This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 1960.
Start off your day with these phrasal verbs.
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What is the difference between start off and start out?
Even native speakers might not be able to tell you.
But today we break it down.
Plus you'll get one natural way that you can split these phrasal verbs to sound more interesting.
Listen in to part one of this two-part series today.
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Hello, Aubrey.
We are on YouTube today.
Very exciting.
Yes, right.
Come and check us out on YouTube if you're more a visual learner, if you want to see all our expressiveness.
My hand gestures
I talk with my hands, guys.
My hands moving a lot as I'm speaking.
I think a lot of people do.
I do, too.
But we have a question for you today.
You ready?
All right.
Yes.
All right.
So how do you like to start off your day?
Oh, I start off my day immediately with a cup of coffee with almond vanilla creamer, with almond creamer.
Without it, I'm like, please no one talk to me until I just have a few sips.
It's not even that I have a headache or I just kind of feel like I don't want anyone needing anything from me or asking anything of me until I've just had a few minutes to myself.
I can imagine.
I can imagine what that's like.
I mean, i'm not a mom yet and so but you're a mom to four kids and i can imagine it must really be that you need moments in your day yes right, especially when you're starting off your day that you just have it for yourself, Absolutely.
And you guys will notice Lindsay has used this phrasal verb start off a couple of times here.
We got a really good question about this phrasal verb and one that is very similar.
We're going to share about that.
But first, we want to shout out a reviewer, right, Lindsay?
Yeah, I'm so excited to get into today's episode, but we need to acknowledge our amazing listeners who have left us reviews and rated our show, whether it's in the iOS or Android app, or whether it's in Spotify or Apple Podcasts or CastBox or wherever you listen.
Find that function right now inside the app to leave a rating and review.
This listener was called Negin Shamloo.
And they basically said, I listened to your podcast while driving to work.
And every single time I'm super happy with the topics you guys choose.
And I tell myself I'm going to leave a review.
And I finally did.
Right.
And so she's just saying, thank you.
Right.
And we want to say thank you back to this listener for listening to our show and reviewing our show.
And the listener says at the end, keep shining.
I love that.
Keep shining.
I love reviews, you guys.
This helps other listeners find us, other people trying to learn English find our podcast.
And I just feel like it's such a wonderful way to thank us because we see those.
We appreciate them.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah, I think I sent you and Jessica a review from the IELTS Energy podcast this morning or something.
And it just really warms our hearts and opens our minds, gets us motivated.
So guys, give us those reviews.
Leave us those reviews.
Now let's get into it.
Yes.
Awesome.
Okay.
So let's share this fantastic question.
This was from Conrado.
He says he lives in a monastery in Brazil.
And he said all of us here who are preparing for mission in our monastery in Ohio.
Listen to your podcast.
I'd love that to think of them preparing for moving to the United States.
In this amazing way.
And listening to Aller's English as a way to prepare for that.
So cool.
I know.
So then he said, although I live with two Americans, they couldn't explain to me the difference between start out and start off.
And also when I'm up for it and I'm down with it.
Thank you very much for all your work.
Please keep it up.
Really good questions, right, Lindsay?
It's a tough question for a native speaker.
Even as I'm thinking about it now, I hope we have a good answer.
Yes, we do.
But I agree.
I had to really think about it.
I had to think of a lot of examples.
I had to Google it because this is a tricky one.
And We're going to split this into two episodes because there's so much to say just about start out and start off and examples.
So stay tuned.
Make sure you're following the podcast.
Very soon we'll do a part two with those other two he asked for.
I'm up for it and I'm down with it.
Exactly.
Hit follow on the show.
I won't tell you when it's coming out, but it's coming out soon and you will miss it if you're not following the show.
So let's get into it.
All right.
Where are we going to start here?
Okay.
So this is really interesting because it's one of those things that if you google this or if you ask a native speaker, you may get some conflicting information.
There's quite a few different where people are saying oh, this one means just a little different this and this.
But the more I read examples and the more I thought about it I have come to the conclusion, Lindsay and let's see after our conversation if we still agree is that these are totally interchangeable, that in every sentence you can say start out or start off.
But what's going to be interesting is possibly not every native speaker would agree, because there are some regional dialect issues happening where, depending on where you're from, where you're born, you might be more likely to say you start out a journey or you might be more likely to say start off.
I hear both.
Both sound correct to me.
I read lots and lots of examples online and from books and I see both used very interchangeably.
So if one sounds wrong to native speakers out there, it's likely due to regional dialects.
Yeah.
And we have a lot of those situations where something we've this comes up a lot with us Aubrey, because you're from the West right.
The mountain West region.
And I'm from the Northeast, closer to Boston, the East coast.
And so we do make different choices sometimes when it comes to language.
Right.
