Hi there, guys, this is teacher Harry here and welcome back to my English lessons where
I try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language so that you can prepare
in a better way for those job interviews with an international company perhaps. Or indeed
you can prepare for IELTS exams or CAE. Whatever your objective is, whatever your target or
goal is for English, we're here to help you. Okay, so what are we going to look at today?
Well, we're going to look at some expressions, and particularly phrasal verbs with the word
put. P-U-T. Put, okay. Now, to put it has no change. So it's one of those irregular
verbs. Put, put, put. A bit like one of these little bikes around when you go to Asia put
put on it boom, boom, putt, putt, putt, putt, putt, putt. So to put no no change in its
construction. So let me go down through each of these phrasal verbs. There are many phrasal
verbs you can use with pots, I'm taking probably the the ones that are a little bit trickier,
or the little ones that you might not use so often. And I'll give you an explanation
as to each one. I'll give you some examples. And again, if you have any problems, come
back to me, and I'll explain them to you. Okay, so here they are, put something about
or put something around,
put something across,
to put aside or put by and use them both in the same way
to put down to,
to put forward,
put off,
put someone out,
put someone through something,
put together and then finally
put someone up to something, put someone up to something. Okay, so I'm going to go through
each one of them and give you some examples.
So to put something about or around and about and around are the preposition and they're
exactly the same. Yeah, when we go around in circles, or we go about and circles, it
means the same. So to put something about or put something around means perhaps, to
put a rumour about that, you know, or did you hear that? David is getting divorced,
you might not know it, you might have heard some gossip. So you put a rumour about now,
it might be malicious, meant to hurt somebody, or you might have done it accidentally, because
you got the wrong information. Or as we say in English, the wrong end of the stick. The
wrong end of the stick means you you've got something you picked it up wrong. Somebody
mentioned something and you You misunderstood it. So you could put something around or put
something about deliberately or you could do it accidentally. It wasn't intentional.
Okay, so we put a rumour about or we put a rumour around. Okay, so to put around and
about. And usually when we're talking about gossip, or rumours, yeah. There's a rumour
being put about by some people that the internet is going to be closed down. Or there's a rumour
has been put around that the country is going to increase the taxation by 50%. Okay, so
people get really, really worried. And of course, when we have all this, these issues
with social media these days, it's very easy for us to get information or misinformation
or false information, or as they call it, fake news. So gossip and rumours are easily
put around or put about, okay.
Next to put something across? Well, when we want to put across our point where it means
we want people to understand and this very definitely comes in from a business perspective,
when you're at a meeting or you're making a presentation. Or indeed, even if you're
in a classroom environment, you want to put your point across Yeah, or your message across.
So how do we do it?
So if we're organising the launch of a new product, how do we put across to the people
that we want them to buy this product? Well, we have to make it sexy and cool and really
interesting to buy. So we we deliberately form our programme or launching a product
based around that. So to put it across, or if somebody is very angry or annoyed, then
they want to put across the message that you cannot do it. So as a parent, talking to your
children, and you want to tell them the difference between right and wrong. What they can do
and what they cannot do, then it's really important to put your message across in a
very stern way so you put on a stern face. You know, you're not supposed to do that.
You know what it means when you do that. So you speak to them in a stern manner. And hopefully,
they recognised by your body language or your facial expression that you're a little bit
annoyed. So you put the message across. Okay. To put across. Good.
Ok, next put aside or put by now, as I said these two prepositions aside, and by in this
situation exactly the same, usually when we use put aside put by, it means that we are
going to save something, okay? So literally we put it aside. So aside meaning over here
or put by, with, we put something here, so we can do it physically, okay, so if you've
got a nice chocolate cake, for example, you might not eat at all, hopefully not. And you
put aside some of the cake for later, or you put aside some of the cake to share with the
family. So you put it aside, and then you will enjoy another slice with a cup of coffee
later in the afternoon. When we are saving something, perhaps money, we don't physically
take it out of our pocket pocket and put it aside or take it out of a pocket and put it
by okay, but we do save it perhaps in the bank. So we can put aside a little money every
month to save for a holidays, or we put a little money by every month for what we call
it in English, the rainy day. And the rainy day is when you really need it, some problem
will happen, the washing machine breaks in a few months, and the other car breaks down.
Whatever happens, you need some money and you are here we go again. But luckily I have
put some money by and therefore it's not going to cause too much of a problem. Okay, so to
put something by us put something aside is to save it for some situation, the rainy day,
the holiday, whatever it might be the kids education, okay, and we can put aside a little
bit of cake that we can enjoy later on. So physically, we leave it on the table, and
we try not to be tempted to eat it. So put aside and put by.
