use this to mean we permanently leave a place.
So when I was young, I left behind my friends and family.
I went traveling around the world.
Oh, so I'm from Madrid.
Can I say that I left Madrid behind?
Yes, absolutely. OK.
So we have two meanings there.
It can mean to leave an object behind and go somewhere new or to permanently leave a place.
I think it's very useful.
Thank you very much.
Before we move on, what you said is to leave the presence behind.
So, like, I know that with some phrasal verbs, we can actually split them and have like the object between.
Yes, absolutely. But with set off, we don't have that.
No, we'll set off, it's inseparable.
So set off needs to remain together.
We can't set something off.
Yeah. Or that we can set something off, but it changes meaning.
And you can read the blog to find that special meaning.
And we'll have it written in there.
Well, looking forward to that.
Yeah. Shall we move on to the next one?
Yes. So back to just one.
Now, another thing I love is all of the fantastic food, even if it means I need to cut out unhealthy food from my diet in January.
OK, to cut out. Yeah.
But like my memory is awful.
And as I said at the beginning, phrasal verbs are not like is not one of the things that I am good at.
So I never remember if to cut out is to like reduce or to completely delete something.
Yeah. This is the difficult thing about this one, because there's another similar phrasal verb.
But this one is cut out.
It means completely removed.
I like out like is completely out of your life.
Yeah. So the idea of out is no longer here.
It's out. Awesome. OK.
So for example, I am going to cut out unhealthy food in January or at least I'm going to try.
OK, well, good luck with that.
Thank you. And sorry.
Just one more question.
Can we cut unhealthy food out?
Yes. So with this example here, it's possible to cut out, cut something out or to cut out something.
OK. Absolutely. This means it's separable.
There are different types of phrasal verbs.
And in this case, it's absolutely possible.
Awesome. Thank you.
But we can't cut out it.
We can only cut it out.
OK. OK. That's a prune.
Yeah. Sounds good. Thank you.
OK. So we're on to the last one.
OK. In fact, we have the same phrasal verb twice.
I'm really looking forward to spending time with them, but I'm not looking forward to January.
I know this one and it's to look forward.
Yeah. And it means to be very excited about something.
Yeah, absolutely. And it's always about the future.
Yes. So it means to be very excited about the future.
OK. And similar to I can't wait.
Yeah. And there's an important thing about this phrasal verb.
We've got looking forward to spending time and we've got looking forward to January.
Or not looking forward to January.
I think that in one we are using a noun, not to January.
And the other one is actually something that I struggle with because it's to look forward to.
And I have the tendency to not use like not to use an ING verb.
So it's like I'm looking forward to seeing.
Exactly. Yeah. So here we've got the verb form.
But we need this verb form to be in the Gens.
That's the ING form.
But that too is here is a preposition.
So you might get this wrong by saying to spend time.
But it must be to spending time.
So it's to look forward to doing something.
Exactly. OK. And it means I can't wait for.
Yeah. Great. OK. So in this episode, we've looked at six useful phrasal verbs.
Yes. So the first one was dream of.
Do you remember the meaning?
To wish, to want. Yeah, exactly.
To desire. Absolutely.
Fantastic. What about light up?
Oh, it's like to be very like happy, like visually, not like to.
Yeah. Exactly. Just suddenly show happiness on your face and be happy.
Fantastic. Set off.
To start a journey.
Yeah, exactly. And absolutely in this in this sentence, it meant to start a trip home.
So great. Leave behind.
To leave something behind you that is not part of your life.
Yeah, absolutely. Or to forget something.
You want it to be part of your life, but you leave it behind.
Yes. Great. Cut out.
Because it's out, we said that is to eliminate, to delete something.
Yeah, exactly. And finally, look forward to.
Oh, that's to be excited.
Yes, exactly. So that's all for this episode.
I hope you found that really useful and I hope you found that really useful, Annabelle.
I did. And I enjoyed the fact that we have learned these phrasal verbs in context.
So thank you very much, Nick.
No problem. So one thing we're really looking forward to is sharing with you our exciting new opportunity to learn even more phrasal verbs.
So stay tuned for more information.
Sounds exciting. Looking forward to it.
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So over to Mark, who's going to tell you all about the phrasal verb Quest with Coffee Break English.
Introducing the Coffee Break English Quest.
In this new course from Coffee Break English, you'll take a 30 day challenge to improve your understanding of phrasal verbs.
Over the month, you'll read 10 chapters of a story and improve your English one coffee break at a time.
Each day, there's a different activity.
On day one, you'll read a chapter of the story.
Let's listen to part of the story now.
Hello, my name's Stefano and I've just arrived in Scotland.
I'm with my mom, Giovanna, and it's our first time in the UK.
She's always dreamt of visiting Scotland, so I set up the strip for her 60th birthday.
We're exhausted because we had to get up at four a .m.
On day two, it's time to learn more about the phrasal verbs used in the story.
Stefano's mum, Giovanna, dreamt of visiting Glasgow all her life.
The phrasal verb dream of means to think about something that you really want.
For example, when he was younger, he used to dream of being a footballer.
Stefano set up this trip for his mum's 60th birthday.
The verb set up means to arrange or create something.
Another example could be, let's set up a meeting to discuss your ideas.
And on day three, you can practise what you've learned with some exercises.
On day four, we'll begin the next chapter and continue like this until the end of the challenge.
All you need is 15 minutes per day, the length of a coffee break, to master phrasal verbs.
The Coffee Break English quest coming soon.
Oh, wow! That sounds very exciting and I like that it sounds like a very complete course where you learn the phrasal verbs in context, just like today, and also you get practice and support from the tutors.
I love it. Yeah, absolutely.
And you can do all of that with just one coffee break a day.
I love that. So I hope you've enjoyed this lesson.
Remember, these examples are all written down in the blog and you can find that in the link in the description.
And if you would like more help with your English and would like to receive regular, free email lessons, then visit coffeebreaklanguages .com slash English.
And stay tuned for the next email, because there you will find a link to the Coffee Break English quest for phrasal verbs.
That sounds exciting, but I think that's all for today.
So, happy holidays.
And happy coffee breaking.
We'll be brief. If you're looking for the perfect holiday gift, gift scratchers from the California Lottery.
With so many to choose from, you're sure to find the right gift for anyone on your list.
Now that your holiday shopping list is figured out, enjoy this bird singing jingle bells.
Give the gift of scratchers from the California Lottery.
A little play can make your day.
Please play responsibly.
Must be 18 years or older to purchase, play, or claim.
