hi there I'm Drew Badger the world's
number one English Fluency Guide and in
this video I'm going to be talking about
phrasal verbs but also about maybe an
important lesson for you as you're
learning and remembering things no
matter really what you're practicing in
this video actually I wanted to talk
about tools in talking about some of the
phrasal verbs that we use with that they
were quite a few things i wanted to
cover but more than the actual tools
themselves this idea of how you remember
things is much more important so I'm
always trying to get you to think about
the deeper like the things at the bottom
if you can master these things like how
to learn how to practice how to review
things kinda find people to practice
speaking with if you can master these
things at the bottom this stuff at the
top becomes much easier to learn so if
you understand how to learn vocabulary
then you can learn a ton of vocabulary
really quickly so let's say this is a
screwdriver and a screwdriver is a is a
tool that drives screws it's pretty
pretty interesting pretty simple name
right so it's screwdriver take those
little screws that have the little line
on the outside and we screw something
into some wood for maybe some people
that don't know the difference a nail is
something that does not have the line
around the outside and you hit that with
a hammer so you have a nail sticking up
and you hit and you hit the nail into
the wood but with a screwdriver you're
actually taking a screw and screwing
something into the woods so screw into
to screw into and this is our first
phrasal verb to screw something into
something else now when you're talking
about taking a screw out of something
this is to unscrew something but I'm
turning the screw in making it go up
so screw up become something where we're
talking about removing a screw or making
something loops now this is the
important part about the video where
this is kind of a story here where I
want you to not be shy about creating
your own stories to help you remember
things so as an example many words maybe
they have a specific origin like I was
explaining in a previous video all the
tools that I have now all digital
so they don't have little buttons and
knobs and other things like that but old
radios if you look
it's something electronic or like an old
TV you would have a button on there or
you would have liked a dial typically
that turns the turns the television on
and this is where we get the phrasal
verb to turn something on
so again all of these things just like I
explained before in a previous video
where I was giving examples of the
telephone and why we talked about
hanging the telephone up or dialing the
telephone because even though we don't
physically push buttons on that anymore
we're still kind of using that same idea
so often the the history of these things
becomes really important but the
important thing here is that even if you
don't know what the physical origin of
something might be you can create your
own story about that to help you
remember it so screw up is a really
popular very common phrasal verb that
native speakers use when they're talking
about making a mistake i was trying to
ask that girl out and I like I couldn't
speak I was like that
good i got really nervous and I screwed
up the situation so I screwed up my
chance or I missed my chance i made a
mistake and I wasn't able to ask that
girl out so I wasn't able to get a date
or you can screw up something at work i
was making some projects and then I
spilled some ink all over them and I
screwed up the whole situation so I
screwed something up now when you listen
to something like this and again try to
try to first look at the verb ok we're
screwing something and then we're
screwing something up like what what
does that really mean
and again it's it's really for you to
create your own story to help you
connect this and really make that idea
in your mind so don't wait for a teacher
or a native speaker to explain something
just like myself if I'm learning
something in Japanese I will often make
it like a story in my mind to help me
remember something that even might not
be exactly what a Japanese person might
do but it still achieves the same result
and so the the getting the result which
is remembering what that thing is is the
most important part so it doesn't really
matter if you take a different direction
to that than somebody else if you can
remember the word and use it confidently
when you're speaking that's the whole
point that's the whole goal so don't
really worry about how you get there so
as an example maybe we have something
like screw
and I'm talking about screw up now how
do i like if I think about like the idea
of screwing something up is making a
mistake maybe I create a story in my
mind of I'm unscrewing something so I'm
screwing something up and i'm making
that thing loser
so if I've got maybe two pieces of metal
together and i am holding them together
with one screw if I screw that thing up
then they start you know moving apart
and then if i remove the screw
completely then they come apart it
becomes a problem maybe I'm making a
mistake
so in this way i'm creating a story
about where a phrasal verb might come
from
so even if there's no logical reason
maybe some maybe like many years ago
people in the past they just created ok
we're going to call this screwing
something up even though there's no real
logical reason to do that but you create
that logical connection in your mind and
that's what helps you're under your
understanding developed especially for
using phrasal verbs in this way so for
things like the television where you can
either see the history of it like we
spoke about in a previous video where
I'm turning the television on I'm
turning it on
even though now we push a button to turn
the television on maybe on a remote
control or something else for the same
thing with the volume there used to be a
dial on the telephone where you would
turn up you would turn up the volume
were turned down the volume so that's
why now people say hey could you turn it
down
could you turn it down or could you turn
it up there talking about raising the
volume or lowering the volume but we
don't say hey could you slide the volume
up we don't use that even though that's
maybe what we're using now and the
reason is because we already have this
idea in our mind and it's really
difficult to remove that idea once we're
creating even if we have that maybe some
other way of explaining that the most
important point of this lesson is to
think about creating your own story so
that way if you have a problem may be
remembering how something works or you
don't quite understand why a native
speaker would use something in a
particular way
the first thing you should do is try to
think about the physical origin of that
phrasal verb and the second one is if
you don't if you maybe can't think of
one or you ask a native speaker and they
can't give you a good you know reason or
story
make up your own you can connect your
own ideas with whatever the meaning of
that situation is and it's much more
important to connect the meaning of
things in English than it is to try to
take maybe something in your native
language and connect that with English
so do not translate take the time it's
really important and it will help you
use these things in conversations when
you're speaking without having to think
about it if you create these stories in
your mind in English so just try to make
even a simple connection so to screw
something up maybe loosening something
and it doesn't go well i'm making a
mistake somehow if you have enjoyed this
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helping you improve even more and also
if you have problems with your English
and it could be learning phrasal verb so
this kind of vocabulary if you struggle
with having to think about grammar rules
or tenses or even if you just have
problems understanding what people say
maybe you're listening to me and you can
understand my lessons quite well because
i'm speaking quite clearly but maybe you
have trouble understanding other people
in maybe movies or regular conversations
click on the link in this video and take
our English fluency quiz this will give
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even if you have multiple problems
really the key to improving is to focus
on your weakest English fluency habit so
that you can become a fluent speaker
much faster so really like this is
probably the most important piece of
information even more important than
this idea about stories but when you're
thinking about improving your English
it's not about learning more vocabulary
you want to develop the right habits and
if you do this all of the vocabulary
stuff comes naturally it comes very
quickly anyway do click on the link in
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taking this free quiz that will help you
give you specific personal advice to
help you improve and i look forward to
seeing you in the next video bye bye