50 Important Phrasal Verbs in English
Vanessa:
Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Are you ready to master the top 50 phrasal
verbs?
Yes, let’s do it.
Have you ever been listening to an English
conversation but you just can’t figure out
what they’re saying?
You know the individual words, but the meaning
just doesn’t add up.
If you’ve been putting off learning phrasal
verbs, you may want to check out today’s lesson.
It will take you from huh to bring it on in
no time.
So what are phrasal verbs?
Well, phrasal verbs are a two or three-part
verb like this.
There is a normal verb try plus a second part.
That second part could be called a participle,
could be called a preposition, it doesn’t
really matter.
That second part is what makes this a phrasal
verb.
To try is different than to try on or to try
out.
These have different meanings.
So when we use phrasal verbs, it changes the
meaning of the original verb.
Phrasal verbs are incredibly common in daily
conversations, so I hope that these top 50
phrasal verbs in this lesson will help you
to gain some confidence in your speaking but
also to help you understand what other people
are saying.
Because it’s important to know the nuances
and the different meanings of these phrasal
verbs.
Let’s get started with number one.
Number one is to add up, to add up.
Take a look at this sentence, her story didn’t
add up, I think she’s lying.
What do you think this phrasal verb means?
Instead of me directly telling you right away
the meaning of the phrasal verb, I want you
to guess based on the sentence.
That’s what we’re going to be doing for all
50 of these phrasal verbs.
It’s kind of like a 50-question test, hopefully
a fun test.
What do you think add up means here, her story
didn’t add up, I think she’s lying.
This means it didn’t make sense.
Something about it seemed not logical or strange,
it didn’t add up.
We usually use this phrasal verb in a negative
sentence, so that’s what’s happening here.
Her story did not add up.
If you are a student and you go to your teacher
and say, “I’m sorry, I don’t have my homework
finished because last night I got into a car
wreck, and I had to go visit my grandmother
in the hospital.
And then I had my dog, and my dog was eating
my homework.”
This story seems a little bit unbelievable,
so the teacher might think, “Oh, your story
doesn’t add up, I think you’re lying.
You just didn’t do your homework.”
So here, the story doesn’t make sense, it’s
not logical, it doesn’t add up.
Let’s go to number two, to back somebody up.
Take a look at this sentence, my parents backed
me up when I decided to apply for graduate
school.
My parents backed me up, what do you think
this means?
My back, backed me up.
We can imagine your back the part of your
body, it gives you support.
You can’t sit up or stand up or do much without
your back.
So when you back someone up, you give them
support.
My parents supported me when I decided to
apply for graduate school.
This is a great example of how a phrasal verb
can directly replace another maybe more textbook
word.
It’s not wrong to say my parents supported
me, but it’s even better to say my parents
backed me up when I decided to apply for graduate
school.
Phrasal verbs will just make you sound more
comfortable and like you know what you’re
saying.
Let’s take a look at a similar expression,
it’s kind of a bonus tip that I’d like to
add.
What if I said to you I’ve got your back,
I’ve got your back.
Can you guess what this means?
This isn’t a phrasal verb, it’s just a bonus
phrase that is kind of similar to this phrasal
verb.
It means I will support you, I am supporting
you all the way, I got your back.
We often use this when we want to give encouragement
to someone.
So if your friend is maybe going to do something
a little bit risky, you can say, “I will support
you no matter what, I got your back.”
Great, wonderful phrase to use.
Let’s go onto our next phrasal verb, to blow
up.
Take a look at this sentence.
When I told her I couldn’t come to her party,
she blew up.
This is the past tense, this is an irregular
past tense verb.
She blew up, do you think she is really happy?
No.
Instead, this is to become suddenly angry,
she blew up.
So if this is part of your personality to
easily blow up, maybe there’s some deep breaths
you can take, clear your mind a bit.
If you are easily angry, well, maybe you easily
blow up.
I need to calm down a bit.
All right.
Let’s go to our next one, to bring on something,
to bring on something.
50 new phrasal verbs.
Yeah.
Bring it on.
Can you tell by my facial expression it’s
not like the previous one, I’m not blowing
up, I’m not angry?
Instead, I am excited about accepting some
kind of challenge with confidence.
Yes, 50 new phrasal verbs, I can do it, bring
it on.
We often use this to give encouragement to
ourselves.
If you are faced with some kind of challenge
and you want to really encourage yourself,
you could say, “All right.
Bring it on, I can do it.”
