Phrasal Verb Practice Get Away With Something

hello hello welcome to today’s live

English lesson here on the speak English

with Vanessa YouTube channel I’m so glad

that you’re learning English with me and

you’re ready today to learn an important

phrasal verb a more advanced phrasal

verb and to master it I hope by the end

of today’s lesson you’ll feel

comfortable understanding this phrasal

verb and using it yourself because

that’s the goal I want you to be able to

use it yourself if you’re new here

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are a lot of friends here live with me

today we’ve got Yuri in Ukraine Zahir in

Kurdistan Garrick in Venezuela hello

hello thanks for coming Marcia Douglas

good morning Jonathan Wow great we’ve

got friends from Korea Montreal

Western Sahara Egypt Brazil thank you

everyone for joining me I really

appreciate it today I have a question

for you to start our lesson I want to

know which sibling are you sibling means

brother or sister

so I would say I am the oldest sibling I

have one younger sister so I’m the

oldest I want to know for you what’s

your order are you the oldest sibling

are you the youngest sibling are you the

middle sibling or maybe you’re an only

child you don’t have any brothers or

sisters

for me I’m the oldest sibling and I

don’t know what it’s like to be the

youngest sibling because I’ve never

experienced that but my husband Dan he

is the middle sibling so he knows what

it’s like to be the youngest and he

knows also what it’s like to be an older

sibling he’s never been the oldest but

he knows what it’s like to have a

younger sibling his younger sister oh

we’ve got lots of great responses

Teodoro says I’m the youngest sibling

Ahsan says I’m the youngest sibling all

a couple people don’t have any siblings

oh I see the youngest sibling the oldest

sibling the youngest Eileen says I’m the

oldest sibling Sergio says I’m the

middle sibling all right so my follow-up

question is do you think this is using

today’s phrasal verb I want to see if

you can guess what this question means

without much explanation yet do you

think that the oldest sibling

or the middle sibling or the youngest

sibling gets away with more which

sibling gets away with more I’ll give

you a quick example in my family I

always thought that the youngest sibling

my sister I always thought that my

sister got away with more for exam

one time at Christmas my dad gave us

both a little pocket knife a little

knife so that we could go outside and

maybe cut some sticks or make something

outside and I was maybe ten years old

but my sister was seven years old so she

had this experience at a younger age

than me and I thought ah she can get

away with more than me

Oh Adriana says I’m the youngest sibling

and I always got away with more empty

says of course the youngest sibling all

right

can you guess what does this phrasal

verb mean get away with more get away

with more hmm for me as the oldest

sibling I usually had to be more

responsible or my parents wanted me to

be responsible because I needed to be a

good role model for my sister so there

is more pressure on me and I don’t know

in reality what my sisters experience

was like but from my eyes I thought that

she got away with more oh we’ve got some

great definitions here some possible

things to not live with something let’s

take that and just twist it a little bit

Julio I think you’ve got it Julio says

avoid being punished Oh

so typically we say the youngest sibling

can avoid being punished easier then the

oldest sibling I’m going to write a

sentence here and I would like you to

use this sentence in your family so I

want you to say something like I’m the

youngest

I got away with more than my older

brother we’re using a comparison and a

phrasal verb so let me write the

sentence here so that you can have a

good example I would say my sister got

we’re using a past tense here got away

with more than me maybe maybe if she

cried about something my parents maybe

weren’t so upset but if I cried about

something they were more upset in my

eyes of course that might not be the

reality so we’re using got away with and

this means I’ll write our little

definition here avoid being punished so

she didn’t get in trouble as easily as I

did because my parents expected me to be

more responsible I don’t know if it was

really true or if it worked but

typically I think that’s the expectation

oh we’ve got some great sentences here

my brother Fran got away with so much

more than me and my older sister Oh

Sergio sounds like your brother friend

could do anything it didn’t really

matter and your parents just said oh who

cares he got away with a lot more than

his older siblings Regina says in my

case my oldest brother always got away

with more than me oh that’s interesting

so maybe your parents told your older

brother it’s okay don’t worry about it

and then for you they wanted you to be

more responsible do you think this is

because he’s a boy and you’re a girl

or is it just your family circumstance I

think sometimes aged parents treat kids

with who are different ages they treat

them differently or maybe there are

different genders a boy and a girl a son

and a daughter so they treat them

differently and one can get away with

more than the other I used to be the

only one who got away with everything in

my family

Oh Richard so you could do anything you

could avoid being punished oh I really

says I don’t think that one of my

siblings got away with more so your

parents were pretty even they didn’t

treat one sibling with more harshness

than the other and this doesn’t need to

be too strong so in my family I think it

wasn’t so strong my parents didn’t tell

my sister you can do anything but from

my childhood perspective I felt like

that so it wasn’t too strong in reality

Laura says I’m the youngest and I get

