This is an All Ears English episode rev up your brain with these phrasal verbs Welcome to the all ears English podcast Downloaded more than 200 million times.
Are you feeling stuck with your English?
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection not perfection with your American hosts Aubrey Carter the IELTS whiz and and Lindsey McMahon, the English adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, U -S -A.
Are you fired up about phrasal verbs?
Today, let's insert some energy into your English.
Plus, find out how to get access to our brand new AI conversation templates.
Want to have fast back and forth conversations with native speakers where the conversation doesn't hit a dead end?
Announcing a special offer on our C1 English Fluency course packed with tons of ways to practice your speaking.
Special offer this week only.
You can save up to $100 off the normal price.
Plus, get our new AI Conversation Guides to continue with the conversation and get unlimited speaking practice.
Enroll now at eilersenglish .com slash C1.
Offer ends June 1st at midnight.
Hello Aubrey, how are you today?
I'm great Lindsey, how are you?
Good. I'm glad to be here.
Aubrey, what is your morning routine?
How do you rev up your brain and your mind in the morning?
Definitely coffee. There are probably a lot of our listeners that are like, yes, coffee, I got to rev up your brain.
Yeah. I'm excited to dive into this vocab rev up.
I hear it a lot. It's funny.
It was recently reminded in one of our courses and after that I started hearing it everywhere.
Do you hear this a lot?
Rev up, not just with engines, but like rev up your brain, rev up your ambition.
Yeah, I like it because it has a notion of forward moving activity, right?
Yeah, I'm going to gather energy to do something big and exciting, right?
To rev up. Yeah, exactly.
And it's fun because it kind of sounds like when you rev an engine, that word rev it's sort of...
Is that onomatopoeia, or it's sort of the sound that it makes.
Yep, exactly. And our listeners who come to open conversation club, they know at the 7am time I always have my coffee right when we're when we're on the call.
I'm always revving myself up with coffee.
Coffee to rev up your brain.
For sure. So what are some sample sentences with this phrase rev up?
Yeah, so this means become more active, like we said.
You could say the company is revving up for its launch, and this is interesting too, rev up, the phrasal verb, just one V.
R -E -V, two words, up, but when you use it in present continuous like this, you double the V.
It looks kind of strange.
Very rare in English, so it's R -E -V -V -I -N -G, and then up, revving up.
Yeah, I honestly feel like a lot of native speakers wouldn't know that.
They wouldn't know how to write revving up.
They might spell it incorrectly, right?
And when we see it written, it's like, that looks strange, two V's in row.
And here's another one.
I revved up my brain with a cup of coffee.
I mean, yeah, for sure.
And same thing in past tense when it's the past participle, two V's.
It does look a little strange.
So Aubrey, where did this phrase come from?
You said it came from one of our courses.
Yes, right. It's in module three of our C1 course, Connect Over Shared Experiences.
and when we're helping create the courses and we're pulling this vocabulary from native speaker interviews, the interesting vocabulary that they use, that we actually use in conversations.
And one of them said this rev up, ever since then I hear it everywhere.
Yeah, that's the connection method, that's what I love about the connection method.
Our courses, what you learn comes directly from our non -scripted conversations with native speakers, right?
And what I love the most about C1 is that it's where we aspire to the highest levels of English exactly right we're trying to make our language more precise nuanced and sophisticated this is where I am in French too and it's an exciting place to be we're excited for all of our listeners that are there as well oh my gosh speaking of French Aubrey I took a French lesson this morning cuz I'm getting ready for a trip to Belgium it was a disaster Oh Things have gotten real bad real bad you're gonna need to spend some time working on your French there's some real gaps and that's the value of taking
the course honestly it's what I need in French is taking a focus study plan a curriculum that has been created for your level I would need at this point like an A2 curriculum for French but Lindsey's not at C one like a lot of you guys are okay we got to start somewhere yeah but I love it but we're talking about C one today guys because we have a special offer on the C one fluency course this week only Aubrey tell us about it yes you can save up to a hundred dollars on our regular price.
If you sign up before June 1st at midnight, this is a limited time offer, go to allearsenglish .com c1.
