3 Phrasal Verbs With Multiple Meanings With Espresso English
hi i’m vanessa from speak english with
vanessa calm today i have a special
guest for you she’s shana from the super
popular youtube channel and website
espresso english she’s here today to
help you learn three phrasal verbs with
multiple meanings we’re gonna do this
through conversations so you’ll be able
to learn them naturally and enjoy
yourself let’s get started hi Sheena
thanks so much for joining me today
hey Vanessa I’m glad to be here yes yes
I’m so glad to have a special guest
who’s also an English teacher and a lot
of people watching this might already
know you but can you introduce yourself
a little bit to them yeah okay my name
is Shaina I am from the US I am I used
to live in Brazil where I taught English
and now I teach exclusively online at my
website espresso English dotnet
wonderful and how long have you been
doing that about almost five years now
Wow so the online world is expanding
you’ve been doing that for quite a few
years now that’s awesome definitely I’ve
got students all over the world so it’s
really fun yes and today we’re here to
talk about a huge topic that a lot of
English learners love and hate and
really need because it’s part of daily
conversation and that’s phrasal verbs so
thanks so much for helping to teach
about that and explain about it today
absolutely a lot of native English
speakers don’t even think about phrasal
verbs or even know what they are but on
English learners when they come to the
u.s. or Canada or Australia or England
encounter these phrasal verbs a ton
right in daily life so I’ve got three of
them here that actually have multiple
meanings so maybe we can chat about
those yes so maybe English learners know
some basic ones that have one meaning
that they might not know another meaning
so it’s time to learn them
and maybe a different way I think you’ve
got a really cool method for that yeah
so the first one let’s start with maybe
one that’s a little bit easier so the
first one um is work out and I thought
it - two different definitions for work
out can you think of what they are
Vanessa so well the first one I thought
of was just exercising like working out
and lifting weights I get it get fit
exactly and I think actually a lot of
English speakers will say I’m gonna go
work out instead of exercise you know
usually use exercise so much but we say
I’m gonna go work out I like to work out
in the morning before going to work that
was a great workout yesterday now I’m
feeling really tired and sore so yeah
definitely work out for exercise and
what about um another meaning for
workout can you think of anything else I
think if I were to use it in another way
maybe you could use it to talk about
like resolving a conflict maybe we need
to work out this problem or we’ve got
some tension in our relationship I hope
we can work it out
exactly exactly you’ll hear people say
like oh it was a little bit difficult
but in the end everything worked out it
resolved itself so yeah it’s a totally
different meaning right from exercise
but it’s also pretty common and so
you’ll hear people say yeah we need to
work out our differences or we need to
work out some of these problems or
everything worked out and that means
it’s a good thing ended nicely resolved
in a good way yeah and that could be a
huge misunderstanding if English
learners only know the first definition
and then you said something about your
boyfriend oh we we worked it out
yesterday they might think you exercise
but really you’re talking about your
relationship
exactly exactly a good point good point
so yeah two definitions for workout um
so that’s kind of a maybe a little bit
of an easier one the next two I have
actually have like four or five
definitions so this should be really
interesting so okay okay ready yeah
okay so the next one is back up what
comes to mind when I say back up just
the first thing back up well the first
thing that came to mind was a computer
because I’m looking at my computer right
now like I need to back up my videos or
we need to back up pictures or something
on your hard drive exactly to make a
digital copy like an extra copy just in
case your computer breaks or you lose it
and then you have your backup so you can
have a copy of all your files and I do
that all the time so I don’t know if you
do - I should probably do it more I’ve
got an older computer over here that I
need to backup everything on that
computer because who knows what’s gonna
happen to it but yeah that’s a really
valuable thing to do - so another one
for backup is when you’re driving a car
and you put the car in reverse and you
go backwards we also call that backing
up the car right so you need to be very
careful check your mirrors when you’re
backing up some new drivers might hit
something accidentally behind the car
when backing up so that meaning of
backup means the movement actually
moving backwards usually with the car
yeah it’s a little more straightforward
you’re backing up the car it’s literally
going back yep now what does it mean if
your toilet is backed up oh that’s
another great definition yeah I guess
that would mean that it’s stopped
there’s so much in something that it it
can’t flow freely yeah it’s like it’s
blocked like too much or something
accumulated and now the process can’t
happen I know a lot of times when you go
do something in bureaucracy and they say
oh we’re receiving a lot of applications
and we’re really backed up like there’s
just too much coming in and we can’t
process these applications so that’s
another meaning of backup which means to
stop moving right so you can oh you can
also say like a road like a highway is
backed up from is a marina traffic
oh it’s really backed up I’m gonna be
late yeah definitely um so yeah backed
up meaning like to be blocked and
there’s there’s one more I thought of
this one has to do with um think about
like like maybe an argument or a debate
can you think of what backup might mean
to back someone like to support
something if we say you have an argument
and you say some a crazy statement
someone else might say do you have any
facts to back that up or can you back
that up do you have any evidence exactly
think about that but we totally use that
all the time yes yeah so to sum it up I
guess would be to like for someone to
support someone’s position right in an
argument or debate so that’s four
different meanings for the phrasal verb
back up and you can see it they’re all
totally different yeah backing up your
computer a car your arguments the toilet
well that’s right and that’s the kind of
thing that it’s helpful to be aware of
those so that if you hear someone say
I’m backed up though you probably will
have no idea if you only know one of
those definitions but if you realize
that they’re sitting in traffic and
they’re on their way to meet you you
know exactly what they’re talking about
right earth or if I’m your friends are
having an argument one of them turns to
you and say hey can you back me up here
you know can you give me some support
yeah that’s another pretty common phrase
yeah I think that’s something that
especially if people are watching movies