To bring up, you shouldn’t bring up politics
in this house unless you’re ready for a long
discussion.
You shouldn’t bring up politics, this means
you shouldn’t mention politics in conversation
unless you want a long discussion because
people here are quite passionate about politics.
To bring up something, what’s something that
you shouldn’t bring up in your country?
What is a topic that you should maybe avoid
in your country?
If you’d like to check out some common taboo
questions in English and especially in the
US that you should avoid, check out this video
that I made up here.
It will help you know which topics you shouldn’t
bring up unless you want to have a long discussion.
To call off.
Instead of calling off the wedding, the couple
decided to elope.
Probably last year if you tried to get married
in your country, it might have been a little
difficult because you couldn’t have big weddings.
Very unfortunate for a lot of people who wanted
to get married last year and probably continuing
this year too.
So what’s your other choice?
Well, you could call off the wedding or you
could elope.
What do you think this phrasal verb means,
to call off the wedding?
It just means to cancel the wedding.
We’re going to cancel the wedding.
Well, maybe you still want to get married,
so you could elope.
If you watched one of my previous videos about
10 funny jokes in English, we talked about
this word elope.
It means to run away with your lover, to get
married maybe in some court house or maybe
in a nice destination, but it’s just the two
of you, you are eloping.
So you could call off your wedding, you could
cancel the wedding or you could elope.
To calm down.
When I have a stressful day, I like to calm
down by taking a nice long walk outside.
Maybe you feel the same way.
When you take a long walk outside, it helps
you to calm down.
This phrasal verb means to relax, to calm
down.
To catch up, to catch up.
I met my friend for lunch to catch up because
we haven’t seen each other in a long time.
Am I running after my friend and catching
her?
No, take a look at this other question.
Want to meet for coffee and catch up?
Want to meet for coffee and catch up?
We’re not running, I’m not inviting you to
have a race.
Instead, this means that you are meeting with
someone who you haven’t seen for a while.
You want to find out what has been happening
in their life recently.
You want to catch up.
Sometimes we say catch up on what’s happening
in your life.
Yeah, I want to catch up on what’s happening,
so tell me all about it.
To catch up on.
To check in.
Look at this sentence, I went to the hotel
to check in while my husband parked the car.
To check in, what am I doing in the hotel?
Check, check, check.
No, this just means that you’re registering
at a hotel.
You’re telling them, “Hey, I’m here,” and
they write in the computer, “All right, Vanessa
is here, here’s your keys.”
This process is called checking in.
To check out.
To check out could have the opposite meaning.
When you leave the hotel, you check out.
You give them back the keys and you say, “I’m
done, I’m leaving.
Thank you so much.”
But I’d like to give you another meaning,
what if you saw this sentence, I’m excited
to check out the new park in my city.
To check out the new park.
Or what if I just said check it out.
Oh, what do you think this means?
This means to see something or to try something.
I can’t wait to see the new park in my city,
I can’t wait to check out the new park in
my city.
Walk all around, see what’s going on.
Great, you’re checking it out.
We sometimes use this phrase all by itself,
check it out.
And this just means look at this.
Check it out, I can’t believe that my son
finished a 100-piece puzzle by himself.
Check it out, look at this.
It’s kind of an expression of surprise and
amazement.
Wow, check it out.
To chip in.
I couldn’t go to the party, but I still wanted
to chip in for a gift.
I want to help participate in something.
It might be with money or with your energy
and time.
Take a look at this, my son likes to chip
in and help me with the garden.
He’s giving his time and energy digging and
weeding and helping me with the garden.
He’s not giving me money, he’s not participating
by giving money.
Instead, it’s his time.
So if you can’t go to a party but you want
to help pay for a special present, you could
give some money to your friend and say, “Here’s
some money because I want to chip in for the
present.”
And they will use that money to help pay for
the present.
It’s a great phrasal verb.
To close down, to close down.
This is different than to close.
Take a look at this.
Because of construction, they closed down
two lanes of the highway.
They closed down two lanes of the highway.
Or during the pandemic, a lot of restaurants
closed down.
Can you get the sense of this phrasal verb?
It means that they closed completely, sometimes
forever.
So the highway, they completely closed two
lanes because they were doing construction
or for the businesses they closed forever
because of the pandemic.
It’s a very unfortunate situation.
To come down with something.
I’m not feeling so well, I think I’m coming
down with something.
Can you guess that this means to start to
feel sick, to come down with something.
We use this for not serious sicknesses.
For example, maybe you have a cold, maybe
you have a sore throat.