Next to put down to. Okay, so when we put down to something, it means we believe this
is the reason why something happened. Okay, so this heavy rain, and these these tropical
type, weather effects have been put down to climate change. Okay, so this is what has
been blamed. So they're blaming the fact that there's so much pollution that blaming the
fact that the ice cap is melting, they're blaming the fact that we haven't done enough
to protect the environment. And therefore, these abnormal weather patterns are being
put down to the whole aspect of climate change. So
governments are now saying, 'Oh, we must do more about stopping cars in our streets. Oh,
we must do much more about car pollution.' So they'll push forward the whole issue of
electric vehicles so that we can avoid hopefully, these sort of patterns happening in the future.
So when you want to blame something, or you want to apportion the blame, then you put
it down to something, okay. So if the kids are misbehaving, and they are doing things
that you you don't want them to do, and you say,
I just put it down to excitement, you know, they're getting ready for the holidays. We've
been planning this and they're a little bit bored at home. So I just put it down to normal
children excitement, and as soon as we get to wherever we're going, there'll be fine
to put down to. Okay,
to put forward. Well, when we put forward something, it often is, by way of a suggestion.
Okay, could I put forward a suggestion? So this is something you might ask at a meeting.
Would you mind if I put forward some ideas? Meaning, would you mind if I give you some
ideas that might help so a business perspective or something you're planning, you would like
to put forward your own ideas, so you'd like people to think about them, you'd like people
to consider them. And you'd like people, hopefully, to accept that these ideas are good. So you
put forward your ideas. Now, you might do it in a note, you might do it in an email.
So you tell your, your boss or your colleagues will look, I'll think about it, I'll go back
to my desk, it'll take me a day or so but I'd put forward my suggestions or put forward
my ideas in a document in an email and as circulated to everybody, copy the boss, whatever
you have to do, okay.
Put off when when we put off something we postponed. So, the the match has been put
off for a couple of weeks due to COVID. Okay, so classic situation at the moment that sporting
events around the world are being cancelled or postponed for a period of time because
of the COVID situation. So the match next week has been put off until the following
week. Okay, or the game that was scheduled for today has been put off until tomorrow
due to heavy rain and the pitch has been waterlogged. So they have to wait until the pitch dries.
But the match will go ahead, but it's just been postponed by several hours or several
days so it has been put off.
Another way we can use put off is when we When we don't like something, or we are not
so sure, okay, so we could be put off travelling abroad, because of the extra cost of getting
these PCR tests and other tests that we have to get so off, I don't really want to travel
and like to go on holidays. But the cost, the additional cost has put me off, it's meant
that I'm thinking twice about whether I will travel at all. So I really don't feel like
spending another 150 Euro, those extra costs, those extra charges, those extra delays, have
really put me off. So I don't feel like travelling, or a bad taste or a bad smell might put you
off. So you go into a restaurant and you see some nice food and you're feeling a little
bit hungry. When you walk into the restaurant. You get a strange smell or a bad odour. And
we'll put you off eating immediately. Okay, so your friend says, Well, what would you
like to audit? Oh no, I don't really feel so comfortable here. That smell has put me
off my lunch and my dinner or my appetite. So not you go ahead, I just have a coffee
or have a small snack, but I don't really feel like eating eating at the moment. So
that experience or that smell or that taste has really put me off.
Okay, now we can be also put off somebody by some action or something about them some
mannerism that you you don't like, yeah, so somebody is a little bit arrogant, it might
put you off that person. Okay, so
Oh, I don't really like him. His manner has put me off. You know, I, I thought he was
okay. And, you know, when I spoke to him, the first time wasn't so bad. But the more
I got to know him, the more I dislike him. So I've really been put off by his actions
or his mannerisms, or the way he talks or the way he he acts. Okay, so to put off.
Next, we have to put someone out, but we could literally pick somebody up, if we could put
them out the door, that would be one way of doing it sort of one of the children is misbehaving,
you put them out of the room. So you pick them up, or you take them by the hand, you
put them out, or you might put the cat out or the dog out into the garden, so they can
do what cats and dogs do. Okay, so you've, you've put them out. So that's a very literal
meaning of it. But if we want to use it in another way, when we can say, to put someone
out means to disturb them, or to, in some way interfere with what they were doing, okay?