And we have something exciting here.
We have new AI Conversation guides.
So that you can extend what you learn in the course and get unlimited speaking practice.
This is very exciting.
It's super exciting.
This is the very first time.
This month is the first time we're launching this, we give you the exact prompts of what you've learned in the course to put into AI to create essentially a conversation partner for yourself to practice what you've already learned from the interviews and the lessons from the course.
It is super cool. It is super fun.
Yeah, we both tried it, right?
We're taking people we interviewed in the course, and we're sort of creating this AI robot of someone very similar that would have the same background that you can continue the conversation with.
What amazing practice.
Exactly. But they work together beautifully.
You learn the fundamentals in the course and then you extend with that unlimited speaking practice with the conversation guides.
So we'll give you a little more information at the end of the episode today, but think about it, guys, because this is how you get better.
Okay, good. Absolutely.
All right. Let's dive into the second meaning of rev up, which is very similar, but it's interesting because the first one is a verb, right?
The company is revving up.
I revved up my brain.
And then we use it just slightly differently, that means to make someone or something more active or effective.
So we are just changing it a little, changing the direct object.
You could say the coffee revved up my brain, right?
Or we are hoping these new policies will rev up the economy.
Exactly, or they're trying to get customers revved up for the launch of this new product.
So they're maybe teasing the launch, They're surveying the audience, dropping hints of what's coming, getting them revved up and ready.
Exactly, and this happens a lot with phrasal verbs.
This is kind of a little insider look into English grammar, that sometimes a phrasal verb will have these very similar meanings, but be used grammatically different in a sentence.
So, one is, means become more active, and the other one means to make something else become more active.
Very similar in use, but if you're diagramming sentences, you would notice a difference.
Super interesting. I love it and then a similar related phrasal verb fire up or get fired up also a fun one to use I think.
Yes, right this means to make something more active or intense.
We hear this a lot in sports right?
Let's get fired up or the coach is trying to fire up her players but we hear it in other ways too right, Lindsay?
Well, yeah it really makes me think of and here's a question from high school.
Did you used to go to pep rallies Aubrey do you remember pep rallies?
Yeah. Yes! Get the whole school fired up for the big game, right?
I wonder if that's a thing anymore.
I hope it is, because usually all...
Right? You come, and there's the band playing.
There's loud music.
There's someone making...
The cheerleaders are flipping around.
Yeah. Yep, yep, yep.
Five rallies. But it would usually happen during class time, I think.
So we would take class time off to all go to the gym and get our school spirit on, right?
Right. It's fun. I have a feeling they still...
I have to ask my teenagers if they should do it.
You should. You should dance.
this in other contexts besides sports for example someone you might say, after meeting with her therapist, she was fired up about making some changes.
So, this means you know really driven.
Really ambitious like, I'm gonna set some goals.
I'm excited to make some changes.
Okay and here's another example, the coach is trying to fire up her players.
Yes. Right, exactly, trying to motivate, get people fired up.
What's really tricky about this phrasal verb is there's a second meaning that's very different that means to get really upset so you might hear someone say like, oh he got really fired up when she lied to him yeah that has this totally different meaning of being really angry but also still kind of related because it means emotions are increasing right?
Exactly right emotions are more intense yeah they're on their way up right exactly so it is kind of related it just has kind of two manifestations right exactly yeah yeah And then let's get fired up.
Yeah, interesting. On a related note, one place people are often very fired up is at a graduation.
But you know what I learned, Aubrey, when I went to a graduation in Utah last weekend?
Kids don't throw their hats anymore.
They don't do that.
That's not a thing anymore.
They don't wanna lose it?
I was so shocked. We were all shocked.
We're like, okay, now they're gonna throw it.
Oh, they're gonna do it, they're gonna do it.
And then we asked my step brother after, like, why didn't you throw your hat?
He's like, oh, we don't really do that anymore.
Yeah, they didn't have my daughter's graduation either.
They kept their hats but they had these sort of poppers where they pulled it and like confetti flew up.
Okay. At least they had something.
So instead of throwing their hats, the confetti went.
So it was still a great photo with the confetti.
But I didn't even think about it.