And sometimes it's a vocabulary like this, which phrasal verb sounds more natural to us.
And sometimes it's a grammar tricky things where in your regional dialect certain grammar is accepted or you don't even realize it's a mistake because you hear it so often.
And this is one of those things where...
Some might be more likely to use one or the other.
But for your purposes, listeners, they're interchangeable.
You can use both.
So that's the end of the episode.
We're definitely going to give the meanings of these and lots of examples.
And I think you'll see like every sentence we can think of, at least both sound correct to me.
It's really interesting.
All right.
Let's talk about it when it comes to beginning anything then.
What do you think?
Both are good.
I would say let's start off by introducing our new employees.
And equally correct.
Let's start out by introducing our new employees.
Agree with you here.
I think this is fine for introducing.
Beginning anything, um to start off doing something right, or by doing out doing something.
Start out by doing something exact same meaning, Yeah.
Like, for example usually a conference starts off with a speech from the keynote speaker.
Or usually a conference starts out with a speech from the keynote speaker.
Exact same meaning.
They both sound exactly correct to me.
Yeah.
Why are there two?
English.
Who knows?
I don't know why we need both of these.
They mean the same thing.
Yeah.
This is why your native speaker friend couldn't explain it because they're the same.
What's the difference?
Is there one?
No, there isn't.
It's crazy.
But we're going to give you in this episode lots of situations where you could use these.
So let's look at another one.
Now, this is where if you search this online, you'll see some online forums disagreeing, right?
Because they'll say, I saw this several places that you only use start out for a journey.
But then I saw lots of examples online and I've definitely heard and said, Both.
Right.
So, for example, they wanted to get home early, so they started out at 8 a.m.
I for sure would also say started off.
They started off at 8 a.m. because they wanted to get home early.
Totally.
I think they're both good.
Yeah.
I think interchangeable, right?
Pretty much interchangeable.
I think I would tend to say here, start out.
But I really don't think that there's any material difference.
That's a term that we use a lot in the business world.
It doesn't matter.
I think if ever a native English speaker were to say to you like oh, I feel like that should be start out instead of start off,
It's just because in their regional dialect, that's what they hear more often.
But I hear both in TV on, you know, in movies, they're very interchangeable.
And guys, remember, you know, native speaker, grammar nerds can spend all day debating things.
But what matters here on this show to us is connection, not perfection.
That's why Allers English exists.
And both are going to help you connect.
OK, so don't waste a second worrying about it.
Yeah.
Yes.
And we want to point out that these this can be split.
Some phrasal verbs you have to keep like start out next to each other, start off next to each other.
This is one where the direct object can go between them.
So here's some examples.
You could say he started his speech out with an anecdote.
Right.
So you have started an out split by the direct object speech.
Right.
Yeah.
Or we started the meal off with an appetizer.
And I actually think this is the more interesting question.
You know, when can we do that?
When can we split that phrasal verb?
Both of these are examples of how you could split that phrasal verb and sound super natural.
Exactly.
And unfortunately, there's no rhyme or reason to which phrasal verbs can be split and which can't.
Every time you learn a phrasal verb you have to find out like.
Is this one fused together or can it be split?
Because there just seems to be no real answer to which, why, why can some and some can't.
But the best way is, as you're learning, maybe these, both of these phrasal verbs are brand new to you guys.
As you're learning them, go ahead and learn that they are both separable.
Right.
You can separate both of them and start using them in that way, instead of going back later and saying oh, what about these phrasal verbs?
Can I separate?
It becomes too mechanical, like too conceptual at that point.
Let's start using this right away.
Yeah.
Learn it as you learn the phrasal verb in the first.
Really good point.
Yeah.
All right.
So why are we not saying just start?
Right.
I think that's really interesting here because both of these just mean start.
And the more I looked into it, they're so superfluous.
They're unnecessary because absolutely.
Absolutely.
For all of these sentences, you could just say, start.
Let's start by this.
Let's start this.
But here's what's interesting.
Though it has the same meaning, phrasal verbs are always a little bit more informal, right?
So this is a way to sound a little more native and natural.
It is a little more informal.
You know, that would actually be a great episode idea.
So you guys got to hit follow on All Ears English to get this, Aubrey.
I think it'd be cool to do another episode on meaningless phrasal verbs.
Phrasal verbs that literally add no value whatsoever to the verb.
But we just other than just being a little bit more casual.
That would be a cool episode.
Yeah, it's so interesting to think about, right?
Instead of let's start off by introducing, you could just say let's start by introducing our new employees.
But that is quite a bit elevated.
It sounds a little bit more formal rather than when you use this phrasal verb.
Let's start off by doing this.
It is a little more native, a little more natural, just a little more informal.
Exactly.
So I would imagine contrasting a situation.
