If you're a really good English speaker, you're probably watching this lesson and you're thinking how can I get to the advanced level?
In this lesson, I'll teach you phrases that will help you do this.
You'll be in an English conversation with a native speaker and you'll hear someone say I think I'm going to go through with it or I'm going to make up for it.
And you might think... exactly do they mean?
Well, these are beyond basic phrases.
These are phrasal verbs.
And in today's lesson, I'm going to teach you advanced phrasal verbs, just like these ones, that will help you understand native speakers.
And by the end of this lesson you will thoroughly understand these phrasal verbs enough to use them in your own English speaking.
Let's get started with this lesson.
Oftentimes, you'll hear native speakers say that they come up against something.
This means they have a difficulty or a problem that they weren't expecting.
Something I come up against?
In a professional context, you might hear someone say, we've come up against a big problem here.
This means that it was kind of unexpected and we have a roadblock or something blocking our success or our completion of this project.
If you're in a sports context on a team and you know you're going to come up against some really good teams or some other good competitors, you might warn your own team and say we are going to come up against some really good competition, some literal difficult competition.
You might ask someone, what problems do you think I'll come up against here?
This is just asking you know what are going to be the roadblocks or the challenges in this situation?
The phrasal verb to keep up with is used in a few different contexts, and it's very common.
You might think of someone having to keep up with trends.
This means they are trying to dress with fashion, fashionable clothing, what is popular in the moment?
Or you might have a grandma or someone who is older in your life and they are trying to keep up with technology.
My own grandmother always tries to keep up with technology.
I really admire her for it.
But I know it's quite difficult if you are not just growing up.
You're a young person growing up with technology.
You know, this came into your life older.
You're just trying to keep up with everything.
That means you're trying to understand the new things.
Keeping up with the Kardashians?
Quite literally, we use this phrase over keep up to mean like keep the same pace.
Maybe you're trying to get someone to work faster or just to literally walk faster or run faster.
We use keep up in this situation as well.
If you're struggling to learn a new skill and you feel like you should be at you know more progressed part of the skill, you could say I'm having a hard time keeping up and learning.
Do you have someone in your life that you look up to?
If you look up to someone, it can be someone who is older than you or the same age or even younger.
It just means you admire them and you want to be like them.
I always look up to mothers and grandmothers who have raised really kind and respectful children or large families, because I just know the challenges that comes to this.
And it's hard to be such a good parent and to raise respectful, kind kids into adults.
I look up to these people.
This phrasal verb is used very exclusively just to say that someone inspires you and makes you want to do better.
They're motivating to you.
Oftentimes we say that kids really look up to professional athletes and that professional athletes need to set a good example, and they need to, you know, not do things in life that are bad behavior.
Let's go back to that phrasal verb that I mentioned in the beginning of this lesson, to make up for something.
When you make up for something, it means you are compensating.
You are doing something extra or doing something good to make up for a mistake or to make up for a wrongdoing or some sort of bad behavior.
I can't make up for what I've done to you.
If you forget someone's birthday, you might want to get them flowers later, because typically flowers are just kind of an extra gift.
Like they show that you're sorry.
They show that you made effort and hopefully the person will forgive you for forgetting their birthday if you get them flowers.
Oftentimes, if you promise someone that you're going to do something and you forget or for some reason you can't do it, you'll say I will make up for it by doing this extra thing for you.
If you're wasting time at work, you might tell your boss I'm going to make up for the time that I wasted by staying late today.
So you're trying to compensate for a mistake or something bad that you did when you use this phrase.
It's used really commonly in apologies as well.
You're just trying to make the situation right.
You're trying to make everyone happy.
Do you have something right now that you're trying to cut out?
When we cut out a bad behavior or a bad habit, it means we're trying to stop doing it or we're trying to eliminate something.
Oftentimes people will try to cut out sugar or cut out fast food from their diet.
That means they're trying not to eat these things in an effort to be healthier.
Cut it out.
Cut what out?
One really big issue for parents like myself is screen time.
So the amount of time that kids are spending with technology watching TV or playing on a tablet or things like that.
And parents are always trying to find ways to cut out this time for their kids, because we're finding out that it's not good for kids to be watching too much TV or playing too many games, or whatever it might be.
If you're trying to cut out smoking, it means you're just trying to stop smoking, or if you're trying to cut out drinking, you're trying to stop this bad habit as well.
This next phrasal verb, it's used as a phrasal verb, but it's also used as a noun.
I use it pretty frequently as a noun.
I say, I had a falling out with someone.
It means I had a fight with someone and it ended our relationship.
This obviously doesn't happen very often.
For me, but I might be talking about two other people, like they had a falling out or they fell out over this issue.
A lot of times people will fall out over politics or arguments about religion.
These are really common reasons for people to fall out or end their relationship completely over a conflict.
When there's a falling out.
Hopefully you never fall out with your friend over money or anything like this.
To hand out.
So if you hand out something, you're giving something to someone or you're giving it to a lot of different people.
I'm going to hand out my invitations to a party.
This means physically you're going to give them to people.
Or oftentimes this brazil verb is used in a classroom context.
The teacher is going to hand out the worksheets or hand out the papers.
Any hotels?
If you've ever went to Costco, they hand out free samples to everyone.
So if you want to try the foods that are there, they have little foods prepared and they're handing them out to people for free.
And typically this phrasal verb hand out, it means that you're giving something away for free.
If you're using it in a context like we're handing out food, this means that you're not paying for it, we're just giving it away.
It's really important not to leave people out because it can hurt their feelings.
This phrasal verb.
To leave out it means either to forget someone from the group or to exclude someone from the group.
Oftentimes, kids will leave out one of their peers.
So they'll invite everyone you know to a party or to hang out, and you know they're trying to be.
Either mean or like.
They're having some sort of conflict, so they won't invite a person to leave them out.
People get their feelings hurt.
They feel very badly when they're left out.
If you want to say you feel like you're just not a part of the group, you can say I feel very left out.
What you leave out.
We use this phrasal verb to leave out when we're talking about groups of people, but it's also very commonly used when we're talking about excluding information.
For instance, if you are writing a news article, maybe you're a reporter And you are kind of biased.
You want everyone to believe that something happened.
You might leave out some details that contradict what you want people to believe.
Obviously, this wouldn't be good journalism.
It's just an example here.
It happens a lot in the real world.
Sometimes, when people tell a story and the other person you know notices they forgot to say something.
You could say you left out the most important part, or you left out the most important detail.
This means you forgot to tell the part of the story that is really interesting or makes the story make more sense.
This is a really common way we use this phrasal verb in English as well.
Now we're moving on from leave out to let out.
If you let out something, you let it escape or you release it.
Oftentimes my friends who have dogs will say, I'm going home to let out the dog.
This means you're letting the dog go outside, usually to use the bathroom.
Let it out.
Let it out.
My kids have a pet rabbit and I always say, hey, can you go let out the rabbit?
He needs some exercise.
You know, I'm trying to teach my kids how to be good pet owners.
The rabbit usually stays in cage, but they let it out and they let it run around.
We also use let out when we're talking about our own emotions or expressions.
A really common one is I let out a sigh.
A sigh is, ah, I let out a sigh of relief.
Ah.
Or another one is I let out a burp or I let out a scream when I was scared.
So it's an unexpected kind of noise or expression.
A really, really common phrasal verb is keep on.
If you say keep on doing something, you mean continue it.
Don't stop.
Keep on.
Keep on fighting.
So if somebody's talking is annoying you maybe it's just loud or distracting and you feel like they just keep doing it and doing it.
Maybe you've even asked them to stop.
You could say he just keeps on talking.
This means like he doesn't really consider, you know, everyone else's opinions on his talking around here.
Or maybe you're talking about someone who's really persistent.
They keep trying something, even though they're having trouble mastering the skill or they're failing.
You could say they just keep on doing it again and again.
This just means they're continuing their effort.
And usually this is a positive thing if we say they're keeping on doing it.
They're not quitting.
A really important phrasal verb is to fill in for.
Typically we say fill in for someone or something.
So, for instance, if you are going to be not doing your job for a while, maybe you're having a baby or maybe you have, you know, a family situation where you need to take a lot of time off of work you can say that someone needs to fill in for you at your job.
Maybe you're at a volunteering event, kind of a job, but you might be done working at whatever you're doing.
You might say, hey, I have someone over here that can fill in for me.
