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hi everybody my name is alicia in this
lesson i'm going to talk about phrasal
verbs with back let's get started okay
first i want to introduce a group of
four verbs that shares uh one common
point that is this
these four verbs
all have the meaning of moving with the
rear part of something forward so if you
imagine a car the front and the back of
a car like the front side and the back
side of a person if you imagine
all of these verbs share the meaning of
making a motion in some direction of
moving in some direction
however the rear part is the part that
is like the forward moving part so we
usually walk with this part of our body
moving forward but when we move with the
rear part forward it means this
direction so we're moving back in a
backwards motion so these four verbs all
include
that meaning i want to mention that
first these that we'll talk about later
don't include that meaning
so these four include
that meaning plus some preposition that
tells us the direction of that movement
and the relationship of that movement as
well to something else so with that in
mind let's take a look at these four
phrasal verbs the first phrasal verb
here is back into back into so back into
means moving with the rear part forward
yes so this kind of motion
plus
moving into a space so to back into
something you're backing into an
enclosed space so imagine with a car a
lot of these will be very very useful
for using with a car so an example of
this would be this one he backed in to
the parking space he backed into the
parking space so you imagine with a car
backing in the rear part of the car
moves in to the parking space that means
the rear part of the car enters the
parking space first so we use the
phrasal verb to back into
you'll notice here too this is the past
tense form backed he backed in backed is
the past form of back so he backed into
the parking space tells us that he moved
with the rear part of the car forward
into the parking space okay so now let's
look at the opposite of this to back out
of something so since we have out here
we had in before this shows us this is
the the opposite direction then
however we don't use back out two we use
back out of please be careful here back
out of so this means to move out of a
space to move out of a space so an
example sentence might be a question in
this case
can you back out of the garage can you
back out of the garage so again this
means the
rear part of the car is moving forward
however instead of going into a space
the motion is coming from a space so
we're backing out of a space that means
from a position inside a room in this
case a garage the back of the car moves
first out of the garage so backing out
of something to back out of a garage or
to back out of a parking space as well
okay now let's move along to the next
phrasal verb back on to back onto this
is quite different from back in or back
out
to back onto
means to move backwards on top of
something so again when you're driving a
car for example you might use the
expression he backed on to the sidewalk
so this means the rear part of the car
moved first and as it moved it moved on
top of something else so there's
movement and movement onto another thing
he backed onto the sidewalk or he backed
onto maybe a bicycle for example so
movement backwards and on top of
something else so this might happen to
you when you're using a car or another
vehicle
so let's move on to the next phrasal
verb which is back away from back away
from is a phrasal verb you might use
more
to talk about your body the motion of
your body than you would a car
so this means
to move backwards in a direction
opposite to something else
so
by this i mean there's maybe another
person or there's some
thing
that you want to move away from
and again the rear part of your body
moves first so if you imagine that that
there's something like in front of you
here in front of the front part of your
body and you want to move away from it
but you maintain
this direction with your body we use the
phrasal verb to back away from to talk
about doing that so an example sentence
they backed away from the fire so you
imagine there's a fire like you're
camping for example and you move in this
way you can say you backed away from the
fire so to back away from might be
something you use to talk about your
body more so than to talk about a car
perhaps
but this means moving uh in an opposite
direction from something else okay so
let's move along then to the next three
which do not belong to this group
relating to that kind of rear-facing
motion these are very different actually
um let's first begin with this
expression to back off to back off so to
back off means to remove oneself from a
situation that's one
or to move away in fear so this first
one to remove yourself from a situation
this is often uh said in response to a
person who's getting involved in a
situation you want that person to go
away from the situation
so it's commonly used as a command like
back off it means go away or
stop bothering me
maybe you're working on a project for
example and someone tries to come share
opinions or criticize your work or
something you're not ready you can say
back off i'm still working on this for
example so it's used often to
give a command to someone actually we
also use this to express fear like if
someone threatens us or we're afraid of
something
and we want to kind of move away from
the situation
we can use back off as well let's look
at an example
here back off and let us deal with the
problem so this is related to criticism
like we don't need you to be involved so
let us handle it that's kind of the
feeling of back off we don't need you
please go away so to back off in this
way
refers to leaving a situation okay let's
move along to the next one which is back
down to back down from something means
to admit a mistake to admit a mistake or
it can mean like to stop supporting
something these are actually kind of
connected
to stop supporting something is like to
stop supporting an opinion kind of so
when you admit a mistake you stop
supporting that mistake it's kind of the
idea here so an example of this could be
my neighbor won't back down he accuses
me of being noisy so the neighbor in
other words is wrongly accusing the
speaker of being noisy but the neighbor
won't back down that means the neighbor
refuses to admit a mistake there are a
few he refuses he or she refuses
uh to admit that there's something wrong
refuses to stop supporting the opinion
so my neighbor won't back down he won't
stop in other words
he continues to accuse me so to back
down is like yeah kind of
removing your support for something you
said or like some behavior you had in
the past okay let's move along then to
the last phrasal verb for this lesson
which is to back up to back up this is
uh used in terms of to back up someone
to back up another person this means to
support someone verbally so verbally
means with your word to support someone
verbally is to back someone up so you
can split this to back someone up so an
example of this could be my colleagues
backed me up when i made a complaint so
my colleagues supported me when i made a
complaint
i made the complaint and my colleagues
verbally or they shared some words to
support what i was saying in other words
so to back someone up
means to support them keep in mind this
is very different from to be a backup to
be a backup means
to be a substitute for something it has
a very different meaning here so to be a
backup that's something very different
from to back someone up so keep that in
mind and try to pay attention to the
situations where those two words are
used all right so those are hopefully a
few new ways that you can use the verb
back of course if you have any questions
or comments or want to try to make a
sentence or maybe you know a different
way of using the verb back please feel
free to do so in the comments section of
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thanks very much for watching this
lesson and i will see you again soon bye
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