Welcome back to JForrestEnglish training, your place to become a fluent and confident English
speaker. Of course, I'm Jennifer and in this lesson you're going to add the top 10 phrasal
verbs to your vocabulary. And make sure you watch right to the end because I'm going to
quiz you to make sure you know how to use these new phrasal verbs. Let's get started.
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 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 coworkers, 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 analysts. So they gave you some advice, you need to act
on it. Number two, bargain for. To bargain for, this is when you expect something to happen, but
that something is usually negative. 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 bargained for such a high interest rate. So 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 three, 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 membership based, such as the pension plan, their 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. 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 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 tried 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. It wasn't that big of a deal. Number five, 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 dropped out of college to start Microsoft. And we know how successful
that was. So although it might seem negative 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 of calculus, it's too
difficult. I'm going to quit calculus. Number six, to cut back. This is when you spend less,
you do less 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, it's just reduce, reduce spending, spend less. And then you have to clarify, well,
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 used specifically in the context of a meeting. And when you sit in on
a meeting, it means 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's a really interesting meeting at work,
but you are not directly related to the subject matter, you might ask the organizer, is it okay
if I sit in on the meeting today? And that means you're just going to attend to listen, to receive
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 eight. This is a fun one, to whip up. To whip up. This is very specific because it's
used with food. And it's 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
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, well you might put on a dress shirt, maybe even a suit with a 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, to get at something.
When someone is getting at 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 the 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 explain. So now you have 10 new phrasal verbs that you
can add to your vocabulary. Are you ready for your quiz? Here are the questions. Hit pause,
take as much time as you need, and when you're ready, you can hit play and see the answers.
So how do you do with that quiz? Was it easy? Was it difficult? Well, let's find
out! Here are the answers. Hit pause and you can compare your answers to see how well you did.
So how'd you do on that quiz? Make sure you share your score in the comments below. And
if you got any wrong, don't worry, you're still learning. Do some example sentences
in the comments below. And if you found this video helpful, please hit the like button,
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make sure you head on over to my website, JForrestEnglish.com and download your free
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