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  • Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

  • Are you ready to master the top 50 phrasal verbs?

  • Yes, let's do it.

  • Have you ever been listening to an English conversation but you just can't figure out

  • what they're saying?

  • You know the individual words, but the meaning just doesn't add up.

  • If you've been putting off learning phrasal verbs, you may want to check out today's lesson.

  • It will take you from huh to bring it on in no time.

  • So what are phrasal verbs?

  • Well, phrasal verbs are a two or three-part verb like this.

  • There is a normal verb try plus a second part.

  • That second part could be called a participle, could be called a preposition, it doesn't

  • really matter.

  • That second part is what makes this a phrasal verb.

  • To try is different than to try on or to try out.

  • These have different meanings.

  • So when we use phrasal verbs, it changes the meaning of the original verb.

  • Phrasal verbs are incredibly common in daily conversations, so I hope that these top 50

  • phrasal verbs in this lesson will help you to gain some confidence in your speaking but

  • also to help you understand what other people are saying.

  • Because it's important to know the nuances and the different meanings of these phrasal

  • verbs.

  • Let's get started with number one.

  • Number one is to add up, to add up.

  • Take a look at this sentence, her story didn't add up, I think she's lying.

  • What do you think this phrasal verb means?

  • Instead of me directly telling you right away the meaning of the phrasal verb, I want you

  • to guess based on the sentence.

  • That's what we're going to be doing for all 50 of these phrasal verbs.

  • It's kind of like a 50-question test, hopefully a fun test.

  • What do you think add up means here, her story didn't add up, I think she's lying.

  • This means it didn't make sense.

  • Something about it seemed not logical or strange, it didn't add up.

  • We usually use this phrasal verb in a negative sentence, so that's what's happening here.

  • Her story did not add up.

  • If you are a student and you go to your teacher and say, "I'm sorry, I don't have my homework

  • finished because last night I got into a car wreck, and I had to go visit my grandmother

  • in the hospital.

  • And then I had my dog, and my dog was eating my homework."

  • This story seems a little bit unbelievable, so the teacher might think, "Oh, your story

  • doesn't add up, I think you're lying.

  • You just didn't do your homework."

  • So here, the story doesn't make sense, it's not logical, it doesn't add up.

  • Let's go to number two, to back somebody up.

  • Take a look at this sentence, my parents backed me up when I decided to apply for graduate

  • school.

  • My parents backed me up, what do you think this means?

  • My back, backed me up.

  • We can imagine your back the part of your body, it gives you support.

  • You can't sit up or stand up or do much without your back.

  • So when you back someone up, you give them support.

  • My parents supported me when I decided to apply for graduate school.

  • This is a great example of how a phrasal verb can directly replace another maybe more textbook

  • word.

  • It's not wrong to say my parents supported me, but it's even better to say my parents

  • backed me up when I decided to apply for graduate school.

  • Phrasal verbs will just make you sound more comfortable and like you know what you're

  • saying.

  • Let's take a look at a similar expression, it's kind of a bonus tip that I'd like to

  • add.

  • What if I said to you I've got your back, I've got your back.

  • Can you guess what this means?

  • This isn't a phrasal verb, it's just a bonus phrase that is kind of similar to this phrasal

  • verb.

  • It means I will support you, I am supporting you all the way, I got your back.

  • We often use this when we want to give encouragement to someone.

  • So if your friend is maybe going to do something a little bit risky, you can say, "I will support

  • you no matter what, I got your back."

  • Great, wonderful phrase to use.

  • Let's go onto our next phrasal verb, to blow up.

  • Take a look at this sentence.

  • When I told her I couldn't come to her party, she blew up.

  • This is the past tense, this is an irregular past tense verb.

  • She blew up, do you think she is really happy?

  • No.

  • Instead, this is to become suddenly angry, she blew up.

  • So if this is part of your personality to easily blow up, maybe there's some deep breaths

  • you can take, clear your mind a bit.

  • If you are easily angry, well, maybe you easily blow up.

  • I need to calm down a bit.

  • All right.

  • Let's go to our next one, to bring on something, to bring on something.

  • 50 new phrasal verbs.

  • Yeah.

  • Bring it on.

  • Can you tell by my facial expression it's not like the previous one, I'm not blowing

  • up, I'm not angry?

  • Instead, I am excited about accepting some kind of challenge with confidence.

  • Yes, 50 new phrasal verbs, I can do it, bring it on.

  • We often use this to give encouragement to ourselves.

  • If you are faced with some kind of challenge and you want to really encourage yourself,

  • you could say, "All right.

  • Bring it on, I can do it."

  • To bring up, you shouldn't bring up politics in this house unless you're ready for a long

  • discussion.

