hello everybody i'm sabra your british
university english teacher and today
we're going to be looking at 25
professional phrasal verbs so phrasal
verbs are a bit of a funny one because
we always tell you they're much more for
informal context don't use them as much
formally however we do actually use them
quite a lot at work as well
less in the written form though and much
more in the spoken form so these phrasal
verbs we're looking at today are very
common in the workplace they're ones
that come up very very often so they'll
be great for you guys to know and to be
able to use in professional contexts
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one is to speak out to speak out
and this is where we express our opinion
publicly or honestly about something
sometimes it can be where it's rather
difficult to speak out about something
it's a bit of an awkward topic or
something which uh people might be
surprised to hear
but it's something that obviously the
person feels they need to say or to
share so an example might be john spoke
out in the meeting regarding the time
frame for the new project
he felt it was a little bit optimistic
and we needed a bit longer or staff have
spoken out regarding their worries over
job security they would like to know
more about whether they will definitely
be able to keep their jobs next year the
next one is to stand for something
and this is often written in a company's
mission statement or written about their
values because these are principles or
beliefs that a company has this is where
we use stand for
so we might say we stand for a brighter
future for all our young employees
or we stand for equality in terms of
employment we're an equal opportunities
employer it's the principles that a
company has
supermarkets might say things like we
stand for good food for everyone good
food and reasonably priced for everyone
it's the values or principles that a
company has
what do you stand for or what does the
company you work for stand for tell us
about that in the comments below
number three is shoot up or shot up is
the past tense of course
this means increased rapidly obviously
if you fire a gun the shot goes very
very fast the bullet flies very quickly
through the air so in this case this is
when something has increased very
rapidly so if you say the market share
for apple has shot up we might even hear
that it's gone through the roof shot up
it means it's increased very very
rapidly or coronavirus cases have shot
up in recent days something like that
increased very rapidly number four call
for
call for means require or necessitate a
situation requires or necessitates
something so we can say it calls for
for example you might say
this project calls for a lot of devotion
from the staff a lot of hard work and
commitment for it to succeed or this new
technological age we're living in calls
for a completely different style of
marketing strategy
now if you're having a celebration for
example you've done very well at work or
even at home we also use this one you
can say ah well we've done so well this
week the figures have gone through the
roof they've they've shot up this calls
for a celebration this calls for drinks
after work or even this calls for a
bottle of champagne your best please
waiter number five is to branch out to
branch out and this means to expand into
new business areas so for example some
businesses decide to go into a different
business area than the one they're
currently working in
for example the company virgin atlantic
they've always done travel now they're
branching out into space travel
or for example a publishing company that
publishes books usually might branch out
into online books or into translation
services so it's where businesses expand
into new business areas
number six is to sort out to sort out
and normally we say we need to sort
something out or sort out something so
it's a transitive and intransitive
phrasal verb
so we might say for example
i need to sort out the timetable for
this week meaning i need to fix or i
need to organize something basically
this means fix or organize
i need to sort out my desk it's a mess
layla i'm talking to you
as well as that we can also use this
when we need to fix a problem so we
might say i really need to sort out
who's going to cover because there's
lots of members of staff off this week
so i really need to sort out who's going
to do the cover is there something you
need to sort out at the moment if there
is tell me about that in the comments
below number seven is scale up we can
say we're scaling up something that's
what we usually say we're scaling up
something so for example we're scaling
up the project we're scaling up the
building work it's basically increasing
something in terms of size
number or extent so expanding really but
it's not exactly the same as branch out
because it doesn't necessarily mean into
a new area
scaling up just simply means making
bigger really
so for example we might say we're
scaling up the research into anti-cancer
drugs it means expanding it making it a
bigger project new members of staff new
laboratories everything like that next
one is scale down the opposite and this
of course means to decrease something to
actually take it down a level so
