Do you know how to use phrasal verbs? Do you know important phrasal verbs are in English?
They are a fantastic way to make your English sound more informal and natural. But they
are not that easy to use so get ready for a lesson that's going to show you the secrets
about how we use them properly.
Welcome to Eat Sleep Dream English, if you haven't met me before I'm Tom and I teach
fresh modern British English so that you can take your English to the next level and achieve
your life goals.
Today we're looking at phrasal verbs. A phrasal verb is a verb, for example give or take plus
a particle, in, on, under things like that. Now when they go together they create a special
meaning that is separate from the individual verb itself. For example 'I'm going to take
off this jumper' Three, two, one. Alright, it worked! I took off my jumper. That means
to remove, so to take something off is to remove it. I'm going to put my jumper back
on, if that's ok. So take off means to remove. Now the only grammar that we are going to
need here is to change the verb depending on the tense. So for example I used the present
tense so to take off but in the past tense I would say took off. Or in the present perfect
I have taken off. So you are changing the verb depending on the tense that you want.
So why do we use phrasal verbs? Well, they are much more colloquial and informal than
single word verbs. And we use them all the time particularly in spoken English. So for
example take off, the single word would be to remove and now you have a choice. You can
use the more informal take off or the slightly more neutral or formal version to remove.
So I think it's really important to learn phrasal verbs and to give yourself the choice
to use an informal phrase or a neutral or formal phrase. If you have both you can adapt
to any situation you want. Especially important in business situations or in exams things
like that. You can choose now which type of English you want to use informal or formal.
Another example maybe you'll see a sign saying 'To extinguish fire, use this fire extinguisher.'
Now extinguish is the more formal word but maybe in every day spoken English I would
say to put out. So to put out a fire, use this fire extinguisher. So you have extinguish
and put out, one is formal one is informal, one is used in written English mostly the
other one is used in spoken. And that's a kind of pattern we see throughout phrasal
verbs. So if you are someone that wants to use spoken British English in informal situations
maybe to meet people or for television series or films, this is the kind of English that
you are going to want to learn.
So that's what they are and why we use them. Now let's look at how we use phrasal verbs.
Just before that guys, remember to subscribe to my channel so that you don't miss a single
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Ok, now there are a few patterns we need to know to use phrasal verbs correctly. So let's
have a look at them now. Some phrasal verbs don't take a direct object and these are called
intransitive verbs. For example 'I get up at 7 a.m.' There is no object in that sentence.
So that's the first set of phrasal verbs, intransitive verbs with no object. Now a lot
of phrasal verbs do have objects and these are called transitive verbs. Now there are
different patterns for transitive verbs that we will look at right now. The first pattern
is when the object goes after the verb and the particle. For example 'My girlfriend cheated
on me'. So to cheat on someone is to have a romantic or sexual relationship with someone
else other than your partner. To cheat on someone. So my girlfriend is the noun, cheated
on is the phrasal verb and me is the object. And that's coming after the verb and the particle.
Here are some other examples of that same pattern.
Another pattern is for some transitive verbs to have the object separate the verb and the
particle. For example 'Turn on the TV'. So turn on is the phrasal verb, the TV is the
object. Now we can put the object, the TV, in between the verb and the particle. So 'Turn
the TV on'. The meaning is exactly the same, no change. But we can decide whether we want
to put the object after the verb and particle or in between. It's up to us, it's our choice.
Here are a few more examples of that same pattern.
Now a really important thing to remember when using this pattern is that if the object is
a personal pronoun, for example you, me, it then it must go in between the verb and the
particle. For example the phrasal verb give back. It means to return. I would have to
say 'Give me back my phone'. Me is the personal pronoun and it's going in between the verb
and the particle. I cannot say 'Give back me my phone' ok? I can't put the personal
pronoun after the particle. It has to go in between, Ok? So that's a really important
thing to remember, the personal pronoun goes in between the verb and the particle.
Ok, so those are the essential patterns of phrasal verbs. Now I think one of the trickiest
things for most students when learning phrasal verbs is that the same phrasal verb can have
different meanings. If we go back to what we were looking at earlier, take off. Take
off means to remove, ok? So I took off my jumper, in a different situation it means
that an airplane leaves the ground, it goes into the air, into the sky. So the airplane
takes off. It goes along the runway and goes up into the sky. So that's another meaning,
same phrasal verb, take off but a different meaning. Another meaning would be to become
successful. So 'Her acting career took off' and that means her acting career became successful.
So now we have three different meanings of the same phrasal verb and there are other
ones. Now what we have to do as learners is to learn them of course, the different situations.
And then to think about the context, ok? Because that will tell us which meaning we are talking
about. If we are talking about an airplane it's likely that it'll be take off as in leave
the ground. If I'm talking about an item of clothing, probably it's to remove. But you
have to check the situation, ok? Context is really important here. But yes, don't see
this as a problem, see this as an easy way to learn more vocabulary. I have one phrase,
take off, but there are different meanings and now I have three meanings for the same
word. So it's kind of good, it's kind of useful. You can build your vocabulary quicker by learning
the different meanings.
Now guys, I don't know if you can tell, but I love phrasal verbs and I think they are
so so useful for you guys to learn. So what I'm going to do is do another video teaching
you the top ten essential phrasal verbs to learn. So these are going to be phrasal verbs
that you can use in your every day conversation that I think are just essential, that you
have to know them. And hopefully once you learn those, you'll then be able to learn
so many more. Now I hope you've found this video useful. If you did, please give it a
massive thumbs up. Of course subscribe and remember I release new videos every Tuesday
and every Friday. So yep, thank you so much for joining me, this is Tom, the Chief Dreamer,
saying goodbye.