Welcome to JForrest English.
I'm Jennifer.
And today,
you're going to add 10 common phrasal verbs to your speech, to help you sound more fluent
and
natural.
First, I'm going to quiz you to see how well, you know, these phrasal verbs and then I'll
explain every phrasal verb in detail.
Let's get started.
Question 1.
If you want to join our mailing list, you can on our website.
Now, I'll only give you three
seconds to answer the question, so if you need more time hit pause, take as much time
as you need.
And when you're ready, hit play.
You
can
opt-in question to before you.
I suggest talking to the guidance counselor.
Before you drop out question 3.
You need to for dinner tonight.
We're going to a
nice
restaurant.
You need to dress up question for I write your email but it's not clear to me.
What your
What you're getting at question 5, Terence
just
lost his job.
So I'm going to my promotion at dinner tonight.
I'm going to
play down question 6.
I know the meeting is for the sales team, but do you mind if I
Sit in question, 7, let's order takeout.
I don't have time to anything before your parents arrive.
Whip up question 8.
The board hasn't any of our recommendations yet.
Acted on question 9, the cake looks delicious but I'm trying to sugar.
Cut back on question 10, we hadn't so much negative feedback.
Bargain for.
So, how do you do it that quiz?
Don't worry if it was difficult, because now, I'll explain every phrasal verb in detail.
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Now, let's review each phrasal verb.
In detail phrasal verb.
Number one to act on this simply means to take action so to act, but you act on specific
information advice or recommendations that you've received.
For example, the manager acted on
the
findings of the report.
So, of course, in this report, there's lots of information
Mansion and advice.
And if you act on that information, the manager acted on the findings of the report or in
a meeting, you might suggest to your co-workers.
We need to act on the recommendations.
We need to take action outside of the workplace.
You might say, we need to act on the advice from our financial analyst, so they gave you
some advice, you need to act on it.
Number two,
To to bargain, for to bargain for this is when you expect something to happen, but that
something is usually -. So you expect something negative to happen.
Now notice the sentence structure here because we most commonly use this phrasal verb in
the negative form.
We hadn't bargain for such a high interest rate so it's saying
We didn't expect or you could say, we hadn't bargained for so many people at the conference.
So, this is a great expression that you can use, but I recommend using it in the negative
number 32, opt-in.
When you opt into something, it means you become a member of something.
So, if you're a new employee at the company, they might have certain things that are
our membership based such as the pension plan, the health care plan, or
other insurance plans, maybe even some committees.
And if you want to be a member, you need to opt in.
For example, as a new employee you need to opt into the insurance plan.
Now, the opposite of in is out so if you don't want to be a member, you can opt out
It's so for example, new employees are automatically added to the insurance policy.
If you don't want to be a member, you need to opt out, you need to opt out number four
to play down.
This is a great phrasal verb.
It means to make something seem less important or less serious than it really is.
For example, the
the Government tried to play Down the Scandal, so they had the Scandal, and they want to
make it seem less important or less serious.
They try to play it down, or I could say, the documentary played down his divorce.
So, there's this documentary on this person who got divorced, and they're trying to make
it seem less serious or less important than it really was in reality, and that's what
you need to.
Keep in mind, in reality the situation was more serious but the documentary played it
down.
I wasn't that big of a deal.
Number 5 to drop out when you drop out.
This is specifically used when you quit a course or you quit an entire program, a school
program.
So if you're pursuing a degree and you quit then you drop out now, interestingly Bill
Gates.
Gates dropped out of college to start Microsoft and we know how successful that was.
So although it might seem - that you drop out, you quit, maybe not always the case.
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook also dropped out of college to start Facebook.
I'm not encouraging you to drop out, but it's not always a negative.
And you can also use this for a specific course for
Example, I think I'm going to drop out a calculus.
It's too difficult.
I'm going to quit calculus.
Number 6 to cut back.
This is when you spend less you do last or you use less of something.
This is very commonly used by governments or companies.
The government has announced plans to cut back on defense spending by
10%.
Now notice I said on, if you specify the something defense spending, you need to use the preposition
on cut back on, cut back on defense spending.
I could also just say the government announced plans to cut back in that sense is just reduce
reduce spending, spend less and then you have to clarify will cut back on what now we frequently
use
This as advice to someone let's say you told me Jennifer, I drink 10 sodas a day, I would
say, whoa, you should cut back, you should consume less, that's too much soda.
You should cut back number seven to sit in on this is a great business phrasal verb.
It's you specifically in the context of a meeting and when you sit in on a meeting it
As you attend a meeting, but you only attend that meeting as an observer.
So you're not going to participate.
You're not going to present.
You're not going to ask questions.
You're just going to attend as an observer.
So if there is a really interesting meeting at work, but you're not directly related to
the subject matter you might ask the organizer, is it okay if I sit in on the meeting today,
and which means you're just going to
Tend to listen to receive the information.
You're not going to participate or if you're planning a sales meeting, you might say, it
would be useful to have someone from accounting sit in on the meeting.
So, someone from accounting is just going to be there to absorb the information but
you don't expect them to participate or present anything.
So, very useful phrasal verb in a business context.
Number 8, this is a fun one to whip up to whip.
Up up this is very specific because it's used with food and is used when you make food quickly.
So you make yourself breakfast, lunch dinner a snack, it doesn't matter.
You make any type of food, but you do it really quickly.
So you might say, oh no, I'm running late.
I need to whip up my breakfast.
I need to make my breakfast really quickly or let's say, you have some guests, come over
unexpectedly, and you want to
Serve them, something you might say to your husband, give me a few minutes to whip up
some appetizers.
I'm going to make some appetizers really quickly, so it's a great phrasal verb that.
You can add to your daily vocabulary number nine, to dress up.
I love this phrasal verb to dress up is, when you wear more professional or formal clothing,
usually for a specific occasion.
So, if you're going out,
Out for a nice dinner, maybe it's someone's birthday or an anniversary, you would dress
up.
You would wear more formal or professional clothing than you normally would.
Or let's say, you have some really important guests coming into your office, some VIP guests.
Well, you might dress up if you normally wear just a t-shirt, will you might put on a dress
shirt, maybe even a suit with
Tie or if you're going to a wedding of course, that's a great opportunity to dress up to
wear more formal clothing.
Now we often use this in question form.
If you're invited to a dinner or a party you might ask do I need to dress up?
Do I need to wear more formal clothing and they can reply back and say no it's informal.
There's no need to dress up and number 10,
When to get at to get us something, when someone is getting out something they're trying to
explain or Express something specific, we commonly use this in question form, let's
say your coworker is talking to you, and they're talking about a meeting that you have, but
you're not really sure what they're trying to express to you, what they're trying to
explain.
You could say, I'm not sure what you're getting at.
I'm not sure what you mean.
I'm not sure what you're trying to explain.
I'm not sure what you're getting at.
Now, we also use this when we're trying to explain something, and explanation isn't going
too well, and then we can say what I'm trying to get at is we need to cut back, what I'm
trying to get at is and then you state, what you mean, what you're trying to
To explain.
Now that you're more comfortable with these phrasal verbs.
Let's do the exact same test again so you can see how much you've improved here.
Are the questions.
Hit pause, take as much time as you need, and when you're ready, hit play to see the
answers.
Here are the answers, hit, pause.
And you can compare your answers to see how well you did.
Amazing job with this quiz.
I'm sure there was a big difference from the first time to the second time and make sure
you download this free speaking guide where I sure six tips on how to speak English, fluently
and confidently, you can download it from my website right here and now get started
with your next lesson.