Welcome back to JForrest English. I'm Jennifer. And today you're going to learn
the top 10 phrasal verbs to help you sound just like a native English speaker and make
sure you watch until the end, because I'm going to quiz you to make sure you really
understand these phrasal verbs. Let's get started. Number one, to act out. This is
when you perform or explain something using actions and gestures. For example, right now.
Now I'm acting out. It's raining using my actions and my gestures. I'm teaching you this one because
when you don't speak a language fluently, often we act out what we mean to help the
other person understand. For example, I couldn't think of the word for sunrise, so I acted it out.
How you're going to act out Sunrise, I'm not sure. You can try though. Another example,
I'm not sure what you mean. Could you try acting it out?
This could be a smart way for you to understand what someone else is saying
#2 to belt out. I love this one because it means to sing loudly. For example,
the crowd belted out the national anthem before the game. So the crowd sang the
national anthem loudly. They belted it out. And here's another example that is true.
True for me, I love driving alone because I can belt out my favorite songs. I can sing
those songs very loudly #3 to catch up with someone. This is a must, no phrasal verb.
This is when you meet someone after a period of time to find out what they've been doing.
So let's say you and your friend haven't seen each other for one month. Well,
you don't know what your friend has been doing for that one month,
so you could text your friend and say we need to catch up.
Are you free tomorrow? This is a very common way that two native speakers will arrange a social
gathering. You could also simply say let's catch up soon, and this means let's meet soon so I can
find out what you've been doing, and you can find out what I've been doing since the last
time we saw each other #4 To grind away at something. This is when you work on some.
For a long time or with a lot of effort, for example,
I had to grind away at my taxes all weekend. So this means I worked on my
taxes, but because I said grind away at, you know, it took me a long time
and a lot of effort, you could also say I've been grinding away at this report all week.
But it's still not done. So you've spent a lot of time on this report. You've put in a lot of
effort, but it's still not done. You've been grinding away at it, #5 to, not at.
This means to trouble, worry or annoy someone. First of all, notice that silent G naw naw it
starts with a an N sound. Not to not, For example, his text message has been gnawing at me all day.
So his text message has been troubling me, worrying me or annoying me. You don't
exactly know which one it is, but based on context and based on my.
Emotion. My facial emotion. You would know his text message has been gnawing
at me all day. Or let's say you were in a meeting and your coworker said
something negative about you in front of everyone and it's been bothering you. Well,
your friend could say don't let his comment gnaw at you. Don't let his comment.
Bother you or annoy you Number six to pull oneself together. This means to become calm
or to regain control of your emotions. Calm down. Calm down. Calm down South. Let's say
your coworker made that angry or rude or mean comment towards you in front of everyone else.
And you became very emotional. You became very upset or very agitated
or very angry. Even your friend could say pull yourself together to let you
know you need to regain control of your emotions because you're being too upset,
too angry. We also commonly use this in the imperative pull yourself together, so notice with.
The imperative you start with the base verb, pull yourself together. You need to pull yourself
together. Both of those are very common. And then an hour later, your friend could say,
hey, I was calling you, where were you? And you could say, oh, I went for a walk alone
to pull myself together, to regain control of my emotions and simply to become calm #7 to rack up.
This means to acquire a lot of something, and that something is generally negative. For example,
I racked up a lot of parking tickets while I was on vacation.
So maybe you're in a new city and you're not familiar with the parking rules and regulations,
so you racked up a lot of parking tickets. Parking tickets are, of course,
negative. Or you could say when I was a student, I racked up a lot of student debt.
Again, student debt is of course a negative, and you racked it up. You acquired it #8. To rub off
on this is when a quality or a characteristic is passed from one person to another person.
For example, her passion and enthusiasm rubbed off on me. So this means my friend.
Was being very passionate and enthusiastic, and because of that I became very passionate and
enthusiastic, so her passion and enthusiasm rubbed off on me. But we also use this with negative
qualities and characteristics. For example, don't let Frank's anxiety rub off on you.
So Frank is always anxious, and he's sharing his anxieties in public with his team.
If you are not careful, his anxieties could rub off on you,
which means you will become anxious simply because Frank is anxious and you're in the
same room as Frank #9 to slip up. This means to make a careless error or mistake, for example.
I can't believe I slipped up and told her about her surprise party.
So there was a surprise party being planned for this person. And because it's a surprise,
you're not supposed to let the person know. But I slipped up.
And I told her about the party. I made a mistake and it was a
careless mistake. I should have known better. Another example, you purchased
1000 units instead of 100 units. That was a real slipup. What do you notice here? A slipup?
Here it's being used as the noun form to simply mean a mistake,
a careless mistake, and finally #10 to talk down. This is when you try to make
something sound less important, less important than it really is.
In reality, for example, the CEO tried to talk down the recent layoffs. Layoffs is when you
fire people from a company because there is no longer work for them. So that sounds like
the company could be in trouble. But if you try to talk down the recent layoffs.
It means you try to make them sound less severe,
less important than they really are. Or remember when I accidentally ordered
1000 units instead of 100 units? Well, I could say I try to talk down my slip up.
Remember here slip up is being used as the noun form of the phrasal verb to slip up.
And it means a careless mistake. I tried to talk down my slip up,
my careless mistake. So I tried to make my mistake. The fact I ordered 10 times as many
units as needed. I tried to make that sound like not a big deal, not a big mistake. I tried to.
Talk down my slip up and now you have the top 10 phrasal verbs added to your
vocabulary. So Are you ready for your quiz? Here are the questions. Hit pause. Take as
much time as you need, and when you're ready, hit play to see the answers.
How did you do with that quiz? Well, let's find out. Here are
the answers. Hit pause and take as much time as you need to review them.
So how do you do with that quiz? Make sure you share your score in the comments below,
and also leave an example sentence practicing your favorite phrasal verb. What's your favorite
phrasal verb from the list? Mine is probably slip up, but as the noun.
I made a slip up a careless mistake because let's be honest, it happens to everyone,
right? What's your favorite? Share that in the comments below and make sure you
download this free speaking guide where I share 6 tips on how to speak English
fluently and confidently. You can click here to download it or look for the link
in the description. And why don't you get started with your next lesson right now?