Maybe you even have the flu, but it’s not
something so serious.
You might use this as an excuse, “Sorry, I
can’t come to your party, I think I’m coming
down with something.”
We often use something with this phrasal verb
because at the beginning of a sickness, you
might not know what it is.
But you could say, “Sorry, I think I’m coming
down with a cold.”
You could be specific if you know or, “I think
I’m coming down with the flu, I should stay
away from people for a few days.
To come down with some type of sickness.
And the opposite of this, to come down with,
to come up with.
To come up with something, take a look at
this sentence.
I need to come up with a great present for
my mom’s birthday.
Come up with a great present.
Am I picking up a great present?
No.
Take a look at this other sentence, I couldn’t
come up with anything special, so I just baked
a cake.
This means you’re finding an idea.
To come up with a present means that I need
to think about a great idea for a birthday
present, I can’t come up with a great idea.
Or maybe you need to write a thesis paper,
you need to come up with an original idea.
You need to find an idea that is original
for your thesis paper, to come up with something.
To cut back on, to cut back on.
Take a look at this sentence.
I’m trying to cut back on fried food, but
it’s so tasty.
I’m trying to cut back on fried food.
Do you think I’m trying to eat more?
Nope.
Instead, that means you’re trying to do less
of something.
You’re trying to take something out of your
life, to cut back on your consumption of fried
food.
Or you could say it just by itself.
If someone says, “Why aren’t you eating ice
cream?”
You could say, “I’m trying to cut back.”
You don’t need to use on because you don’t
need to repeat I’m trying to cut back on ice
cream because they just said ice cream.
So we know the general topic and context here.
You could say ice cream again, I’m trying
to cut back on ice cream, but you could just
say this by itself, I’m trying to cut back.
This is a really natural thing to say.
To cut off, to cut off.
Cut off my hair?
Nope, that’s not what we’re talking about.
Take a look at this.
The driver in the red car cut me off and almost
caused a wreck.
Cut me off.
It’s kind of an angering situation, you’re
driving, and another car comes in.
And you go, you slam on the brakes or you
have to swerve to the side and be safe.
He has made it so it was kind of ending abruptly
or stopping something quickly.
Usually, we use this in driving, that driver
cut me off or with speaking.
You could say he tried to tell the teacher
his excuse, but she cut him off mid sentence.
Maybe she thought his story didn’t add up.
So as he’s speaking, boom, she cut him off.
Ed, no, no, no, I don’t think that’s an excuse.
No, you need to have your homework.
She cut him off, this idea of ending abruptly
what he was thinking.
To drop by or to drop in.
Take a look at this.
Hey, are you home?
I’m in the neighborhood, and I wanted to drop
by.
If you call your friend and tell your friend
this, I’m in the neighborhood and wanted to
drop by.
Does that mean you want to drop something
on the ground or you want to give something
to your friend?
Nope, it just means I want to see you.
You’re kind of spontaneously going for a visit,
to drop by.
And usually this is a quick visit.
Doesn’t necessarily need to be, but usually
it’s this quick visit.
You can even use drop in in similar situations.
Maybe you want to encourage your friends to
visit you at any time, you could say drop
in whenever you want.
Drop in whenever you want or drop by whenever
you want.
Please, I would love to see you at any time.
To end up, to end up.
We ended up just ordering pizza and not going
to the fancy restaurant.
We ended up just ordering pizza.
Maybe it’s raining.
Maybe you’re just tired.
You had plans to go to a fancy restaurant,
but that is not what happened.
Instead, you just ordered pizza.
So we’re talking about the conclusion.
What is really happening at the end?
Well, we ended up ordering pizza.
We can also use this in a little bit of a
deeper way.
Instead of saying just some actions that happen,
sometimes we use this to talk about our character.
For example, you might say he doesn’t want
to end up like his father.
This is a little strong, but maybe his father
is an alcoholic.
Maybe his father is really rude or has some
characteristics that the son doesn’t want
to have.
So we could say he doesn’t want to end up
like his father.
What is happening in his father’s life as
an adult, he doesn’t want, the son doesn’t
want the same thing to happen to him.
I don’t want to end up like my father, so
I’m going to try to surround myself with good
people and get a good education and focus
on positivity.
Okay, there’s things you can do to not end
up like someone who you don’t want to end
up like.
To figure out, to figure out.
The mechanic tried to figure out what was
wrong with my car.
He tried to figure out what was wrong with
my car.
