If you're a really good English speaker, you're probably watching this lesson and you're thinking how can I get to the advanced level?
In this lesson, I'll teach you phrases that will help you do this.
You'll be in an English conversation with a native speaker and you'll hear someone say I think I'm going to go through with it or I'm gonna make up for it.
And you might think, What exactly do they mean?
Well, these are beyond basic phrases.
These are phrasal verbs.
And in today's lesson, I'm going to teach you advanced phrasal verbs, just like these ones, that will help you understand native speakers.
And by the end of this lesson you will thoroughly understand these phrasal verbs enough to use them in your own English speaking.
Let's get started with this lesson.
Oftentimes, you'll hear native speakers say that they come up against something.
This means they have a difficulty or a problem that they weren't expecting.
In a professional context, you might hear someone say, we've come up against a big problem here.
This means that it was kind of unexpected and we have a roadblock or something blocking our success or our completion of this project.
If you're in a sports context on a team and you know you're going to come up against some really good teams or some other good competitors, you might warn your own team and say we are going to come up against some really good competition, some literal difficult competition.
You might ask someone, what problems do you think I'll come up against here?
This is just asking, what are going to be the roadblocks or the challenges in this situation?
Phrasal verb to keep up with is used in a few different contexts and it's very common.
You might think of someone having to keep up with trends.
This means they are trying to dress with fashion, fashionable clothing, what is popular in the moment?
Or you might have a grandma or someone who is older in your life and they are trying to keep up with technology.
My own grandmother always tries to keep up with technology.
I really admire her for it.
But I know it's quite difficult if you are not just growing up.
You're a young person growing up with technology.
You know, this came into your life older.
You're just trying to keep up with everything.
That means you're trying to understand the new things.
Keeping up with the Kardashians?
Quite literally, we use this phrase over keep up to mean like keep the same pace.
Maybe you're trying to get someone to work faster or just to literally walk faster or run faster.
We use keep up in this situation as well.
If you're struggling to learn a new skill and you feel like you should be at you know more progressed part of the skill, you could say I'm having a hard time keeping up and learning.
Do you have someone in your life that you look up to?
If you look up to someone, it can be someone who is older than you or the same age or even younger.
It just means you admire them and you want to be like them.
I always look up to mothers and grandmothers who have raised really kind and respectful children or large families, because I just know the challenges that comes to this.
And it's hard to be such a good parent and to raise respectful, kind kids into adults.
I look up to these people.
This phrasal verb is used very exclusively just to say that someone inspires you and makes you want to do better.
They're motivating to you.
Oftentimes we say that kids really look up to professional athletes and that professional athletes need to set a good example and they need to.
You know, not do things in life that our bad behavior.
Let's go back to that phrasal verb that I mentioned in the beginning of this lesson.
To make up for something.
When you make up for something, it means you are compensating.
You are doing something extra or doing something good to make up for a mistake or to make up for a wrongdoing or some sort of bad behavior.
I can't make up for what I've done to you.
If you forget someone's birthday, you might want to get them flowers later, because typically flowers are just kind of an extra gift.
Like they show that you're sorry.
They show that you made effort.
And hopefully the person will forgive you for forgetting their birthday if you get them flowers.
Oftentimes, if you promise someone that you're going to do something and you forget or for some reason you can't do it, you'll say I will make up for it by doing this extra thing for you.
If you're wasting time at work, you might tell your boss I'm going to make up for the time that I wasted by staying late today.
So you're trying to compensate for a mistake or something bad that you did when you use this phrase.
It's used really commonly in apologies as well.
You're just trying to make the situation right.
You're trying to make everyone happy.
Do you have something right now that you're trying to cut out?
When we cut out a bad behavior or a bad habit, it means we're trying to stop doing it or trying to eliminate something.
Oftentimes people will try to cut out sugar or cut out fast food from their diet.
That means they're trying not to eat these things in an effort to be healthier.
Cut it out.
What out?
One really big issue for parents like myself is screen time.
So the amount of time that kids are spending with technology watching TV or playing on a tablet or things like that.
And parents are always trying to find ways to cut out this time for their kids, because we're finding out that it's not good for kids to be watching too much TV or playing too many games, or whatever it might be.
If you're trying to cut out smoking, it means you're just trying to stop smoking.
Or if you're trying to cut out drinking, you're trying to stop this bad habit as well.
This next phrasal verb, it's used as a phrasal verb, but it's also used as a noun.
I use it pretty frequently as a noun.
I say, I had a falling out with someone.
It means I had a fight with someone and it ended our relationship.