  • You shouldn't bring up politics, this means you shouldn't mention politics in conversation

  • unless you want a long discussion because people here are quite passionate about politics.

  • To bring up something, what's something that you shouldn't bring up in your country?

  • What is a topic that you should maybe avoid in your country?

  • If you'd like to check out some common taboo questions in English and especially in the

  • US that you should avoid, check out this video that I made up here.

  • It will help you know which topics you shouldn't bring up unless you want to have a long discussion.

  • To call off.

  • Instead of calling off the wedding, the couple decided to elope.

  • Probably last year if you tried to get married in your country, it might have been a little

  • difficult because you couldn't have big weddings.

  • Very unfortunate for a lot of people who wanted to get married last year and probably continuing

  • this year too.

  • So what's your other choice?

  • Well, you could call off the wedding or you could elope.

  • What do you think this phrasal verb means, to call off the wedding?

  • It just means to cancel the wedding.

  • We're going to cancel the wedding.

  • Well, maybe you still want to get married, so you could elope.

  • If you watched one of my previous videos about 10 funny jokes in English, we talked about

  • this word elope.

  • It means to run away with your lover, to get married maybe in some court house or maybe

  • in a nice destination, but it's just the two of you, you are eloping.

  • So you could call off your wedding, you could cancel the wedding or you could elope.

  • To calm down.

  • When I have a stressful day, I like to calm down by taking a nice long walk outside.

  • Maybe you feel the same way.

  • When you take a long walk outside, it helps you to calm down.

  • This phrasal verb means to relax, to calm down.

  • To catch up, to catch up.

  • I met my friend for lunch to catch up because we haven't seen each other in a long time.

  • Am I running after my friend and catching her?

  • No, take a look at this other question.

  • Want to meet for coffee and catch up?

  • Want to meet for coffee and catch up?

  • We're not running, I'm not inviting you to have a race.

  • Instead, this means that you are meeting with someone who you haven't seen for a while.

  • You want to find out what has been happening in their life recently.

  • You want to catch up.

  • Sometimes we say catch up on what's happening in your life.

  • Yeah, I want to catch up on what's happening, so tell me all about it.

  • To catch up on.

  • To check in.

  • Look at this sentence, I went to the hotel to check in while my husband parked the car.

  • To check in, what am I doing in the hotel?

  • Check, check, check.

  • No, this just means that you're registering at a hotel.

  • You're telling them, "Hey, I'm here," and they write in the computer, "All right, Vanessa

  • is here, here's your keys."

  • This process is called checking in.

  • To check out.

  • To check out could have the opposite meaning.

  • When you leave the hotel, you check out.

  • You give them back the keys and you say, "I'm done, I'm leaving.

  • Thank you so much."

  • But I'd like to give you another meaning, what if you saw this sentence, I'm excited

  • to check out the new park in my city.

  • To check out the new park.

  • Or what if I just said check it out.

  • Oh, what do you think this means?

  • This means to see something or to try something.

  • I can't wait to see the new park in my city, I can't wait to check out the new park in

  • my city.

  • Walk all around, see what's going on.

  • Great, you're checking it out.

  • We sometimes use this phrase all by itself, check it out.

  • And this just means look at this.

  • Check it out, I can't believe that my son finished a 100-piece puzzle by himself.

  • Check it out, look at this.

  • It's kind of an expression of surprise and amazement.

  • Wow, check it out.

  • To chip in.

  • I couldn't go to the party, but I still wanted to chip in for a gift.

  • I want to help participate in something.

  • It might be with money or with your energy and time.

  • Take a look at this, my son likes to chip in and help me with the garden.

  • He's giving his time and energy digging and weeding and helping me with the garden.

  • He's not giving me money, he's not participating by giving money.

  • Instead, it's his time.

  • So if you can't go to a party but you want to help pay for a special present, you could

  • give some money to your friend and say, "Here's some money because I want to chip in for the

  • present."

  • And they will use that money to help pay for the present.

  • It's a great phrasal verb.

  • To close down, to close down.

  • This is different than to close.

  • Take a look at this.

  • Because of construction, they closed down two lanes of the highway.

  • They closed down two lanes of the highway.

  • Or during the pandemic, a lot of restaurants closed down.

  • Can you get the sense of this phrasal verb?

  • It means that they closed completely, sometimes forever.

  • So the highway, they completely closed two lanes because they were doing construction

  • or for the businesses they closed forever because of the pandemic.

  • It's a very unfortunate situation.

  • To come down with something.

  • I'm not feeling so well, I think I'm coming down with something.

  • Can you guess that this means to start to feel sick, to come down with something.

  • We use this for not serious sicknesses.

  • For example, maybe you have a cold, maybe you have a sore throat.

