18 Useful Phrasal Verbs for Work in English

hi internets welcome back to our weekly

live stream my name is Alisha and today

we’re going to talk about phrasal verbs

for the office many of you have asked me

to teach lessons about phrasal verbs so

today I’m going to do a lesson and we’re

going to learn a lot of different

phrasal verbs that you can use at work

at school in meeting situations in

situations where you use a computer

whatever so not just for work not just

for the office but hopefully that you

can use in a few different ways in your

everyday life

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great there are many people here I’m

going to share the video and then I am

going to start the lesson so today’s

lesson I made again as usual

in three parts we’re going to focus on

vocabulary like specific situation

vocabulary for each for each part of

today’s lesson so the first part are the

first like group of phrasal verbs I want

to look at for today is this these are

phrasal verbs you can use for every day

of office activities so yes I have

everyday office activities but some of

these you can use for other parts of

your life too so I’ll mention those

the lesson let’s get started okay first

the first this is actually two different

phrasal verbs first is two o’clock in

two o’clock in second is to clock out

so two o’clock in and to clock out those

are two separate phrasal verbs two

o’clock in two o’clock in means to

record your start time to record your

start time so this means when you arrive

at the office you record when you begin

work so maybe you use like a I don’t

know some digital system to record when

you start your office hours

that’s called clocking in we use the

phrasal verb to clock in so in a

sentence walk in when you get to the

office so clock in is right here clock

in this is like a rule or a command so

clock in when you get to the office so

the opposite then is this one to clock

out to clock out so maybe you can guess

to clock out means to record your end

time to record your end time or to

record the time you stopped working to

clock out to clock out so in a sentence

clock out when you leave so clock in

when you get to the office clock out

when you leave or clock out when you

finish work it’s a clock in and clock

out a very basic office related and

fight phrasal verb okay let’s move on to

the next one then the next one is to set

up to set up please note that for this

phrasal verb there is a space there’s a

space between set and up set up with no

space is a noun to set up

that’s a phrasal verb

keep the space there when you’re making

this a verb so to set up one’s desk or

work station so maybe you have a desk at

your office or at your school or maybe

you have just kind of a workstation

maybe it’s not exactly a desk you could

use workstation too so to set up means

to prepare something so like to get

something ready for example let’s set up

workstations for the new staff so let’s

set up workstations we follow this set

up with workstation or with desk like I

need to set up my desk for the day

that’s typically how we use it sprays

over okay and it’s only says now I

understand what was written on my work

clock yeah this probably clock in a

clock out phrase it’s written on a lot

of office clocks I think okay let’s move

on then to the next one to skip out on

just skip out on misses one that you can

use in situations outside of the office

to skip out on means to not attend

something on purpose like you decide I

don’t have time for this meeting or I

said I would go to this event but I

decided not to go so we use the

expression to skip out on to skip out on

this sounds rather casual so we do not

use this in formal situations but you

might use this with your colleagues with

your close co-workers to skip out on to

skip

for example I’m gonna skip out on the

afternoon meeting today I’m gonna skip

out on the afternoon meeting today so

skip out on and then what thing what

event did you choose not to attend in

this case the afternoon meeting I’m

gonna skip out on the afternoon meeting

today okay onward then we’ve got three

more in this first group so this one is

to head out to head out you can use this

in a lot of different cases not just at

the office not just at work to head out

means to leave to leave so this has no

like no relationship to your head your

physical head so to head out means to

leave for example it’s late I’m gonna

head out I’m gonna head out so replace

leave or maybe go with head out okay a

question on health says is it correct to

say help me to set my desk up yeah

that’s fine that’s fine so about this

one here to set up yes you can split

that so help me set my desk up is okay

that’s alright okay Katie on Facebook

says I always skip out on University

classes really that’s not a good thing

me are you paying for those Wow okay

onward to next one the next one here ah

this next one is super useful at work

and at school it is to hand in to hand

in to hand in means to submit so this

expression comes from this motion like

when you submit a report or you submit

your homework this is kind of emotion

yeah like or before digital stuff I

guess but we used this motion so it’s

like your hand

moved in towards another person so we

use the phrasal verb to hand in to hand

in to mean to submit something for

example past tense I handed in my report

at the end of the day I handed in my

report so what did you hand in this is

the thing that you handed in I handed in

known phrase I handed in my report at

the end of the day okay last one for

this first group then it is to call in

to call in especially to call in sick to

call in sick this expression this

phrasal verb means to contact your

office or to contact your school to tell

them you are not coming to work today

because you’re sick or to tell them you

are sick usually for example I have to

call in sick today I have to call in

sick today so this is like when we were

at home we pick up the phone and we call

in to the office is kind of the idea our

communication goes into the office

that’s sort of how you can imagine this

but we said call in sick call in sick

we typically don’t use another adjective

here we don’t say I’m going to call in

tired or I’m going to call in happy or

something we use I’m going to call in

sick this means I’m not coming to the

office today because I am sick ok of the

setcolor there on youtube says when we

are about to leave the office in the

evening how should we say what should we

say ok you can say to your close

colleagues you can use this expression I

introduced this I’m

head out I’m gonna head out that one’s

rather casual you can just say like have

a good evening as well like that’s kind

of polite have a bit okay Olivia says my

kids hand in their homework to me is

that correct yeah that could be okay

that could be okay my kids hand hand in

is used like when you submit something

like professionally like formally so if

it’s your kids like your son or your

daughter is giving you their homework

maybe a little different I would use I

hand in my homework to my teacher or I

hand in my report to my boss it sounds

kind of official something like that

okay

all right other thing I don’t see any

other questions so I’m going to take a

quick break and then we’ll move on to

the next part of today’s lesson so if

you missed it earlier I talked as always

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me grab a physical copy so that we can

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that on your phone your computer

