Hey everybody, welcome to another phrasal verb episode.
This is the second phrasal verb episode that I've done.
I hope that you enjoyed the first one and I hope that it helped you learn those phrasal verbs that we talked about in that episode and that it felt natural for you.
It didn't feel like you were forcing the phrasal verbs into your head through just some unnatural method, just trying to memorize things.
The point of these phrasal verb episodes is to help you learn different phrasal verbs, naturally to help you absorb them, just like you absorb other vocabulary when you're listening and when you're reading.
So in today's phrasal verb episode, we're going to talk about the phrasal verb act up, and this phrasal verb has some different meanings and we're going to look at three different situations in which we use this phrasal verb in english.
So one of the situations in which we use the phrasal verb act up is when we're talking about children behaving badly.
Okay, so when a child behaves badly, you can sometimes say that that child is acting up.
So an example sentence could be, that student has been acting up all week.
So this means that that student has been misbehaving all week.
They haven't been behaving well or behaving as you expect them to behave.
So that's one situation.
Another situation in which we use this phrasal verb is when we're talking about a machine that is operating badly.
It's not operating the way it's supposed to.
So, for example, a computer.
If a computer is not operating the way it's supposed to, it has some problems.
You can say that it's acting up.
Or, for example, when it comes to vehicles, maybe a car's engine can act up.
So for example, I could say, my car's engine has been acting up recently.
This means that the engine has had problems.
It hasn't operated the way that it's supposed to.
And one other situation in which we can use the phrasal verb act up is when we're talking about a chronic condition that someone has that becomes painful or inflamed.
So imagine a condition that you have that's chronic, right like it lasts for a long time, or maybe your whole life, and sometimes it feels okay, but sometimes it feels worse.
During those times when it feels worse or when the problem intensifies, we can say that it acts up.
So, for example, my arthritis is acting up again.
So in that sentence the person is saying that they have this condition arthritis and in this particular moment it's causing them pain.
Versus in other moments it might not be as bad.
So in this moment their arthritis is acting up.
Okay?
So now I'm going to talk about a few topics in a natural way.
This will be normal listening practice for you.
But I'm also going to include this phrasal verb in different sentences.
This phrasal verb will show up a lot.
So let me talk a little bit about how kids sometimes act up when they go through major changes, or there are changes around them or in their environment, or when they want more attention from their parents.
So I can think of the example of my son, who has lived through a lot of changes and particularly moving to different houses and cities.
So my son is very young, but he has lived in a lot of different environments already.
And this isn't the easiest thing for a kid.
When you move to a completely new environment, that kid might not feel very comfortable right away.
They miss their old environment or they might be confused about why they're There are all of these changes and they have to sleep in a different room now.
That's not always easy.
And due to that, it's entirely possible that the kid can act up.
And by the way, the phrase due to that just means because of that.
So due to these changes, kids can sometimes act up.
They can sometimes misbehave.
They don't behave how they normally would.
And it's like their way of showing that something isn't comfortable for them or They're not entirely comfortable in their environment with the new changes.
So this is a normal thing, right?
When my son had to suddenly sleep in a completely different room, in a different place.
This wasn't easy for him and there were times when he acted up, so particularly with sleeping.
When these changes have happened um oftentimes uh, he has acted up uh, when it's bedtime or in the middle of the night.
Even he'll wake up multiple times and cry or complain or something like that, or he won't want to go to bed, and of course that's not normal behavior.
Or it's not the normal behavior that we want, right?
We want him to go to bed on time and sleep through the night, etc.
So he'll sometimes act up though, if we're going through a lot of changes and it's stressful for him and maybe he won't sleep as well.
And another time when kids might act up is when they want more attention from their parents.
And I can think of this example how recently.
My back has been acting up, actually.
I've had some issues with my nerve, I think, in my lower back.
And sometimes it acts up.
Sometimes it's not that bad.
But recently...
It's been acting up.
And because of that I can't do all the same things with my son that I can do if I feel perfectly fine.
So I might not be able to play in the same way, right?
And sometimes I just have to take a break and not play at all.
And my son feels that, right?
He feels that difference and he feels like he's not getting the same attention maybe.
And so he might act up because of that, because my back is acting up and I can't be with him anymore in that really playful physical environment as much.