This means he’s trying to find a solution,
find what’s happening here.
We can simply say, “Oh, I can’t figure it
out.
Can you help me please?”
This is a really common question, a very polite
question.
It means you tried.
I tried to figure it out, but I can’t figure
it out.
Can you help me please?
To fill in, to fill in.
I missed the meeting, can someone fill me
in?
Notice here that we’re talking about someone,
fill me in.
Does that mean that I need to drink a lot
of water to fill my stomach?
No.
Here, we’re talking about giving some information.
Usually, this is spoken information.
If you miss a business meeting and you want
to find out what happened, this is the perfect
phrasal verb to use.
Can someone fill me in, what happened at the
meeting?
Or maybe if you walk into your house and it’s
an absolute disaster, things are such a mess
and your kids look up and say, Hi mom,” you
might use this phrasal verb and say, “all
right, someone fill me in.
What happened in this house?”
So you want them to give you some information,
some spoken information.
Notice that this is spoken because our phrasal
verb is going to be the opposite.
To fill out, fill out.
When you go to a new doctor’s office, you
need to fill out a lot of paperwork.
Are you talking to someone?
No.
You’re giving information, but it’s written.
It’s written down.
So at the doctor’s office, the secretary might
say, “All right, can you please fill out these
forms and give them back to me when you’re
finished,” fill out these forms.
I think a good way to remember fill in and
fill out is to imagine the image of information
going into you.
So when someone fills you in, the information
is going in.
But when you fill out a form, the information
is going out of the pen.
The ink is going out of the pen.
So you need to fill out the form, but you
want someone to fill you in.
I hope that helps.
To find out, to find out.
In the next episode, we will find out who
the mysterious man is, to find out.
This just means that you’re learning something
that you didn’t know before, some kind of
information that you didn’t know before.
Or you might say, “Oh, today I found out that
phrasal verbs are really important.”
This is something new that you learned that
you didn’t know before.
I found out, this is an irregular past tense
verb.
I found out or I am finding that out now.
To get along or to get along with.
Take a look at this, I get along with my neighbors
really well.
I get along with my neighbors.
This means I have a friendly relationship
with them.
We could switch this sentence up a little
bit and take out with.
Take a look at this, my neighbors and I get
along well.
Notice how the sentence construction is different.
We have both people as the subject of the
sentence.
My husband and I get along well.
Or we could switch it up and say I get along
with my husband really well.
So if we have both people at the beginning,
you can cut out the word with.
But if you want to have one and then the other,
you can add the word with.
This is a great way to be flexible with phrasal
verbs.
To get around.
Usually we add to get around to it, to get
around to doing something.
Take a look at this.
One day, I’ll get around to cleaning the garage,
but not today.
I’ll get around to cleaning the garage but
not today.
This means you’re eventually doing something.
Usually you’re delaying it, “Oh, I’ll get
around to that later.”
This is a common phrase, I’ll get around to
that or it, I’ll get around to it later.
So if you told your husband, “All right, I’m
going to clean the garage,” and then you don’t
do it and he says, “hey, why is the garage
still a mess?”
You might say, “Oh, I’ll get around to it
later.'
I’ll delay it, I delayed it.
But eventually, I’ll just do it later.
Or when you do it, you could say I finally
got around to cleaning the garage.
Oh, this means you have been delaying it for
so long, you’ve been procrastinating.
You said eventually I’ll do it, and then you
did it.
I finally got around to cleaning the garage.
To get back at, to get back at.
Look at this, my sister took my shoes to get
back at me for taking her sweater.
If you have any siblings and you shared clothes
with them, this can work out really well sometimes,
but sometimes it doesn’t work out so well.
So what’s happening in this sentence with
to get back at?
My sister is trying to take revenge.
She’s angry that I took her sweater, so what’s
she going to do?
She’s going to take my shoes.
Maybe she’s going to wear my shoes and not
tell me about it.
She took my shoes to get back at me for taking
her sweater.
We can use this as a question too.
If you are not sure about someone’s motives,
you might say, “Are you just trying to get
back at me for taking your sweater?”
And she might say, “Yep, I am.”
Are you trying to get back at me, are you
trying to get revenge because you’re angry
about something I did?
Maybe so.
To give up.
To give up?
No, look at this sentence.
After trying to change the oil in my car for
a couple hours, I finally gave up and went
to a mechanic.
Could you guess that I’m really happy about
doing this, it was really a successful?
No, I gave up and went to a mechanic.
This means I quit.