I didn't ask but they didn't throw hats.
But it's just so iconic, this whole… Yes.
… like this idea of all you hats in the air.
And I don't know, I'm sad when some If you want your hat, you can go find it after.
I'll be saying just grab one.
It's such a fun tradition.
So, all right, good stuff.
Anything else we want to say about these three phrasal verbs, Aubrey?
Yeah, these are super interesting.
All of these phrasal verbs are … Let's do a quick role play.
Okay. To show how we'd use them in a conversation.
You and I are chatting about our fitness routines here.
Okay. Here we go. I'll start us out.
Yes. I need to rev up my workout routine.
I might get a gym membership.
Oh, good idea. That's a good motivator.
I feel like you revved up your routine when you started going to Orange Theory.
for sure their classes are really good at revving up my motivation ok that's it I'm fired up and I'm gonna go right now and sign up for a membership yeah I mean are you able to for me the whole key of for me orange theory is that there's a coach saying run they're right there firing you up run again they're keeping you fired up they make your road for me if I just joined a gym I would just go and walk on the treadmill for half an hour and watch the news you know someone in pushing you.
But we want you guys to be fired up about this new course, right?
See one, especially about these new AI conversation guides.
This is a very exciting addition, what a great way to give yourself a lot unlimited practice speaking.
Yeah, it's super cool.
First let's just go through the roleplay real quick, Aubrey, and then we'll come back to just reminding our students about the course, yeah?
Should we review the roleplay real quick?
So first I said, I need to rev up my workout routine, yeah?
Yes, and that rev up, just meaning to get more serious about it, right?
More intense with your motivation.
To increase it, right?
Increase it. And then what did you say Aubrey?
And then you, I said, I feel like you revved up your routine when you started going to Orange Theory.
So this means like whatever routine you had before, like you said, walking on a treadmill at the gym, when you went to Orange Theory, you revved it up.
You were able to intensify it, improve it.
Exactly. I love it.
and then I said, for sure, their classes are really good at revving up my motivation, and that is that weird way of spelling where we have a double v, okay?
Exactly, both revved up that I said and revving up, both of these are gonna double that v, keep an eye out for that, that's tricky spelling.
And then what Aubrey, what's the last thing we said?
And I said, I'm fired up, and I'm gonna go right now and sign up for a membership.
And I will say this, right, if I get excited about something, I get motivated like, okay, that's it, I'm fired up, let's do it.
Then you have to take action right then, right, to make sure it happens, yeah, for sure.
Yeah exactly, totally.
Yeah, and the cool thing about this new AI piece that we've added to the courses, is it's not just about speaking with the AI forever.
It's about building your skills so when you come to our live community speaking events, you are ready, right?
So, that's the beautiful combination of the curriculum, the community events, and the AI operators.
Absolutely, AI is never going to be able to replace people, right?
this is great conversation practice but you're going to get to a point where there's just not as much creativity right it's still a robot in the end but it's going to give you that practice you need to build fluency and confidence so that you're ready to practice with people over zoom or with those for those in -person conversations exactly so we've got all the bases covered so guys to get access to these brand new AI conversation guides and to save a hundred dollars on the course go to all ears English comm slash C one that's letter number one before June 1st at midnight.
All right. Yes, don't miss out.
We are excited to see you in our community and for you to take advantage of all that we have in that C1 course.
So cool! Aubree, where should we leave our listeners today?
Yes, well the best way to rev up your English learning is learning vocabulary, strategies, grammar, grammar structures that native speakers actually use, right?
We often say this, we're teaching something that you won't find in a textbook.
Right? A lot of the language we actually use in real conversations, what we use in our courses from native interviews, is not what you'll find in a textbook.
Yeah. And I would say also to make sure there's energy in your learning, always be questioning your methods, right?
If you're doing something that's kind of feeling kind of meh, like kind of average, change the method, do something different.
You want to keep a life in our learning.
OK? Absolutely. You want to stay fired up about what you're learning.
Totally. Love it. All right.
Good stuff. We hope to see you guys It's Inside the C1 Course.
Aubrey, I'll talk to you very soon.
Have a good day. Talk to you soon.
Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English.
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