whatever so yes there are tons of these

this one’s like romance one this is the

one I wanted the business one so today

I’m focusing on vocabulary words for the

office so this hard to see

hey Instagram you can see Matthew so

this is the sorry this is my business

one very hard to see here but you can

find all of the phrases for a business

meeting I mostly use some phrasal verbs

you can find this from the link below

the video on YouTube or above the video

on this okay alright let’s move along

yes this is live to all of you who

always ask that question during a live

stream let’s continue on to part two of

today’s lesson we’re going to talk now

about expressions or phrasal verbs

rather for meetings phrasal verbs for

meetings so let’s get to it

also if you’re just joining please make

sure to like and share the video we

appreciate it so others can find it

let’s move along phrasal verbs for

meetings

so for meetings there’s a lot or

actually there are a few here about

making notes

so the first phrasal verb there are two

kind of variations there are two

different expressions we use first is to

write down and the other is to take down

so to write down or to take down just

means to write notes like it has this

feeling of just quickly like making just

a small note so you’re not like writing

an essay in the meeting like you’re

quickly making small notes so we use to

write down or to take down

to describe that for example he wrote

down the details of the agreement he

wrote down the details of the agreement

so this is past tense wrote down so when

we make a phrasal verb in past tense we

do still need to conjugate the verb

there just as we would regularly so he

wrote down the details of the agreement

with this one he took down the details

of the agreement so again hopefully if

making notes making notes is to take

down yes someone wrote to jot down the

notes yeah nice one let’s add that here

to chopped to jot j OT to jot down notes

means like just to quickly take notes

again dropped so some people might like

to use that I don’t really use job that

much no not my thing but it’s fine uh

Brit maybe I mean it is kind of British

English you okay either way you can use

it if you like it let’s go to the next

one the next one is kind of the opposite

you might think to write up to write up

so to write up is not exactly the

opposite of to write down to write up

means like to prepare something by

writing like for example please write up

a list of tasks so this doesn’t mean

like quickly writing down it also

doesn’t mean like writing an essay it’s

like please take some time to prepare

something like for the meeting or please

take some time to prepare this

information so write up some details or

write up a list of tasks so it’s not

like notes and it’s not

like an essay it’s kind of in between so

please write up any simple agreement or

please write up a list something like

that sounds quite natural okey-dokey

let’s go to the next one - speak up -

speak up - speak up means to use your

voice of course to speak and to share

your ideas or to share your opinion

especially in cases where maybe you

don’t usually share your opinion so like

for example if you’re usually kind of a

quiet person and you decide to share

your opinion in a meeting you might say

like I’m going to speak up like you

think to yourself I’m going to speak up

or if your coworker is a quiet person

you might say wow my coworker spoke up

in the meeting so to speak up means to

share your opinion or to share your idea

especially in cases where you don’t

usually do that for example if you have

an idea please speak up please speak up

and some of you probably know speak up

also means please speak more loudly - so

if I’m like speaking really quietly you

might say please speak up please speak

up which means please speak more loudly

like you’re too quiet so there are two

different meanings for that phrasal verb

depending on the situation you can guess

which one it is

alright some questions Elizabeth on

YouTube says sorry could I say to write

up a draft yeah I think you could say

like write up a draft of an agreement or

like write up a draft of a contract yeah

I think that’s fine so to write

something up sounds a little bit rough

like it’s not the final version so I

think write up a draft is fine someone

on hell says I think you missed listen

up did I miss it

or did I choose not to include it hmm

okay on Facebook Muhammad says write up

means take notes

yeah write up is

like you are creating a document yes

but it’s like the rough document so

write down is like just taking notes

it’s not an essay it’s not a perfect

like message but to write up is like