This obviously doesn't happen very often for me, but I might be talking about two other people.
Like they had a falling out or they fell out over this issue.
A lot of times people will fall out over politics or, you know, arguments about religion.
These are really common reasons for people to fall out or end their relationship completely over a conflict.
Hopefully you never fall out with your friend over money or anything like this.
To hand out.
So if you hand out something, you're giving something to someone or you're giving it to a lot of different people.
I'm going to hand out my invitations to a party.
This means physically you're going to give them to people.
Or oftentimes this phrasal verb is used in a classroom context.
The teacher is going to hand out the worksheets or hand out the papers.
Handing out towels?
If you've ever went to Costco, they hand out free samples to everyone.
So if you want to try the foods that are there, they have little foods prepared and they're handing them out to people for free.
And typically this phrasal verb hand out, it means that you're giving something away for free.
If you're using it in a context like we're handing out food, this means that you're not paying for it, we're just giving it away.
It's really important not to leave people out because it can hurt their feelings.
This phrasal verb.
To leave out it means either to forget someone from the group or to exclude someone from the group.
Oftentimes, kids will leave out one of their peers.
So they'll invite everyone to a party or to hang out, and they're trying to be...
Either mean or like.
They're having some sort of conflict, so they won't invite a person to leave them out.
People get their feelings hurt.
They feel very badly when they're left out.
If you want to say you feel like you're just not a part of the group, you can say I feel very left out.
What you leave out.
We use this phrasal verb to leave out when we're talking about groups of people, but it's also very commonly used when we're talking about excluding information.
For instance, if you are writing a news article, maybe you're a reporter and you are kind of biased.
You want everyone to believe that something happened.
You might leave out some details that contradict what you want people to believe.
Obviously, this wouldn't be good journalism.
It's just an example here.
It happens a lot in the real world.
Sometimes, when people tell a story and the other person notices they forgot to say something, you could say you left out the most important part or you left out the most important detail.
This means you forgot to tell the part of the story that is really interesting or makes the story make more sense.
This is a really common way we use this phrasal verb in English as well.
Now we're moving on from leave out to let out.
If you let out something, you let it escape or you release it.
Oftentimes my friends who have dogs will say I'm going home to let out the dog.
This means you're letting the dog go outside, usually to use the bathroom.
Let it out.
My kids have a pet rabbit and I always say, hey, can you go let out the rabbit?
He needs some exercise.
You know, I'm trying to teach my kids how to be good pet owners.
The rabbit usually stays in cage, but they let it out and they let it run around.
We also use let out when we're talking about our own emotions or expressions.
A really common one is I let out a sigh.
A sigh is, oh, I let out a sigh of relief.
Oh.
Or another one is I let out a burp or I let out a scream when I was scared.
So it's an unexpected kind of noise or expression.
A really, really common phrasal verb is keep on.
If you say keep on doing something, you mean continue it.
Don't stop.
To keep on keep on fighting.
So if somebody's talking is annoying you maybe it's just loud or distracting and you feel like they just keep doing it and doing it.
Maybe you've even asked them to stop.
You could say he just keeps on talking.
This means like he doesn't really consider, you know, everyone else's opinions on his talking around here.
Or maybe you're talking about someone who's really persistent.
They keep trying something, even though they're having trouble mastering the skill or they're failing.
You could say they just keep on doing it again and again.
This just means they're continuing their effort.
And usually this is a positive thing if we say they're keeping on doing it.
They're not quitting.
A really important phrasal verb is to fill in for.
Typically we say fill in for someone or something.
So, for instance, if you are going to be not doing your job for a while maybe you're having a baby or maybe you have a family situation where you need to take a lot of time off of work you can say that someone needs to fill in for you at your job.
Maybe you're at a volunteering event, kind of a job, But you might be done, you know, working at whatever you're doing.
You might say, hey, I have someone over here that can fill in for me.
That means they're going to do the job for me. who will be filling in for me.
So we really just use fill in for when we're talking about someone temporarily doing someone else's job or duties.
Let me let you in on a secret.
This phrasal verb, to let in on, it means to share a secret or to share a story that isn't public.
This phrase is pretty informal.
It's pretty playful in English.
It's often fun to say like, let me let you in on a little secret.
And then you tell the person the secret.
And it's usually not something super duper serious.
So when something gets really intense or a person is being really intense or putting on a lot of pressure, you could say they need to ease off.
We use this phrase ease off when we mean like lighten the pressure or just don't be so intense.
Maybe it's time to ease off, huh?
We can say if it's raining really hard outside and then the rain kind of slowly stops, we could say the rain is easing off.
