hi everybody welcome back to know your
verbs my name is alicia and in this
lesson we're going to talk about the
verb call let's get started
let's look at the basic definition for
this verb the basic definition of the
verb call is to use a phone or other
device to communicate with someone like
an iphone or maybe video call with your
computer example sentences
call me maybe
i tried calling but nobody answered
now let's look at the conjugations for
this verb
present
call
calls
passed
called
past participle called
progressive calling
so now let's talk about some additional
meanings for this verb so the first
additional meaning is to give someone a
name or to address someone with that
name examples
please call me alfred
let's go to that new restaurant called
tgi thursdays so we use call to refer to
people's names or to names of like
restaurants locations whatever you can
say a place called a person called or
he's called she's called to refer to the
name uh or to refer to like a nickname
as well let's go on to the second
additional meaning for this which is to
think of someone or something as
something else so this is sort of a
vague hard to understand definition
let's look at some examples
she let you stay at her house that's
what i call a friend
he's smart but i wouldn't call him a
genius
so here we're thinking of someone as
something else in the first example
that's what i call a friend so when the
person speaking uses the verb call they
mean that's what i consider a friend so
i consider a person like that to be a
friend but we use call to make that a
shorter expression
in the second example sentence i
wouldn't call him a genius we're seeing
i would not say that he is a genius i
would not consider him to be a genius so
that doesn't seem appropriate to me so
we shorten this by saying i wouldn't
call him a genius i wouldn't call him a
genius the third additional meaning for
the verb call is to use a loud voice
like to get someone's attention the
attention of a person the attention of
an animal maybe a crowd you're calling
something you're calling out for
something you might hear call out or
call for or call to perhaps even
examples
call the dog over here
she called her son's name as she
searched the crowd
so in both of these we're using a big
voice to get someone's attention so call
the dog over here means like use your
voice like call the dog's name for
example or do something to get the dog's
attention and make the dog come over
here in the second example sentence a
woman is maybe searching for her son and
she's calling his name as she searches
through a crowd so using a loud voice
in the hopes of getting someone's
attention let's go on to the next
additional meaning which is to request
an event or an action so this is when we
want something to happen and it usually
sounds a little bit formal examples
the ceo called a board meeting
we call for new parks regulations in our
neighborhood
okay so this means we want something
we're demanding something we're
requesting something the ceo called a
board meeting means the ceo demanded or
strongly requested a board meeting so
it's like
the ceo made this request and everybody
came to the meeting so in the second
example sentence we call for new parks
regulations in our neighborhood there we
see the demand is for a regulation the
people we
want something in the neighborhood
they're requesting new regulations so
they use the expression we call for
something so you can use both of these
like to call
an event like to call a meeting to call
a board meeting to call a conference or
you can call for something to happen or
some kind of change to happen call for
blah blah blah
let's move on to some variations for
this verb the first one is actually sort
of two expressions in one it's call it a
day and call it a night this is an
expression we use when we are ready to
finish working or finish like enjoying
ourselves finish playing as well we
typically use these as adults children
don't really use these expressions we
use call it a day at the end of a
working day we use call it a night when
we're ready to be finished like spending
time with friends or ready to come home
after being out late at night for
example examples
it's eight i think i'm gonna call it a
day
it's been fun but i'm gonna call it a
night
so in both of these you can see i'm
gonna call it a night means i'm gonna
say that i'm ready to be done for the
day is essentially what this means so
i'm finished to say this very very
quickly i'm finished for today i'm gonna
call it a day means i'm calling today
finished or i'm calling tonight finished
i'm considering it finished so you'll
hear call it a day for work and call it
a night for fun activities okay let's go
on to the second variation the second
variation is to call someone or
something off this expression means to
cancel something like an event or to
stop someone's behavior this can be for
a person or i suppose for an animal as
well examples
call your dog off
oh no it's going to rain we have to call
off the bbq
so in both of these situations there's
something that must be cancelled so in
the first example call your dog off it
means your dog is maybe too aggressive
someone's dog is too aggressive it's
barking he's making noise is attacking
someone maybe so call your dog off means
stop your dog's behavior in the second
example sentence we're gonna have to
call off the barbecue means we're going
to have to cancel the barbecue because
of rain in this case so to call off an
event or to call off a person to call
off an animal it means to stop or to
cancel that thing so those are a few new
ways i hope that you can use the verb
call i hope that that was helpful for
you of course if you know some other
ways to use the verb call there are
quite a few please feel free to give it
a try or let us know in the comments of
this video of course don't forget to
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english study tools thanks very much for
watching this episode of know your verbs
and we'll see you again soon bye-bye
let's go on too yeah i see you you are
orange okay
i don't even see myself okay
that was so deep
i'm gonna call you
seagull face from now on i'm on the
seagull thing
i'm gonna call you
donut
but what i'm gonna call you
facebook
friend
okay
it's still weird no this is very this is
just getting worse isn't it