That means they're going to do the job for me.
Who will be filling in for me?
So we really just use fill in for when we're talking about someone temporarily doing someone else's job or duties.
Let me let you in on a secret.
This phrasal verb.
To let in on it means to share a secret or to share you know a story that isn't public.
This phrase is pretty informal.
It's pretty playful in English.
It's often fun to say like, let me let you in on a little secret.
And then you tell the person the secret.
And it's usually not something super duper serious.
So when something gets really intense or a person is being really intense or putting on a lot of pressure, you could say they need to ease off.
We use this phrase ease off when we mean like lighten the pressure or just don't be so intense.
Maybe it's time to ease off, huh?
We can say if it's raining really hard outside and then the rain kind of slowly stops, we could say the rain is easing off.
It's becoming less intense.
After the pandemic, people slowly started to ease off all of the restrictions that were in place for health and safety.
If you look down on someone, it means you think they are inferior.
This phrase is definitely kind of a negative thing to look down on someone.
You're not looking down on us, are you?
Some people think that education, your degrees and your titles are the most important thing.
And they look down on people who don't have a college degree.
Well, I think this is wrong, because I think you can be very smart without ever having gone to college or attending any sort of formal education.
Some people look down on it.
Sometimes I say, you know, I look down on people who are doing things that aren't very moral.
For instance, they're stealing or they're being racist or things like that.
I would look down on a person like that.
Typically though, we use to look down on someone where we're saying like we're being very arrogant or judgmental.
It's not seen as a good thing typically to look down on people.
It's important to life to have friends that will stand by you no matter what the circumstances are.
This means that even if you're going through challenging times in life maybe you lose your job, go through a breakup, maybe you gain weight you have friends that are always there to support you and still will love you and care for you.
So this is what it means to stand by someone, to support them under any circumstance.
You can also say that you are going to stand by your decision.
This means you're going to be very loyal to your decision.
You're not going to change your mind or support another idea.
The next phrasal verb, to get through, we use it in two different ways.
So first we can say, we got through something difficult.
Maybe you have your final exams or a big project deadline.
If you get it done, you're successful, you say, I got through my exams or I got through my deadline.
This means you achieved it.
We'll get through this.
We can also say that we are going to make contact with someone, usually on the phone or maybe even through the internet nowadays.
Like back in the day.
You know, If you called someone and they were already on the phone, you would get a busy sound.
Like you can't get through to their phone.
This means you can't contact them.
So you could say, I tried calling, but I couldn't get through.
Now there might be other reasons.
Maybe their phone's off or something.
Maybe you know, for some reason they don't have their phones because I just couldn't get through to you.
It means I couldn't contact you.
I couldn't make you understand or whatever it might be.
Here's a phrasal verb that we use for monologues. more serious situations.
When we are going to go through with something, it means we're going to go with a plan.
We're going to do it.
We're going to execute it, even though it's going to be hard, maybe emotionally or just challenging.
Like, for instance, sometimes people in a relationship when they want their marriage to end, they will go through a divorce.
Or if they feel like they want to get divorced and then they change their mind, they could say I didn't go through with the divorce.
This means you did not execute the plan.
Maybe you have something physically wrong with you and you're debating on different methods of treatment.
Maybe you can take medication.
Maybe you can get surgery.
You could say, I'm going to go through with the surgery.
This means you're going to execute this plan, even though surgery seems scary and difficult.
To go against.
If we go against someone or something, we're going to oppose it.
So you could say, I'm going to kind of go against popular beliefs here.
This means you're going to say the opposite, even though it's popular.
Or oftentimes we just use it in sports or any sort of competition.
Like these two people are going against each other.
A fun way that we say we're going to accept someone's plan or we're going to agree to something is we say we're going to go along with it.
I'll go along with it today.
This means normally you don't like to do it in this way or you wouldn't agree with this person, but you're going to go along with it today.
I just go along with it.
Maybe you are deciding with a group of friends what kind of food you want to eat.
And a lot of your friends say, I really want pizza.
And you're like, I really want to go get Chinese food.
You might say, well, I'll just go along with what you guys want since you all want it together.
It implies you're kind of reluctant to agree, but you're going to do it.
The next two phrasal verbs have to do with revenge.
The first one is to get back at someone.
So this just literally means to take revenge.
You're going to do something as negative as the person did to you.
So maybe your ex, you know... lying to you about something.
And so to get back at them, you're going to spread rumors about them or something like that.
This is a horrible example.
A lot of times you can use this in a more playful way.
Maybe you're playing a video game or something.
And in the video game, you know, somebody shoots you or whatever it might be.
You say, I'm going to get back at you.
This means I'm going to get my revenge.
It's a playful, informal phrasal verb.
Okay, so the next phrasal verb also has to do with revenge, but it can be used more simply as well.
So to pay back.
If you pay back someone, you give them the money that you owe them.
Someone gave you a loan, you're going to pay it back.
Now we can also say that you're going to get payback when you're going to get revenge on someone.
It's exactly like get back at someone.
Anything you pay, I'll pay you back.
So sometimes we talk about cutting things out, like eliminating them.
For instance, we're going to cut out sugar.
But sometimes we just say we're going to cut back on something, which means we're just going to reduce it, but not eliminate it or get rid of it completely.
A lot of times people want to have better habits.
So they might say I'm going to cut back on my spending or I'm going to cut back on my expenses, if they're trying to save money.
Or I'm going to cut back on sugar or I'm going to cut back on social media.
You're just kind of reducing your habits here.
Now, if you're not just reducing, but you're getting rid of it completely, you can say you're going to do away with something.
This is a really informal phrase that just means you're going to stop using something or you're going to get rid of it.
For instance, some people are trying to do away with plastic bags because they're really harmful to the environment.
They're trying to get everyone to use reusable grocery bags rather than just taking a single plastic bag for every part of their groceries.
When something lasts longer than it needs to and just feels boring.
It feels like it's taking a long time, you feel impatient.
You can say this is really dragging on.
A lot of times when I'm sick, especially in the winter, during cold and flu season, it feels like my sicknesses just drag on.
Like I just want to feel healthy and it feels like it's taking a long time for my body to fight a cold or to fight a flu.
It could drag on for quite a while.
If you're in a meeting at work and it's taking a really long time, you could say this meeting is dragging on.
Just be careful about who you say this to, because it's definitely a negative thing if you say that something is dragging on.
It means it's boring and it feels like it's taking too long.
If you feel like you fit in.
It means if you feel like you have a lot in common with everyone around you and you feel like you belong to the group.
It doesn't feel good when you don't feel like you fit in.
It feels like you feel like you're not like everyone else and no one really understands you.
I think this is a really common feeling around the world.
I want to be interesting.
I want to fit in with you guys.
It's important when you are finding a job that you fit in with people at work, because it will just help you work as a team and get along with people.
Give away is a really important phrasal verb because it can be used in two different ways.
First, if you're giving something away, it means you're kind of donating it or giving it to someone for free.
A lot of times people go on Facebook groups that have items that people in their community are giving away.
It's called a buy nothing group.
I'm in a ton of them.
I love buy nothing groups because you can give things to people or you can find things that people don't want.
For instance, last summer I found a badminton set that someone was giving away for free and I was really excited and my family really enjoyed playing badminton.
We can also say you're giving away when someone is revealing some sort of information or a secret or the answer that they didn't want everyone to know.
You're giving away the answer.
Recently, I was playing trivia at a baby shower.
I made up the game for my sister-in-law.
It was her baby shower.
You know, and they're all questions relating to baby.
And my aunt just kind of gave away the answer to one of the questions.
She accidentally shouted it out.
And everyone said, oh, you gave it away.
You gave away the answer.
I mean, she revealed the answer.
And she did very obviously.
Sometimes, when kids are really cute, it's hard not to give in to their wants and whatever they ask for.
For instance, a cute little kid might come up to you and say, I have a cookie, please.
And maybe you're not supposed to be giving them sugar or treats, but they're just so cute.
And maybe they ask so nice that you just have to give in.
It means you can't resist if you say give in.
If you are trying to resist something, you can say, I am not going to give in.
We use kick in when we're talking about something having an effect.
If you're sick and you take medicine, you might read on the bottle that it will have an effect in 20 minutes.
So you might say it's going to kick in in 20 minutes, meaning it's going to start working in 20 minutes.
A lot of times we say my adrenaline kicked in.
