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  • Hello, hiya, thanks for finding your way here to this video right now to come and learn

  • some English. Good intention, so let's make sure we concentrate, I sound like such a teacher,

  • don't I? Concentrate, yeah, and really learn, take the vocab because we want you to be using

  • it this next week. What are we doing? We're looking at phrasal verbs to do with success

  • and a couple to do with failure. Now, these can be used in all sorts of contexts, so they're

  • very useful to know because while I'll be showing you how to use them to talk about

  • fashion, in sports and with academic studies, but you could - there's so many different

  • things that you could use them to talk about.

  • To start with, we're just going to look at what they actually mean before we really apply

  • the verbs. My first section all have "off" in them. So, to bring, it's like a physical

  • action, bring it over here, bring me the remote control, bring me the jug of water, if you

  • bring something off, it's like off is a place where everything works, yep, it's looking

  • like it's not going to be very good and then we get up here and, abracadabra, to bring

  • something off, yep, turn it around. To pull something off is exactly the same, but with

  • a different verb, okay? So, take your pick, which do you like? Are you more of a B or

  • a P? I'm more of a B, my wife's a P. To carry something off, very slight change here. Well,

  • it's a different verb, to carry something off is kind of - you're going, it's more of

  • a kind of sense of, like, continuing, yep, I carried it off. I was going with it for

  • a long time, yep, carrying a heavy bag, and I got there and, yes, I made the destination.

  • I carried it off. Whereas these, it's more like a bit more of a sudden turn-around, okay?

  • It's only a small, small difference and some people wouldn't say there's a difference at

  • all. Now, to come off. We're much more likely to encounter this in the past tense. Yeah,

  • it came off quite well. But very similar meaning, it means, like, something has kind of worked.

  • Yeah, it came out pretty well, it came off pretty well. Okay. Different meaning here:

  • something takes off, like a rocket going into space. So, it's like the YouTube channel suddenly

  • has millions of subscribers. Well, how does it happen like that? Because guys like you

  • and girls like you press subscribe and you share it with all of your friends, right?

  • Hope so, and don't just press subscribe, actually watch the videos. How do you do that? Yep,

  • that bell thing up there, so every time my lessons come up, you guys watch them, yeah!

  • And then that will really pay off with your English, yep. You'll see a - you'll see results,

  • yep, to pay off, yep, we've got the idea of money, so money is a reward for work, for

  • doing something, so if something pays off, then you enjoy the reward of your good work,

  • okay?

  • On to "through". Are you with me so far? I hope so. "Through". If I go through the jungle,

  • yep, the jungle's here, and I'm going through it, to fall through. If I - you've got a sort

  • of a ceiling up here, it's not a very strong one, if I fell through the ceiling - then

  • my mum did that once, actually, she fell through a hole in the floor, very painful. To fall

  • through - drop, drop, drop, drop, drop. If something falls through, then it looks like

  • it's going to work, and then suddenly, it doesn't. So maybe a football player is looking

  • to join a new club, but at the 11th hour, the last minute, the deal fell through. It

  • wasn't completed. Muddle - this is more of the British English than an American English

  • word - to muddle through something. Now, "muddle" means confusion, okay? So, if you muddle through,

  • this is talking about how you get through the jungle. It's like I kind of got a hat,

  • have I got any insect repellent, yeah maybe in my pocket here, have I got compass, I'm

  • not quite sure, uh, uh, uh, confusion and we kind of get through the rainforest, but

  • you do get through it, or jungle or whatever it is. So, to muddle through means to go through

  • chaotically, okay? To get through, if you get through something, then you're surviving

  • but there's not much of a sense of enjoyment or huge amount of success about it. We got

  • through something, yep. It was okay, but we didn't really like it very much. To sail through

  • is quite different, though. Yep, think of the boat and the sails filling with wind to

  • sail through, there's a feeling of speed and flamboyance if you sail through something,

  • then you find it quite easy, because the sails are full of wind and you're going rather effortlessly.

  • You don't even need a motor. Whereas the kind of vehicle here, I'm thinking of like, a really

  • slow car. Okay.

  • Take over. A take over - so, where one person takes control from the other person. So, we've

  • got a - I'm thinking of a football club, if there's a take over, then someone else suddenly

  • starts ruling that football club. Ruling - it's not a king, it's kind of managing, okay. A

  • take over, yep. I take over the control. Catch on. If something catches on, then it's like

  • a - a fashion. So, if I start walking down the street and I start this new walk, which

  • is like, it's kind of a sort of a flappy arm walk and I'm starting to see, in the streets

  • of Toronto, that some people are doing my flappy arm walk, then I'd say "Ah, it's starting

  • to catch on." Okay. Really strange example for you there. Hope you're not thinking I'm

  • a total lunatic. To build on. So, builders, what do they do? They often make houses. They're

  • going to start with foundations and then they're going to build the walls and the roof, etc.