you’re going to prepare something like

to give to someone else so maybe it’s

like proper message okay I don’t see

anything others all right let’s continue

to this one to fill someone in to fill

someone in to fill someone in means to

give someone an update to give someone

an update usually a small update and we

often use fill in when we’re requesting

the update so for example if I’m your

boss

in this situation I want an update from

you I might say please fill us in about

the project please fill me in about the

project or please fill me in about your

studies means please update me give me a

quick short small update about your

activities or your project

so you’ll notice fill in you can split

this one so in this case fill us in or

fill me in is also okay to use fill me

in fill us okay onward then the next the

next one is to check in to check in

maybe you know this for like a

and an airplane so when you’re flying

like to check in for your flight or to

check into a hotel

to check in here means again to ask for

an update like to ask about progress to

ask about the status of a project is to

check in so for example I’d like to

check in about our new program I’d like

to check in about our new program you

might also here check in on someone

check in on my father

so like I’d like to check in on my

father he’s in the hospital something

like that

that also means to get a status update

when you use this check in on someone it

means get a status update about that

person’s condition to check in on

someone to check in about topic so there

are a couple of different ways to use

this check in on or check-in about all

right onward sin the athan Facebook has

follow up yeah follow up is another nice

one I’ll add it here follow up to follow

up is used usually I usually use follow

up when I send someone an email and I

haven’t heard a reply there’s no reply

but I expect it I’ll say I’m writing to

follow up on my last email it means like

check in after the last thing I sent you

to follow up okay on to the next one

these two these are kind of a pair to

talk up to talk up and to talk down to

talk up and to talk down so to talk up

to talk up means to speak about someone

and make them sound great so like in

this sentence my manager talked up

team at the meeting past tense our

manager talked up who our team so that

means the manager is saying the team is

so great so the manager is talking about

like the success of the team where the

great skills on the team so to talk

someone up or to talk to something a

team to talk something up means to make

it sound really really good on the other

hand to talk down to to talk down to

don’t forget this preposition here to

talk down to means to speak to someone

as if they are below you so let’s see

there’s enough space here I think let’s

imagine this is one person and this is

the other person great drawing Alisha

okay so it’s like they’re looking down

on someone as they’re talking so to talk

down to means to speak to someone like

they are below you they have a lower

level than you so maybe they’re rude or

they’re mean they’re impolite so this is

to talk down to someone for example

don’t talk down to your colleagues don’t

talk down to your colony so here so talk

up make someone sound good to talk down

to means to speak to someone like they

are below you very good okay

Mohammed on facebook says talk up means

praise yeah kind of it kind of means

praise so you are you are praising them

yes in order to improve someone else’s

opinion of that person so in this

sentence my manager talked of our team

it like there’s usually a reason like we

want to improve someone’s

Union of us or about you oh okay a

couple of points I saw okay on YouTube

Ruben said my boss talked up our team’s

skills good okay let’s see there a lot I

already use check-in to mean hi I am

showing up yes so as I said check-in can

be used at a hotel as well to mean like

I have arrived I am here other things to

talk down to means looks down on you

yeah it can be it can mean to look

talked down to can mean to look down on

someone but to talk down to means like

you’re actually using your words you’re

speaking to someone like they are below

you okay let’s move on you guys have

some questions and I will try to get to

them a bit later I have a few more

things to get to so we’ll take a quick

break and then finish with the last

point so if you missed it I talked a bit

about the free PDFs we always have that

you can find from the link below the

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Facebook check those links wherever

you’re watching if you’re watching on

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Facebook to get the links for these so