Adrenaline is a hormone in the body, you know, that makes you have a really intense emotional response.
So you say like it kind of kicked in in this really stressful situation.
It started working.
If you want to say that someone very harshly attacked someone or kind of criticized them, you could say they really laid into them.
This is pretty informal.
This is kind of like slang, even though it's phrasal verb.
You could say the coach really laid into their players after the loss.
Maybe they yelled at them and criticized them and you thought it was pretty harsh.
So if somebody has control over you or you're going to kind of escape a situation, you can say you're going to break away.
There's a famous Kelly Clarkson song called Break Away where she's describing you know, leaving her hometown being brave, like leaving a situation that's really comfortable to try to do great things.
And of course, she's an awesome singer.
So she really did that in real life.
If you break away from, you know, someone who has kidnapped you or something, it means you escaped.
Hopefully that hasn't happened to you, but this would be the phrasal verb that describes that situation.
You're not breaking away. is to brush up on.
If you are going to brush up on something, that something is either a skill that you've practiced before or some knowledge that you need to review.
Native English speakers use this phrasal verb because it's really casual.
It's almost like slang, but it just is easy to use and it's fun to say when you're talking about reviewing something.
This phrasal verb is really used commonly to talk about practicing languages.
Again.
Maybe you visited Mexico many, many years ago with your family and you spoke Spanish on the trip, but you need to brush up on your Spanish because you haven't used it since.
So it means you need to start to remember it and start to practice it.
Brush up on that spanish.
If you haven't interviewed for a job in a very long time, you may want to brush up on your interview skills.
This would be like practicing questions or reading about you know the best ways to answer questions in a job interview, whatever it might be, or even just polishing up your resume so it looks good.
So brush up on means to review or to practice something that you've done before.
Read some books.
Brush up on your history.
Another phrasal verb that goes right along with this one is to pick up a skill.
So if you pick up a skill, it means you gradually learn it over time, sometimes not super intentionally.
So again going back to languages, if you went on a trip and you stayed with people who spoke French, Maybe you started to pick up French.
You weren't going to a language class.
You weren't intentionally trying to learn it, but you were around people that spoke French so much that you started to pick it up, started to learn it little by little, gradually.
You'll pick up some social skills.
The reason why this phrasal verb is used so commonly with language is because the way that we usually learn language is not in a really formal setting.
And when we say we're going to pick up a skill or a hobby or whatever it might be, it means not in a super formal setting.
So maybe you're starting to pick up knitting.
That means you're just trying it out for the first time.
You know, maybe you've been watching your grandma and you're going to try to make something yourself.
Sammy couldn't pick up any new skills at all.
Or if you pick up piano, it means you didn't go to official formal piano lessons with a teacher.
Maybe you just listened to songs or watched YouTube videos.
And gradually, naturally over time, you started to pick up piano skills and get good at playing it.
So where'd you pick up the tracking skills, Kate?
The phrasal verb catch up.
So this one is used in two different contexts.
First, it means you need to either try to reach the same level as someone when it comes to like a skill or whatever it might be, or if someone's running ahead of you and you're trying to get to the same point as them at the same speed, you say I need to catch up to them.
It could be running or walking or whatever mode of transportation there.
Another way that we use catch up is when you're going to talk with an old friend or a colleague and you're trying to, you know, have the same knowledge, or you're trying to tell them about your life so they know what's going on in your life up to date.
I'll catch you.
This phrasal verb is really useful in social and work conversations.
That's why native speakers will be using it a lot when you're speaking English with them.
Just catch up.
Let's say you're in college or in school and you miss class a couple times in a row.
You're going to need to catch up.
So either you're going to need to go talk to your teacher, Or review the lecture notes, or talk with a classmate just to get you to the point where the rest of the class is.
You need to catch up.
Or we often say, I'm going to have coffee with an old friend and we're going to catch up.
That means just update each other on what's going on in our lives.
We'll catch up with you.
The next phrasal verb I would say is more commonly used in professional places, but you can use it in your everyday life as well.
The phrasal verb is to follow up.
So when you follow up with something or with someone, it means you're taking another action or having another conversation after something had already happened.
So in the business place, if you talk to a potential client and you think you're going to make a sale with them, but they didn't buy from you originally, you might say I'm going to follow up with you later and see how you feel.
This just means I'm going to call you again and talk about the same conversation.
I'll follow up with you later, doc.
Or if you need to check in with someone after already having a meeting with them, just to see how they're feeling about something or if they understand it, you might say I'm going to send you a follow-up email.
This is a really common way to use this phrasal verb as well.
Sure, top up next week is good.
I'll follow up with an email.
Let's talk about what native English speakers mean when they say they're going to sort out something.
A lot of times when we're talking about sorting out, we say sorting out a problem or sorting out a situation.
You're kind of implying that there is a problem or something has gone wrong and you need to figure out what happened and try to come up with a solution or a plan.
Sometimes, if you have a scheduling issue whether it's in your personal life or professional life you scheduled two things at the same time, or you were scheduled for an appointment at the same time as someone else.
You might say we need to sort this out.
So that just means we need to figure out how we're going to get everything done, even though we made a mistake originally.
We need to sort out the problem.
We'll get that sorted out.
Or if there's a minor problem while you're trying to do something with a plan and you want to reassure someone that you can get it solved later, you can say don't worry, we'll sort it all out later.
That means it won't be a problem.
We can stop and think about it at a different time.
This is a really common way to use this phrasal verb as well, to sort it out.
We'll sort it out later.
A really common phrasal verb for investigations.
I think of, like going to the doctor and they're trying to figure out what's wrong with you is to rule out.
So when we say that we're going to rule out something, it means we're going to eliminate it as a possibility.
Oftentimes, if you go to the doctor and you have a really sore throat, they will say we're going to do a strep test.
And if it comes back negative, we can rule that out and figure out if it's a different problem.
So that means they're going to do a test to try to eliminate a solution. to rule out cancer.
Oftentimes too, you can use this in your decisions, and it could be something as simple as where are we going to eat tonight?
Well, let's call and see who's open that will rule out our options.
This means that we'll eliminate the options that are not possible.
Maybe it's a little later.
So some of the restaurant options might be closed.
So you're ruling those out.
You're putting them aside because you can't even use them.
So it will make your decision easier if you rule out options that aren't available or they're not really realistic.
I guess that rules out the Federal Reserve.
Maybe you're deciding where you want to go to college or university.
And you might say I don't want to rule out any options until I look at the finances, the pricing on each of the colleges.
So that means you want to keep your options open.
You don't want to rule out or eliminate any choices.
Well, I guess that rules out Miss Lonely Hearts.
One thing that's important in life is to be consistent if you want to achieve your goals or you have any plans to get things done.
So a really great phrasal verb that English speakers use all the time to talk about this is stick to.
We need to stick to the plan or I need to stick to my routine.
This means just doing something consistently and not deviating or going away from it.
For me, I love to stick to routine.
I like to go to bed at the same time every night and wake up every morning at the same time.
Otherwise I sleep in, I don't get as much done, or if I stay up too late, then I'm tired the next day.
So I really try to stick to my routine or do it consistently every day.
Stick to the list.
A lot of people.
When they are trying to lose weight or trying to improve their health even they need to stick to their diet and their workout plan.
If they deviate, then they might stop doing it entirely.
So that means they have to do it consistently.
And if you know you've read James Clear's book, you know that you can't skip a habit two days in a row.
You can skip it once, but don't do it two days in a row.
Stick to the basics.
Stick to the basics.
Stick to the basics.
Sometimes, if you come up with a plan, maybe it's at work or maybe it's just for a day in your personal life with your friend.
You're going to see a movie and then go to dinner at a different place.
You have it all planned out.
And then someone says, well, should we do this instead?
And you think, no, we already planned it out.
Like we should stay with what we're doing.
You should say, we're just going to stick with the original plan.
Stick with the original plan or stick to the original plan.
You can say this phrasal verb with either stick to or stick with.
Stick to the plan.
Speaking of habits, a lot of people are trying to develop a habit to cut down on certain things.
Let's talk about it.
Maybe you're trying to cut down on your spending.
You're trying to reduce the amount of money you spend.
Or maybe you're trying to cut down on sweets so you're not drinking pop or eating dessert.
You're trying to reduce the amount of sweet food or sugary food that you eat.
So this phrasal verb?
