Hey everybody, welcome to another phrasal verb episode.
I hope you're all doing great and that your English learning is going well, and that you're excited to learn a couple more phrasal verbs in a natural way through listening.
Practice hearing me repeating these phrasal verbs over and over again in different sentences as I talk to you.
So the two phrasal verbs we're going to look at today are back in, or this could also be back into and back off.
So let's start with back in, or into.
And this has two meanings, actually.
The first meaning is to reverse a vehicle into a parking space.
So instead of parking going forward into the space, you go in reverse into the parking space.
So for example, I could say, I backed slowly into the space.
And so, we're just saying you park while going in reverse.
And the other meaning of back in or back into is to hit something when you're going in reverse in a vehicle.
So, for example, I accidentally backed into a tree.
This means that I was going in reverse in my car and I hit a tree by accident.
So I was probably turning around, or maybe I was parked and I was going in reverse to then go in a different direction, and when I went in reverse I accidentally hit this tree.
I backed into the tree.
So that's back in or back into.
And then the other one I mentioned is back off.
Back off means to retreat from a specific action or confrontation.
So, for example, I could say, back off and leave me alone.
What I'm saying is, stop confronting me and threatening me or fighting with me or whatever.
Stop doing that and leave me alone.
Back off and leave me alone.
So you're telling the other person to retreat from whatever action they're doing.
Okay, so that's back off.
Now, I'm going to talk about two things, two altercations.
An altercation is like an argument that you see in public that is very heated.
The people are yelling and screaming.
This is an altercation.
So let me talk about two different altercations that I didn't actually witness, because this is fiction.
But I'm telling these two stories so I can include these phrasal verbs in different sentences more over and over again, so that by the time I'm done you should feel pretty comfortable with these phrasal verbs.
So this first altercation was caused by the fact that this man was driving his car through this parking lot and he backed into another man's Ferrari.
You know, these really luxurious cars.
So the first man was trying to back into a parking space and he didn't calculate his maneuver very well.
Your maneuver refers to the movement that you're making in the vehicle.
So he didn't calculate his maneuver well, and he backed into this Ferrari.
And unfortunately for him, the man whose Ferrari it was, was actually in the car at that time.
So the owner of the Ferrari came out and started screaming.
He was angry. yelling and screaming.
He was livid.
When someone is livid, this means that they are extremely angry.
So the owner of the Ferrari was extremely angry.
He was livid.
He was ready to fight, pretty much.
And the other guy, the guy who backed into the Ferrari.
He started out very apologetic, saying I'm sorry, I didn't mean to back into your Ferrari.
I was trying to back into this parking space.
It was an accident.
Forgive me.
But the other man was so angry and he was screaming and yelling.
He was so offensive that the first man actually started to get very angry and he stopped apologizing.
And then he started becoming very aggressive.
And the two people started yelling and screaming at each other.
And the owner of the Ferrari was saying things like Why would you back in to this parking space if you suck at driving?
Don't try to do those types of maneuvers.
Don't back in when you see a car this nice right by the parking space.
And then, of course...
The first guy was throwing insults at the second guy and it was a nasty altercation.
And the Ferrari owner actually seemed like he was getting ready to fight physically with the other guy.
And he started getting closer to the other guy.
And the other guy told him to back off.
You better back off or I'm going to beat you up.
Basically he was threatening the Ferrari owner that if he didn't back off he would be in trouble, pretty much.
But it didn't seem like the Ferrari owner was going to back off.
He just kept getting closer and closer to the other man and yelling louder and louder.
He definitely wasn't backing off.
And thankfully, there was a police officer nearby who broke up the fight before it happened.
So I almost witnessed this fight in this parking lot, but thankfully it didn't come to that.
When we say that it didn't come to something, we're saying that this thing didn't happen.
So it didn't come to that because a police officer broke up the fight, but...
This was a pretty crazy altercation because this person backed into another person's really expensive Ferrari.
Okay.