I tried a lot, and then I quit, and I just
went to a mechanic.
We can also use this phrasal verb to give
some encouragement to someone.
So I know that in today’s lesson there is
a lot of information, a lot of phrasal verbs,
but I want to tell you, don’t give up, you
can do it.
Continue learning, say some of the sentences
out loud with me.
Repeat them, enjoy yourself, take some notes.
Maybe cook some food, have a glass of wine
at the same time that you’re studying this
lesson, don’t give up, you got this.
To grow up, to grow up.
This one is to grow up?
Actually, yes.
When I was a child, I couldn’t wait to grow
up.
Isn’t that funny?
When we’re kids, we just want to grow up.
And then when we’re adults, we look at kids
and say, “Oh, how innocent, how happy they
are.
This means that you’re getting older.”
But we can also use this as an insult to tell
someone to stop acting like a child.
So let’s imagine that you make a little body
sound, maybe you fart and somebody laughs.
And use say, “That wasn’t funny, grow up.”
Well, kids like to laugh at these types of
things, hey, adults do too.
But it’s usually considered a childish thing
to laugh at.
So you might say, “Hey, that wasn’t funny,
grow up.
Stop acting like a child, grow up.”
This is pretty harsh.
And you could say it with a laugh tone in
your voice, “Hey, grow up, that’s not funny.”
You could say it like that lightly, but it
can be pretty strong if you say this seriously.
All right.
Let’s go to our next phrasal verb, to hang
on.
Oh, can you hear hang on for just a sec while
I check this message?
That’s a great way to use this phrasal verb.
Can you hang on for just a sec?
This is just a second.
Can you imagine what this means?
To wait, to pause for just a minute.
Sometimes we even use this to pause the conversation.
If someone tells you something shocking, they
say, “Oh yeah, I was hiking and I saw rattlesnake,
and I picked it up,” and then they just keep
talking.
To pick up a rattlesnake is a very bad idea.
So you might say, “Hang on, you did what?”
You’re telling them, pause the conversation,
stop what’s happening.
Hang on, you did what.
Don’t pick up a rattlesnake.
So here it’s the same idea, you’re asking
someone, “Hey, can you hang on just a sec
while I check this message?
Hang on, pause what we’re doing while I check
this message,” or, “pause the conversation,
don’t pick up a rattlesnake.”
Vanessa’s public service announcement of the
day.
Please don’t pick up dangerous snakes unless
you are a professional.
To hang out, to hang out.
Do you want to come over to my house and hang
out?
This means we’re just casually spending time
together.
Do you want to come over and hang out?
There’s no plan, there’s no specific event.
Just maybe throwing a Frisbee in the backyard,
maybe making some tea and coffee and some
little snacks, and we’ll just hang out.
We sometimes use this phrasal verb as a way
to answer a common question.
If someone says, “What did you do this weekend?”
And either you did nothing or you don’t want
to tell them, you might say, “Oh, I just hung
out.”
This is an irregular past verb, so you might
say I just hung out, hung out.
And it means I sat around the house, I didn’t
do anything special, I just hung out.
Great, it’s a way to answer this common question.
“Hey, what did you do this weekend?”
“Man, I just hung out.
Nothing special.”
If you’d like to see some other ways to answer
this question, what do you do this weekend
or what you got going on this weekend, you
can check out this video I made up here where
you’re going to have the opportunity to learn
some common questions, answer those questions,
and also practice speaking with me.
I hope that you’ll enjoy that lesson, make
sure you check it out.
To hold on, to hold on.
I’m holding on to hope that someday we’ll
be able to travel again soon.
Oh, wouldn’t that be great?
We can get the idea I’m holding on to hope.
I’m not holding on to my phone.
No, it’s something more figurative, I’m holding
onto hope.
It’s a great way to use this phrasal verb,
which means you cling to stuff.
But sometimes we use this in a more figurative
way.
Remember how I just talked about, hang on,
you did what, you picked up a rattlesnake?
Hang on.
Well, we could also say hold on, you did what?
Hold on, you did what?
So we’re clinging to this moment in the conversation.
Wait, you picked up a rattlesnake?
No, don’t talk about other things, I want
to talk about this thing that you just said,
it’s shocking.
Hold on, you did what?
Also, if you would like to incorporate phrasal
verbs into your life in a fun way with songs,
take a look at this fun sentence.
Hold on, I’m coming (singing).
This is a classic Sam & David song, I recommend
searching for it on YouTube.
