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hi everybody welcome back to know your
verbs my name is alicia and in this
episode we're going to talk about the
verb fly let's get started
okay let's talk about the basic
definition of the verb fly
the basic definition is to travel
through the air to travel through the
air some examples we flew to moscow from
london
a bird flew into my window
now let's look at the conjugations for
this verb
present
fly
flies
past flu
past participle
flown
progressive flying
okay so now let's talk about some
additional meanings for this verb the
first additional meaning is to wave in
the air while being attached to
something else so this is like flags or
well we'll see some other examples
example sentences
that boat is flying a french flag let's
fly kites this afternoon
so in both of these example sentences we
see objects which are waving in the air
in some way but they're attached to
something else in the first example
sentence it's a flag the boat is flying
a french flag which means the boat is
displaying a french flag the flag is
attached to the boat but it's waving in
the air
in the second example sentence let's fly
kites this afternoon a kite is a toy
that waves in the air but it's attached
to a string that a person holds so we
use the verb fly to talk about this
activity let's fly kites this afternoon
okay let's go on to the second
additional meaning for this verb the
second additional meaning is to move
very quickly to move very quickly some
examples of this
his sports car flew past us on the
highway
she flew down the hall to turn in her
paper before the deadline
okay so in both of these example
sentences we see the word fly or a
conjugated version of it however it
doesn't mean traveling through the air
it just means moving super fast so in
the first example it's a sports car the
sports car flew past us on the highway
means the sports car went past us very
very quickly so we use the verb flu i
think because flying like in order to
fly you have to move quickly there's not
really slow flying so we use the verb
fly or in this case flew past tense to
express that the car was traveling very
fast in the second example sentence she
flew down the hall it means probably she
was running so she was traveling really
quickly to turn in her paper before the
deadline so when we want to talk about
moving fast like extra extra fast we can
use the verb fly instead of like move or
run or drive so it's kind of like an
extra level of speed so you can try that
out okay let's go on to the third
meaning for this verb the third meaning
is to escape to escape some examples
my bird flew its cage
he had to fly from the city to save his
life
okay so fly is used in these sentences
to mean escape you won't really hear
this used so much in everyday
conversation you may however see this in
novels or in other writing it's a little
more common these days to see that in
written english
especially when telling stories uh or
maybe when reading things from a long
time ago we don't use it that much in
everyday conversation in american
english these days but it does have this
meaning to escape the fourth meaning is
to pass information quickly like gossip
or rumors or accusations passing
information quickly examples
accusations of mismanagement are flying
rumors flew that they were dating so the
idea here is that information is moving
so quickly it's like the information is
flying from one person to another it's
so fast in the first example accusations
of mismanagement were flying so here
it's a passive expression
we're flying presumably among people in
the company or in like among people who
are related to the situation but
accusations were flying means like all
these accusations were going around at
very fast speed in the second example
sentence rumors flew that they were
dating it's like all these people have
rumors have ideas about this couple are
they dating aren't they dating what's
the story so all of those are rumors
that people are passing quickly among
one another
okay so now let's look at some
variations some other ways to use this
verb the first variation is to fly at
someone to fly at someone this means to
move quickly at someone like an attack
examples
the murderer flew at the hero
she flew at me shouting about my
mistakes
when when someone flies at someone else
the key preposition there is at someone
else
it's like one person doesn't move but
another person usually because they're
feeling extremely emotional like kind of
moves quickly towards them usually like
because they're angry i think um
and maybe they're gonna attack this
other person but they move very suddenly
and very quickly to another person so
again we use the verb fly to talk about
that it's like very quick very sudden
motion in the first example sentence the
murderer flew at the hero it's like the
hero was standing somewhere and a
murderer tried to attack the hero flew
at the hero moved quickly the second
example sentence is the same she flew at
me shouting about my mistakes so there's
some anger some unhappy feeling that's
happening there
but we use the verb fly to talk about
quick motion like attacking motion do
the next variation is to fly blind to
fly blind
this expression means to do something
without being able to see the way
forward it means to do something by
guessing when i was researching this
actually it said that this phrase
originated or started in world war ii
actually pilots in world war ii when
like their radio controls or their
communications stopped working they had
to fly their planes using only like the
controls they had in the plane so they
couldn't contact anyone outside the
plane so um flying blind actually
uh come the flying part comes from that
apparently blind means unable to see
unable to see so flying blind now these
days doesn't only mean flying a plane
without having communications it means
doing something without being able to
have like outside help or outside
guidance or knowing exactly what to do
so examples
uh our radios are down we're flying
blind i have no idea how to fill out
these forms i'm flying blind
so in the second example in particular
it's kind of a modern day situation
where i don't know what to do i'm doing
my best with these forms but i'm flying
blind i have no idea what to do i'm
guessing so those are a few new ways i
hope that you can use the verb fly there
are some other ways too so if you know
some other ways or if you have any
questions or if you want to try to make
an example sentence please feel free to
do so in the comments of course if you
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tools thanks very much for watching this
episode of know your verbs and we'll see
you again soon bye
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