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  • Hello. My name is Emma, and today, we are going to be talking about something I love

  • to talk about. And that is food. Okay? So today, I'm going to teach you many, many words

  • that have to do with food. Specifically, we are going to be looking at phrasal verbs.

  • So your first question might be, "Emma, what is a phrasal verb?" Well, I want you to look

  • at all of these sentences, okay? "Pick at", "snack on", "pig out", "polish off". These

  • are all phrasal verbs. So which part of this is the verb? If you said "pick", "snack",

  • "pig" -- surprisingly -- and "polish", you're right. We have verbs here, and then we have

  • something -- "at", "on", "out", "off". These words are called "prepositions", okay? So

  • a phrasal verb is a mix of a verb with a preposition. English has many, many phrasal verbs, and

  • this is one of the reasons why English is sometimes difficult because if we say, "look

  • up", "look down", "look around", "look to", "look at", these each have a different meaning.

  • The preposition is very important to the meaning of the word. Okay.

  • So I'm going to teach you various phrasal verbs that have a verb and a preposition.

  • Let's get started.

  • So the first verb I want to teach you is "pick at". Okay? "Pick at." So you'll notice that

  • the part of this word I say louder is the preposition. "Pick at." "I'm sad, so I pick

  • at my food." Can you guess what this means based on the sentence you see here? When you

  • are sad, do you eat a lot, or do you eat a little? Well, some people eat a lot. But many

  • people, when they're very sad, they don't want to eat. "Pick at" means you don't eat

  • a lot; you eat very, very little. You might pick at your food when you are sad or when

  • you are sick. Okay? So that is the word "pick at". And I've drawn a face here because this

  • person is maybe sick or sad, so they're not eating a lot. They are picking at their food.

  • The next word we use, "snack on". Okay? When you "snack on" something, you don't eat a

  • lot, but you're not going to a restaurant and snacking on food. It's usually you snack

  • on, maybe, popcorn, potato chips, junk food, candy, maybe sunflower seeds. When you "snack

  • on" something, it means you're eating some of it, but it's not your dinner. It's not

  • your lunch. You're eating it, maybe, between meals. Okay? Because you're a little hungry.

  • So for example, "Tonight, I will see a movie. At the movie theater, I will snack on popcorn."

  • Okay? Popcorn is not my dinner, but I will eat some popcorn. I will snack on popcorn.

  • Okay?

  • So again, these two words have to do with eating. This means eating very, very little.

  • And this means eating a little bit more.

  • Then, we have the next word. I love this word, "pig out". Okay? If you know what the animal

  • -- a pig is -- if you know what a pig is, you can probably guess that this word means

  • to eat a lot. If you "pig out", you eat a lot of something. Okay? So if you went to

  • a restaurant and you ate five hamburgers -- maybe not a fancy restaurant, but if you went to

  • a restaurant and ate five hamburgers, you probably "pigged out". You ate a lot. Okay?

  • So our example sentence, "I pigged out. On Friday, I went to a restaurant. The food was

  • so good, I pigged out. I ate a lot."

  • Then, we have this word, "polish off". And you'll notice there's a smiley face here.

  • And this is when you eat even more than "pig out". Okay? "Polish off" is when you take

  • all the food. There's no food left on your plate. Everything is gone. You've eaten everything

  • on your plate. You polished it off. Okay?

  • So for example, "Jen polished off her dinner." It means she ate all of her dinner. There's

  • not even a crumb. She ate everything. She polished off her dinner. You can also use

  • "polished off" with drinks, too. Imagine if somebody loves wine and they drink the whole

  • bottle, okay? "They polished off the wine." There's no more wine left. So that means there's

  • none left because you ate or drank it all.

  • So let's look at some more expressions about food and phrasal verbs.

  • Okay. The next phrasal verb we're going to learn is "live on". When you "live on" something,

  • it means you eat a lot of it. It is the main thing you eat. So for example, a lot of students,

  • they don't have a lot of money. They can't afford to go to restaurants. They can't afford

  • to, maybe, cook very healthy meals. And maybe they don't have a lot of time. So what do

  • they live on? Well, they live on macaroni and cheese. Very common for students to live

  • on macaroni and cheese. Other students live on ramen noodles, okay? Or instant noodle

  • cups, I think. So "live on" means this is the main food you eat. I could live on chocolate.

  • No. I couldn't. I think I would get sick after a while. But you can "live on" different foods

  • means it's the main food you eat.

  • If you live on something or if you eat a lot of something, sometimes, it becomes important

  • to "cut down" on something. This means to eat less. "Live on" is you're eating a lot

  • of something. "Cut down on" means you want to eat less or drink less. So for example,

  • imagine if I drink a lot of beer. It's not true, but imagine I drink lots and lots of

  • beer and I decide I want to cut down on the amount of beer I drink. Okay? I could make

  • this sentence, "I cut down on beer." It means I drink less beer. "I cut down on sugar."

  • It means I eat less sugar. "I cut down on candy." I don't eat so much candy. I eat less

  • candy. Okay? So if you ever go on a diet, if you ever try to lose weight, you will probably

  • cut down on junk food or cut down on McDonald's. This is a very, very common expression. Very

  • important that you know this one.

  • Okay. The next one is also very common, "order in". Okay? This refers to -- if you're at

  • home and, maybe, there's a snowstorm out or maybe you're very lazy; you don't want to

  • go outside to a restaurant. You also do not want to cook. So what do you do? You call

  • the pizza guy, or you order food in. So it means that you call someone to bring you food.

  • So a lot of pizza delivery is when you order in. Okay? So let's look at some examples for

  • this sentence. "Let's order in. I'm lazy today. I'm too lazy to cook. Let's order in." Okay?

  • So the food comes to your house."

  • Then we have the next expression, "eat out. Okay. Here, you're at home. Here, when you

  • eat out, you're actually going somewhere. You're going to a restaurant or maybe a fast

  • food chain. So when you eat out, you go outside. I don't like to cook. I love to eat out. I

  • love to go to restaurants. I love to eat out. Okay?

  • So our example, very simple, "Let's eat out."

  • The last expression, "dig in". Okay. "Dig in." It's a very common expression, too. "Dig

  • in" means, pretty much, "eat". Okay. So if you have your friends over to your house for

  • dinner and you've just given them food and everybody's waiting, you can say, "Dig in.

  • Eat." Okay? So it just means, "Eat the food." For example, "The food is getting cold. Dig

  • in." Eat the food. All right?

  • So these expressions are very useful. They're very common. And you will hear them a lot

  • if you go to restaurants, if you're talking to people about food. So they're very important

  • to know. Feel free to come visit our site at www.engvid.com. There, you can actually

  • do a quiz to practice these expressions and to make sure you really, really understand

  • their meaning. All right? You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel to see more videos on

  • various topics including food, you know, phrasal verbs -- all sorts of different things.

  • So until next time, take care.

Hello. My name is Emma, and today, we are going to be talking about something I love

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