companies might say we're scaling down
our customer services roles and teams
because we're actually moving to more
computer-based more machine-led customer
services which is happening all over the
world isn't it so scaling something down
reducing it decreasing it
number 10 is to put in and in this
context it means to actually give
so it means what you're actually giving
in terms of hours or time usually in the
business context so you might say i need
to succeed on this project i'm putting
in so many hours and putting in so much
time i really need it to work
so it really means giving in that way
you could also say monetary so you could
say i'm putting in a lot of money into
this project so again in that context it
means to give
what are you putting in in terms of
learning english are you putting in a
couple of hours a week a day a week just
look at the odd morning what are you
putting in in terms of your english
language learning tell me about that in
the comments below and don't worry no
judgments you can be honest
next one is to step in to step in and
this is basically like to intervene
or to become involved in a difficult
situation
so for example we might say we need some
pr people to step in because the
politician made a couple of mistakes in
his speech so we need the pr people to
step in and come and fix this
it's like get involved in a difficult
situation number 12 is to do away with
lots of synonyms here very useful
synonyms you can also say to scrap
something
um to get rid of something so the
closest to do away with is get rid of
which means remove
do not use any more something which
becomes basically useless we don't do
that anymore and we don't have that
thing anymore so scrap and get rid of
are synonyms they mean exactly the same
get rid of do away with and scrap so for
example you could say we're doing away
with giving our employees paper
statements paper pay slips because we're
actually having all of those online now
they can download them online and print
them if they want but we're not going to
give them paper statements anymore this
happened at my work because it happened
at your work that you no longer get
paper pay slips or things via paper and
post anymore it all comes online because
a lot of that has been done away with
next one is stick up for
and this basically means defend and it's
certainly not just used in the business
context it's also used in in families in
many many different contexts so it's
basically like when somebody feels that
they have been wrongly treated or
something where they feel they need
defending or a project needs defending
this is when you would stick up for
something so for example you would say
well i'm going to stick up for the new
system because i think it will work we
just need to give it a little bit more
time or a teacher might say no i'm going
to stick up for this pupil i think he
will progress in his english again we
just need to give him a bit more time or
we need to show him things in a
different way in terms of family life
members of families can often feel like
they're not stuck up for or ask people
to stick up for them to defend them in
certain situations so they might say oh
come on stick up for me i don't always
leave my socks on the floor or something
like that the next one means hold back
which means wait or withdraw
so if you need to hold back it means you
need to just not do anything at that
time just wait to see what the outcome
is
so you might say when you're training a
new member of staff sometimes we need to
hold back and let them figure out some
things for themselves we can't give them
everything all at once sometimes it's
important for the trainer to hold back
or hang back and just let them try and
work things out it's the same with
teaching sometimes if we give the pupils
the answer too quickly they haven't
learned it's better to hold back and
just wait and see if they can do it
also in terms of business arrangements
sometimes we need to hold back and just
see what's going to happen it's like
wait and see wait and see what the
outcome will be
before taking any action the next one is
pushback
and basically this means complaints or
somebody is coming back about something
so it's like someone saying actually i'm
not sure about this so you you say you
go against something
so we might say there's been pushback
from members of staff
about the stricter dress code people
aren't used to it so it's this would be
where staff would be saying oh i'm not
sure about this do we really need to do
it
it's like complaints or resistance i
think that's probably the best way to
explain it complaints or resistance
often people in more senior positions
prepare themselves for this and they say
okay when we introduce this we need to
understand that there's going to be some
pushback and we're going to be ready to
explain why we need to do this so that
we can deal with that pushback number 17
is weigh up weigh something up so when
you weigh something we normally put it
on scales
and
more traditional weighing scales have
two parts
and you would see where the balance lies
so this is where this phrasal verb comes
from you would say we're weighing up the
pros and cons or we're weighing up what
the best course of action is it means
we're considering the different options