But that's something that we have to deal with and get used to and adapt to and of course I want to try to feel better so that my son doesn't feel like I can't play with him as much or whatever.
So, speaking of physical issues and things like my back acting up, I've been exercising more recently to try to prevent some of these issues, some of the common issues that people experience as they age.
Because as you get older, things change with your body.
Your joints sometimes start acting up.
Your joints are things like your knees and your ankles, those parts of your body.
When you get older, those joints might start acting up your lower back, like I already mentioned, for some people it's really hard to do different things if their lower back is acting up, and so I want to prevent some of these things from happening and to stop some of these things from acting up if they're conditions that I already have or if they're just kind of normal things that you experience when you're older.
Our bodies are kind of like cars in the sense that if you don't take care of them, things can start acting up right.
If you don't take care of your body, certain parts of your body might not feel good.
You might have pain.
You might not feel like you can move the same way that you used to or do the same things that you used to do.
You might start hearing different sounds that you didn't hear when you were younger things that pop and crack and things like that.
And it's like that with cars too, right?
If you don't take care of your car, things can act up.
I remember a couple years ago, my brakes were acting up and I was having issues with them, and it was simply because I hadn't serviced my brakes in a long time.
And the word service here.
When we use it as a verb, we use it to talk about getting work done on your car or maintenance on your car.
So you service your brakes, for example.
You service different parts of your car.
So I hadn't serviced them in a long time.
They hadn't been checked in a long time.
And that was the problem.
It was because I hadn't taken good care of my car.
So that... is one example of that.
But this happens all the time.
I'm sure many of you have experienced this, where you kind of have an older car maybe, and and you don't think to take it to the mechanic every so often and a lot of time goes by and then suddenly you start to hear noises or suddenly your engine starts to act up, it starts to sound strange or It's not running the way you expect it to run right.
So that happens when you don't take care of your car.
But even if you do take care of your car, things can start acting up just because the car gets older, right?
You put more miles on your car. and it gets older and things start to wear down a little bit.
When we say that something wears down, this means that it gets older and you use it more, so it's not in perfect condition.
It gets worse over time.
This is what happens when something wears down.
So even if you take good care of your car, things wear down over time and things start acting up.
And of course, you have to replace certain parts.
And sometimes it even happens before your car is old.
So if it isn't a very well-built car, then these issues might come up early on.
Things might start acting up when it doesn't even have a lot of miles on it.
And that's not good.
And it's for this reason that I really value having a reliable car more than anything else in terms of what I look for in a car.
I'm not a car person.
I'm not interested in cars in the way that some other people are.
And my dream car is simply the most reliable car.
Whatever the most reliable car is.
I don't know which one it is, but whatever it is, that's my dream car.
Because I don't like it when things are constantly acting up and I have to take it to the mechanic all the time.
And I don't want to break down when I'm driving.
I want things to run well.
And for that reason, the main thing that I look for when it comes to cars is the reliability.
If it's not reliable, then I don't want it.
That's the main criteria, let's say.
So I think that some of you might agree with me when it comes to this or maybe not, but I think we can all agree that it's good to take care of our car and our body so that things don't start acting up and you don't have problems all the time, right.
I think that's important.
So I hope that, through everything I just said and talked about, you were able to really absorb this phrasal verb act up, and you probably heard it I don't know how many times, but many times.
And you heard it in those different situations with kids, with pain in your body conditions, things like that, and with machines like cars.
So hopefully you were able to absorb it and it's a little more familiar to you now, and the next time that you hear it, hopefully you'll be able to at least notice it and say, oh yeah, I remember that phrasal verb from that episode right.
So I hope that this was helpful for you, and I want to encourage you to also start using more difficult content for your listening, and so one of the best ways you can do that is is to use my advanced podcast episodes, and so if you sign up to become a listening time family member, you'll get two new advanced episodes every month in which i speak fast, at normal speed.
So this is the practice that you need in order to reach a more advanced level of listening.
So I encourage you to sign up for those advanced episodes.
And, of course, you can use my US Conversations podcast to practice, with two people talking and not just one.
So the link to sign up to that is also down below.
All right.
Thank you for listening to this phrasal verb episode.
And I'll talk to you in the next one.