or TV shows you’re going to hear that
all the time and it’s valuable to know
those in context you know you know where
are those situations cool thanks for
sharing those four movies that’s awesome
do we have time for one more this one
has five five let’s go for it yeah okay
so this one is take off hey okay so
first thing first thing a lot of English
learners probably already know this is
on to take off like a jacket to remove
something take off your shoes when you
come into the house take off a hat so
that one’s the straightforward right you
take something
oh really how about at an airport what
happens at an airport huh so if your
plane is taking off that means you’re
leaving you’re going to your destination
you’re going up it’s taking off that’s
kind of some people like that but some
people really hate it when the plane is
taking off right right air pressure but
and that’s a great ones no you’re not
taking off the plane you’re absolutely
going going up exactly when the airplane
goes up into the air and a kind of
related one to that is a lot of us say
when kind of informally um when we need
to leave a place we say I’m really sorry
I have to take off and that doesn’t mean
we’re gonna fly it means we have to
leave right I need to take off I have to
pick up my kids from school or oh it’s
getting late we should probably take off
so that’s kind of like a slang a little
bit of an informal way to use take off
yeah I feel like that’s a really
comfortable expression that you’d use
with people you know or people you’re
really friendly with because it’s I
think you said slang it feels really
nice to say oh I guess got it I gotta
take off see you later
right right right and you can also take
time off from work so we use this when
saying like oh I took a week off in July
and I took my kids to Disneyland or
something like that so instead of saying
taking vacation you can also say that
right you can say take three days off or
take take the afternoon off so imagine
if someone only knew the first
definition of taking off something and
you said I’m gonna take off three days
they would be so confused what does it
mean to take off three days the last one
that I could think of is when a product
or a song or something gets popular
really fast we say it took off like
those like those skateboards that go
forward by themselves what are they
hoverboards they kind of took off laughs
yeah everybody was buying them yeah so
they got popular we say the product took
off or this trend took off a lot of
people started
and start getting really popular so
totally different meaning right yeah I
can kind of imagine some similarity with
a plane taking off if you think about
right rising but hit those are all
completely different meanings for
takeoff especially from the first one
that most English learners are going to
be familiar with taking off something
all right
took off that’s a great one and so a lot
of phrasal verbs are like this right you
can’t really discover what they mean
just from the words themselves you kind
of have to know these different
different meanings sure so do you have
any recommendations for how English
learners especially for just this video
as they listen to this video how can
they use this conversation and these
ideas because we gave a lot of examples
about how to use them how can they
remember those that’s a huge challenge
to remember them yeah well the first one
I would encourage everyone to after this
videos over try to make your own example
sentence with each of the phrasal verbs
and each of the meanings so you can say
oh the last time I traveled my plane
took off at 11 o’clock at night and just
personalized it right make it something
that is related to your life or it’s
true for you and write it down right
because writing it is more active than
just kind of thinking about it and
that’s a good way just to kind of fix
them in your memory yeah using your own
life is going to be the most memorable
thing for you because you know that
really well the making examples from
your life writing it down I would say
even to reading your sentences out loud
is another layer to that writing it
reading it going over it that’s gonna be
really valuable repetition right going
over it that’s another phrasal verb to
go over and meaning to review something
so you can say these things just come
out naturally right sure definitely come
out naturally eating all the time
in a way it’s something that English
learners might feel overwhelmed with
phrasal verbs but when you attack
learning phrasal verbs in this way
through conversation or through context
it’s much more reasonable because that’s
how we use them so I wanted to ask you
at the end of this conversation about
your method for learning phrasal verbs I
know you’ve got an awesome course about
learning phrasal verbs through this
style so English learners don’t become
overwhelmed and frustrated and they can
actually use them can you tell us a
little bit about that yeah so the course
is just call up phrasal verbs in
conversation because I mean when we
native English speakers learn phrasal
verbs we learn them in context right we
don’t study lists we don’t try to
memorize them we just learnt them kind
of naturally like if my mom says to me
every morning
Shana time to get up then I know that
get up means to get out of my bed and so
I try to create this experience for
English learners by creating short
conversations that are full of phrasal
verbs and then so people can see them in
context and then I kind of explain each
one and give a few more examples and
then each lesson finishes with some some
quizzes just to review and also some
questions that are like you know when
was the last time you back up your
computer and you can use the phrasal
verb in your own sentence so that’s
that’s kind of it in a nutshell yeah
that sounds awesome to be able to hear
them in in a natural context because a
lot of English learners don’t live in an
english-speaking country or even if they
do they don’t live with an English
speaker so they’re not going to hear
that on a daily basis so you’re giving
them that experience wherever they live
yeah that’s the idea
yeah well thanks so much for sharing
that I’m gonna share the links to your
course different phrasal verb materials
below this video or with this video so
that anyone watching it can learn more
because you’ve got a lot of great
materials awesome Thank You Vanessa oh
my pleasure thanks so much for this
short little video we could talk about
phrasal verbs I hope English learners
learned a lot and got to meet or we meet
someone new cool well thanks so much see
you the next time alright take care I
thanks so much for watching this
interview with Shayna from espresso
English like she said I recommend
writing your own sentences with all of
these phrasal verbs you can do it in the
comments below in your notebook you can
do it with a speaking partner a friend a
teacher just use them and to learn more
with Shana click on the links here on
the screen or in the description below
the video thanks so much and I’ll see
you later bye if you enjoyed this video
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