It's supernatural, especially when we're talking about eliminating or just reducing these bad things in our life.
You'll cut down on the drinking.
Many people that I know are trying to cut down on their screen time and they're trying to improve their reading habits.
So you can see that this phrasal verb is used a lot of times when we're talking about health or habits, or healthy habits, both of them.
This is when it's most frequently used to cut down on bad things.
It cuts down on the number of incidents.
After you make a decision, or after you solve a problem or go through, you know, a hard period in your life, you might say that now it's time to just move forward.
This phrasal verb, it's really optimistic.
It's really positive.
It's saying, you know, we had this hard thing happen or we had this problem.
Now that we've solved it, we're just going to keep going and we're almost going to act like nothing has happened.
We're going to try to keep going positively forward.
We just say, let's move forward now that we've figured out the problem.
Can we move forward?
Maybe you're talking to your friend after they had a tough breakup, or maybe they lost their job or something and they've been recovering for a while.
And now you tell them it's time to just move forward with your life, do something positive.
So that's how we use this phrasal verb.
We can use it in a really dramatic way or just simply, if we plan out what we're going to do with our group at work for a project or just solving a minor problem, we can say okay, now that we've got that sorted out, we can move forward.
So there's two phrasal verbs used in action for you there.
Let's move forward.
One thing that I hear a lot of older parents say is that someday you'll look back on the years that your kids were really young and you wish you could go back, even though those years are difficult and challenging just because kids require so much care at a young age.
So the phrasal verb here is to look back on.
So this is when we're thinking about or talking about things in the past.
A lot of times we can look back on things and think positively about them, like our kids being young.
Or we look back on our own childhood and we like how things went.
But sometimes we can reflect in a way where we would change things positively. many years ago.
So I look back on when I was in college and I wish I would have just studied more.
I wish I would have networked more meaning, you know, gone out and met people that could help you in your professional life.
Whatever it might be, you're looking back on things fondly, or you know positively, or you're looking back on things and you're wishing that you could change your own behavior.
So this phrasal verb to look back on something, some sort of memory or time period in your life it's used a lot when we're, you know, reflecting on things or we're trying to think about what we would do differently or what went really well.
Linda will look back on this night and be very sorry.
A really important phrasal verb in English that you should know is to point out something.
A lot of times we talk about pointing out a mistake.
This means you're drawing attention to it.
You're letting someone know that there's a mistake.
Whether you're reading something that they wrote or you're looking at, you know something that they designed, whatever it might be, you just want to let them know if you're pointing it out.
I'd be pointing out constellations.
You can point out something really positive that someone has done, especially if you're a leader or boss of a group.
So maybe in your workplace your manager might say I want to point out your really great work on this report.
This means that you're just highlighting it.
You're letting everyone else know that you had great work.
So you can point out mistakes, which is really common, or you can point out something positive, or just something that someone would not have noticed.
Like, I just wanted to point out that really cool bird over there.
Which, you know, if you're a bird person, you might do.
Okay, just pointing it out.
To come across as.
This is an interesting phrasal verb.
It means you're seeming or appearing to be something or to be like something.
So I don't want to come across as rude, but I just need to let you know that whatever it might be.
So this is just used to say, like, I don't want to appear rude because I'm not really rude.
Or you might tell people I might come across as confident, but I'm actually really worried about what people think of me.
So this means, you know, I appear to be confident, but in reality, I'm not.
I come across as a hypocrite.
This phrasal verb is mainly used to just talk about how you are appearing to other people socially.
That's why we commonly use this phrasal verb to say like oh, they came across as really rude or they came across as really cold.
This means kind of closed off and not very friendly.
Or you could say they came across as friendly, but they left pretty quick.
So I'm not sure if they were having fun.
You come across as uneducated.
To wind down.
This phrasal verb means to relax.
Or just to, you know, find calmness after something stressful or a lot of work.
A lot of people say that they need to wind down at night.
So they can't just go into their bedroom, lie down and fall asleep immediately.
They either need to watch TV or they need to wind down by reading.
This just means a relaxing time.
Winding down our all-vinyl reunion weekend, points high class of 86.
Oftentimes people talk about winding down in the evening because you're going from being really active and working really hard to having to get into that sleep period.
So there's that in-between time that we talk about winding down.
If kids are really hyped up, we say, okay, it's time to wind down now.
Let's read a book.
Let's cuddle.
Let's lay down.
Whose career is winding down?
And let's go back to that phrasal verb that we talked about at the very beginning of this lesson to wrap up.
When you say that you're going to wrap up something, it just means you're going to conclude it or you're going to finish it.
You're going to do a quick summary and then you're going to end it.
But don't worry, I'm not going to wrap up or finish this lesson yet.
We still have one more phrasal verb.
Now look, wrap up whatever you need to wrap up down here.
I promise I won't drag on.
Do you know this phrasal verb?
If we say that someone is dragging on, it just means that they go on talking longer than is expected and it's getting kind of boring.
Or if you say this day is dragging on, again, it's like, It's taking a really long time.
It's very boring.
It's used in a negative way.
If someone's dragging on.
If something feels endless, you might say it's dragging on.
For me, it feels like winter is dragging on and I just want it to be spring.
So it just means like it feels very long.
It feels like it's not actually going to have an end.
It's just this new case looks like it's going to drag on into next year.
When you arrive somewhere and you are being greeted by whoever owns the house or whoever's business it is, and they see you at the door, they say come on in.
Or they'll say go on in, go on in.
Go on in. go on in the door or go on in the kitchen or go on into the store, whatever it is.
So this is just a friendly invitation to come inside.
If you meet your friend outside their house and they say, go on in, the door's unlocked.
This is a really common phrasal verb use here.
Or if you arrive and someone else you weren't expecting to see is outside, they might say oh, go on in, your friend is waiting for you.
Go on in, they're waiting for you.
These are two really common uses with this phrasal verb.
Another phrasal verb that you probably will start hearing as soon as I teach it to you is go right back.
Go right back.
I'm going right back to sleep.
So there are three main uses that we use this phrasal verb for.
We say go right back to bed. go right back to work and go right back to sleep.
Go right back to bed and go right back to sleep are commonly used just to say to go back to sleep or go back to lay in bed, even though you just woke up.
If you see someone and it's really early in the morning, they say, what are you doing?
I'm sorry, I woke up early.
You can go right back to bed or you can go right back to sleep.
They're just telling you like you could do right now.
You don't have to be awake just because I'm awake.
Or sometimes if you take a break and you feel like, It wasn't a long break.
You could say I took a 15 minute break and I had to go right back to work.
Go right back to work.
This means immediately like there wasn't much of a break, just that quick 15 minutes.
I wasn't taking a long time to relax or whatever it might be.
It was a quick break and I had to go right back to work.
Sometimes, if you want to say that things have changed a lot and there was maybe a transition or you know, something strange happened and all of a sudden it was like things immediately are normal again, you can say things had gone right back to normal.
Let's go right back to normal.
This means let's go back to the way that things were immediately.
When we use this word right in the phrasal verb, go right back, it means immediately.
Also One way that I use this phrasal verb all the time is if I forget something and I have to go home to get it because I can't do whatever it is without this thing.
Let's say I'm going to the store to buy some groceries and I forgot my debit card or my credit card.
I have no way to pay for the groceries.
I'll say I drove to the grocery store, but I had to go right back home to get my credit card.
This means I immediately had to go back and it's like, I forgot this.
So I had to do this right away.
An interesting phrasal verb that has a few different uses.
That we use every day is to leave out or leave something out.
Don't leave anything out.
So we can say leave something out when we're talking about, we forgot something, we forgot to include a detail, or we forgot to tell someone something, or if we are just intentionally excluding a detail for a certain reason, which I'll explain more.
Or if you just leave something physically visible, we say we left it out.
A lot of times when teenagers are just trying to mislead their parents.
They might leave out some details about their plans intentionally.
For instance, maybe they say, hey, we're going to hang out at our friend's house.
And the parents say, oh, okay, that's fine.
They left out the detail that their friend's parents are not home, which you know is a common thing with teenagers.
They want to be left alone, but they don't want their parents to know, because maybe they're not supposed to be at someone's house without their parents.
So they intentionally left out a detail.
Because if they say hey, we're going to our friend's house, but their parents aren't home, their parents would say you guys can't go over there.
You know, there's no adults.
So they're intentionally leaving out a detail.
They're leaving out something.