  • Maybe you even have the flu, but it's not something so serious.

  • You might use this as an excuse, "Sorry, I can't come to your party, I think I'm coming

  • down with something."

  • We often use something with this phrasal verb because at the beginning of a sickness, you

  • might not know what it is.

  • But you could say, "Sorry, I think I'm coming down with a cold."

  • You could be specific if you know or, "I think I'm coming down with the flu, I should stay

  • away from people for a few days.

  • To come down with some type of sickness.

  • And the opposite of this, to come down with, to come up with.

  • To come up with something, take a look at this sentence.

  • I need to come up with a great present for my mom's birthday.

  • Come up with a great present.

  • Am I picking up a great present?

  • No.

  • Take a look at this other sentence, I couldn't come up with anything special, so I just baked

  • a cake.

  • This means you're finding an idea.

  • To come up with a present means that I need to think about a great idea for a birthday

  • present, I can't come up with a great idea.

  • Or maybe you need to write a thesis paper, you need to come up with an original idea.

  • You need to find an idea that is original for your thesis paper, to come up with something.

  • To cut back on, to cut back on.

  • Take a look at this sentence.

  • I'm trying to cut back on fried food, but it's so tasty.

  • I'm trying to cut back on fried food.

  • Do you think I'm trying to eat more?

  • Nope.

  • Instead, that means you're trying to do less of something.

  • You're trying to take something out of your life, to cut back on your consumption of fried

  • food.

  • Or you could say it just by itself.

  • If someone says, "Why aren't you eating ice cream?"

  • You could say, "I'm trying to cut back."

  • You don't need to use on because you don't need to repeat I'm trying to cut back on ice

  • cream because they just said ice cream.

  • So we know the general topic and context here.

  • You could say ice cream again, I'm trying to cut back on ice cream, but you could just

  • say this by itself, I'm trying to cut back.

  • This is a really natural thing to say.

  • To cut off, to cut off.

  • Cut off my hair?

  • Nope, that's not what we're talking about.

  • Take a look at this.

  • The driver in the red car cut me off and almost caused a wreck.

  • Cut me off.

  • It's kind of an angering situation, you're driving, and another car comes in.

  • And you go, you slam on the brakes or you have to swerve to the side and be safe.

  • He has made it so it was kind of ending abruptly or stopping something quickly.

  • Usually, we use this in driving, that driver cut me off or with speaking.

  • You could say he tried to tell the teacher his excuse, but she cut him off mid sentence.

  • Maybe she thought his story didn't add up.

  • So as he's speaking, boom, she cut him off.

  • Ed, no, no, no, I don't think that's an excuse.

  • No, you need to have your homework.

  • She cut him off, this idea of ending abruptly what he was thinking.

  • To drop by or to drop in.

  • Take a look at this.

  • Hey, are you home?

  • I'm in the neighborhood, and I wanted to drop by.

  • If you call your friend and tell your friend this, I'm in the neighborhood and wanted to

  • drop by.

  • Does that mean you want to drop something on the ground or you want to give something

  • to your friend?

  • Nope, it just means I want to see you.

  • You're kind of spontaneously going for a visit, to drop by.

  • And usually this is a quick visit.

  • Doesn't necessarily need to be, but usually it's this quick visit.

  • You can even use drop in in similar situations.

  • Maybe you want to encourage your friends to visit you at any time, you could say drop

  • in whenever you want.

  • Drop in whenever you want or drop by whenever you want.

  • Please, I would love to see you at any time.

  • To end up, to end up.

  • We ended up just ordering pizza and not going to the fancy restaurant.

  • We ended up just ordering pizza.

  • Maybe it's raining.

  • Maybe you're just tired.

  • You had plans to go to a fancy restaurant, but that is not what happened.

  • Instead, you just ordered pizza.

  • So we're talking about the conclusion.

  • What is really happening at the end?

  • Well, we ended up ordering pizza.

  • We can also use this in a little bit of a deeper way.

  • Instead of saying just some actions that happen, sometimes we use this to talk about our character.

  • For example, you might say he doesn't want to end up like his father.

  • This is a little strong, but maybe his father is an alcoholic.

  • Maybe his father is really rude or has some characteristics that the son doesn't want

  • to have.

  • So we could say he doesn't want to end up like his father.

  • What is happening in his father's life as an adult, he doesn't want, the son doesn't

  • want the same thing to happen to him.

  • I don't want to end up like my father, so I'm going to try to surround myself with good

  • people and get a good education and focus on positivity.

  • Okay, there's things you can do to not end up like someone who you don't want to end

  • up like.

  • To figure out, to figure out.

  • The mechanic tried to figure out what was wrong with my car.

  • He tried to figure out what was wrong with my car.