and thinking about which one would be
the best
my partner and i are going to get
married hopefully soon and at the moment
we're weighing up the different options
in terms of go and get married abroad
just the two of us or have a big party
and have a traditional honeymoon but
we're not sure about the cost of having
a big party with everyone here and doing
the traditional wedding so we thought
about going and getting married just the
two of us and then having a party back
here afterwards
we're weighing that up at the moment
what do you think everyone what should
we do any tips on that one before i talk
too much about that tangent a more
professional example would be we're
weighing up the pros and cons of the new
trade deal number 18 is lay off lay
someone off and this means make someone
redundant so to say to somebody that
sadly they don't have a job anymore and
to give them a notice period
so say to them in one month i'm afraid
your contract will expire will be over
and when we make someone redundant or we
lay someone off this means that they
haven't done anything wrong necessarily
it's not like being fired or being
sacked there's a difference here
um this is where often the job is no
longer viable business-wise so there's
been a way um to save money or um that
job is going to be done in a different
way so we won't need that position
anymore there's a variety of reasons but
um it's not necessarily the person's
fault whereas if they're sacked or fired
they've usually done something a bit
naughty number 19 is go under to go
under
and this means fail business wise no
longer be viable go bust it's another
synonym go bankrupt
so no longer the business doesn't work
anymore so unfortunately you've had to
close
so sadly we've had a lot of business
giants i would say on the high street um
that have gone under in the coronavirus
during this new technological age and
then the coronavirus lots of things have
gone under number 20 is full through
and this is where a business deal
actually fails or a business arrangement
or a purchase
it somewhere fails and doesn't reach
completion
so we could say the purchase of the
house fell through
due to the fact that the other people
couldn't find somewhere else to live and
we couldn't wait that long so the
purchase fell through or the business
deal with china fell through due to
disagreements over tariffs the next one
is wrap up this is a nice easy one this
means to complete something
so we might we might say i need to wrap
up the meeting now as i've got another
meeting in five minutes
or we'll be wrapping up this project in
two weeks so just keep working because
we're going to be wrapping up soon it
just means to finish
the next one is pitch in or chip in
pitch in or chip in
and this means help out become involved
in something
so your boss might say to you can you
chip in with some ideas here or you
might need to pitch in and help out with
uh processing those accommodation forms
because there's a lot that needs to be
done so i'm gonna have to ask a couple
of other members of staff to pitch in to
help out okay chip in or pitch in so
they're nice ones to use alternatively
to help out
number 23 go after go after and this
means make something a target or try to
get something so for example if a
company has a new product let's say
men's hair gel
and they want to target a particular
type of customer they might say well the
marketing is going after men in their
early 20s who are quite into
how they look perhaps young
professionals so the marketing has
really got to be going after them it's
got to be kind of catered for them
number 24 is run into now you're
probably familiar with this phrasal verb
because when you meet somebody by
accident it means to run into them
however in the business world in the
workplace it can mean to encounter a
problem or encounter something
so for example we've run into an issue
when installing the new it system
or we've run into some problems with uh
staff we haven't got as many members of
staff as we expected to have
something like this so it's actually
encounter an issue a problem
um usually it's something a bit more
negative than positive
so that's what it means much more in the
business context last one number 25 to
go over something to go over something
and this means to check something again
or ask for somebody to explain it to you
again so if you're going over you're
actually repeating it so you might say
could you just go over again
how i mail merge on this system or could
you go over again the process for a new
recruit so it's where you're saying
could you show me again could you
explain to me again
also you can use it about yourself you
can say i'm just going to go over the
budget because i'm not sure about the
figures i'm going to go over it again
just to check means look through check
again right everybody they were our 25
professional phrasal verbs or business
phrasal verbs i do hope you found those
useful i look forward to seeing you
again soon please try and use any of
those in a sentence below and as well as
that guys please do put in requests for
future videos what kind of thing do you
want us to make videos about we love
hearing from you guys so do make sure
you leave comments below take care
everyone and see you soon bye