Good morning, good afternoon and good evening!  Welcome to Smashing English! Before we start  

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I know, you want to speak English like a native, I  get it. And you listen to English people speaking  

and half the time they come in with these random  verbs that don't make sense, I know. Like what  

do you mean? You may even hear me speaking and  sometimes I use a verb with a weird preposition  

and it all just seems to not make sense. These are  what we call phrasal verbs and they are so common  

in English. Grammatically speaking, a phrasal verb  is a verb that goes together with an adverb or a  

preposition, both sometimes. And normally the  literal meaning of the verb and the preposition  

and the adverb don't make sense. For example to  pass out. Okay so I'm making a video and I- that's  

passing out! Okay in England we call it fainting,  Americans call it passing out. The two words 'pass  

out' how does that mean-? I don't know. So phrasal  verbs are kind of tricky to learn because they  

don't have that direct correlation between meaning  and words but I'm gonna get you started today with  

10 super useful and common phrasal verbs in the  English language. So in a second my glamorous  

assistant Bez will join me and we will perform  a little scene because we're both trained actors  

darling, so it comes so naturally to us. Within  the scene there will be 10 phrasal verbs if you're  

quite good with your phrasal verbs, see if you  can spot where they are to begin with. If not,  

don't worry I'm gonna go through all of them and  explain every single one. Did you hear about that  

concert? It's been called off. Oh give over! Has  it? Yeah because of the rain. What a let down. I  

guess you can't count on the weather in March.  No, we'll have to think of something else to do  

to make up for it. We could clear out the potato  cupboard? Don't be ridiculous. Oh! We could catch  

up on our schoolwork. We're 23! Think of something  else. Okay, hold on, I'm thinking. Oh! We can mix  

up all the cutlery in the cutlery drawer and  then put it back again. We did that last week.  

I mean where is my Oscar? Okay, how many did you  hear? Two? Three? Ten? None? Let's go through.  

Let's start from the beginning. Did you hear  about that concert? It's been called off. Did  

you hear a phrasal verb? The phrasal verb in the  first sentence is called off. Did you hear about  

that concert? It's been called off. Call off is a  very simple phrasal verb it just means to cancel,  

to not happen. The party was called off, it was  canceled. Let's look for the next phrasal verb.  

Oh give over! Has it? Yes the phrasal verb in that  sentence is give over. This one crosses the line  

between being a phrasal verb and an idiom. It's  very common in British English and it's used to  

describe disbelief or stop that! You're lying! No  way! Give over! It's what you would say to someone  

if they said something that shocked you or if  they were saying things that seemed ridiculous or  

crazy. Give over, stop that, you must be lying!  And it's really only ever used in that kind of  

tense we wouldn't really say he gave over or he  will give over it's a very sort of in the moment  

kind of expression, something you would say to  someone else at the time. There you go you've  

learnt two phrasal verbs already let's learn a  third! Yep, because of the rain. What a let down.  

What do you think the phrasal verb is there? Hmm?  Correct! Let down. What a let down. To let down is  

just to disappoint. In the way it was used in the  example, what a let down, used it more of a noun  

kind of sense. The event being canceled is a let  down, it's a disappointment. However we can also  

use it in much more of a verb kind of sense, for  example I let you down, you let me down, he let  

me down. All that is is she disappointed him,  I disappointed you, you disappointed me. That's  

all I'm saying just in a more casual way. Okay  let's go on to the next one. I guess you can't  

count on the weather in March. And I'm sure you've  spotted it, the phrasal verb in that sentence is  

count on. Count on is a phrasal verb that kind of  goes hand-in-hand with a let down. If you count  

on something, you're relying on something, you  depend on it, you're- you're hoping that something  

happens. You let me down, I was counting on you,  I was relying on you, I was hopeful for you,  

I was depending on you but you let me down. So you  count on someone, you you think they're great, you  

hope that they will support you and be there for  you. They let you down, not good stuff. Okay, next  

one we have: We'll have to think of something else  to do to make up for it. Make up. We'll have to  

do something else to make up for it. The phrasal  verb in that sentence is to make up and there are  

few different meanings of make up, I'll run you  through all of them. So make up in this context  

means we'll have to do something to make ourselves  feel better because we've been disappointed. Let's  

do something to make up for it, to make us feel  up, to make us feel better because we've been let  

down. Another definition for make up is two people  have had an argument, not happy with each other,  

we're angry, but they decide to make up, they  decide to forgive each other. Another use of  

make up is to invent a story in your head, to  just create something. I didn't do my homework  

at school and I didn't have a reason so I just  made up an excuse. I made up a story as to why  

I didn't do my homework. Okay, moving on to the  next phrasal verb. We could clear out the potato  

cupboard? The phrasal verb in that sentence was  clear out. To clear out just means take things  

out of something, remove things from something. If  you clear out your car because you've got loads of  

things in your car, you take everything out, clear  it out, take it out. Okay let's move on to the  

next one. We could catch up on our schoolwork? Yes  the phrasal verb in that sentence was catch up,  

to catch up. If you imagine a race, people in a  race, someone's in front of me, definitely because  

I can't run, so someone's definitely in front of  me. Someone's in front of me and I want to catch  

up with them so we're on the same level okay? So  someone's there, I'm here. To catch up, to get to  

the same level - to rise, to.. you're a bit behind  on something and you need to get to the level  

where you should be, so catch up on our schoolwork  means we're behind on our schoolwork, we haven't  

in school like in a while, we need to run faster  and work harder to get to where we should be,  

to where we need to be. Need to catch up. Okay  let's find the next phrasal verb. Okay, hold on,  

I'm thinking. Yes the phrasal verb there is hold  on and hold on is super easy, it just means wait  

or stop or pause. That's it! It's like just wait,  hold on, I'm thinking, hold on I'm doing this,  

hold on. Okay, so there are two more, let's see if  we can spot them. We can mix up all the cutlery in  

the cutlery drawer and then put it back again?  Correct, the first phrasal verb there is mix up,  

mix up: super easy. Two things or three things,  two or more things that go out of order. So a  

library, okay? Imagine a library. So in the  library all the books are in order. If someone  

went and took all the books out and put them back  in in a random order, mix up. And the next phrasal  

verb links to this, we have to put back. We mix  something up, then we put back. To put something  

back, we return it to where it belongs, we return  to order, we return to where it's supposed to be.  

So I'm in the library and I've mixed up all  the books, so the librarian has to come and  

put them back, put them back into order. So  there you go, there are 10 phrasal verbs,  

I hope they are all pretty clear in your mind, if  not, if you have any questions whatsoever put them  

in the comments below and I'll try to reply to as  many as I can. Thank you so much for watching, if  

you'd like to follow me on Instagram the link to  the Instagram is in the description below, I post  

lots of learning English content. And if you would  like a one-on-one English lesson with me, there  

is a way to do that in the description as well.  Thank you so so much for watching and I'll see  

you very soon! My resource recommendation today  is the Chaproom podcast. It's a lovely, funny,  

light-hearted podcast involving three British  gentlemen and I'm sure you'll really really  

enjoy it. It's a really good way to develop some  conversational English. Thanks very much, bye bye!