  • This means he's trying to find a solution, find what's happening here.

  • We can simply say, "Oh, I can't figure it out.

  • Can you help me please?"

  • This is a really common question, a very polite question.

  • It means you tried.

  • I tried to figure it out, but I can't figure it out.

  • Can you help me please?

  • To fill in, to fill in.

  • I missed the meeting, can someone fill me in?

  • Notice here that we're talking about someone, fill me in.

  • Does that mean that I need to drink a lot of water to fill my stomach?

  • No.

  • Here, we're talking about giving some information.

  • Usually, this is spoken information.

  • If you miss a business meeting and you want to find out what happened, this is the perfect

  • phrasal verb to use.

  • Can someone fill me in, what happened at the meeting?

  • Or maybe if you walk into your house and it's an absolute disaster, things are such a mess

  • and your kids look up and say, Hi mom," you might use this phrasal verb and say, "all

  • right, someone fill me in.

  • What happened in this house?"

  • So you want them to give you some information, some spoken information.

  • Notice that this is spoken because our phrasal verb is going to be the opposite.

  • To fill out, fill out.

  • When you go to a new doctor's office, you need to fill out a lot of paperwork.

  • Are you talking to someone?

  • No.

  • You're giving information, but it's written.

  • It's written down.

  • So at the doctor's office, the secretary might say, "All right, can you please fill out these

  • forms and give them back to me when you're finished," fill out these forms.

  • I think a good way to remember fill in and fill out is to imagine the image of information

  • going into you.

  • So when someone fills you in, the information is going in.

  • But when you fill out a form, the information is going out of the pen.

  • The ink is going out of the pen.

  • So you need to fill out the form, but you want someone to fill you in.

  • I hope that helps.

  • To find out, to find out.

  • In the next episode, we will find out who the mysterious man is, to find out.

  • This just means that you're learning something that you didn't know before, some kind of

  • information that you didn't know before.

  • Or you might say, "Oh, today I found out that phrasal verbs are really important."

  • This is something new that you learned that you didn't know before.

  • I found out, this is an irregular past tense verb.

  • I found out or I am finding that out now.

  • To get along or to get along with.

  • Take a look at this, I get along with my neighbors really well.

  • I get along with my neighbors.

  • This means I have a friendly relationship with them.

  • We could switch this sentence up a little bit and take out with.

  • Take a look at this, my neighbors and I get along well.

  • Notice how the sentence construction is different.

  • We have both people as the subject of the sentence.

  • My husband and I get along well.

  • Or we could switch it up and say I get along with my husband really well.

  • So if we have both people at the beginning, you can cut out the word with.

  • But if you want to have one and then the other, you can add the word with.

  • This is a great way to be flexible with phrasal verbs.

  • To get around.

  • Usually we add to get around to it, to get around to doing something.

  • Take a look at this.

  • One day, I'll get around to cleaning the garage, but not today.

  • I'll get around to cleaning the garage but not today.

  • This means you're eventually doing something.

  • Usually you're delaying it, "Oh, I'll get around to that later."

  • This is a common phrase, I'll get around to that or it, I'll get around to it later.

  • So if you told your husband, "All right, I'm going to clean the garage," and then you don't

  • do it and he says, "hey, why is the garage still a mess?"

  • You might say, "Oh, I'll get around to it later.'

  • I'll delay it, I delayed it.

  • But eventually, I'll just do it later.

  • Or when you do it, you could say I finally got around to cleaning the garage.

  • Oh, this means you have been delaying it for so long, you've been procrastinating.

  • You said eventually I'll do it, and then you did it.

  • I finally got around to cleaning the garage.

  • To get back at, to get back at.

  • Look at this, my sister took my shoes to get back at me for taking her sweater.

  • If you have any siblings and you shared clothes with them, this can work out really well sometimes,

  • but sometimes it doesn't work out so well.

  • So what's happening in this sentence with to get back at?

  • My sister is trying to take revenge.

  • She's angry that I took her sweater, so what's she going to do?

  • She's going to take my shoes.

  • Maybe she's going to wear my shoes and not tell me about it.

  • She took my shoes to get back at me for taking her sweater.

  • We can use this as a question too.

  • If you are not sure about someone's motives, you might say, "Are you just trying to get

  • back at me for taking your sweater?"

  • And she might say, "Yep, I am."

  • Are you trying to get back at me, are you trying to get revenge because you're angry

  • about something I did?

  • Maybe so.

  • To give up.

  • To give up?

  • No, look at this sentence.

  • After trying to change the oil in my car for a couple hours, I finally gave up and went

  • to a mechanic.

  • Could you guess that I'm really happy about doing this, it was really a successful?

  • No, I gave up and went to a mechanic.

  • This means I quit.

