This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2552.
How to master confusing past tense verbs in English.
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Do you get confused by English grammar when you have to put two word phrases in the past tense?
Today, clear up your confusion and get some great examples with a common phrasal verb.
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Hey, Aubrey, what's shaking?
I'm doing great.
How are you, Lindsay?
Good.
Aubrey, how often do you blow dry your hair?
Hmm, about once or twice a week for recording on video.
If you see my hair kind of straight looking nice, I blow dried my hair.
We're so honored for that.
I never do.
What about you, Lindsay?
You're so luxurious.
Yeah, no, I never blow dry my hair and I don't even really... brush my hair.
I comb it in the shower but I don't do anything, because when you have curly hair, you have to.
You can't do those things.
It'll make it all poofy and weird.
Take special maintenance.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Special, special projects here.
But yeah.
Why are we talking about this, Aubrey?
So this verb came up recently because native speakers struggle with it in the past.
I think I just said I blow dry my hair and there's like blow dried.
Michelle went to say it, you know, and she was like wait, is it blow dried or blue dry?
And I was like, let me think.
Two word verbs can be really confusing, especially in the past.
For sure.
Because some function as single verbs and some are phrasal verbs, and this changes their past tense form.
So we're really going to get into this today for our listeners.
Yeah.
Yes.
With lots of examples.
It's going to be fun.
But first, a quick grammar lesson.
This is interesting.
Yeah.
Most native speakers actually are not aware of this grammar.
So after this little brief lesson, you will be above and beyond most native speakers.
Love it.
So the difference between compound verb and phrasal verb, what do we think it is?
Exactly.
So a compound verb is this broad category for any verb that's made of multiple words.
So some include auxiliary verbs like will go or is running.
And then some are combinations of multiple words like babysit, daydream, backflip.
And then what's a phrasal verb, Lindsay?
Different, right?
A phrasal verb is a type of compound verb that forms a new idiomatic meaning.
And this is the key.
It has to change the meaning when you put the verb and the preposition together, right?
Exactly.
Like blow off, meaning to dismiss something or give in, meaning to do what someone wants, right?
So it's a base verb plus an adverb or a preposition.
Right.
So we know that the phrase blow off does not mean the same thing as blow.
So that's how it changes the meaning.
Right.
Exactly.
So essentially, all phrasal verbs are compound verbs, but not all compound verbs are phrasal verbs.
And here's what's really tricky.
Many words can be both depending on the context.
Oh, my gosh.
For example, look up.
What about this one?
Look up.
Yeah.
So when it means the direction one is looking.
It's just a verb with a preposition, right?
A common verb.
I looked up from my book and saw she was leaving.
But what if it's a phrasal verb, Lindsay?
When it's a phrasal verb, it would mean search for information, right?
So I need to look up my flight times.
I need to look up that word in the dictionary.
That then changes the meaning of look slightly, right?
Exactly.
It means like research actually has nothing to do with the direction one is looking.
So yes, very interesting.
So blow dry, this is a single verb.
And there's a reason native speakers mess it up a lot in the past tense because it functions as a single verb meaning to dry something with a blow dryer.
It's not a typical phrasal verb where the meaning changes dramatically.
It just combines blow and dry to describe an action forming a compound verb.
And also we would need a preposition there for it to be a phrasal verb, right?
We don't have a preposition.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This is a compound verb.
It's just combining two words.
Yeah.
But when you change the tense, you change the whole verb.
So blow dry becomes blow dried, not blue dry.
So like she blow dried her hair this morning.
Yes.
Nice.
And the reason this is I was going to say.
The reason this mistake is common is that when it's a phrasal verb, it works differently in the past right.
Okay.
Yep.
Tell us more, Aubrey.
What do we mean by that?
So for phrasal verbs, the particle remains unchanged.
And the main verb, blow, is changed to past tense.
So let's give some examples.
For example, the phrasal verb blow out, meaning like to extinguish a flame.
How would we say this in the past tense?
In the past tense, of course, we say she blew out the candles on her cake.
So then we are putting that blow into the past tense.
Right.
Exactly.
Or it could also mean for a tire to burst.
And if we say this in the past tense, I was late because my tire blew out on the highway.
So we can see why you know speakers make this mistake, because we do hear phrasal verbs with blew in the past, tense blew out.
We got a couple more examples here, but blow dried.
Right.
Or blow up, another phrasal verb here, right?
A couple of different meanings though.
Explode, right?
The old boiler suddenly blew up last night, right?
Yeah, this means there was an actual explosion.
It blew up.
But it could also mean a person's becoming very angry, right?
She blew up when she heard the news.
Does not mean she literally exploded.
She got angry.
Right.
Or another meaning.
Oh, my gosh.
There are three meanings.
Enlarge a photo or an image.
I blew up the photo for the presentation.
Yeah.
Sometimes you might go on vacation and you take a great photo of, let's say, a pyramid or something, and then you want to blow it up.
You take it into the Photoshop and you make a poster.
Right.
Exactly.
Right.
And so you can, of course, say enlarge.
But as with many verbs, we also have a phrasal verb that means the same thing.
You can blow it up.