All right.
The other altercation that I want to talk about was this altercation in a different parking lot.
It was also in a parking lot. and one lady was positioning herself in the car to back into a space.
So she saw a space that she wanted to park in, and so she positioned herself so that she could back into that space.
But while she was getting ready and getting into position to back in, another woman in another car pulled into the space and stole the parking space from the first lady.
When we say that you pull into a space, we're basically saying that you park your car in that space, you drive your car into that space.
So of course you can imagine that the first woman immediately got out of her car and started yelling Like what the heck?
Couldn't you see I was backing into this space?
Why did you steal this parking space?
You saw I was about to back in.
And the second woman, she got out of her car and she stood her ground, as we say.
She didn't retreat.
She started yelling at the first lady and saying that the first lady didn't own that parking space.
So she has nothing to complain about.
The other lady got there first.
She pulled her car in first.
So what's the issue?
And the first lady got extremely angry and And when the second lady's friend saw this because she had a friend with her in the car the friend got out and tried to intervene.
But the second lady told her friend to back off.
She said, hey, I got this.
Back off.
Go back into the car.
I'm going to deal with this.
Don't try to stop me.
But the friend really tried to stop her and grabbed her, tried to bring her back into the car.
But the lady said, no, back off.
I'm going to stand my ground here.
I'm going to fight this lady if she wants to fight me.
And so she told her friend to back off and to not try to stop this fight.
That was about to happen, apparently.
And the first lady got closer.
And started yelling even louder.
And the second lady told her to back off.
Or else she was going to get hurt, let's say.
But that first lady didn't back off.
She just kept coming closer and closer.
And the second lady walked. warned her again to back off or she would punch her.
And then at this point, the friend was desperate to stop this fight from happening.
She was trying her best to get in between them, the two ladies, and she was telling the other lady that they would move the car and give her the space and that they didn't want any trouble.
But Both of the ladies told the friend to back off because this didn't involve her.
This was between the other two people.
And so neither of the ladies were scared to fight.
They were extremely mad.
They couldn't control their temper.
And Everyone else around them was just amazed to see that there was probably going to be a fight just because one lady was trying to back into a parking space.
And another lady pulled into that parking space before the first lady could back in.
It seems kind of silly, right?
But for some reason, when people are in their car, you know how it is.
People act very differently.
People tend to get very mad at each other.
Drivers get very mad sometimes at other drivers.
So these two ladies were so mad they were about to fight and neither of the ladies was gonna retreat.
They both positioned themselves to fight and that would have been a very nasty fight, I think, uh.
But thankfully the friend was able to drag the second lady away, even though the second lady was yelling at her to back off.
She was saying back off, I got this, I'm gonna destroy this woman.
She was saying all kinds of crazy things um, screaming at her friend to back off to let her fight the other woman.
But thankfully, her friend was strong enough to pull her away, even though she was resisting.
And her friend separated the two women and the fight didn't actually happen.
So that was something that could have been very ugly, but the friend saved the day.
So I hope that as I was talking, you were able to hear these two phrasal verbs over and over again and recognize them and understand their meaning and how they're used and what types of sentences.
So, I hope you feel more comfortable now using these two phrasal verbs.
So I also want to encourage you to use my advanced podcast episodes if you haven't done so yet.
I always talk about how important it is for you to start listening to English spoken fast.
I know you like this podcast because I talk slowly and clearly, but of course you eventually need to start listening to fast English.
English spoken at normal speed.
And so that's why I have my advanced episodes so you can practice with that.
If you want those, make sure to sign up to become a Listening Time family member.
The link is down below in the description.
And it's also very important for you to eventually be able to understand when two people are talking and not just one.
That's a necessary step that you'll have to take at some point.
And I've made that easier for you with my U.S.
Conversations podcast.
With that podcast, i have different conversations with different people from around the country and i provide the transcript for you with the definitions of key words and phrases that we use.
So the link to sign up for 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.
