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  • hey aubrey how's it going today hi i'm great  lindsay i have a funny question for you  

  • okay go for it have you ever fallen down in public  oh my gosh yeah um not that i can think of but  

  • i've witnessed a friend of mine fall down and  it was hilarious funny for everyone else so long  

  • embarrassing for them but funny for  everyone else i did in high school  

  • it was a halftime show of a basketball  game so like the whole school was there  

  • and they called a few students down randomly to  participate and maybe win a prize in like a game  

  • where you're shooting and i was wearing these  boots that had kind of not feel but like a big  

  • fell down in front of the whole school everyone's  laughing and it was not the end of the world but  

  • i was thinking about this recently and i'm so glad  social media didn't exist so no one was filming it  

  • wasn't posted anywhere the only people who saw it  were their present yes i loved it terrible posted  

  • on social media for everyone to see so wait was  it blurry time yeah a simpler time was it in the  

  • stands then when you were coming down the stairs  no it was while i like shot the basketball and i  

  • went to grab it because it was like a competition  during the halftime where some students had to  

  • play like lightning where you do oh yeah yeahknow how to get them out bump out some people call  

  • it yeah and i was playing that and like shot the  basketball ran to grab it and kind of tripped and  

  • fell so literally you were in the spotlight like  everyone was watching you okay that's good stuff  

  • worst case scenario it's funny how falling  for adults is so funny and ridiculous but  

  • for kids it's just what they do they fall  on their skin their knees but for adults  

  • it's the most ridiculous funny thing i like  and for a teenager so embarrassing right  

  • yeah toddlers follow that's whatever adults fall  you're like it's fine but a teenager is mortified  

  • it's something like that happens yeah you are  truly lucky aubrey that there was no social media  

  • back then right and i also went through that era  of not really having social media in high school  

  • thank goodness but now we have it so everything is  different right i know and there are so many perks  

  • my kids love social media i love it i love using  it for all there's english it's so great to have  

  • these quick tips idioms slaying that we can teach  with a really quick social media video so if you  

  • guys aren't following us on social media wherever  you find your social media instagram linkedin  

  • twitter youtube we're everywhere and in china with  billy billy lrb and you can read longer articles  

  • for some more deep dives into things on our wechat  official account as well so wherever you are in  

  • the world you can find all there's english on  social media yes there are so many good ways  

  • to connect with us guys go on there and check it  out because you get stuff that you're not going to  

  • see here on the podcast right videos commentary  quizzes really fun ways to interact with us and  

  • to learn so good all right exactly yes and this is  a fun one we often will be able to teach a phrasal  

  • verb on social media too we'll give a highlight  of one specific phrasal verb and we got a question  

  • about some phrasal verbs that we want to focus on  today which is why we were talking about falling  

  • down yes i love it this question of course i'd be  happy this is from alexander here we go he says  

  • your podcast is getting more and more popular  in our country i start every morning listening  

  • to your show while commuting to work so i wanted  to thank you guys for doing such a great job well  

  • thanks alexander aubry that's wonderful to hear  isn't it welcome that feels great so awesome it's  

  • so good and here's the question maybe you could  help out with two phrasal verbs that i am stuck  

  • on i'm stuck on i guess you could say just imagine  i was walking down the street and i tripped over  

  • something and i fell down so in this situation  do i actually say i fell down or i fell over or  

  • are they both good to go or are they both good  because you can say that go with that suggestion  

  • because looking at those two you would think  they mean the same thing fall down fall over  

  • oh that probably means the same thing no right  there are subtle differences in that case you  

  • would want to say i fell down if we tripped we say  i fell down we wouldn't say i fell over but we're  

  • gonna dive into why what are the nuance nuances  how do you know which one to choose this is going  

  • to be interesting yeah and you know just onprevious episode a few weeks ago i interviewed  

  • someone who does his whole show all about phrasal  verbs so go over there and look for that episode  

  • guys it was a few weeks ago really good stuff to  focus it's so tricky right aubry because if we  

