Hey guys , i'm Sabra your British University English teacher
and today we're looking at phrasal verbs that have lots of different meanings
as if phrasal verbs weren't annoying enough i know
they can be a complete headache but don't worry today we are going to master
some of these common phrasal verbs that have quite a few
meanings so pens at the ready guys let's get going
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so the first one is go off now if something goes
off if it's machinery or if it's a light this can mean it has stopped
working for example you can say oh the lights have gone off
or you could say um oh it's getting a bit cold i think the heater must have
gone off so it actually means it's turned off
this is for lights and for machinery however this is the wonderful
thing about english it is slightly illogical well
very illogical actually and actually in some cases
it can mean that something has rung so if
a warning device like your it could be your phone or
an alarm if that rings you can say that that has gone off
so you might say i was in big trouble when my phone went off in the exam
or you could say my car alarm went off in the night it really
disturbed the neighbours so there it actually means it rang
so a little bit strange that we've got one which means stops working
and one which means rings but that's english for you
also if we talk about a gun or a bomb going off this means
it has either fired or exploded so if you said the bomb went off
it means it exploded so again that it actually means activity rather than
inactivity meaning number four is if you smell food
and you think that the food is old and it's not good anymore
particularly things like dairy or meat or vegetables things which
obviously you know you can't eat them anymore
they're not fresh anymore you can say they've gone off so you can
say i think the milk's gone off or you could say oh i think that um that
salad we had i think that's gone off now it smells a bit funny so it means it's
not good anymore not fresh and the last one meaning
number five can also mean to leave and to go to
another place so we could say well leila's gone off on
holiday she's gone off to italy with her husband
for a lovely romantic break you could say that or you could say
oh she's gone off to live in south america actually she wanted a change of
scene so she's gone off to live in south america i should probably mention
one last meaning for go off it's not as common but i think it's good to mention
it to go off something if we go off
something we stop liking it so as a lot of you know right
now i'm pregnant i'm expecting a baby and a lot of my friends have asked me
have you gone off anything meaning have you stopped liking any foods
uh and actually i can tell you i have gone off olives which i used to love i
loved olives but in this pregnancy it's very strange i've gone off olives and
had a crazy craving for chocolate i think my baby's going to be a chocoholic
but yes so to go off something to stop liking it
so you could say oh i've gone off the idea of taking my ielts exam
it sounds too intense i've gone off the idea the next one is to go
through so we've got four meanings here so to go through
something so this can mean to physically go through so to be inside of or to pass
through so we go through tunnels for example
or we can say that we go through towns or villages on a journey
so you might say uh you'll go through lots of pretty villages
on your journey to rome from the south of italy
the second meaning is that something gets officially accepted or approved
so we could say the plans to build a new school have gone through the council has
agreed to them the plans to build the new school have
gone through the council has agreed to them so that would mean
they've said yes so that can mean to go through to be
officially accepted we also use this for monetary
transactions so if you're buying something in a
supermarket and the shop assistant says i'm really
sorry this transaction hasn't gone through
it means it hasn't been approved it hasn't processed
maybe you don't have money in the account very embarrassing if that ever
happens next meaning is to experience something
so to be experiencing something or passing through a particular
phase so we might say he's going through a difficult time
since he got divorced he's been going through a difficult time
or we might say the world economy is going through a tough period
after the coronavirus last meaning it's actually the same as
look through so it means i need to read through a document or i need to
read through a presentation but something physically
i need to look through it and to get familiar with it or review it
so for example we might say i need to go through
the notes from the meeting with you or do you mind if we just go through
the notes you made on my presentation very similar to look through
we often use that in the office environment
number three is give up so we can either say
we give up or we give up something so we give up or we give up something so
we'll talk about the differences so if i say
i give up give up i can't do it this is like saying i quit
so it's like saying i don't think i'm going to be successful so i'm going to
stop if you've ever done a rubik's cube this
tricky thing where you have to get all the colors uh in blocks on the different
sides it's really really hard you might after
a while think give up i can't do it or you're trying
to beat somebody or something like this and after a while you say okay i give up
you win so this is basically where we admit
defeat we say that we can't do something so we give up however the
other meaning is to stop doing something so to quit completely
usually a bad habit so if you give up smoking
this means that you have stopped smoking if you give up chocolate
again you stopped eating chocolate there are many things that we can say we've
given up because uh we consider them to be a bad
habit guys tell me in the comments below have you ever managed to do that rubik's
cube i would love to know because i've tried
many times and every time i get stuck so i would love to get your tips and
find out if any of you have done it but you're very clever
if you've been able to number four is come round
and basically if we say come round to it adds a different meaning to this phrasal
verb so if we say we're coming round to
something and coming round to this or i'm coming round to that
this basically means i'm changing my mind or opinion
about this so i'm accepting this situation or this idea
more so if i say i'm coming round to the idea of moving to france
my husband really wants to move there and i'm coming
around to the idea it means there's a possibility i might agree
before i wasn't sure but now i'm thinking okay
it's possible i could do it so you're changing your mind
however come round is much more general and much more like