Maybe you're getting together with a group of old friends and you forget to add one of your old friends to the group text message and you text them later and say I'm so sorry.
I didn't mean to leave you out of the message.
I just forgot.
I just mistyped whatever it was.
So again, leave out text.
Can be intentionally forgetting something or intentionally not putting a detail in or saying something to a person.
And then the last way that we use this phrase every day, this phrasal verb, is when you leave out something out of a closet or a cabinet or, for instance, the refrigerator.
It's so annoying if you leave out something overnight that was supposed to be refrigerated, because usually it's spoiled or it's rotten and shouldn't be eaten.
For instance, milk or dairy.
If you leave it out too long out of the refrigerator, you can't eat it because it's spoiled.
This phrasal verb is interesting because it has a literal meaning, to drive out of town.
And drive us out of this poisonous town. meaning you literally drive out of a city by a car, or if you're saying that we drove someone out of town, it means this person was so disliked by everyone, that everyone was so mean to them or like physically aggressive that they had to leave town or leave the area.
So it's used in both ways.
Literally like, oh, we just drove out of town for the weekend.
Like we went to a different city or we're going to drive them out of town because they're being, you know, racist or whatever it might be.
It means that we dislike this person so much.
We don't want them to live where we live or we don't want them being in our city.
A lot of times I hear in sports, especially soccer around the world, like a coach or a player is so bad or does something you know so bad for the team that they get driven out of town or driven out of the country or whatever.
It is because people dislike them so much and they take the sport so seriously.
So, now that we've talked about these simple action phrases that you can use on an everyday basis, let's move on to some phrases that you'll hear people use on again, the everyday basis to talk about managing their lives.
Sometimes native speakers, instead of saying we're becoming more strict, we use this phrase.
We say we're going to put our foot down.
I'm putting foot down.
A lot of times we use this phrase if we're trying to reduce behavior or reduce waste or something, i'm putting my foot down.
There's no more wasting food in this house, so this might just, you know, indicate to everyone in your family like you have to eat all your food.
Don't take food out if you're going to waste it.
Native speakers use this phrase to put their foot down if they are firmly enforcing a situation.
So the opposite of putting your foot down is being a pushover meaning, like you said, this is the rule.
This is how I'm going to enforce this.
And someone breaks the rule and you just let them do it.
So you're either a pushover or you're putting your foot down and remaining strict on your boundaries or your rules.
Another thing that we say if we're trying to reduce the amount of things that are being wasted or reduce a behavior or whatever it might be, we say we're going to dial back.
Dial it back, Annie.
Oh!
Maybe you're dialing back your expectations.
Maybe you had really strong expectations or really high expectations about a new employee at your work.
But, you know, they start in the first few weeks.
They're not really understanding the processes.
They're not getting much work done.
So you might say I have to dial back my expectations, meaning I have to reduce my expectations for this person, because clearly your expectations were too high and now you're being disappointed.
Another really common way I can think of this Phrasal verb being used is if someone is being really sarcastic and you're trying to tell them you know it's being rude, you know people aren't really enjoying it you might say you kind of need to dial back your sarcasm because it's offending people.
So in this case, you want them to reduce or use less sarcasm.
Dial back.
Another phrasal verb that you'll hear in the modern world, especially in work or in tech, is to opt in.
For those who opt in, who choose to be in our community, and not the individual, if you opt into something, it means you choose to participate voluntarily.
So a lot of times, if you get a new bank account or credit card, it will ask you if you want to opt in to paperless statements, And what this means is you are saying yes, you can just keep the statements on the computer.
You don't have to physically mail me a piece of paper with all my banking information each month.
You're opting in.
You're saying, yes, this is OK.
A lot of times, when you sign up for things, it will ask you if you want to opt in to receive emails from that person or from that business.
So you're just agreeing.
Again, you're taking the option.
You're volunteering here.
But we just say I'm opting in to opt in.
It's a really useful phrasal verb, especially when you're dealing with things online or just in any technical situation.
Now we're getting into the more advanced part of the lesson.
These phrases are gonna help you discuss problems or ideas, and they're more just thinking phrasal verbs.
Let's get started with this part.
Talk through something.
Talk through our options.
This phrase just means that you're going to discuss something step by step.
A lot of times, if people are confused or they don't understand how to do something, they might say can you talk me through this?
Or you could say I'm going to talk you through this.
This means I'm going to very slowly explain it to you.
I'm going to be really patient with you in my explanation as well.
If you want to make sure that an event or a plan is going to go well, you might say let's talk through the plan before it happens.
This just means you're going to go through it step by step and all of the details as well.
Another phrase that's really good for talking about processes or strategies is go about or to go about doing something.
Go on about your business.
It just is talking about starting something in your strategy or your plan or how you're going to do it in a certain way.
So you might ask someone, how are you going to go about starting a business?
It seems like a hard thing to start a business.
So you're kind of asking them for their plan or their strategies.
If you're unsure about how you're going to do something, or how you're going to plan to do something, you might say I'm not sure how I'm going to go about this.
So this phrasal verb, it's kind of funky to use for the first few times, but it will start becoming natural as you use it more and more.
Here's a slightly more advanced English phrasal verb, but it's really useful and native speakers love to use it because it's very specific and precise.
So if you want to say that you're going to carefully figure out, you know the main idea or uncover some sort of detail, you can say i'm going to tease out the main idea or i'm going to tease out more details.
I'm going to tease this out.
This means you're trying to either ask someone a lot of questions to come up with these things, or you're kind of thinking through again a plan with all of the details and all of the different aspects to try to figure out either the main idea let's tease out the main idea or let's tease out the details that we need to figure out here.
Now I'm gonna take you through two English phrasal verbs that can help you describe how situations develop over time.
If you hear a native English speaker say, how did it go down?
How's it going down there?
They're not necessarily talking about how something just decreased or went down in direction.
Usually when native English speakers say, how did it go down?
Or it went down like this.
They're talking about how it happened.
They're asking how did it happen.
So a lot of times you know if someone's describing this crazy story maybe there was a fight or something just wild happened you could say I can't believe it went down like that.
That means I can't believe it happened like that.
So this is a phrasal verb, but it's almost like slang as well.
It can also just be used really casually, like, oh, what went down at the meeting today?
I missed it.
What happened at the meeting today?
Because I wasn't there.
Another phrase that's pretty similar to this one except, you know, something just kind of happens gradually is how did it play out?
Play it out.
Really play it out.
When we say that something plays out, it means it develops or happens over time.
So usually slowly over time.
If you are not sure how a plan is going to go, you might say, we'll just see how it plays out.
This just means we'll see how it happens, if it goes well or if it does not go well.
Now, these next phrases are extremely emotional.
They're really useful for a relationship or they're common in just real conversations.
The first phrase is split up, split up.
So when two people split up, they either break up from a relationship or you can say they split up, they got divorced.
You can also use this just to mean divide in a casual way.
Like, let's split up.
You go that way.
I'll go this way.
And, you know, it's used in different ways.
But if you want to say that two people got divorced or broke up out of relationship, usually romantically is when we use this phrasal verb.
You say they split up.
They split up last year.
I split up with my husband last year.
No, I didn't.
But that's just an example phrase.
In an end of a relationship, sometimes people emotionally disconnect.
They don't care about the relationship anymore.
And this next phrasal verb could be used.
You can say they checked out.
So to check out emotionally.
You can be talking about a relationship like the husband was checked out emotionally so they split up, meaning they got divorced.
It means they just don't care anymore.
You know, they're so mentally disengaged that we say it's like their brain has checked out of the relationship.
We can also just use this if we're you know, having a really hard mental day.
Maybe you could say I was so checked out of work today.
I didn't get enough sleep last night and I've just been so busy.
It just means you're not super engaged emotionally and just not thinking about what you're doing.
Or if you want to say you can tell that someone else doesn't care, or you know they're just too busy or they're tired, you could say they were so checked out today.
This next phrase if you're protecting someone or making an excuse for them, you can say you're going to cover for someone.
Cover for someone, thanks for covering.
This one is extremely common to use in English.
If you cover for someone, you make an excuse for them.
So for instance, if you cover for your coworker, your boss may say, hey, has anyone seen Lisa?
And you know that Lisa left a little bit early to go to a doctor's appointment, but you want your boss to not be able to know.
You might say, oh, you know what?
She actually had to go downstairs to make some copies, but she'll be back in just a few minutes.