  • I tried a lot, and then I quit, and I just went to a mechanic.

  • We can also use this phrasal verb to give some encouragement to someone.

  • So I know that in today's lesson there is a lot of information, a lot of phrasal verbs,

  • but I want to tell you, don't give up, you can do it.

  • Continue learning, say some of the sentences out loud with me.

  • Repeat them, enjoy yourself, take some notes.

  • Maybe cook some food, have a glass of wine at the same time that you're studying this

  • lesson, don't give up, you got this.

  • To grow up, to grow up.

  • This one is to grow up?

  • Actually, yes.

  • When I was a child, I couldn't wait to grow up.

  • Isn't that funny?

  • When we're kids, we just want to grow up.

  • And then when we're adults, we look at kids and say, "Oh, how innocent, how happy they

  • are.

  • This means that you're getting older."

  • But we can also use this as an insult to tell someone to stop acting like a child.

  • So let's imagine that you make a little body sound, maybe you fart and somebody laughs.

  • And use say, "That wasn't funny, grow up."

  • Well, kids like to laugh at these types of things, hey, adults do too.

  • But it's usually considered a childish thing to laugh at.

  • So you might say, "Hey, that wasn't funny, grow up.

  • Stop acting like a child, grow up."

  • This is pretty harsh.

  • And you could say it with a laugh tone in your voice, "Hey, grow up, that's not funny."

  • You could say it like that lightly, but it can be pretty strong if you say this seriously.

  • All right.

  • Let's go to our next phrasal verb, to hang on.

  • Oh, can you hear hang on for just a sec while I check this message?

  • That's a great way to use this phrasal verb.

  • Can you hang on for just a sec?

  • This is just a second.

  • Can you imagine what this means?

  • To wait, to pause for just a minute.

  • Sometimes we even use this to pause the conversation.

  • If someone tells you something shocking, they say, "Oh yeah, I was hiking and I saw rattlesnake,

  • and I picked it up," and then they just keep talking.

  • To pick up a rattlesnake is a very bad idea.

  • So you might say, "Hang on, you did what?"

  • You're telling them, pause the conversation, stop what's happening.

  • Hang on, you did what.

  • Don't pick up a rattlesnake.

  • So here it's the same idea, you're asking someone, "Hey, can you hang on just a sec

  • while I check this message?

  • Hang on, pause what we're doing while I check this message," or, "pause the conversation,

  • don't pick up a rattlesnake."

  • Vanessa's public service announcement of the day.

  • Please don't pick up dangerous snakes unless you are a professional.

  • To hang out, to hang out.

  • Do you want to come over to my house and hang out?

  • This means we're just casually spending time together.

  • Do you want to come over and hang out?

  • There's no plan, there's no specific event.

  • Just maybe throwing a Frisbee in the backyard, maybe making some tea and coffee and some

  • little snacks, and we'll just hang out.

  • We sometimes use this phrasal verb as a way to answer a common question.

  • If someone says, "What did you do this weekend?"

  • And either you did nothing or you don't want to tell them, you might say, "Oh, I just hung

  • out."

  • This is an irregular past verb, so you might say I just hung out, hung out.

  • And it means I sat around the house, I didn't do anything special, I just hung out.

  • Great, it's a way to answer this common question.

  • "Hey, what did you do this weekend?"

  • "Man, I just hung out.

  • Nothing special."

  • If you'd like to see some other ways to answer this question, what do you do this weekend

  • or what you got going on this weekend, you can check out this video I made up here where

  • you're going to have the opportunity to learn some common questions, answer those questions,

  • and also practice speaking with me.

  • I hope that you'll enjoy that lesson, make sure you check it out.

  • To hold on, to hold on.

  • I'm holding on to hope that someday we'll be able to travel again soon.

  • Oh, wouldn't that be great?

  • We can get the idea I'm holding on to hope.

  • I'm not holding on to my phone.

  • No, it's something more figurative, I'm holding onto hope.

  • It's a great way to use this phrasal verb, which means you cling to stuff.

  • But sometimes we use this in a more figurative way.

  • Remember how I just talked about, hang on, you did what, you picked up a rattlesnake?

  • Hang on.

  • Well, we could also say hold on, you did what?

  • Hold on, you did what?

  • So we're clinging to this moment in the conversation.

  • Wait, you picked up a rattlesnake?

  • No, don't talk about other things, I want to talk about this thing that you just said,

  • it's shocking.

  • Hold on, you did what?

  • Also, if you would like to incorporate phrasal verbs into your life in a fun way with songs,

  • take a look at this fun sentence.

  • Hold on, I'm coming (singing).

  • This is a classic Sam & David song, I recommend searching for it on YouTube.