  • change one preposition the meaning changes quite  a bit exactly right with fall we have fall in fall  

  • off fall out fall over fall away there are so many  different meanings depending on that second word  

  • that preposition so you guys are aware of this  phrasal verbs are tricky i love that you did that  

  • interview lindsay so that we can have another  resource for figuring out how to learn phrasal  

  • verbs yeah guys you can find that by coming back  to our blog and just type in alex bricker or i can  

  • actually get the name for you the episode number  right now that is episode 1742 guys so check out  

  • that episode good stuff nice but i thought it  would be interesting to talk a little bit just  

  • about the verb fall without a preposition because  okay it's actually a tricky verb on its own right  

  • word because it can be both a noun and a verb  and each of them has multiple meanings so let's  

  • quickly talk about that first the noun lindsay  what is the first meaning of the word fall  

  • noun okay all right so to so the noun again  is the act of falling right he had a bad fall  

  • and i hear this a lot when i hear about  elderly people does that ring a bell to you  

  • aubrey definitely maybe you get a call from your  mother you say or your grandmother had a bad fall  

  • something like that right yeah and we're using  that as a noun the fall is a thing that you're  

  • talking about right yes i love it and a second  meaning is a thing which falls and we usually  

  • talk about this especially with snow or rain so  for example you'd say yesterday we had the first  

  • fall of snow and now we're describing we're using  fall as a noun to talk about a thing that falls or  

  • it falls out of the sky right yeah and i would  say that this one feels to me a little bit more  

  • formal what do you think aubrey does this feel  a little more formal to you or do you use this  

  • a lot it is a little more formal i feel likehear it in song lyrics and i see it in poetry and  

  • it's sort of a beautiful way of speaking to say  the first fall of something like oh it's been a  

  • long time since we had a fall of rain right and so  you can switch that and say rainfall or snowfall  

  • also a noun yeah we say it both ways and it  is a little more informal but it's also a  

  • very beautiful way of speaking i think yeahmean guys if your personality is such that you  

  • like to create poetry in your words there  are a lot of people that love to speak  

  • right they love to be articulate and kind of  wordsmith things and kind of be more of an artist  

  • we want to give you that option so this would be  a good one to write down if you want to speak in  

  • this poetic way okay definitely and then there's a  third noun which is the season autumn we also call  

  • fall would say i love fall it's my favorite season  yeah three meanings for this one noun which most  

  • people think of as a verb fall i love it is fall  your favorite season aubrey what would you say  

  • it used to be when i lived in the east whenlived in new york fall was my favorite season in  

  • arizona it's my least favorite season because  it's still so hot and miserable and nothing  

  • really changes arizona is horrible it's just  more longer summer oh yeah but in new england  

  • new england is the place to be in the falldon't know if you ever went up to vermont but  

  • the leaves up there are just amazing in the fall  yes we drove from new york up to quebec montreal  

  • and so we saw all of the foliage from in between  and then oh my goodness the leaves were beautiful  

  • it was right when they were turning red and orange  and yellow and it was breathtaking it's so good  

  • it's so good so guys we've seen a lot of  different ways to use the noun use this as  

  • a noun what about as a verb let's get to the the  more common one right the one that we're going to  

  • then after we're going to tack on the  preposition and make it a phrasal verb  

  • right exactly so first of all just to move  downward right yeah the snow fell all night now  

  • you're talking about that snowfall but using it as  a verb the rain falls the snow falls the snow fell  

  • right i love it and then the second way guys  is just to lose balance and collapse usually  

  • this is talking about you your body but it could  also be something else like um i have the worst  

  • cabinets right now in my in my home and every time  i open the cabinets a lot of times something just  

  • falls down and breaks and everything like  the olive oil spills all over the cabinet  

  • it's so bad that happens to me with it my kids  will put something in the fridge very precariously  

  • oh yeah like a booby trap and then you open the  fridge and something falls out and spills all over  

  • the floor it's normal this is live having children  yeah i can imagine i can't imagine exactly so that  

