hi everybody welcome to engVid.com I'm Adam in today's video I'm going to give you some more
phrasal verbs for you guys to add to your collection of your understanding vocab etc
so again what is a phrasal verb it's a combination of a verb with a preposition and again as with
most phrasal verbs they will mostly have more than one meaning and some of these meanings you can't
really guess because they're completely unrelated to the words that are combined so today we're
looking at phrasal verbs with cut so cut like with a knife or cut with scissors and whatever other
prepositions and what they mean so let's begin we'll cut out so now there's always the literal
meaning most phrasal verbs have a literal meaning which is the two words as they mean individually
put them together they keep their meaning but they work together somehow so if you cut something out
you're literally cutting a piece out of a bigger piece so think about a coupon you want to go
shopping and you have for some groceries and you see coupons in a magazine so you take scissors and
you cut out the coupon cut out the little piece very straightforward now a few other meanings
cut out if you want to cut something out you want it to stop right so generally we will say
to someone cut it out or cut out your spending so stop basically and when we say cut it out
we often use with a exclamation mark cut it out stop it's a bit of a command right now what else
does cutout mean how does other meanings if something stops working especially when we're
talking about an engine or a machine so the car is running and then suddenly the engine cuts out
it just stops working or if you're on a telephone call and you're talking talking and then the
call cuts out it means the transmission suddenly stopped okay so that's another meaning of cut out
another meaning that's a little bit trickier to explain is basically have an ability and we're
talking about people so some people are cut out for some professions and some people are just not
cut out for that profession so for example I'm not very good with numbers so I'm not
cut out to be an accountant or I'm not cut out for accounting I'm not really able to do it
I'm not suited for this profession right some people are cut out for it some people
are not cut out for it so those are the main meanings of cut out let's move on
cut in again also has a few meanings you can cut into something with a knife very literal
but then the other meanings you have to be careful about let's start with a lineup you go to the bank
you go to the bank and there's a long line to the teller but you're in a hurry you don't want
to wait so you go a little bit to the front of the line and you try to cut into the line
means you're going in ahead of your place you're joining the line where it's not your place usually
people will be very angry and kick you out of the line anyway and send you to the back same with
speech or some any sort of process or development of something if you cut in you interrupt
so I am speaking to a friend and somebody cuts in means they they join the conversation
uninvited and they start talking and they disturb or they interrupt mine in my friend's conversation
in the same way if I'm speaking too much like let's say I'm giving a presentation and I'm
talking talking talking and then my boss will cut in means he will just interrupt my speech and tell
me okay too much I could also use cut off in this case my boss will just cut me off he will just
stop me from speaking and my speech is finished before it's finished really it's interrupted okay
I will get to cut off in a moment another meaning of cut in if two people are dancing together like
the man and the woman or dancing or whoever is dancing and somebody wants to cut in means they
want to take one of the dance partners and dance with him or her so if I see my friend
and his his girlfriend dancing and I say can I cut in and I take my friend's girlfriend and I
started dancing with her but we're friends so it's all good he's he's not angry with me so it's okay
uh that's more or less cut in now keep in mind I'm not giving you all the different meanings of all
the prepositions because there's there really are a lot of them I'm giving you the main ones
that you can use in everyday situations cut down let's move to the next one cut down so
the most literal meaning the more straightforward is if you're talking about a tree and you take an
axe and you ch and the tree goes down so you cut it down right very straightforward if something is
hanging let's say on a wall or from the ceiling and you take a knife and you cut the string
and you cut it down you bring it down so very straightforward if you cut down on consumption
so you can use on or not if you're using on you're talking about something specific if you're using
just cut down the idea is already mentioned so for example somebody drinks too much alcohol
and he's maybe he got sick so he went to the doctor and the doctor said
your the amount of alcohol you're drinking is dangerous you need to cut down or you need to
cut down on your drinking very specifically right if it's mentioned before cut down if it's
mentioned after cut down on something reduce the consumption of okay now a good expression
you can this is so means someone
you can cut someone down to size this is a bit of an idiom but it uses the phrasal verb to begin
with if you cut someone down to size it means you you bring them to the level where they're actually
at so some people have a big ego and they think they are the best or they think they are the
strongest or the fastest or the most successful so you can say something or do something to show them
that they're not as good as they think right so you're cutting them down to size you're bringing
them down to a realistic level and this is a little bit of an attack they won't like you for
doing that obviously but some people need to be cut down to size because they have too much ego
okay uh let's stop with that one let's go on to cut up so cut up you can't cut a tree up
so there's no actual literally literal meaning if you cut something up you just chop it into
pieces for example with a knife so you can cut it up that's a more literal meaning of cut up
if you cut someone up you can take a knife and injure them with uh like put slices into them
and cuts don't do that it's not very nice but if you cut someone up you can also be insulting them
so instead of using a knife you're going to be using your tongue and you're going to cut their
ego or you're going to cut their emotions so you're insulting them you're attacking them
but not physically it could be emotionally uh as well now when if we're talking about
comedy somebody cut me up means made me laugh very hard I was laughing so hard that my stomach
got cut and I was I spilled out so that person that comedian is a cut up okay just again not
very common but nice to know anyway so that's cut up let's move on cut across the more the most
common use of this is to basically take a shortcut so let's say I i work in this building and my uh
my company has an office in the building across the park on the other side of the park I could
walk around the park or I could just cut across basically make a straight line for right through