  • Some of the words are a little tough to understand in the way that he's singing it, but you can

  • check out the lyrics at the same time that you're listening.

  • But he uses this phrasal verb hold on.

  • And he's saying, "Wait, don't go away, stay here.

  • I want to cling to this relationship, and I will help you.

  • I'm coming, I'm coming help you.

  • Hold on."

  • It's fun when you can recognize phrasal verbs in songs, in movies and TV shows.

  • And when you hear them and you understand them, it brings such joy and excitement because

  • you're studying, your hard work is worth it.

  • To keep on.

  • If you keep on practicing, you'll get better.

  • That's true.

  • If you keep on practicing the piano, eventually you'll get better.

  • Maybe it will take a long time, maybe it will take a week, but you'll get better.

  • What's this mean?

  • If you continue practicing, you'll get better.

  • I feel like this phrasal verb to keep on is used a lot more than to continue.

  • To continue is very descriptive.

  • But in daily conversation, we use keep on a lot more.

  • I have to keep on working, I have a lot to do.

  • Keep on doing something.

  • There's a fixed phrase that we sometimes use to encourage other people using this phrasal

  • verb twice, keep on keeping on.

  • What do you think this means?

  • If someone told you, "I know you're learning lots of phrasal verbs.

  • It's a lot, but keep on keeping on."

  • This means continue continuing.

  • You're doing a hard job, this is a lot.

  • But do you know what, Keep on doing it, you got this.

  • Keep on keeping on.

  • To look forward to.

  • I'm looking forward to visiting my family over the summer, I'm looking forward to it.

  • This means there's something in the future that I'm excited about or maybe something

  • I'm not excited about.

  • No one looks forward to tax time maybe unless you're a tax accountant and that's what makes

  • you excited.

  • But we can say most people don't look forward to tax time.

  • It's not an exciting thing that you're waiting for.

  • No, I don't look forward to tax time, but I look forward to seeing my family.

  • To look out.

  • When you hike, look out for snakes.

  • I don't know why I'm thinking about snakes a lot right now, maybe because it's getting

  • warmer and they're coming out a lot more, especially where I live.

  • So you have to look out for snakes.

  • This means you need to be careful, watch out for snakes.

  • Watch out is actually another phrasal verb we'll talk about later.

  • But let's start with look out, look out for snakes.

  • There's another great idiom that has a similar meaning, it's kind of a bonus idiom, it's

  • not a phrasal verb.

  • But we might say you need to keep an eye out for snakes.

  • Don't take your eye out and look for snakes.

  • No, no, no.

  • But we use the singularly.

  • I mean, it's a good idea to use both your eyes to look out for snakes.

  • But for some reason, this idiom just uses eye, you should keep an eye out for snakes.

  • Keep an eye out for snakes, you never know when you might see one.

  • You don't want to accidentally step on one, keep an eye out for snakes, look out for snakes.

  • To look up.

  • To look up?

  • Not exactly this meaning.

  • You might say, "I didn't know the meaning of the word to hold on, so I looked it up

  • in the dictionary."

  • This is when you search for something usually online or in a book or in a dictionary to

  • get some more information.

  • I looked it up in the dictionary.

  • You might even just say I looked it up.

  • If someone says, "Oh, how do you know so much about river otters?"

  • You might say, "Oh, I looked it up," or, "I looked up some information about them last

  • week.

  • So that's how I know a lot about river otters, I looked it up."

  • To pull over.

  • It was raining so hard that I had to pull over and wait for the rain to stop.

  • I had to pull over.

  • You get the sense here that it's not safe to drive.

  • I didn't continue driving, I pulled over.

  • This means you steer your car to the side of the road or maybe to a gas station or somewhere

  • safe and wait.

  • You might just stop completely or you're just waiting for a period of time.

  • We often use this phrasal verb for police.

  • So you could say, "Yeah, I was driving too fast.

  • And when I saw police lights behind me, I pulled over."

  • But we can use this in more specific ways to talk about this situation.

  • You might say he, the police officer, he pulled me over, he pulled me over.

  • Or if we want to use this indirectly, this is a really common phrase, you might just

  • say, "I got pulled over on my way to the party, I got pulled over."

  • This means someone is doing the action to me.

  • I wouldn't have stopped if the police weren't behind me, I would've just kept driving.

  • So who did this?

  • Well, I didn't directly say in my sentence, but this phrase always means the police.

  • I got pulled over.

  • There were some lights, a siren.

  • Man, I'm getting pulled over, I got pulled over.

  • I hope that doesn't happen to you anytime soon.

  • To put off, to put off.

  • Look at this.

  • I put off learning phrasal verbs for too long, it's time to start today.

  • I put off, this means you are postponing something, you are delaying something.

  • I can't put it off for any longer, I need to start today.