Do you want me to go talk to her?
So you're kind of covering for her.
Or maybe someone makes a mistake and you take the blame.
You're covering for them.
You're making an excuse or you're protecting them.
You might ask someone, hey, can you cover for me?
Like, I got to take a long lunch.
Will you just let them know, you know, I'm around or whatever it might be.
You're kind of asking them to lie or protect you in a way.
This phrase is going to be used in a literal sense and an emotional sense.
You've probably heard this one, hang on, hang on.
Hang on, hang on, hang on.
If you ask someone for something or you ask them for help and they need you to wait really briefly, for just a minute, they might say hang on, let me go get that for you, or hang on, I'll figure out the answer.
This just means wait briefly.
If you want to tell someone don't give up, you can say hang on, hang on please, like don't give up.
So literally you could say like, oh, just hang on, you can do it.
A lot of times people will also say, hang in there, hang in there.
That means don't give up emotionally or don't let yourself get too discouraged.
Things will get better.
If you learn this phrasal verb, to back down, you might also hear this phrase, never back down.
This phrase, never back down, it means the same as never give up or never stop fighting.
So when we say that somebody is backing down, it means they're stopping an argument and they're admitting they're wrong, or they're physically fighting for something and they finally just back off.
They back down.
But we will not back down.
If you are a really good negotiator, maybe you go in to buy a car and you do not back down on your price.
You say, this is my price, I'm firm, I'm not backing down.
And if the salesperson refuses to give you the price, then you just leave.
And you go somewhere else and you try to get that car for that same price.
So when we use this phrasal verb back down, say, oh, I'm not going to back down from this argument.
That means you're not going to give up or admit that you're wrong.
You don't back down.
Speaking of arguments, this next phrasal verb is to blow over.
When we say that something blows over, it means it kind of disappears, especially when we're talking about an argument or a problem or some drama.
Maybe you have a fight with your friend and it's not the biggest fight in the world.
It was just something really minor and neither of you really apologized, but you kind of forget about it.
You could say, well, we kind of just blew over the situation.
Like, it's not a big deal.
It'll all blow over.
Or maybe you're worried that you might have offended someone and your friend says well, don't worry too much.
I think it's going to blow over.
This means the problem is just going to kind of disappear because it's so minor.
Yeah, things blow over.
Sometimes we talk about the weather blowing over, meaning it looks dark and gray outside.
We'll say ah, i think this is going to blow over in just a little bit, meaning it might rain or storm for just a short amount of time, but nothing very catastrophic or dangerous, and soon it will be sunny or nice enough to go outside.
It'll blow.
We use bring up the phrasal verb to talk about bringing up a topic, which means mentioning it or introducing it.
Or sometimes we say it brought up emotions, to bring up emotions.
So maybe you see a movie and it's about death and it brings up some sad emotions that you have about someone who recently died in your life, recently.
So all that brought up some emotions.
So that means it introduced the emotions into your head.
It made you think about it.
I'm glad you brought up the bylaws.
When we say we're bringing up something in conversation, it means we're talking about something.
Maybe it's a light topic of conversation, meaning something happy, something easy to discuss that wouldn't offend anyone.
Or you could say I'm sorry, I have to bring up this tough conversation, or I have to bring up this tough subject.
Meaning it's going to be something that brings up a lot of emotions sad, angry or maybe it's just kind of hard to talk about because you don't want to offend someone.
So when you're bringing up something in conversation, you're introducing the topic.
Bring up everything you have on Spider-Man.
This next phrasal verb, it's definitely one that you'll hear in everyday English, to butt in.
Now, when you butt in, it means you kind of rudely interrupt.
Sometimes we say, I'm so sorry, I have to butt in real quick.
This means there's a conversation going to.
People are talking, but you have something that you need to interrupt and add.
Did you just butt in on the investigative team again?
Children oftentimes butt into conversations, especially when two adults are trying to talk and they want a lot of attention.
We say, hey, don't butt in right now.
Just wait your turn to talk.
So we use the phrasal verb to butt in to mean the exact same as to interrupt, and typically rudely.
But sometimes we can apologize in advance for butting in.
In English you'll definitely hear people say I got sick last week, but you'll also hear this phrasal verb pretty frequently as well.
I came down with something last week.
To come down with an illness means the same as to get sick.
So it's like the beginning of your sickness.
And typically with this phrasal verb, we say I came down with something.
And this phrasal verb just implies that you were sick.
Or you could say the specific illness like I came down with a sore throat.
I came down with a stomach flu.
I came down with a cold.
So you can see this phrasal verb is pretty specifically used to say that you got sick.
Angela has come down with mononucleosis.
Now, in the moment that you are becoming sick, you can say I think I'm coming down with something, or I think I'm coming down with a cold.
This just implies it's starting to begin.
You're not feeling great, but you're not totally sick yet.
This next phrasal verb sounds a lot like to come down with, but it doesn't have anything to do with being sick.
When we say that something comes up, it means that something happens unexpectedly that makes us have to kind of change our plans, like sorry, i couldn't meet for dinner last night.
Something came up unexpectedly.
That's how we would use This phrasal verb.
Something unexpected came up.
Or maybe you're apologizing to your husband or your wife for being late at the end of the day getting home from work.
You might say, oh, I'm so sorry I'm late.
So many things came up at work today.
This means like it was a lot of unexpected events or meetings or people that needed your help.
But something unexpected came up.
Another phrasal verb that means to interrupt is to cut in.
You might say if anybody needs to cut in at any point, go ahead and just talk.
If you're leading a meeting,
This means like you're not interrupting.
I'm welcoming your thoughts, ideas, and I'm welcoming everyone to speak during this presentation.
I'll cut you in.
Or maybe if someone was being rude, you could also use this phrasal verb.
You could say, well, I was about to get to that part before you cut in.
This means before you interrupted.
I'm gonna cut you in to drop by.
So if someone visits very quickly and oftentimes informally, meaning they just text you or call you right before they're coming over or they don't tell you at all, they are just dropping by that means someone comes and visits you, maybe it's at work or maybe it's at your house.
If you just had a new baby and somebody drops by without giving you any warning, it can come off as very rude and inconsiderate, because usually you know your house is kind of a mess.
You're not sleeping very well.
So you're not used to people just coming into your house to see you.
They dropped by to see me.
If you have a really close friend or family member, you might not mind if they just drop by unexpectedly.
You might say, oh, they just drop by anytime.
I love to see them.
So this means, you know, you're not worried about how your house looks.
You're not worried about tidying up because they're such a good friend.
They can just drop by anytime.
Thanks for dropping by.
Once in a while, if you are by someone's place of work and you think they might have time, you might text them.
Hey, I might drop by later today.
Could you come and have lunch?
So it just means you're going to briefly visit them, either at their home or work or wherever it may be.
Sorry for dropping by unannounced.
Drop off.
So we use drop off to talk about delivering something or someone.
Here's what I mean by this.
I dropped off cookies.
You might say, do you mind if you drop off my kids at school tomorrow?
This means like you would come and get them and bring them to school.
Yeah, I don't mind.
Or could you drop off some cookies milk tomorrow, because I don't have time to go to the grocery store.
This is asking someone if they would deliver it to your house. drop the kids off at school.
If you get in an Uber, a Lyft or a taxi, you might tell the driver once they get close to your destination.
You might say hey, you can just drop us off right here.
This means like, we'll get out of the car.
You can basically deliver us here.
So typically when we're dropping something off, we're delivering it in a car.
That doesn't necessarily always have to be the case, but it's just typical here in the United States.
A really tricky phrasal verb to use that's so common that you definitely should study is to end up.
So when we say that something ends up, it's talking about the final result of a situation.
So, for instance, maybe you waited in line for a really long time.
You saw the line was really long to get some food or something and you might say we ended up waiting in line for 45 minutes.
So the final result of your waiting was 45 minutes in line ended up in hell.
A lot of times we are surprised at the way that things end up and we use the phrasal verb really commonly here as well.
So, and we ended up having so much fun last night.
So maybe you weren't really planning to do anything exciting or fun.
Or maybe you went to an event with the expectation that it wasn't going to be very fun, so you were surprised you, because it ended up being very fun actually.
This would be a pretty common way to use this phrasal verb, to end up.
You will end up alone.
Let's talk about the phrasal verb to fall apart.
This phrasal verb has a literal meaning of something breaking into pieces.
