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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Verb Phrase 109. The verb phrase today is to

  • chip away so chip away at something. All right. Let's look at the note here. If

  • someone chips away at something , they lower, they lower the amount or make

  • progress on something. That's what we would say, a little at a time.

  • Okay. Or number two. When we say chip away, it could also mean to break

  • pieces off of something. So that's the idea of literally chipping away. So

  • that's where the idea came from. Remember a chip is a small piece of something

  • that's broken off. Like a paint chip or you had a little chip off the rock

  • basically. Since we say to chip away at something. All right. So let's look at

  • some examples here. Example number one. The second-place team was able to chip

  • away at the first-place teams lead this past month. The first-place team is only

  • ahead by three games now. Maybe at the beginning of the month the first-place

  • team was ahead by eight games and little by little throughout the month they were

  • gaining a little bit and maybe they gained like five games over a whole

  • month. Maybe you know, they gained about you know, one game per week or a

  • little bit better and by the end of the month, they rose. Suddenly they are only

  • three games behind the first-place team. So they chipped away at their lead. So we

  • could say this in all sports. Even in an individual game, if the team that's

  • losing is starting to catch up slowly. catching up to the you know, to the team

  • that's winning. To the score. They're chipping away at their lead you could

  • use it that way. Number two. We were able to chip away at

  • our competitors market share. Until we eventually surpassed them. Yes. We hear this

  • in business you know, if you have a competitor or a rival you could chip

  • away at their market share and maybe you could catch up eventually surpass it. if

  • you're you know if they were in the market first, and now you're trying to

  • chip away at the market share. Good. Three. The literal

  • one here. The literal meaning. The sculptor chipped away at that large

  • piece of marble until he created a beautiful work of art. So you know, like

  • Michelangelo or something you know, keep chipping away and eventually at the end

  • he has a beautiful statue. Okay. And the last one here. Each month I was able to

  • chip away at my debt. Until I finally paid it off. So maybe we got this big

  • number of a debt and little by little, each month you're paying it off. Paying

  • it off, paying it off. Maybe over a year or year and a half. Maybe you completely

  • paid it off. Okay anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it's clear. Thank you for your

  • time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Verb Phrase 109. The verb phrase today is to

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