this is the one I’ve been holding is the

business English one of course today’s

lesson is focused on office English

office related vocabulary that you can

use but we have lots of other ones I

showed a couple of these earlier this is

like a shopping related one on the back

of this is a verb for shopping actually

too so this is another popular one we

also have travel so we are talking a

little bit about travel related

expression you can pick all of these up

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Facebook okay let’s go to the last part

today’s lesson and then the last part of

today’s lesson is about computer tasks

computer tasks so things that you do on

a computer or that are related to a

computer so if you’re just joining

please don’t forget to like and share

the videos other people can find it ok

let’s continue so the first the first

phrasal verb for this part is to send

over to send over to send over just

means send yes to send something but we

use this kind of casually so and we

often use it with digital files like

please send over the photos when you

have a chance so please send over here

this just means sent like please send

the photos when you have a chance

send over sounds a little bit more

casual like we’re a little bit closer so

you could use this link like co-worker

or a colleague you’re a little bit close

to like can you send over that file it

sounds a little bit more friendly than

just simply send send sounds a little

bit more stiff okay the next one is to

look into to look into this is a really

good one

for a lot of different situations for

any kind of planning to look into means

to research to research so to look into

something means to find facts to find

information to find data about something

to research something for example I’m

looking into some upgrades for our

equipment I’m looking into some upgrades

for our equipment here I’m using it in

the progressive looking into which means

I’m researching now I’m researching some

upgrades for our equipment so looking

into in progressive or look into

regularly

we can use this like when making

vacation plans like I’m looking into

summer vacation packages or let’s look

into some place to go this weekend

so to look into it means to research to

research ok onward running out of time

oh my gosh three left okay the next one

is a pair to fill in or to fill out to

fill in or to fill out these means right

sorry please need to write like in a

form so when we need to enter our

personal information like our name or

birthday our address we use fill out so

especially when we are writing forms for

example we filled out the shipping form

we filled out the shipping form means we

entered our information into the

shipping form that we use filled out

then please fill in the form please fill

in the form

so what there’s no difference between

fill in and fill out in this case in

this case you can use whichever you

prefer fill in or fill out I would say

perhaps in American English we use fill

out a little more commonly if you fill

in is a little more common in British

English okay on to the last two to plug

in to plug in very important to plug in

to plug in means to connect something to

electricity to plug in your computer

monitor to plug in your iPad to plug in

your TV to connect to electricity so I

forgot to plug in my phone I forgot to

plug in my phone ah a point here the

opposite is not to plug out when you

want to do the opposite we

to unplug to unplug u n PL u G to unplug

something needs to remove a connection

to electricity so to plug in to unplug

something so do not use plug out that’s

not anything please use to unplug to

unplug alright final final final final

vocabulary word is to pull up to pull up

this phrasal verb in a computer related

setting means to open a file on a screen

so for example hey can you pull up that

PDF means like to open the file on the

screen so to pull up something needs to

open it so we can see it on the screen

so you might hear this in a meeting or

if your coworker comes to your desk and

says something like can you pull up the

latest version of the poster can you

pull up the latest version of the poster

it means can you please open it on your

screen so we can both see it so to pull

up is usually used when you need to

reference something you can look at

something with someone else to pull up

oh ok great

that is everything so we’ll wrap up

there I will finish there for today’s

lesson but I hope that you found some

new expressions that you can use of

course at the office and in your

everyday life as well these are just a

few phrasal verbs that you can use at

work but I hope it’s a good start for

you so if you have questions please send

them in the chat I will try to answer

them somehow so please do send them

along

okay we have to finish up for today

though so I’ll end today’s lesson here

we will of course be back next week next

week the date will be July 10 yeah yeah

calendars ok July 10th Wednesday July

10th 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time that

is New York City time the topic will be

your personal style how to talk about

your personal style I’m going to try to

include some slang in this lesson so we

can talk about maybe style related slang

words slang expressions and so on so

please join us next week Wednesday 10

p.m. Eastern Standard Time for a

personal style lesson and check out the

link below the video on youtube or above

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things that I showed you earlier some of

you asked about this you can download

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above the video ok so we’ll wrap it up

there thank you very much to everyone

for joining us live this week thanks for

all your questions and thank you for

liking and sharing the video we really

appreciate it

enjoy your week enjoy your weekend and

we will see you again next time