It's becoming less intense.
After the pandemic, people slowly started to ease off all of the restrictions that were in place for health and safety.
If you look down on someone, it means you think they are inferior.
This phrase is definitely kind of a negative thing to look down on someone.
You're not looking down on us, are you?
Some people think that education, your degrees and your titles are the most important thing.
And they look down on people who don't have a college degree.
Well, I think this is wrong, because I think you can be very smart without ever having gone to college or attending any sort of formal education.
Some people look down on it.
Some I say, you know, I look down on people who are doing things that aren't very moral.
For instance, they're stealing or they're being racist or things like that.
I would look down on a person like that.
Typically though, we use to look down on someone where we're saying like we're being very arrogant or judgmental.
It's not seen as a good thing typically to look down on people.
It's important to life to have friends that will stand by you no matter what the circumstances are.
You have friends that are always there to support you and still will love you and care for you.
So this is what it means to stand by someone, to support them under any circumstance.
Standing by me.
You can also say that you are going to stand by your decision.
This means you're going to be very loyal to your decision.
You're not going to change your mind or support another idea.
The next phrasal verb, to get through, we use it in two different ways.
So first we can say, we got through something difficult.
Maybe you have your final exams or a big project deadline.
If you get it done, you're successful, you say, I got through my exams or I got through my deadline.
This means you achieved it.
We'll get through this.
We can also say that we are going to make contact with someone, usually on the phone or maybe even through the internet nowadays.
Like back in the day.
You know, If you called someone and they're already on the phone, you would get a busy sound like you can't get through to their phone.
This means you can't contact them.
So you can say, I tried calling, but I couldn't get through.
Now there might be other reasons, maybe their phone's off or something.
Maybe you know, for some reason they don't have their phones because I just couldn't get through to you.
It means I couldn't contact you.
I couldn't make you understand or whatever it might be.
Here's a phrasal verb that we use.
For more serious situations, when we are going to go through with something.
It means we're going to go with a plan, we're going to do it, we're going to execute it, even though it's going to be hard, maybe emotionally or just challenging.
Like, for instance, sometimes people in a relationship when they want their marriage to end, they will go through a divorce.
Or if they feel like they want to get divorced and then they change their mind, they could say I didn't go through with the divorce.
This means you did not execute the plan.
Maybe you have something physically wrong with you and you're debating on.
You know different methods of treatment.
Maybe you can take medication.
Maybe you can get surgery.
You could say, I'm going to go through with the surgery.
This means you're going to execute this plan, even though surgery seems, you know, scary and difficult.
To go against.
If we go against someone or something, we're going to oppose it.
So you could say, I'm going to kind of go against popular beliefs here.
This means you're going to say the opposite, even though it's popular.
Or oftentimes we just use it in sports or any sort of competition.
Like these two people are going against each other.
Don't go against me, boy.
A fun way that we say we're going to accept someone's plan or we're going to agree to something is we say we're going to go along with it.
I'll go along with it today.
This means normally you don't like to do it in this way or you wouldn't agree with this person, but you're going to go along with it today.
I just go along with it.
Maybe you are deciding with a group of friends what kind of food you want to eat.
And a lot of your friends say, I really want pizza.
And you're like, I really want to go get Chinese food.
You might say, well, I'll just go along with what you guys want since you all want it together.
It implies you're kind of reluctant to agree, but you're going to do it.
The next two phrasal verbs have to do with revenge.
The first one is to get back at someone.
So this just literally means to take revenge.
You're going to do something as negative as the person did to you.
So maybe your ex, you know... lying to you about something.
And so to get back at them, you're going to spread rumors about them or something like that.
This is a horrible example.
A lot of times you can use this in a more playful way.
Maybe you're playing a video game or something.
And in the video game, you know, somebody shoots you or whatever it might be.
You say, I'm going to get back at you.
This means I'm going to get my revenge.
It's a playful, informal phrasal verb.
Okay, so the next phrasal verb also has to do with revenge, but it can be used more simply as well.
So to pay back.
If you pay back someone, you give them the money that you owe them.
Someone gave you a loan, you're going to pay it back.
Now we can also say that you're going to get payback when you're going to get revenge on someone.
It's exactly like get back at someone.
Anything you pay.
I'll be back.
So sometimes we talk about cutting things out, like eliminating them.
For instance, we're going to cut out sugar.
But sometimes we just say we're going to cut back on something, which means we're just going to reduce it, but not eliminate it or get rid of it completely.
A lot of times people want to have better habits.
So they might say I'm going to cut back on my spending or I'm going to cut back on my expenses, if they're trying to save money.