I blew up the photo.
And the worst one is when we blow up at someone.
Right.
Which we do sometimes.
Yeah, we do.
It happens. with someone and yell at them.
Maybe he blew up at his coworker during the meeting.
So this doesn't just mean he got angry and sat there silently.
It would mean you took it out on them.
You reacted.
Maybe you yelled at them.
I feel like typically this will happen more at home or with a spouse or something, but it could happen at work, for sure.
If you got really angry for some reason, maybe.
Yeah, for sure.
Not good.
Not good.
Okay, Aubrey, let's deploy these in a role play because I know that our listeners love role plays.
Guys, by the way, before we go any further in the episode, make sure you hit the follow button.
Just take a second as you're listening.
Go ahead into the show.
Hit follow on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Or if you're watching on YouTube, hit the subscribe button.
Okay?
Yes.
Absolutely.
Okay, Lindsay, you and I are friends getting ready for a birthday party in this role play.
All right.
I'll start us out.
Ready?
Yes.
Lindsay, can I borrow your hair dryer?
I blow-dried my hair before coming over, but it's still damp.
Sure.
I'm almost done frosting the cupcakes, and then I'll grab it for you.
Oh, wow.
Those look amazing.
I can't wait for her to blow out the candles.
By the way, did you hear about Angie's bike tire last night?
It totally blew out on her way home.
Oh, no.
Seriously?
I've been meaning to call her.
She actually blew up at me over a misunderstanding, and we need to talk.
Oh, sorry to hear it.
Hopefully she comes tonight and you two can chat.
Oh, Aubrey, why'd you put cupcakes in this?
I'm hungry now.
Now you want a cupcake?
I do want a cupcake.
Well, it's funny.
Some cupcakes like at kids' birthday parties, I cannot stand.
I don't know if listeners out there, if you have these where... Fake tasting?
And it has this giant glob of frosting that will like stain everything.
It's like purple or green or something.
Get those away from me.
Sure.
Some cupcakes, like from a bakery, adult cupcakes.
Oh my gosh.
So good.
So good.
So we used a lot of instances here of the phrasal phrasal verbs with blow.
So, for example, we started with our nemesis here.
Right.
I blow dried my hair before coming over.
Right.
Yes, exactly.
And you may hear native English speakers say I blew dry my hair because we have all of these other phrasal verbs with blow here.
That would say blew out, blew up at me.
So it's an easy mistake to make.
Yeah, don't worry about it if they make that mistake, right?
Because again, we're here for connection, not perfection.
We're not going to call people out on it.
We would not recommend you correct them.
Maybe just laugh with them because they might even say that.
They'll be like, blue dried?
Blow dried?
Yeah, just laugh with them.
You can be the one that knows.
And then come back to the story, the point of why they're speaking, right?
The connection.
Good.
What else?
Then I said, I can't wait for her to blow out the candles.
Of course, past tense would be she blew out the candles.
That's extinguishing a flame.
Often when you blow out those candles on a birthday cake or a cupcake.
Yeah.
And then we're talking about Angie's bike tire.
She had an unfortunate incident.
Her tire blew out on her.
Oh, sorry.
On her way home.
Not on her.
Blew out on her way home.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So when she was riding home, the tire blew. exploded, whatever it was, it blew out.
So we'll also use the noun to have a blowout for either a bike tire or a car tire.
That's when the tube needs replaced or the tire needs replaced.
That just gave me a great episode idea, Aubrey.
I misread that phrase and I thought it said it blew out on her, period.
When something happens to you, right?
Oh, my car broke down on me.
Does that mean on top of me?
Like, no.
You would not survive that.
No, you would not survive that.
But that deserves an episode, don't you think?
Absolutely.
Be sure to hit follow.
We will definitely plan a follow up about that.
Good.
All right.
So what else did we say here?
All right.
Then I said, I've actually been meaning to call her.
She blew up at me over a misunderstanding.
Now, this is interesting because I could be exaggerating.
You know, maybe she just snapped at me.
Or she could have fully yelled at me.
It's kind of hard to know when someone says she blew up at me.
Everyone, this is sort of subjective.
Everyone has different tolerances for how angrily someone speaks to them.
Or for some people, a blow up is, you know, no big deal.
But it also depends on the person's baseline personality.
Yeah.
This reminds me sometimes my kids will say, don't yell at me.
And I'm like, I was not yelling.
Right.
I might have been speaking strictly.
Yeah.
You should hear me yell.
I don't think you ever.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, that's a threat.
I love that.
Right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Totally.
No, it really depends on the personality.
So these are all such common examples.
Guys, this, you know, blow up this phrase.
You're going to blow in, blow up, blow up.
You're going to see it everywhere.
OK, so just be ready for it.
Go back and review today's episode.
It's really natural English.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And there are six more phrasal verbs with the word blow, but they each have a lot of meaning, multiple meanings like today's.
So we're actually going to make this a three part series.
So follow for part two and part three, and we'll cover all of those fun phrasal verbs.
Awesome.
Looking forward to that.
So we will come full circle and Aubrey, I'll see you in the next one.
You have a good day.
All right.
Bye.
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