come come round is like an invitation if i say come around for dinner or come
around for tea i'm inviting you but also i can use it
to mean come as in i'm coming to you so if i say i'm
coming around to yours now this means i'm coming to you but it
means i need to travel i won't say i'm coming round if i'm in
the next room or if i'm in the next street it's really that you
need to travel not a long distance but you have to get
there so i might say to layla leyla i'm coming
around to yours to pick up the new camera
so stick on the kettle meaning put the kettle on i'm coming round
number five is to take off three meanings we're going to talk about here
so the first one is that something becomes successful
so to take off can mean that something becomes successful
so if we say my business is really taking off or my youtube channel is
taking off we mean it's starting to flourish
starting to do well so to take off the other meaning of
takeoff is to remove something now this is not necessarily just clothing
it can also mean to take something off something so to remove
something so if i buy someone a present i might think
must remember to take off the price before i give it to them
must remember to do that very embarrassing if you leave the price on
if not last meeting for takeoff we've touched
on it already this is of course when a plane goes up so when the plane
leaves we would say the plane takes off number six is cut off so this
is to cut off something or to cut off someone
different meanings in each case if you cut off someone
one of the meanings is that you interrupt them you stop them from
talking so you could say i had to cut her off
because she was talking about boring things and it was getting too
tedious for me so i just had to cut her off so it's
literally that you say sorry i don't want to you know i need to
go or please don't talk about that but in some
way you interrupt them and stop them talking so to cut someone off the
next one is much more literal if you cut something off it can also
mean to remove something so if you cut off your hair this means
you cut it very very short when i was much younger when i was a
teenager i wanted uh very short hair uh kind of a boycott which i did have
for a little while but i really really regret it and ever since i've kept my
long hair another meaning of course is when
communication fails over the phone so if you're speaking to somebody and
the line goes you can say oh we've been cut off or i was speaking
to so and so but then i was cut off and we often use
this in passive because obviously this is something that has happened
to us we haven't done it the next meaning is a little bit more specific
this is when somebody cuts you off from the family
usually so that you don't inherit any money so if your parents or grandparents
or someone like that cuts you off it means that they don't
have anything to do with you for some reason
usually because they don't approve of something you've done or
whatever maybe they're not a very nice person who knows
and this means that they will stop you from inheriting they don't have anything
to do with you they cut you out or cut you off from their life and
you will not inherit any money so it's very bad
so we could say she was cut off without a penny when she married the man her
parents didn't want her to her parents cut her off number seven is
to go out so the first meaning is to stop
burning or stop shining so if we say the lights have
gone out we actually mean they've gone off they've turned off
but if we say the fire has gone out again we mean the fire has
has died it stopped burning so we might say the fire went out during the night
and so we were all very cold so in that context there it means that it has died
the next meaning is very different to the previous one and this one is that
something is broadcast on television or radio or that a film
goes into the cinemas so you might often read the film is
going out on march the 7th or whatever the date so this means it's
going out to the cinemas it's going to be there uh that kind of
thing so you'll probably see it quite a lot in this context
so for example our videos go out every friday and sometimes on a wednesday so
it means to be broadcast for the public the next meaning we need of
to add here to make the meaning different to go
out of and this means to exit from a competition or
tournament so we might say uh england have gone out of the world cup at the
semi-final stage or she went out of the tv show when the
audience voted her off so it means you exit from
that competition or from that tournament of course go out can also mean to leave
so to go out for the evening to go out for a coffee so it means to
exit from your house to go somewhere and that's probably the
most common meaning of the word so we might say are you going out
tonight meaning where are you going tonight
where in the town are you going very very common to hear it used like that
last one number eight this is to stand for to stand for something
so if we say something stands for something this can mean that
letters actually represent words so the letters are representative
of words so like an acronym so for example
easy one would be the usa means the united states of america
nasa stands for and i had to check this before i told you guys i wanted to make
sure i had it right hang on the national aeronautics and
space administration i thought it was something completely
different i thought it was the national association of space
uh something like that it shows what i know
but yes that's nasa so that we would say stands for the letters represent
words the other meaning is if you stand for something you believe that
particular belief or principle is important so many
organizations stand for particular principles
particular beliefs so you might say save the children it
stands for children's rights and protection worldwide
or this particular women's charity stands for female equality so it's what
they represent in terms of the principle the next meaning really means to
tolerate so if you say i won't stand for bad
behavior in this house it means i won't accept or tolerate it i
won't stand for bad behavior in this house
or i won't stand for being treated badly now it's important to point out that we
usually use it in the negative we don't usually say
she's standing for as in she's accepting or tolerating
we usually use it to mean he or she won't tolerate or won't accept something
so they won't stand for this meaning they won't accept
this right everybody they were our phrasal verbs with multiple meanings
there was a lot to cover there and now at least you're familiar with
lots of the different meanings of some of those very common phrasal verbs
try to use any of them in a sentence below i love reading your sentences when
you use the phrasal verbs see you in the next video guys bye-bye