  • So, to build on means we've had this success, and we're going to use this and we're going

  • to continue from there to make something even bigger, okay? So, we have a firm foundation

  • and we're going to continue growing. To walk into something. So, to walk into something

  • means you enter it very easily. Yeah, I walked into an amazing job, I didn't even have to

  • have an interview. I just knocked on the door and the man gave me the job. Or, the woman

  • gave me the job. Okay. To walk into something means to get something good with a minimum

  • of effort. To catch up, there are a couple of different meanings of this. You can have

  • to catch up in communication where you talk to an old friend who you haven't spoken to

  • in a long time, but this is to do with success and failure. So, we've got a race, yep? We've

  • got the tortoise and the hare. The hare goes really, really fast and then falls asleep

  • and the tortoise catches up with the hare, so the progress is caught up. Catches up.

  • To keep up. So, again, you could think of a race, you've got people going around the

  • 400 meter track and you've got this really fast person and this one - can they keep up

  • with the really fast person? Okay? If I say - it doesn't have to be physical, though.

  • I could say, in a class, "Keep up", yep, means, you know, listen, make sure that you're paying

  • attention, okay. To capitalise on. So, capital is really money. So, if I capitalise then

  • I'm sort of making it into money, which, in a wider meaning means that I'm getting some

  • benefit from. So, if you were to capitalise from this lesson, you're going to need to

  • actually use some of these words with the people that you know. Okay? Cement the learning.

  • To lose out to. New Zealand lost out to England in the Rugby World Cup semifinal. So, they

  • lost out to, it means both teams were trying to get to the final, but, you know, New Zealand

  • weren't quite at that same standard as England, hahahahaha, so they didn't get to the same

  • kind of prize that England did. To stay ahead. Maybe thinking of driving a car, you know,

  • staying ahead means you're in front, okay? So, if you stay ahead of the competition,

  • then you're bigger and you're continuing to be dominating that market.

  • So, as I said at the beginning, we're now going to try and use some of these talking

  • about these different areas of modern life. So, let's go for fashion. Now, which of these

  • can I talk about with fashion? To bring something off, yeah, you really brought that off. To

  • pull something off, to carry something off, to come off. Something takes off, to pay off,

  • okay. So, fashion, to bring, yeah, you really brought that off, pulled something off, so

  • pull something off, we're talking about something being successful. So, maybe I'm wearing - actually,

  • I'm making a video later today where I'm going to be dressed up as a woman. So, I've been

  • busy preparing for that all day. If I pull that off successfully, then I will look like

  • a woman. It will be believable. You're going to have to watch this video now, aren't you?

  • Right. If I carry it off, then you're going to say to me, you're going to believe that

  • Benjamin looks like a woman. Don't say that, I've even got facial hair, come on, I'm a

  • man. If something takes off and it becomes popular, so fashion. Maybe if I start walking

  • around with stripey socks and it takes off, then everyone starts wearing stripey socks.

  • Okay. It doesn't really work with "through", these ones, unless you're taking about the

  • business aspect of fashion. Yeah, a sales deal - a sales deal sailed through, but this

  • is more sort of the business area. To catch on, a fashion catches on. And then to capitalise

  • on, again, sort of more sort of business related as would be to stay ahead and to lose out

  • to, talking about kind of competition.

  • Sports. They carried it off excellently. England carried off their game plan exceptionally

  • well. Their hard work paid off. They got through the game successfully. They sailed through

  • to the World Cup final. They built on their hard work. They capitalised on New Zealand's

  • mistakes. Okay.

  • What about studies? Yep, I pulled it off. I got an A. My hard work has paid off. Or,

  • I muddled my way through university means I did a little bit of work, I did a little

  • bit of that, I wasn't very concentrated, but I got through it, I got to the end. I managed

  • to walk into a job after my studies. I caught up with my friends by doing some revision.

  • You could say I lost out on - I lost out on getting a first-class degree, which was a

  • mistake. Okay. Fine.

  • So, the more familiar you get with these phrasal verbs, the better. Look out for them in the

  • things you're going to read and listen to and just try to expand your vocab. Thanks

  • for watching. Any questions, write them down in the comments below and I'll see you in

  • the next video. Bye!

Hello, hiya, thanks for finding your way here to this video right now to come and learn

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