  • When I saw Vanessa had this lesson about 50 phrasal verbs, I knew it was time to stop

  • putting off learning phrasal verbs.

  • Today was my chance, bring it on.

  • To put up with.

  • To put up with?

  • No, we're not raising something up.

  • You might say, "Oh, my sweet husband puts up with my terrible singing, he puts up with

  • my terrible singing."

  • Do you want to listen to terrible singing?

  • Probably not.

  • But if someone puts up with your terrible singing, they tolerate it.

  • Yeah, he puts up with my terrible singing because he knows that it makes me happy to

  • sing.

  • So we can use put up with for tolerating something, "Yup, he puts up with my singing."

  • Or we can use it for someone, but this is a little harsher.

  • What if you said, "I don't know how he puts up with her?"

  • Well, let's say that two people are dating and the girl in this situation is a little

  • bit difficult.

  • Well, you might be talking or gossiping about their relationship, you might say, "I don't

  • know how he puts up with her, I don't know how he tolerates her."

  • Do you see here how this is not one part of her singing?

  • No, this is just her in general, her character, her personality.

  • This is a little bit harsher to say I cannot tolerate that person.

  • That's much stronger than saying I can't tolerate this one thing that that person does.

  • It's okay to say, "I can't put up with your singing right now.

  • Please stop, I'm trying to study."

  • It's different than saying, "I can't put up with you."

  • This is a little strong.

  • So make sure if you use this, you use it in very strong situations.

  • To run away.

  • My dog is too lazy to run away.

  • He knows where the food is, so he's going to stay here.

  • He's too lazy to run away.

  • Or did you ever try to run away from home as a kid?

  • This is a common phrase to run away from home, and it means to escape.

  • My dog knows that the food is here, so he's not going to run away.

  • He's not going to escape because it's not better out there, it's better here where there's

  • food.

  • And the same as a kid, well, you might run away from home.

  • This fixed phrase, yeah, she tried to run away from home last week, but she only made

  • it to the neighbor's house.

  • To run away, to escape.

  • To run into.

  • Well, not exactly a physical running into someone, but it's a similar idea.

  • Look at this sentence, I don't want to run into a bear while I'm hiking.

  • Yes, of course you don't want to physically hit a bear while you're hiking.

  • But a more likely situation is to unexpectedly see a bear, I don't want to run into a bear.

  • Or you might say, "I ran into my high school English teacher last week at the grocery store."

  • I didn't plan to meet her there, it was just unexpected.

  • I unexpectedly saw my teacher, my old high school teacher at the grocery store, I ran

  • into my teacher.

  • Or we could use this as kind of a question, you'll never guess who I ran into today.

  • This is a fun little question to ask someone, and then they guess really random people.

  • You'll never guess who I ran into today.

  • Good question.

  • To run out of or to run out.

  • We ran out of milk and eggs yesterday, so I need to go to the store, we ran out of.

  • Am I carrying milk and eggs and running out of the house?

  • No.

  • This just means that there's none left, it's all finished.

  • We ran out of milk and eggs, so it's time to go to the store.

  • But we can also just use to run out.

  • Take a look at this.

  • There's no more milk, sorry, we ran out yesterday.

  • Why did I not say we ran out of milk?

  • Well, we already know the context, we know that we're talking about milk.

  • So you could just say, "Yeah, sorry, we ran out yesterday, and I haven't bought any new

  • milk yet."

  • We ran out.

  • To stick with, to stick with.

  • I tried guitar, piano, violin.

  • And finally, I decided to stick with the drums.

  • What do you think that means?

  • That means you are continuing to do something.

  • To continue playing the drums.

  • I stopped playing guitar, stopped playing piano, stopped playing violin and continued

  • playing the drums.

  • I think I'm going to stick with the drums.

  • Or we could use this for friends.

  • We could say good friends stick with each other even through hard times.

  • They continue their friendship even through hard times.

  • To think over, to think over.

  • It's a good idea to think over big purchases before you buy them.

  • Before you buy a car, you should think it over.

  • This is a great phrase to maybe give someone advice.

  • Think it over, this means you need to consider it seriously.

  • Think it over before you make the decision.

  • You need to think over a big purchase before you buy it.

  • To turn down.

  • No, this is not really talking about physically turning something down.

  • Take a look at this sentence.

  • I was so full from dinner that I had to turn down dessert.

  • I love dessert, but I was so full that I had to turn down dessert.

  • This means you're refusing something.

  • You might even use this politely and say, "I'm sorry, I need to turn it down.

  • I'm so full.

  • I need to refuse dessert because I'm just so full."

  • We can use this for people too.

  • Like I mentioned before with some of the other phrasal verbs, it's a little more serious.