Some of the words are a little tough to understand
in the way that he’s singing it, but you can
check out the lyrics at the same time that
you’re listening.
But he uses this phrasal verb hold on.
And he’s saying, “Wait, don’t go away, stay
here.
I want to cling to this relationship, and
I will help you.
I’m coming, I’m coming help you.
Hold on.”
It’s fun when you can recognize phrasal verbs
in songs, in movies and TV shows.
And when you hear them and you understand
them, it brings such joy and excitement because
you’re studying, your hard work is worth it.
To keep on.
If you keep on practicing, you’ll get better.
That’s true.
If you keep on practicing the piano, eventually
you’ll get better.
Maybe it will take a long time, maybe it will
take a week, but you’ll get better.
What’s this mean?
If you continue practicing, you’ll get better.
I feel like this phrasal verb to keep on is
used a lot more than to continue.
To continue is very descriptive.
But in daily conversation, we use keep on
a lot more.
I have to keep on working, I have a lot to
do.
Keep on doing something.
There’s a fixed phrase that we sometimes use
to encourage other people using this phrasal
verb twice, keep on keeping on.
What do you think this means?
If someone told you, “I know you’re learning
lots of phrasal verbs.
It’s a lot, but keep on keeping on.”
This means continue continuing.
You’re doing a hard job, this is a lot.
But do you know what, Keep on doing it, you
got this.
Keep on keeping on.
To look forward to.
I’m looking forward to visiting my family
over the summer, I’m looking forward to it.
This means there’s something in the future
that I’m excited about or maybe something
I’m not excited about.
No one looks forward to tax time maybe unless
you’re a tax accountant and that’s what makes
you excited.
But we can say most people don’t look forward
to tax time.
It’s not an exciting thing that you’re waiting
for.
No, I don’t look forward to tax time, but
I look forward to seeing my family.
To look out.
When you hike, look out for snakes.
I don’t know why I’m thinking about snakes
a lot right now, maybe because it’s getting
warmer and they’re coming out a lot more,
especially where I live.
So you have to look out for snakes.
This means you need to be careful, watch out
for snakes.
Watch out is actually another phrasal verb
we’ll talk about later.
But let’s start with look out, look out for
snakes.
There’s another great idiom that has a similar
meaning, it’s kind of a bonus idiom, it’s
not a phrasal verb.
But we might say you need to keep an eye out
for snakes.
Don’t take your eye out and look for snakes.
No, no, no.
But we use the singularly.
I mean, it’s a good idea to use both your
eyes to look out for snakes.
But for some reason, this idiom just uses
eye, you should keep an eye out for snakes.
Keep an eye out for snakes, you never know
when you might see one.
You don’t want to accidentally step on one,
keep an eye out for snakes, look out for snakes.
To look up.
To look up?
Not exactly this meaning.
You might say, “I didn’t know the meaning
of the word to hold on, so I looked it up
in the dictionary.”
This is when you search for something usually
online or in a book or in a dictionary to
get some more information.
I looked it up in the dictionary.
You might even just say I looked it up.
If someone says, “Oh, how do you know so much
about river otters?”
You might say, “Oh, I looked it up,” or, “I
looked up some information about them last
week.
So that’s how I know a lot about river otters,
I looked it up.”
To pull over.
It was raining so hard that I had to pull
over and wait for the rain to stop.
I had to pull over.
You get the sense here that it’s not safe
to drive.
I didn’t continue driving, I pulled over.
This means you steer your car to the side
of the road or maybe to a gas station or somewhere
safe and wait.
You might just stop completely or you’re just
waiting for a period of time.
We often use this phrasal verb for police.
So you could say, “Yeah, I was driving too
fast.
And when I saw police lights behind me, I
pulled over.”
But we can use this in more specific ways
to talk about this situation.
You might say he, the police officer, he pulled
me over, he pulled me over.
Or if we want to use this indirectly, this
is a really common phrase, you might just
say, “I got pulled over on my way to the party,
I got pulled over.”
This means someone is doing the action to
me.
I wouldn’t have stopped if the police weren’t
behind me, I would’ve just kept driving.
So who did this?
Well, I didn’t directly say in my sentence,
but this phrase always means the police.
I got pulled over.
There were some lights, a siren.
Man, I’m getting pulled over, I got pulled
over.
I hope that doesn’t happen to you anytime
soon.
To put off, to put off.
Look at this.
I put off learning phrasal verbs for too long,
it’s time to start today.
I put off, this means you are postponing something,
you are delaying something.