Like, for instance, if you've ever bought a really cheap toy, your kid will play with it and it will just start falling apart.
Like the pieces start falling off.
Or if you've had a storm go through your area a pretty bad one maybe parts of your fence or your house will just fall apart because it's so strong.
The wind is now we talk about to fall apart, meaning you kind of break down emotionally or become very upset.
So if you say oh, i just fell apart after such a long day, it means maybe you cried, maybe you just fell emotionally, just sad or upset, or you just lost control completely.
Oh, everything is just falling apart.
If you wanna talk about your day falling apart, it just means everything started going really wrong.
I just feel like my life's falling apart.
Have you ever had to fill in for someone and give a speech?
The phrasal verb to fill in means to replace.
So if you fill in for someone at work, it means you're doing their job for the day, because maybe they're gone temporarily.
Dr. Shepherd, I'll be filling in for Dr. Bailey today.
If we're talking about filling in something with color, it means there's no color in the area.
Maybe we're painting and we'll say oh, we have to fill in that area.
To like the wall means you're filling it with color.
Already filled in crossword puzzle.
Or if a space feels empty, you might want to fill it in with furniture, meaning just you need to put something in there to kind of hold the place or to fill it up, to fill in a few small gaps in my collection.
Do you get along with your co-workers or do you find them to be annoying?
To get along, this phrasal verb means to have a good relationship, to have fun even.
Usually if you say, oh yeah, I get along with my coworkers.
It means they're pleasant.
You have good conversations.
You don't have to be best friends to get along, but maybe just everything goes pretty well.
You never have any drama or fights if you get along with people.
Do I get along with my coworkers?
I love to-do lists.
I love having a list of all the tasks that I need to complete.
And sometimes I have a list that's separate from my daily and weekly to-do list.
That's things that I will get around to.
So it's tasks that aren't necessarily super urgent.
Maybe they're kind of important, but I will get around to them when I have time.
So when you say I finally got around to doing this, it means you finally have time or you finally feel like you have the effort or the motivation to do something that you've either been delaying or putting off, kind of procrastinating.
I didn't get around to getting those cookbooks.
For me, I have a lot of house projects that I'm trying to get around to.
Maybe it's just organizing a closet that's really messy.
Maybe it's fixing something that's broken or replacing something that's old and ugly.
So I have a lot of house projects that I need to get around to.
This means I need to find the motivation and the time and the effort to do them.
I'll get around to it.
A lot of times when people are debating or fighting over something, finally one person might just give in.
This doesn't necessarily mean that they believe the other person, but they're just like okay fine, you're right.
Like, I'll stop arguing, whatever.
So sometimes if a person wants to do something and you don't want to do that thing, but you finally just say fine, we'll do it.
You're kind of giving in to their opinion or you're giving into their side.
A lot of times when our kids are like, please, can I have a piece of candy?
You might say, I have to give in.
Here we go.
Like it means you're just stopping, you're resisting and you're stopping arguing, or you're just kind of like letting it happen.
You're giving in.
This next phrasal verb.
It's pretty vague when we use it in conversation, but English speakers would always know what you're implying or talking about here.
So if we say that someone is going through something, it means they're going through something difficult.
They're having a difficult time in their life.
Maybe they are experiencing challenges at work.
Maybe they just lost their job.
Maybe they have been seriously ill or sick, or maybe they had a family member be sick or die even.
So we'll say, oh, they're going through something or they're going through a breakup.
This means they just got out of a relationship.
You're going through a divorce.
So if you want to just politely, like warn someone that someone's having a challenging time in their life, you might use this phrasal verb.
Don't worry.
They're just going through something.
Like they're not actually mad at you or anything.
They're just having a tough time going through puberty.
A common question in english is what's the hold up?
What's the hold up?
Or if you say sorry, i'm holding everyone up or you're holding the line up, this phrasal verb means you're delaying it, you're slowing it down.
So if you're at the grocery store and someone starts, you know kind of giving the person a bunch of coupons at the register and maybe they bought some weird things.
You could say, oh, they're holding up the whole line, meaning they're delaying the line.
They're making it go slow by adding all these extra things.
Let's hold up.
Another common way we use this phrasal verb is we say, I'm sorry I got held up.
I got held up in a meeting or I got held up in traffic.
This just means you got delayed doing these things and you're apologizing.
If you're familiar with soccer, you might know at the beginning of the game there is a kickoff.
This means it's the start of the game.
Oftentimes in english, we also say hey, we're going to kick off this project, we're going to kick off this meeting, we're going to kick off this event.
This just means you're going to start it.
You're going to start it usually in an exciting way or in a more meaningful way, like We kicked off the meeting at 9am with a big speech or whatever it might be.
What time's this party kicking off?
When you want to say that someone is choosing something carefully, use the phrasal verb pick out.
I'm going to pick out a really nice outfit for you.
This means I'm going to pick you some clothes that will look good on you.
I'm going to be very intentional and careful about my choices here.
Or you might say to your kids, hey, pick out what you want for lunch.
Like look through the fridge, look through the cabinets and decide what food you would eat.
You're picking out my clothes now.
There's two ways that we use the phrasal verb turn up.
So first we say, hey, where did you turn up from?
This means where did you come from?
Where did you appear from unexpectedly?
And like this question is like saying, like, I didn't know you were going to come here.
Like, how did you get here?
Like, why are you here?
That's kind of what you're implying by asking this question.
Hey, when did you turn up or where did you turn up?
I don't know where he's gonna turn up next.
And the other way we use this phrasal verb is to turn up the volume, to increase it.
Or if your phone is super dark, you might need to turn up the brightness.
So we can either mean that something is appearing or something is increasing.
Turn it up!
Turn it up!
Thank you so much for watching this English lesson with me.
I hope you take these 20 phrasal verbs, add them to your vocabulary.
Go study more with me at englishwithkayla.com.
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Goodbye.
This is a very autumnal meaning, related to fall or the season of autumn lesson because, as you can see, these leaves, they need to be raked up.
The phrasal verb rake up is what we say when we put the leaves in a pile.
I want you to rake up these leaves off the lawn And typically people here in the United States they send the leaves off.
They have to bag them up.
Bag up the leaves.
Whenever you're putting things in a bag, like groceries, we say we're bagging it up, bag up.
Bag them up, let's take them home.
We need to put them in bags because we have trash services that pick them up and they deliver them to a big yard waste compost pile.
Or sometimes people burn their leaves.
That's a thing as well.
But as you can see, these leaves need to be raked up.
Come in.
Okay, so this is the front door phrasal verb list now.
So when someone comes to your door, typically you know if you want to invite them in.
You say come in, come in.
This means, you know, you can come into my house.
I'm inviting you in.
Another really important phrasal verb is lock up.
So oftentimes when you leave your house, you say, let me lock up real quick.
This means you're going to make sure all the doors are secure and locked and the windows are closed as well.
Sometimes, if someone is being a little bit aggressive, trying to get into your house, they'll be knocking.
They'll say, open up, open up.
Open up means open the door.
Typically we use this phrasal verb also if we want to say a store is opening at a certain time.
They open up at 9 am.
So this phrasal verb just means either a store is opening or you can command someone to open up, meaning you're kind of being aggressive like Let me in, unlock the door.
I need to talk to you.
Open it up, open it up.
I feel like one thing that is less common than it used to be is people to just drop by.
The phrasal verb to drop by, it means to come by someone's house unexpectedly.
Or you could, you know, be in any sort of location like drop by my store later, drop by work later.
Just means like...
You need to go there.
It's not really super formal.
It's not a formal appointment.
Hey, I'm just dropping by.
If you come to someone's front door, knock a door and say, hey, how's it going?
I was just dropping by.
I thought you might want to have some coffee with me or whatever it might be.
So this is a really informal phrasal verb that just means stop by, visit.
They dropped by to see me.
Hoot drops by a more formal phrasal verb is if you're having someone over to your house, you might say let me show you in.
This means let me open up the door for you.
I'm going to show you where to go.
I'm going to show you where to put your shoes, where to put your coat.
I'm going to make sure that you're comfortable.
Or you can say, hey, can you show them in?
This means can you let them in the house and, you know, get them comfortable.
Show him in.
Once you show in your guests, you invite them in.
You might say oh, hang up, hang up your jacket or hang up your coat.
This is a coat rack, kind of common.