  • just means something loses balance it collapses  we could say it's so embarrassing to fall in  

  • public especially if you're a teenager i love  it and there are actually so many phrasal verbs  

  • right aubry and we're not going to go into all  of them today we don't need to do them all today  

  • guys that'll break your brain to do it i don't  want to break your brain that's why you got to  

  • hit subscribe hit follow on this podcast you get  future episodes we'll go into them later but there  

  • are ones like fall in fall off fall out fall away  right so many and the two from today's question  

  • that we're going to focus in on are fall down and  fall over which are very similar i understand why  

  • the student could confuse these or wasn't sure  which one to use so let's first talk about fall  

  • down we use this more specifically it means you  tripped it's resulting from tripping or stumbling  

  • and sometimes it's just over your own feet like  we were talking about how toddlers young children  

  • fall down when they first learn to walk they  might not be tripping over a rock or something  

  • they just are tripping over their own feet  yes i love that i love that it's so cute  

  • i love it so just falling down tripling over your  own feet um i had a friend in college who every  

  • time she would attempt she wasn't very athletic  so every time she would attempt to go for a jog  

  • she would fall she would just like always havefall during their phone that's such a nice way of  

  • saying clumsy to just say she's not very athletic  that's a good strategy here you guys if you think  

  • someone is a little clumsy the kind way to say  that is she's not super athletic yeah guys write  

  • that one down as a bonus for today so good we  could do another episode on that topic aubry on  

  • how to be kind be kind i like that right i would  prefer someone call me unathletic as opposed to  

  • clumsy yes i love both are probably true okay so  the second one we this is the same that you're  

  • tripping you're falling but we talk about falling  down something falling down the stairs falling  

  • down a mountain right i fell down the mountain  and that same you're kind of either tripping over  

  • something or over your own feet and falling downthing yes i love it it makes me think of when i go  

  • skiing there's so much ski lingo skiers have their  own lingo for everything and whenever you know  

  • you're on a ski lift and people see someone who  essentially they've fallen down on their skis but  

  • literally everything has released your skis have  released your hat's going you know your helmet  

  • everything's going off they say yard sale right  they yell yard sale and they make it even worse  

  • for the poor person oh that's happened to me so  many times one skis off in the powder and once  

  • he's up the hill aways and then you're like  trudging around trying to collect everything  

  • yeah there's definitely a culture and skiers are  not always yeah they're joking but they can give  

  • people a hard time so the moral of the story is  don't ski below the chair right right exactly  

  • where anyone sees you from the chair lift exactly  i love it so good okay okay so let's go over right  

  • because in all of those cases you wouldn't sayfell over if you're tripping stumbling and falling  

  • right we would not say i fell over this is very  different this is referring to falling from a flat  

  • surface it's not from a result of tripping  yeah it doesn't even have to be a human right  

  • you could say the tree fell over or the display  fell over when i bumped it right right whereas  

  • uh we wouldn't say that a tree or a display fell  down because that's something that it would have  

  • to be animated it would have to trip yes it fell  over right right right and usually people right  

  • i mean yeah and people don't really fall over  again like we said it's more of an object  

  • right yep exactly but here's the trick a person  can fall over but there has to be some kind of  

  • outside force causing that right you could say  i fell over when she pushed me you wouldn't say  

  • i fell down because you didn't trip on anything  it's really this is when we use this as it's not  

  • something i did i fell over either because maybe  i lost my balance someone pushed me something  

  • like that then would say i fell over yeah this is  actually trickier than i thought when we started  

  • the episode today this is pretty nuanced for  our listeners right to understand the difference  

  • right when i think about fall over i think  about something that is just self-contained it's  

  • sitting there on a flat surface like you said and  then it just tips right and usually as you said a  

  • result of something maybe the wind right causes  it to fall over yeah yep somebody bumps it but  

  • it is true we'll use this for humans as well  so there are some expressions where we'll say  

  • like i laughed so hard i fell over right and it's  just like that expression where something was so