So when you put someone out, it means temporarily or for a period of time, you might feel that
you're disturbing them from something else that they are doing. Okay, so your boss might
ask you to prepare some document for an important meeting. And you say, okay, look, I'm a bit
busy at the moment. And but I'll get it done. When is the deadline? And he says, Oh, it's
next week, I hope we won't put you out. I have... Well, no, no, I'll finish what I'm
doing. It'll just take me a few hours, and then I'll get started on that. It won't disturb
me at all. So to put someone out
Put someone through something. So when we put someone through something, it's usually
means something difficult. Okay. So the illness puts you through some difficult times. So
you're, you didn't feel well, at the beginning, you had to get some treatment yet some medication.
So it really puts you through a difficult situation, physically and mentally because
of the illness. Okay. So if there are changes that take place in our life, that can be another
situation when someone is put through something, okay, so let's say the company you work for
has decided to relocate. They're going to relocate somewhere in the suburb, because
the price of office space is much cheaper there. So they send a memo round to the staff
to advise people that, you know, as in from the first of January next year, we're going
to relocate to the suburbs. And we are really, really sorry and apologetic for having to
put you through this, okay? We're apologetic for having to put you through this. But it's
something that we have to do to save costs. The alternative is that we stay in our city
centre offices, but then we'd have to reduce the workforce. So we have a choice. We hate
to put you through it, but we think it's something that you will understand is in the best interests
of everybody. So to put someone through something is some change that perhaps they won't like.
Perhaps it will take a while for them to adjust to, but it's something they have to do so
to put them through it.
Okay, there's an expression in English to put you through the mill. Now, a mill is one
of these windmills so when you put someone through the mill, it's a really difficult
situation. Or I've been through the mill I've been put through the mill by my, my boss,
I've been put through the mill by my ex husband or ex wife, or there's a bad breakup in a
marriage. So we can use it in that context. Again, it's not something you wanted to go
through. But you did go through it. So you have been put through something very, very
difficult. Okay,
put together. When we want to put something together. We join us. Yeah, so we're building
Lego, we put this together with this, this together with that, and yeah, we build up
the Lego, we've all done it with our kids. And some people actually enjoy doing it even
with if they don't have kids. So to put something together, is to build it or connected, okay,
we can put together a presentation, we can put together a slideshow, we can put together
videos as I do with you on a regular basis, I put them together bit by bit and build up,
okay, so when we want to put things together, we physically glue them, we get a bit of glue,
put this, this and then we stick them together to put together or we can put together a presentation,
okay? Or he's put together a really wonderful meal. Yeah, so he's prepared, this is prepared
that he's got the best of wine. So if you get an invitation to his home, he always puts
together a wonderful celebration of a wonderful presentation of food, okay, put together.
And then finally, we want to put someone up to something, okay. And when we put someone
up to something, it means we persuade them to do something, perhaps that they didn't
want to do. Maybe it's a little bit cheeky. And so somebody might say, oh, Who put you
up to that? Okay, so, example, a good example would be the kids. Okay, so one of the kids
tries to play a trick on you. So they put a bucket of water or something above the door.
So when you open the door, the water falls down on top of you. And everybody laughs except
you, of course, because you're very, very wet, but the kids are laughing. And then you
say, who did this? Who did this? Yeah. And so little Johnny comes forward and says, I
did it. I did it. And mother said, Well, you couldn't have thought of that, yourself. Who
put you up to this? Meaning who persuaded you that it was a good idea to do it, and
Johnny says, oh, Jennifer, she told me that I should do it. And it would be very funny.
So somebody puts somebody up to something, okay. So to put somebody or someone up to
something means to persuade them against their will, or to get them to do something that
you don't want to do, but you want them to do it, put somebody up to it.
Okay, so let me run through those again. Put something about or put something around and
about and around exactly the same preposition. Put something across yet to get your point
across, put aside or put by means to save perhaps, put down to to blame or to describe
or accept how something happened. To put forward means to suggest something to put off to postpone
or cancel. Put someone out means to inconvenience them in some way perhaps, to put someone through
something means give them a difficult time that really they you didn't want to do but
you had no choice. Put together to build up connect. And put someone up something means
to persuade them to do something that they didn't really or shouldn't have, have done.
Okay, so all of these are phrasal verbs with put there are many, many more, some very,
very simple ones. These are some that are a little bit more difficult. Hopefully, you've
understood those. And don't forget to subscribe to my channel. And as always, you can listen
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anybody you think would benefit from these or would enjoy them and give them the contact
details, the more the merrier. And I'm delighted to see you and as always join me against