I can’t put it off for any longer, I need
to start today.
When I saw Vanessa had this lesson about 50
phrasal verbs, I knew it was time to stop
putting off learning phrasal verbs.
Today was my chance, bring it on.
To put up with.
To put up with?
No, we’re not raising something up.
You might say, “Oh, my sweet husband puts
up with my terrible singing, he puts up with
my terrible singing.”
Do you want to listen to terrible singing?
Probably not.
But if someone puts up with your terrible
singing, they tolerate it.
Yeah, he puts up with my terrible singing
because he knows that it makes me happy to
sing.
So we can use put up with for tolerating something,
“Yup, he puts up with my singing.”
Or we can use it for someone, but this is
a little harsher.
What if you said, “I don’t know how he puts
up with her?”
Well, let’s say that two people are dating
and the girl in this situation is a little
bit difficult.
Well, you might be talking or gossiping about
their relationship, you might say, “I don’t
know how he puts up with her, I don’t know
how he tolerates her.”
Do you see here how this is not one part of
her singing?
No, this is just her in general, her character,
her personality.
This is a little bit harsher to say I cannot
tolerate that person.
That’s much stronger than saying I can’t tolerate
this one thing that that person does.
It’s okay to say, “I can’t put up with your
singing right now.
Please stop, I’m trying to study.”
It’s different than saying, “I can’t put up
with you.”
This is a little strong.
So make sure if you use this, you use it in
very strong situations.
To run away.
My dog is too lazy to run away.
He knows where the food is, so he’s going
to stay here.
He’s too lazy to run away.
Or did you ever try to run away from home
as a kid?
This is a common phrase to run away from home,
and it means to escape.
My dog knows that the food is here, so he’s
not going to run away.
He’s not going to escape because it’s not
better out there, it’s better here where there’s
food.
And the same as a kid, well, you might run
away from home.
This fixed phrase, yeah, she tried to run
away from home last week, but she only made
it to the neighbor’s house.
To run away, to escape.
To run into.
Well, not exactly a physical running into
someone, but it’s a similar idea.
Look at this sentence, I don’t want to run
into a bear while I’m hiking.
Yes, of course you don’t want to physically
hit a bear while you’re hiking.
But a more likely situation is to unexpectedly
see a bear, I don’t want to run into a bear.
Or you might say, “I ran into my high school
English teacher last week at the grocery store.”
I didn’t plan to meet her there, it was just
unexpected.
I unexpectedly saw my teacher, my old high
school teacher at the grocery store, I ran
into my teacher.
Or we could use this as kind of a question,
you’ll never guess who I ran into today.
This is a fun little question to ask someone,
and then they guess really random people.
You’ll never guess who I ran into today.
Good question.
To run out of or to run out.
We ran out of milk and eggs yesterday, so
I need to go to the store, we ran out of.
Am I carrying milk and eggs and running out
of the house?
No.
This just means that there’s none left, it’s
all finished.
We ran out of milk and eggs, so it’s time
to go to the store.
But we can also just use to run out.
Take a look at this.
There’s no more milk, sorry, we ran out yesterday.
Why did I not say we ran out of milk?
Well, we already know the context, we know
that we’re talking about milk.
So you could just say, “Yeah, sorry, we ran
out yesterday, and I haven’t bought any new
milk yet.”
We ran out.
To stick with, to stick with.
I tried guitar, piano, violin.
And finally, I decided to stick with the drums.
What do you think that means?
That means you are continuing to do something.
To continue playing the drums.
I stopped playing guitar, stopped playing
piano, stopped playing violin and continued
playing the drums.
I think I’m going to stick with the drums.
Or we could use this for friends.
We could say good friends stick with each
other even through hard times.
They continue their friendship even through
hard times.
To think over, to think over.
It’s a good idea to think over big purchases
before you buy them.
Before you buy a car, you should think it
over.
This is a great phrase to maybe give someone
advice.
Think it over, this means you need to consider
it seriously.
Think it over before you make the decision.
You need to think over a big purchase before
you buy it.
To turn down.
No, this is not really talking about physically
turning something down.
Take a look at this sentence.
I was so full from dinner that I had to turn
down dessert.
I love dessert, but I was so full that I had
to turn down dessert.
This means you’re refusing something.
You might even use this politely and say,
“I’m sorry, I need to turn it down.
I’m so full.
I need to refuse dessert because I’m just
so full.”
We can use this for people too.
Like I mentioned before with some of the other
phrasal verbs, it’s a little more serious.