Or I'm going to cut back on sugar or I'm going to cut back on social media.
You're just kind of reducing your habits here.
Now, if you're not just reducing, but you're getting rid of it completely, you can say you're going to do away with something.
This is a really informal phrase that just means you're going to stop using something or you're going to get rid of it.
For instance, some people are trying to do away with plastic bags because they're really harmful to the environment.
They're trying to get everyone to use reusable grocery bags rather than just taking a single plastic bag for every part of their groceries.
When something lasts longer than it needs to and just feels boring.
It feels like it's taking a long time, you feel impatient.
You can say this is really dragging on.
A lot of times when I'm sick, especially in the winter, during cold and flu season, it feels like my sicknesses just drag on.
Like I just want to feel healthy and it feels like it's taking a long time for my body to fight a cold or to fight a flu.
It could drag on for quite a while.
If you're in a meeting at work and it's taking a really long time, you could say this meeting is dragging on.
Just be careful about who you say this to, because it's definitely a negative thing if you say that something is dragging on.
It means it's boring and it feels like it's taking too long.
If you feel like you fit in.
It means if you feel like you have a lot in common with everyone around you and you feel like you belong to the group.
It doesn't feel good when you don't feel like you fit in.
It feels like you feel like you're not like everyone else and no one really understands you.
I think this is a really common feeling around the world.
I want to be interesting.
I want to fit in with you guys.
It's important when you are finding a job that you fit in with people at work, because it will just help you work as a team and get along with people.
Give away is a really important phrasal verb because it can be used in two different ways.
First, if you're giving something away, it means you're kind of donating it or giving it to someone for free.
A lot of times people go on Facebook groups that have items that people in their community are giving away.
It's called a buy nothing group.
I'm in a ton of them.
I love buy nothing groups because you can give things to people or you can find things that people don't want.
For instance, last summer I found a badminton set that someone was giving away for free and I was really excited and my family really enjoyed playing badminton.
We can also say you're giving away when someone is revealing some sort of information or a secret or the answer that they didn't want everyone to know.
You're giving away the answer.
Recently, I was playing trivia at a baby shower.
I made up the game for my sister-in-law.
It was her baby shower.
And they're all questions relating to baby.
And my aunt just kind of gave away the answer to one of the questions.
She accidentally shouted it out.
And everyone said, oh, you gave it away.
You gave away the answer.
I mean, she revealed the answer.
And she did very obviously.
Sometimes, when kids are really cute, it's hard not to give in to their wants and whatever they ask for.
For instance, a cute little kid might come up to you and say, Can I have a cookie, please?
And maybe you're not supposed to be giving them sugar or treats, but they're just so cute.
And maybe they ask so nice that you just have to give in.
It means you can't resist if you say give in. giving in.
If you are trying to resist something, you can say, I am not going to give in.
We use kick in when we're talking about something having an effect.
If you're sick and you take medicine, you might read on the bottle that it will have an effect in 20 minutes.
So you might say it's going to kick in in 20 minutes, meaning it's going to start working in 20 minutes.
A lot of times we say my adrenaline kicked in.
Adrenaline is a hormone in the body, you know, that makes you have a really intense emotional response.
So you say like it kind of kicked in in this really stressful situation.
It started working.
If you want to say that someone very harshly attacked someone or kind of criticized them, you could say they really laid into them.
This is pretty informal.
This is kind of like slang, even though it's phrasal verb.
You could say the coach really laid into their players after the loss.
Maybe they yelled at them and criticized them and you thought it was pretty harsh.
So dad, did mom lay into you?
So if somebody has control over you or you're going to kind of escape a situation, you can say you're going to break away.
There's a famous Kelly Clarkson song called Break Away where she's describing you know, leaving her hometown being brave, like leaving a situation that's really comfortable to try to do great things.
And of course, she's an awesome singer.
So she really did that in real life.
If you break away from, you know, someone who has kidnapped you or something, it means you escaped.
Hopefully that hasn't happened to you, but this would be the phrasal verb that describes that situation.
You're not breaking away.
We learned so many great advanced phrasal verbs in this English lesson.
I don't want you to forget any of them.
I want you to be able to use these in your everyday English.
Let me know the ones that were most important to you in the comments below.
And make sure to visit englishwithhaylacom, where you'll gain access to the resources for this lesson, and all my lessons in the past, by signing up for my monthly membership.
I'll leave the link below to make it convenient for you.
I can't wait to see you in my group because I love...
Teaching these phrases and giving you access to the PDFs, quizzes, and other fun challenges.
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Goodbye!