For example, you're giving a presentation in a business English seminar or an English sorry a professional seminar of people in your world, your industry.
You might just stick with start versus maybe you are telling stories around a campfire.
You might say, let me start off by telling you this.
Okay, so there you go.
Right, it all comes down to what's the scenario, right?
What's the situation?
What's the relationship?
How informal do I want to sound?
And then you know whether you should use phrasal verbs or not.
Yeah, but let's do that episode sometime soon, Aubrey.
I love that.
Meaningless phrasal verb.
Useless phrasal verb.
So good.
Because I think phrasal verbs do add a lot of stress for our listeners that some of it might be unnecessary.
Yeah, some of them you could just ignore.
Just use the verb.
Yeah, so we'll let you know which ones you can ignore.
Love that.
All right, what are we doing here in this role play?
Yeah, we're going to do a little role play where you and I, Lindsay, are planning a vacation.
I'll start us off.
Ready?
Did you hear that?
I'll start us off.
Nice.
So good.
Accidentally.
All right, to start off, I'd just like to say that I'm very excited about this trip.
Same.
Okay, we decided to start out in Belize, right?
Yes, but I've been thinking, what if we start off in Guatemala and then end in Belize?
That could work too.
I'm most excited about Belize, so we could save the best for last.
Let's do a hike that first morning.
What time should we plan to start out?
Maybe 10am.
I'm going to want to sleep in.
So let's not plan to start the day off too early.
Nice.
I love it.
Are you the type of person, when you're vacationing, that you want to get up early and do all the fun things?
Or do you're like, okay, time to sleep in a couple days?
Oh, usually I'm up pretty early.
I'd rather go to bed early and get up early, like eight, nine.
If I'm sleeping past nine on a vacation, when I'm traveling, there's something wrong, because I want to see the place.
I can't remember the last time I slept until nine.
That's sleeping in for me.
Like up at six.
Like, let's go play tennis.
The sun's up.
Yeah, no, I don't want I want to go out and explore for sure.
Yeah, absolutely.
OK, let's go through this.
We used all of these here.
I started with to start off.
I'd just like to say, and we do use, we use this as a linking for a linking phrase like this to start off
I would just like to say I'm very excited.
Yeah, exactly.
And this is a good example of where, if you do take off that off, it might sound a little too, Too formal.
No, I agree, right?
I wouldn't say to start.
I'd just like to say no, right?
This is a couple of friends planning a vacation.
So, though we say, these phrasal verbs are, you know, unnecessarily.
Because unnecessary?
Because the meaning is the same as to start.
We do need them really just to be more informal.
Exactly.
I love it.
So good.
And then I said same.
And that, by the way, is a bonus for today.
Oh yeah, just to answer with, same.
Incredibly natural and native.
I do that all the time.
Yeah, same.
But it's so common, guys, and it's so natural.
And I said, same.
Okay, we decided to start out in Belize, right?
Yes.
And both of these interchangeable, right?
You could say to start off or to start out.
I just like to say we decided to start off in Belize.
You can just choose either.
There you go.
Yeah, they really are interchangeable.
Yep.
And then I said, I've been thinking, what if we start off in Guatemala and end in Belize?
This might be kind of an annoying person to plan a trip with.
Like we've made some decisions and now they're like, why don't we change it?
I'll go back to the drawing board and rebook all the hotels.
Yeah.
No, thank you.
That person's voted off the trip.
Yeah.
You're off the island.
And then you said, let's do a hike that first morning.
What time should we plan to start out?
Yes, meaning to begin the hike, right?
What time should we leave?
And then you said, and this is where we divided it.
Let's not plan to start the day off too early.
So you have that direct object between the two parts of the phrasal verb.
You can divide this always.
Yeah, and as we said guys, your biggest takeaway today, for today's episode, is not so much worrying about the differences in this case.
It's more about learning that this can be separable.
Both of them can be separated.
Put the direct object in the middle and you can sound very native and natural.
Absolutely.
Yes, phrasal verbs can be so confusing, especially where some of them are separable and some of them are not.
And sometimes there are multiple versions like this with the exact same meaning, totally interchangeable.
So confusing, especially when native speakers can't even tell you sometimes what's the difference.
But today's tips, I think, have really clarified these are interchangeable.
Yeah, guys.
So for our listener here, you can go back to your native speaking friends and let them know.
Yeah, there's no difference.
They're interchangeable.
All right, guys.
So remember, this is the first in a two part series.
So you want to go ahead and hit follow right there on All Ears English.
Check that follow button so that you get the next episode.
It'll be a mystery when it's coming out, Aubrey.
We don't know.
Awesome.
I will see you in that episode very soon, Lindsay, and we'll see all of you there.
All right.
Talk to you soon, Aubrey.
Have a good one.
You too.
Bye.
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