  • If you are proposing to your girlfriend, you are asking her to marry you, and she says

  • no.

  • Well you might say, "She turned me down."

  • This means she refused me.

  • And it's kind of deeper about your character or who you are, it's very serious.

  • She turned me down, I can't believe it.

  • To turn off.

  • It's a good habit to turn off your phone an hour or more before bed.

  • To turn off.

  • This means you're stopping your phone, but we can imagine you're stopping the flow of

  • something because we can use this more figuratively too.

  • We might say that some people have trouble turning off their brain before bed.

  • You lay in bed and you just keep thinking about so many things.

  • You need to turn off your brain in order to relax and sleep.

  • You don't want to have your brain turned off all the time.

  • But before bed, it's important to turn off your brain.

  • You're stopping the flow of thoughts, the flow of energy.

  • Just like you need to turn off your phone, you need to turn off your brain a little bit

  • too.

  • To turn up, to turn up.

  • I surprised my family when I turned up to the party unannounced.

  • Can you guess what this means?

  • I appeared unexpectedly.

  • They didn't think that I was coming, and then I knocked on the door, and there I was.

  • I turned up unexpectedly.

  • Or you could say my cat was gone for two days and then he just turned up out of nowhere.

  • I have no idea where he was, he didn't tell me.

  • He just turned up, he appeared unexpectedly out of nowhere.

  • To warm up to.

  • Talking about cats, it took my cat a while to warm up to me.

  • It took my cat a while to warm up to me.

  • If you know anything about the difference between cats and dogs.

  • Well, dogs always want to.

  • But cats, sometimes they need more time.

  • And that's this idea of to warm up to, to start to like someone.

  • It takes time.

  • We can imagine a curling iron that sometimes people use to curl their hair.

  • It doesn't heat up immediately, it takes time.

  • And that's the idea here of someone or something, my cat took time to warm up to me.

  • Immediately, he didn't sit on my lap and love me.

  • No, he had to make sure that I was okay first.

  • We can warm up to someone or something, but we could also warm up to something more figuratively

  • like an idea.

  • We might say, "I didn't want to get a trampoline.

  • But after some time, I started to warm up to the idea.

  • I thought about it, realized, yeah, it could be pretty fun, and now we have a trampoline."

  • I started to warm up to the idea.

  • Watch out.

  • Oh, watch out for falling rocks.

  • Or watch out, sometimes bees make a nest in the ground around there, don't step without

  • looking.

  • Watch out.

  • This is used to caution someone, to be aware.

  • Watch out when you hike, sometimes bears will walk by unexpectedly.

  • Watch out.

  • To wear off.

  • The energy from my morning tea starts to wear off around noon.

  • That's soon.

  • The energy from my tea from my tea starts to wear off.

  • Can you guess what this means?

  • It's fading away.

  • When I first drank my tea, I had lots of energy and then it's starting to fade away, it's

  • wearing off.

  • We could also use this for something that you write with.

  • For example, you might say the marker is starting to wear off.

  • A couple of weeks ago, my son was really excited because he learned to write his name.

  • And he took a marker.

  • And during his nap time, he wrote his name all over his sheets.

  • You can see this here.

  • He kept writing his name everywhere.

  • And it's pretty funny, the marker is washable, it's not a big deal.

  • He was really excited.

  • And now the marker is starting to wear off, so it's fading away.

  • But I'm sure he will write it more and more because he is so excited about his new skill.

  • Phrasal verb number 50, you're finally here, congratulations, is to work something out.

  • Take a look at this.

  • My husband likes the mountains, I like the beach.

  • So for our next vacation, we're going to need to work something out.

  • I could have said, "We're going to need to work out a mutually beneficial solution for

  • our vacation."

  • A little too much.

  • It's a much more natural to say, "We need to work something out."

  • This means we need to find a compromise.

  • Sometimes parents save this to their children if their children are fighting and they say,

  • "Mom, help me.

  • No, she did this.

  • No, he did this," and the parent doesn't want to get involved.

  • Your parent might say, "Well, you guys need to work something out yourselves.

  • This is something that I'm not going to get involved in, both of you need to come up with

  • some kind of compromise."

  • You need to work something out yourselves.

  • So how did you do?

  • Are you starting to warm up to some of these phrasal verbs?

  • If you stick with practicing them, they'll get better and easier with time.

  • Now, I want you to think over the phrases that you just learned and tell me in the comments

  • what are you looking forward to doing this weekend?

  • I can't wait to read what you have to say and to see what you've come up with.

  • Well, thank you so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again next Friday

  • for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.

  • Bye.

  • The next step is to download my free ebook, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English

  • Speaker.

  • You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.

  • Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

  • Thanks so much.

  • Bye.

Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

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