If you are proposing to your girlfriend, you
are asking her to marry you, and she says
no.
Well you might say, “She turned me down.”
This means she refused me.
And it’s kind of deeper about your character
or who you are, it’s very serious.
She turned me down, I can’t believe it.
To turn off.
It’s a good habit to turn off your phone an
hour or more before bed.
To turn off.
This means you’re stopping your phone, but
we can imagine you’re stopping the flow of
something because we can use this more figuratively
too.
We might say that some people have trouble
turning off their brain before bed.
You lay in bed and you just keep thinking
about so many things.
You need to turn off your brain in order to
relax and sleep.
You don’t want to have your brain turned off
all the time.
But before bed, it’s important to turn off
your brain.
You’re stopping the flow of thoughts, the
flow of energy.
Just like you need to turn off your phone,
you need to turn off your brain a little bit
too.
To turn up, to turn up.
I surprised my family when I turned up to
the party unannounced.
Can you guess what this means?
I appeared unexpectedly.
They didn’t think that I was coming, and then
I knocked on the door, and there I was.
I turned up unexpectedly.
Or you could say my cat was gone for two days
and then he just turned up out of nowhere.
I have no idea where he was, he didn’t tell
me.
He just turned up, he appeared unexpectedly
out of nowhere.
To warm up to.
Talking about cats, it took my cat a while
to warm up to me.
It took my cat a while to warm up to me.
If you know anything about the difference
between cats and dogs.
Well, dogs always want to.
But cats, sometimes they need more time.
And that’s this idea of to warm up to, to
start to like someone.
It takes time.
We can imagine a curling iron that sometimes
people use to curl their hair.
It doesn’t heat up immediately, it takes time.
And that’s the idea here of someone or something,
my cat took time to warm up to me.
Immediately, he didn’t sit on my lap and love
me.
No, he had to make sure that I was okay first.
We can warm up to someone or something, but
we could also warm up to something more figuratively
like an idea.
We might say, “I didn’t want to get a trampoline.
But after some time, I started to warm up
to the idea.
I thought about it, realized, yeah, it could
be pretty fun, and now we have a trampoline.”
I started to warm up to the idea.
Watch out.
Oh, watch out for falling rocks.
Or watch out, sometimes bees make a nest in
the ground around there, don’t step without
looking.
Watch out.
This is used to caution someone, to be aware.
Watch out when you hike, sometimes bears will
walk by unexpectedly.
Watch out.
To wear off.
The energy from my morning tea starts to wear
off around noon.
That’s soon.
The energy from my tea from my tea starts
to wear off.
Can you guess what this means?
It’s fading away.
When I first drank my tea, I had lots of energy
and then it’s starting to fade away, it’s
wearing off.
We could also use this for something that
you write with.
For example, you might say the marker is starting
to wear off.
A couple of weeks ago, my son was really excited
because he learned to write his name.
And he took a marker.
And during his nap time, he wrote his name
all over his sheets.
You can see this here.
He kept writing his name everywhere.
And it’s pretty funny, the marker is washable,
it’s not a big deal.
He was really excited.
And now the marker is starting to wear off,
so it’s fading away.
But I’m sure he will write it more and more
because he is so excited about his new skill.
Phrasal verb number 50, you’re finally here,
congratulations, is to work something out.
Take a look at this.
My husband likes the mountains, I like the
beach.
So for our next vacation, we’re going to need
to work something out.
I could have said, “We’re going to need to
work out a mutually beneficial solution for
our vacation.”
A little too much.
It’s a much more natural to say, “We need
to work something out.”
This means we need to find a compromise.
Sometimes parents save this to their children
if their children are fighting and they say,
“Mom, help me.
No, she did this.
No, he did this,” and the parent doesn’t want
to get involved.
Your parent might say, “Well, you guys need
to work something out yourselves.
This is something that I’m not going to get
involved in, both of you need to come up with
some kind of compromise.”
You need to work something out yourselves.
So how did you do?
Are you starting to warm up to some of these
phrasal verbs?
If you stick with practicing them, they’ll
get better and easier with time.
Now, I want you to think over the phrases
that you just learned and tell me in the comments
what are you looking forward to doing this
weekend?
I can’t wait to read what you have to say
and to see what you’ve come up with.
Well, thank you so much for learning English
with me, and I’ll see you again next Friday
for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.
Bye.
The next step is to download my free ebook,
Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English
Speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently and fluently.
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Thanks so much.
Bye.