Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Verb Phrase 203. And the verb phrase today is
to knock. All right. We're also going to cover ... because with this verb phrase
there's some differences between British English and American English. So not only
is this one good for you know, English of a second language, students ESL students,
it might be good for some either British or Americans to realize some differences
in uses , otherwise there could be some strange confusion.
All right. Anyway, let's take a look. So let's look at the first one. To make a
woman pregnant. So if we say knock up, to make a woman pregnant, especially outside
of marriage. It's considered a little bit rude. So you got to be careful. That you
know how you use it. Yeah. It would not be appropriate to use
this with a married woman. Like you don't say the husband knocked up his wife. I
don't know you might hear it , but it's not really appropriate. But you hear it
more if it's out of wedlock. Somebody got pregnant or a girl got pregnant. Of
course , so outside of marriage. So that's another thing. Of course, it means to get
pregnant. So, so a man knocks up a woman a woman can't knock up a man because a man
cannot get pregnant. Okay. But anyway, let's take a look at the first example
here. Now this one I think is used in both American English and British
English. There shouldn't be any confusion here.
He knocked up his girlfriend. You know, again it sounds a little rude, but it's
common. You should know it. You would hear it a lot. And I'm sure you'll hear
a lot in TV shows and movies and so on. Jenny got knocked up and had a child
out of wedlock. Yeah. You might hear it that way. All right. Now the second one
here again this is British use and this is the one that may sound strange to an
American. It means to awaken by knocking on a door. So it makes perfect sense,
but we don't use this in American English. It can also be used to go door
to door to encourage voting on Election Day.
All right that's interesting too. We definitely don't use that as well. So
again, this one is only British use. So you might hear it used this way. So here's
the example. Go upstairs and knock up Tina. Okay. So this is where it would
sound strange of course. If you said this to an American, he would like be... Huh ? What did you
say ? What do you mean ? What what do you want me to do ? Did I hear correctly ? So be
careful. Okay. In here they say they knocked up the neighborhood to get more
votes out. Again it would sound a bit strange to an American. They knocked
up the neighborhood ? Because we don't do this. Even though, I can see where it makes
perfect sense. You're knocking on a door you're probably hitting up. So all right.
Let's continue. To hit a ball back and forth before a tennis match. All right. This is
another one that's just British use. The players were allowed to knock up
for a few minutes before a match. Again this sounds strange in the US.. We
probably use a word like volley or just practice. You know, they were they were
practicing before a match or we might use the you know, to volley. That's very,
very common. But we would not say knock up. But again it makes perfect sense
because you're hitting the ball you're knocking it. You're knocking it up. I can
see why the British use this as a phrase. But we don't in the US. So it
would ... it could cause confusion and sound weird to an American. If you heard a British person
say it. Or an ESL student who learned the British English and said it to an
American. And may not understand why the American would be confused . So you
may get a... he may have a strange look on his face when, when you say this. All right.
Let's continue. Knock up prices to you know, to increase prices. I think this is more
American and here would be an example. They knocked up a lot of their prices. It
just simply means they increased their prices due to inflation. Okay. And number
six here. To assemble quickly or prepare something. Make something quickly. Yeah. I've
seen this you know, whether they were saying you know, to knock up some eggs or
something. So we give the example here. You can knock me up some pancakes.
Again, it would sound strange to an American. Knock up pancakes ? An American probably use
words like whip. You know. That's another way to say cook quickly. You know, I'll
just whip you up some pancakes. Whip you up some eggs. Or you could just say
you know prepare quickly or cook quickly. All of those would be fine. All right. So
anyway, just be careful. So not only for ESL students but even Americans or
British that may not realize the difference between the the two English
languages here could cause confusion. Anyway, I hope you got it.
I hope it was clear. I hope it was informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.