cut through can mean the same thing instead of going around you're going through but if you're
talking about a specific area like a park or a field or a street you just cut across instead of
going around you can cut through a building means you go in one entrance you go out the
other entrance instead of going around you can't cut across a building a building is a structure
only open open areas you can cut across cut across can also mean that it's something affects
uh many groups or many different types of people or groups or companies etc so the government let's
say introduces a policy that will stop people from smoking but the new rules cut across many
areas or affects many areas for example businesses if a lot of bars if people can't smoke in the bars
then the bars will lose a lot of business so this policy cuts across many sectors of the economy not
just smokers bar owners club owners restaurant owners other people who attract that type of
customer so this policy cuts across many economic areas many economic sectors okay so that's it for
cut across cut through as I mentioned you can go through like a straight line instead of around
in the same way you can cut through things to get to the main point now I'll give you an example
in a government again there's a lot of bureaucracy so if you want something done
you need to go to this office get a signature or a stamp then take that paper go to the other
office get a stamp stamp stamp stamp by the time something is done maybe 20 people have
touched this piece of paper so some politician realized we're wasting time we're wasting money
so he changed the system he just cuts through all the bureaucracy he cuts through all the steps just
to make it a very straight line from what you need to how to get it right I'm going to give
you an expression now it's not very nice it uses some bad language but it's very commonly used
people often say they try to cut through the crap now crap is not a very good word but it's
not a very bad word either so if somebody's telling you a story like let's say I came late
to work and my boss is saying why are you late to work I said oh you know I had there was traffic
and then I had to go stop here to drop off this and my child was sick and I so the boss said
let's cut through the crap don't come late here again basically get rid of all the
useless things and get to the point so very good expression cut through let's move cut into
so again very literally you can cut into something with a knife with a saw with scissors whatever
or you can cut into someone is very similar to cut up if you cut into someone means you
go right into the heart of where it matters to them you it doesn't necessarily mean insult
but you you affect them in a way that makes them very nervous or very scared or very angry okay
you cut into them you mostly it means attack but it doesn't have to mean attack you can get right
to the heart of who they are and it makes them a little bit nervous not the most commonly used
thing but you can also cut into a situation means you analyze very quickly what's the issue and
then you take care of it again be careful with that one in using it cut off cutoff also has
quite a few user uses let's start with to cut off means to stop also but it's not like cut out stop
cut off means a very sudden interruption like so I said before like with this speech if my boss
cuts me off he just makes me stop speaking so if you cut someone off or if you cut something off
you just suddenly make it stop cut out can stop by itself cut off means you force it to stop
especially a process if somebody cuts you off on the street means they drive right in front of you
very suddenly and very quickly and you have to slam your brakes so they that person cut you off
if you're I guess if your parents or if you're somebody who gives you money suddenly decides to
cut you off it means they stop the flow of money they're not going to give you any more money so
the the income stream was cut off okay and you can say the same thing about a relationship
so I have a friend and this friend is always very negative and always complaining and always
saying very nasty things and I realize that this person is not really my friend
so I cut him or her off means I break the relationship I separate the relationship and
speaking of separate you can also isolate someone you can cut them off from the group you can
separate them or isolate them so in a classroom if there's one student who's very disruptive
if I'm the teacher I cut him off I move him to the back of the class to sit by himself
and be quiet and not disturb the other students so he's cut off he's isolated
okay so that's it for cut off let's move on cut back cut back is very similar to cut down
but cut down means you reduce the consumption of something cut back just
means also reduce but reduce the amount so cut back the number of staff you don't cut down on
staff you cut back the number of staff so if I'm a company and I'm trying to save money
one of the things I can do is reduce the salary so how do I do that I cut back on payroll
and cut back on you can be more specific when I use cut back on it's more specifically about
spending about expenditure cut back on uh let's say meat like I let's say I eat a lot of steak
steak is very expensive I want to save money I cut back on steaks means I reduce my spending on
steaks but I cut back the number of steaks I eat the amount of steaks cut back on for the money
cut back for the amount of the thing itself you can also cut back means basically just
go back so you're going something and then you cut back very straightforward
I think that's it for cut back for now now this is not a phrasal verb but what I want to mention is
that sometimes you'll see verbs and prepositions joined this is called just a simple call location
these are also collocations but because they're a specific type we call them phrasal verbs this is a
collocation where there's no phrasal verb because this is not a verb you'll notice the article
this is a noun this expression means better than average so if someone is a cut above means he's a
little bit better than other people around him right or if the thing is a little bit better
than the other things in the category it's a cut above slightly better than its peers
or its competitors or comparable things right so you can buy two cars from the same company
but this one has a few extra features which makes it a cut above this one in terms of quality
or in terms of value for the money okay so keep in mind it's not always a phrasal verb
it could just be a simple collocation as well so I hope these are a little bit helpful
if you have any questions about any of these phrasal verbs please go to engVid.com in
the comments section you can ask all the questions you like I'll be happy to answer
them there's also a quiz where you can test your understanding of all these phrasal verbs
and uh that's it I hope you liked the video if you did give me a like don't forget to subscribe
to my channel and don't forget to ring the bell if you want notifications for future videos
and come back to see those future videos where I'll give you some more phrasals
other vocab grammar etc okay I'll see you again soon bye