Good morning, good afternoon and good evening! Welcome to Smashing English! Before we start
today's lesson, make sure you subscribe because I make new videos every week and I don't want
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I know, you want to speak English like a native, I get it. And you listen to English people speaking
and half the time they come in with these random verbs that don't make sense, I know. Like what
do you mean? You may even hear me speaking and sometimes I use a verb with a weird preposition
and it all just seems to not make sense. These are what we call phrasal verbs and they are so common
in English. Grammatically speaking, a phrasal verb is a verb that goes together with an adverb or a
preposition, both sometimes. And normally the literal meaning of the verb and the preposition
and the adverb don't make sense. For example to pass out. Okay so I'm making a video and I- that's
passing out! Okay in England we call it fainting, Americans call it passing out. The two words 'pass
out' how does that mean-? I don't know. So phrasal verbs are kind of tricky to learn because they
don't have that direct correlation between meaning and words but I'm gonna get you started today with
10 super useful and common phrasal verbs in the English language. So in a second my glamorous
assistant Bez will join me and we will perform a little scene because we're both trained actors
darling, so it comes so naturally to us. Within the scene there will be 10 phrasal verbs if you're
quite good with your phrasal verbs, see if you can spot where they are to begin with. If not,
don't worry I'm gonna go through all of them and explain every single one. Did you hear about that
concert? It's been called off. Oh give over! Has it? Yeah because of the rain. What a let down. I
guess you can't count on the weather in March. No, we'll have to think of something else to do
to make up for it. We could clear out the potato cupboard? Don't be ridiculous. Oh! We could catch
up on our schoolwork. We're 23! Think of something else. Okay, hold on, I'm thinking. Oh! We can mix
up all the cutlery in the cutlery drawer and then put it back again. We did that last week.
I mean where is my Oscar? Okay, how many did you hear? Two? Three? Ten? None? Let's go through.
Let's start from the beginning. Did you hear about that concert? It's been called off. Did
you hear a phrasal verb? The phrasal verb in the first sentence is called off. Did you hear about
that concert? It's been called off. Call off is a very simple phrasal verb it just means to cancel,
to not happen. The party was called off, it was canceled. Let's look for the next phrasal verb.
Oh give over! Has it? Yes the phrasal verb in that sentence is give over. This one crosses the line
between being a phrasal verb and an idiom. It's very common in British English and it's used to
describe disbelief or stop that! You're lying! No way! Give over! It's what you would say to someone
if they said something that shocked you or if they were saying things that seemed ridiculous or
crazy. Give over, stop that, you must be lying! And it's really only ever used in that kind of
tense we wouldn't really say he gave over or he will give over it's a very sort of in the moment
kind of expression, something you would say to someone else at the time. There you go you've
learnt two phrasal verbs already let's learn a third! Yep, because of the rain. What a let down.
What do you think the phrasal verb is there? Hmm? Correct! Let down. What a let down. To let down is
just to disappoint. In the way it was used in the example, what a let down, used it more of a noun
kind of sense. The event being canceled is a let down, it's a disappointment. However we can also
use it in much more of a verb kind of sense, for example I let you down, you let me down, he let
me down. All that is is she disappointed him, I disappointed you, you disappointed me. That's
all I'm saying just in a more casual way. Okay let's go on to the next one. I guess you can't
count on the weather in March. And I'm sure you've spotted it, the phrasal verb in that sentence is
count on. Count on is a phrasal verb that kind of goes hand-in-hand with a let down. If you count
on something, you're relying on something, you depend on it, you're- you're hoping that something
happens. You let me down, I was counting on you, I was relying on you, I was hopeful for you,
I was depending on you but you let me down. So you count on someone, you you think they're great, you
hope that they will support you and be there for you. They let you down, not good stuff. Okay, next
one we have: We'll have to think of something else to do to make up for it. Make up. We'll have to
do something else to make up for it. The phrasal verb in that sentence is to make up and there are
few different meanings of make up, I'll run you through all of them. So make up in this context
means we'll have to do something to make ourselves feel better because we've been disappointed. Let's
do something to make up for it, to make us feel up, to make us feel better because we've been let
down. Another definition for make up is two people have had an argument, not happy with each other,
we're angry, but they decide to make up, they decide to forgive each other. Another use of
make up is to invent a story in your head, to just create something. I didn't do my homework
at school and I didn't have a reason so I just made up an excuse. I made up a story as to why
I didn't do my homework. Okay, moving on to the next phrasal verb. We could clear out the potato
cupboard? The phrasal verb in that sentence was clear out. To clear out just means take things
out of something, remove things from something. If you clear out your car because you've got loads of
things in your car, you take everything out, clear it out, take it out. Okay let's move on to the
next one. We could catch up on our schoolwork? Yes the phrasal verb in that sentence was catch up,
to catch up. If you imagine a race, people in a race, someone's in front of me, definitely because
I can't run, so someone's definitely in front of me. Someone's in front of me and I want to catch
up with them so we're on the same level okay? So someone's there, I'm here. To catch up, to get to
the same level - to rise, to.. you're a bit behind on something and you need to get to the level
where you should be, so catch up on our schoolwork means we're behind on our schoolwork, we haven't
in school like in a while, we need to run faster and work harder to get to where we should be,
to where we need to be. Need to catch up. Okay let's find the next phrasal verb. Okay, hold on,
I'm thinking. Yes the phrasal verb there is hold on and hold on is super easy, it just means wait
or stop or pause. That's it! It's like just wait, hold on, I'm thinking, hold on I'm doing this,
hold on. Okay, so there are two more, let's see if we can spot them. We can mix up all the cutlery in
the cutlery drawer and then put it back again? Correct, the first phrasal verb there is mix up,
mix up: super easy. Two things or three things, two or more things that go out of order. So a
library, okay? Imagine a library. So in the library all the books are in order. If someone
went and took all the books out and put them back in in a random order, mix up. And the next phrasal
verb links to this, we have to put back. We mix something up, then we put back. To put something
back, we return it to where it belongs, we return to order, we return to where it's supposed to be.
So I'm in the library and I've mixed up all the books, so the librarian has to come and
put them back, put them back into order. So there you go, there are 10 phrasal verbs,
I hope they are all pretty clear in your mind, if not, if you have any questions whatsoever put them
in the comments below and I'll try to reply to as many as I can. Thank you so much for watching, if
you'd like to follow me on Instagram the link to the Instagram is in the description below, I post
lots of learning English content. And if you would like a one-on-one English lesson with me, there
is a way to do that in the description as well. Thank you so so much for watching and I'll see
you very soon! My resource recommendation today is the Chaproom podcast. It's a lovely, funny,
light-hearted podcast involving three British gentlemen and I'm sure you'll really really
enjoy it. It's a really good way to develop some conversational English. Thanks very much, bye bye!