away with more than my siblings hmm a

lot of people here are saying that the

youngest hacia says this too

parents tend to show partiality in favor

of younger siblings parents tend to let

the younger siblings get away with more

and just from my quick theory maybe it’s

because they have already experienced a

lot with the older sibling and they

don’t have the energy or they don’t

maybe want to be as strict with the

youngest or they want the oldest to just

be a good role model so if you’re the

oldest you might have experienced the

same thing as me Betty says I’m so

jealous because my sister got away with

more than me maybe you felt like it’s

not fair so let’s quickly take a look at

this and you’ll probably have

noticed already that this phrasal verb

always sticks together we need this to

stick together and you can’t say got

away more with me uh we need to keep it

together it’s like glue got away with

more than me so in your family one

sibling got away with more than another

sibling so let’s try to use this in also

maybe more advanced way so this is the

basic meaning the basic meaning is that

you can avoid punishment but what about

what if we change punishment to be just

something something negative maybe avoid

criticism or avoid some negative

feelings let me write a sentence for you

and I want to see if you can also take

this to the next level maybe you’ve

experienced this in your workplace you

could say my coworker it’s really

annoying my co-worker tries to get away

with doing minimal work oh it’s so

annoying because you’re trying to do a

good job and then maybe you have to do

more work because they are trying to get

away with doing minimal work so here

they’re they’re trying to avoid Smitty

it’s not punishment but they’re trying

to sneak you can imagine some kind of

hidden action they’re trying to get away

with doing

in less work then maybe they should be

doing they’re trying to get away with

doing minimal work and in this situation

it’s a similar idea same thing as trying

to go around some rules do something a

little different so maybe this is

something that you’ve experienced in the

workplace do you have any co-workers who

try to get away with doing minimal work

quite frustrating isn’t it so let’s talk

about how we can use this not just

siblings not just punishment but in a

little more advanced way we’ve got some

great sentences here Kahn says the

journalist tried to get away with a

criticism despite behaving badly

oh so maybe we could say he tried to get

away with not being criticized so maybe

a journalist said something completely

untrue in the media and the journalist

said something that is definitely not

true well if the journalist doesn’t

apologize or the journalist doesn’t say

oh actually I was wrong this is correct

instead they are trying to get away with

that false information so you could say

the journalist tried to get away with

not being criticized for his false news

oh he’s trying to get away from the

rules get away from some kind of

punishment maybe it’s not like your

parents punishment but some kind of

social punishment mom it says I have

co-workers who honestly don’t try to get

with get away with doing minimal work

okay so they’re hard workers

excellent Oh Raphael says my wife tries

to gate get away with avoiding English

lessons so let’s make sure that if we

use a verb after this we need to add ing

here get away with avoiding English

lessons maybe you want to learn English

with her you want to commit together and

she tries to get away with not doing

English lessons or like Shubham says

maybe they try to get away with murder

this is a typical expression when you’re

trying to show an exaggeration maybe in

your family your youngest sibling could

get away with anything you could say I

think that she could get away with

murder and no one would care so that’s

kind of we use that expression as a as

an exaggeration but it means a similar

thing Oh time Peck says American kids

get away with more than Thai kids this

is an interesting point maybe some

cultures treat kids differently so maybe

their way of punishing kids or raising

kids is different and that’s certainly

true in some countries it’s more strict

in some countries it’s more relaxed how

Betty says my supervisor always gets

away with taking less responsibility hmm

so we need to make sure that the action

is a negative thing my supervisor gets

away with doing less gets away with

having less responsibility and that’s

frustrating because you feel like you

can’t tell your supervisor to do more

you want them to just do more because

they’re the supervisor that’s a

difficult position to be in so I have a

final sentence that I want to share with

you about get away with this is another

a similar meaning but it’s a specific

situation I wonder what do you think

this sentence means I’m gonna write it

down here

how about usually this is used for women

maybe because women tend to care more

about clothes or fashion than men

typically so usually women use this more

than men but I want to see if you can

guess what this sentence means uh how

about she can get away with wearing um

pink dresses well to say this she can

get away with wearing pink dresses get

away with look in the situation I’m

pretty sure there’s not a real Fashion

Police

so when your friend wears a pink dress

there’s not a punishment they’re not

trying to avoid punishment what do you

think this means when we’re talking

about fashion because we often use this

to talk about clothing but it has a

specific idea hmm

Oh Adrianna has an idea maybe society

accepts more what she does

then what someone else does hmm well in

this situation it means that pink

dresses look good on her and usually

it’s a comparison with the person

talking she can get away with wearing

make sure we have our ing verb that’s