I feel like, more commonly, people might just have a closet, or they might just say, just set your things by the door.
A really interesting phrasal verb is get in, get in.
You might have an animal that gets in your house.
This means they gain entry without permission or without being invited in.
Or your friend, you know, is just super comfortable with you.
They might just open your door and come in your house and say, hey, is anyone home?
You say, How did you get in?
The door was unlocked.
This is a really common phrasal verb in this scenario here.
Get in, get in.
If you are like me and you get a salesperson at your door trying to sell you something, you turn away.
You turn them away very quickly.
I say, I do not like sales.
At my front door, I find it to be very rude.
It's kind of not really acceptable here in the United States.
In a few different scenarios.
Maybe if a school children trying to sell you something to raise money, that's pretty acceptable.
But when people come to your door trying to sell you things or sell you services, it's kind of seen as rude.
And we usually turn people away.
We turn away.
And she turned him away.
Okay, I'm gonna start up the car, start up.
Start up, come on.
When we, you know, turn the ignition on a key on a machine, we say we're starting it up, and then I'm gonna back up.
Instead of saying, you know, moving the car backwards, we say back up.
This is the fun part, here we go.
And full disclaimer, I've never filmed an English lesson while driving.
There's no one around, so I don't think I'll hurt anyone.
Back up.
And now you're going to watch me drive off.
So one phrasal verb.
It's really informal, it's really slang.
That I think is just super funny is dink around.
So this golf cart, honestly, it's just used to dink around.
It's never actually used for golf.
It's fun to drive around, drive it down the road.
There we go and my kids love rides on it, so we just kind of dink around with this.
It's kind of like saying mess around, but even less serious than saying mess around.
Like i said, there's no one around, there's no one to run over, there's no one to hurt, except for myself.
The phrasal verb to run over.
It means you accidentally go over something in a vehicle or even a bike.
I run over here, I'm running, I'm running.
So a lot of times we say that we ran over a wild animal and we call that roadkill in the United States.
Very sad, but obviously it happens.
It's food.
Tis roadkill, man.
The great thing about a golf cart is you really seldom, which means rarely... instinct seldom.
Have to fill up the gas.
Fill up meaning, you know, put gas in to fill it all the way.
It's really nice.
They use very little gas.
Uh, yeah, uh, fill it up.
Fill it up.
Fill it up, please.
Like I said, it is autumn.
It is fall.
It is beginning to be cozy season here in the United States, which is when we want to feel warm because it's starting to get cold outside.
It literally is starting to rain outside right now.
So I'm just going to cozy up on the couch.
I just plopped down.
As you saw these two phrasal verbs.
To plop down this means like literally kind of almost jumping this, falling onto the couch.
Maybe you're so tired.
You just plop down onto the bed or even plop down onto the floor.
This is an informal phrasal verb but you will hear it said just to mean like oh, we're so lazy, like we just lay down.
You know that the big tourists always line for free.
They sit there and they just plop down while kids are around them.
Daddy, look at the little thing!
And cozy up.
Typically, when you cozy up, maybe you get something warm like a fuzzy blanket.
You get a cup of tea.
Maybe you watch a movie and maybe you snuggle with your significant other your husband wife girlfriend, boyfriend.
You're cozying up.
You're just making yourself feel warm and relaxed.
If you're like me and you can't hear the movie or the television that you're watching, you'll need to find the remote.
I can never find the remote.
Hopefully you can find your remote and you can turn up the volume, meaning to increase.
All right, turn up the volume.
Or turn down the volume, meaning to decrease.
Did you turn the volume down?
One funny thing about this phrasal verb is when we say I'm going to turn up the heat, it means you're going to increase the heat.
You're going to make the temperature hotter.
Or if you say, I'm going to turn up the air, it means you're going to make it colder.
So it's kind of funny how we use turn up and turn down.
Sometimes people say, I'm going to turn down the air.
This gets confusing because you're like are you making the house hotter or you're making the house colder?
Typically, I find if people say I'm gonna turn down the air, it means they are going to decrease the intensity, which means they're gonna make it a little warmer in the house.
Now we're back up in the office because these phrasal verbs are important too.
Right now, I'm waiting to print out something very important for you.
If you're at work and you need something printed, you would say, Kate, can you print out this?
Print out this piece of paper.
Print out this document.
Again, very important for you.
Make sure you visit EnglishWithKayla.com.
Let's keep going on our office phrasal verbs here.
So I often encourage my English students to jot down phrases, important phrases that they learn in my lesson.
So to jot down something means to just quickly take notes, not super detailed.
Yes, i jotted down a few notes, And then another important phrasal verb that I'm using all the time, because this is one of my favorite things to do is to plan out, plan out.
If you say I'm gonna plan out my week, it means you're gonna think about things like meal planning, what activities you have, what you have coming up at work, when you're going to do your workouts.
You're planning out your week.
You're thinking about the future.
Like plan out our future.
Or some women really like to plan out their wedding even before they're engaged.
They like to think about all the details that go into their wedding, even if it's not really happening yet.
This goes right along with the phrasal verb dream about.
You don't have to be sleeping to dream about something.
So, like I said, a lot of girls will dream about their wedding, or some men dream about being professional athletes women too.
It just means we imagine it and it's something that we would like to happen someday.
It's almost like a fantasy.
I dream about visiting the Bahamas or some beautiful place in the world.
And then one thing that I'm always finding myself doing before work is kind of thinking about everything.
I'm thinking about everything that's going up around my business.
I'm thinking about my English students.
I'm thinking about things I have to get done.
This just means you're sitting down and like you're kind of reflecting on everything that's going on.
I'll think about it.
Think about it.
Let's get into some of the relaxing bedtime phrasal verbs.
So first of all, we have stretch out, like I'm just gonna lay down and stretch out.
This just means like extend my body, I'm comfortable in my own house, so I'm stretching out.
If you're at the workplace or if you're at someone else's house, it can be kind of rude to just like stretch out because it's seen as like you're so relaxed.
You're a little bit too comfortable if you are kind of laying down in a really comfortable way.
Sometimes we say we're curling up, i'm just curling up and watching a movie.
I'm gonna curl up and watch a movie.
It's kind of like you're cuddling or you're getting cozy.
As we talked about before, curling up means like sitting in a really relaxing kind of laying down way, but typically you have a blanket or a pillow or something like that.
If you're like me and you have a hard time watching a movie without dozing off.
To doze off means to fall asleep unintentionally.
It's like you're taking a nap that you didn't plan.
Or for me at night, I just doze off if I turn on a movie because I'm so tired at the end of the day.
Sometimes we use the phrasal verb to nod off, especially if someone's in like a really boring situation and it's so boring and they're tired and they fall asleep and they wake up and be like I just nodded off for a second.
That just means I fell asleep pretty much while sitting up just momentarily.
It was unintentional.
Again, you didn't mean to take a nap.
But something so boring?
Or maybe you're watching a movie and you're having a hard time staying awake, but you're trying to.
If you want to tell someone that they should relax, you can say hey, just kick back.
Just kick back and relax.
That's the most common phrase that we use this phrasal verb with.
This means make yourself comfortable, stretch out, feel comfortable here.
You don't have to feel like you're, you know, offending anyone if you're nice and relaxed.
Kick back.
Kick back and enjoy yourself, man.
My favorite thing when I have a ton of time to relax and just be leisurely, is to chill out, put on a blanket and take out a book.
So these phrasal verbs, they all kind of go together.
Chill out.
You can tell someone to chill out if they are being, you know, too stressed out.
It's not necessarily polite to say, but people say all the time like oh, Chill out, you're acting crazy right now.
It means the same as relax or I'm just gonna go chill out on the couch, watch a movie.
I'm just gonna chill out and read a book.
Just means I'm going to relax.
It's slang, but it's also a phrasal verb.
Chill out, we cool.
And we do say, I'm going to put on a blanket.
Can you put a blanket on me?
I'm cold.
We use this phrasal word like putting on clothes as putting on a blanket.
Put them on, put them on, put them on.
Thank you so much for having fun with me, for changing up the pace of my typical lessons.
I hope you enjoyed a bit of a more informal lesson like today's and make sure to visit me at englishwithkaylincom.
Like I said, I post all my lessons there and you can join my monthly membership to get them ad-free, with many resources, and you can study with me there as well.
I'll see you guys in the next lesson.
Thanks again so much for watching with me.
Goodbye.