really important get away with wearing

pink dresses but I can’t if I wear a

pink dress I

think it looks terrible it’s not true I

don’t really have a pink dress but in

this situation you’re saying that she

can wear a pink dress it’s socially

acceptable there’s no social criticism

so we’re using a similar idea she’s

avoiding social criticism or she’s

avoiding some kind of negative feeling

she can get away with wearing pink

dresses but I can’t so maybe if you’re

at the store trying on clothes with your

friend and your friend tries on a yellow

sweater you might say oh I think you can

get away with wearing that sweater and

it means maybe the sweater is a little

strange but it looks good on you I think

you can wear it effectively I think you

can wear it and it’ll look nice you can

get away with wearing it so we often use

it in the specific context of clothing

of clothing so you guys have you guys

have written wonderful sentences about

get away with he can get away with

wearing red shoes yes this is a

compliment this is a compliment but it’s

also kind of a in an indirect negative

statement about yourself so if you say

oh you can get away with wearing red

shoes it means I can’t so it’s possible

that your friend might say oh yes you

can

no problem of course you can wear that

their reaction might be to reassure you

to make you feel better but they might

just say oh thank you

so you’re complimenting them but at the

same time you’re kind of saying

something negative about yourself they

can avoid social criticism because it

looks good but you can’t oh we’ve got

some wonderful thing

here to some great sentences that you

all have shared with me

thanks so much my brother can get away

with a costume that I don’t think I can

wear also maybe a suit my brother can

get away with wearing a suit but I feel

like a penguin yes yeah so I agree I

think this um this phrasal verb can be

complex there’s a general meaning to

avoid some kind of negative outcome

punishment social criticism more work

but in the end we can use this in a lot

of situations there’s a great sentence

here that someone wrote my government is

trying to get away with everything

mmm so maybe your government is secretly

trying to do things and they don’t want

some kind of some kind of punishment

maybe the public would go into the

streets and start yelling about it well

they want to get away with their actions

they don’t want any punishment they want

to do anything so we can use this in a

lot of situations to get away with

something he can my sister can get away

with wearing beanies okay so a little

hat my sister can get away with wearing

beanies but maybe I can’t so talking

about that comparison between you two

and of course with most phrasal verbs

there are multiple ways to use them but

today I want to present this main way to

use get away with to use get away with

or got away with because if we try to

learn 50 ways to use each phrasal verb

it’s going to be a lot and it’s going to

be difficult to remember exactly how to

use it so I hope that today you can use

it in this main way comfortably

confidently and if you have any

questions about it feel free to write

your question in the comment

below let’s try to use this sentence all

together to finish our lesson say it out

loud and use it with English how about

hmm how can we use this with English a

good sentence that we can say all

together how about let’s make it

negative I Oh

let’s let’s make this similar idea for

minimal work minimal work because you

want to work hard effectively and

efficiently but you want to work hard

and enjoy English so let’s make a

similar sentence for our final sentence

all together I don’t if you would like

to write this down feel free I don’t

want to get away with doing minimal work

in English I don’t want to get away with

doing minimal work in English I want to

use my time and take time if I only

study English for 5 minutes every day

it’s okay it’s better than nothing but

you’re trying to get away with doing

minimal work and it’s not going to be so

helpful so let’s say this sentence

together I don’t want to get away with

doing minimal work in English I want to

work hard when you really love something

you work hard and you don’t realize

you’re working because it’s fun so I

hope that during today’s lesson you

didn’t feel stressed or worried and you

didn’t feel like you’re doing hard work

you feel like you’re enjoying yourself

so let’s say the sentence altogether I

don’t want to get away with doing

minimal work in English it’s quite a

long sentence feel free to try to write

it out first that way you can read it

and then

we’ll say it quickly are you ready I

don’t want to get away with doing

minimal work in English I don’t want to

get away with doing minimal work in

English I want to work hard and

effectively and enjoy it I don’t want to

get away with doing minimal work in

English I hope that this is true for you

that you’re willing to take time and

enjoy it

maybe it doesn’t even feel like work and

that’s important to enjoy it so thank

you everyone for joining with me today

and not getting away with doing minimal

work but putting in effort and working

hard I appreciate it it’s gonna help you

to improve and it’s gonna help you to be

able to feel more comfortable using this

phrasal verb so if you would like to

continue to learn English with me I have

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online and enjoy it don’t get away with

doing minimal work and if you would like

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everyone for learning with me I hope

that you will not try to get away with

doing minimal work and that you’ll work

hard this week and enjoy it thanks so

much everyone have a beautiful day I’ll

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you later bye