Learn English in 90 Minutes The Best of 2020

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kick off the first word is kick off

kick off to kick off means to start

something it usually has the nuance of

something big like a big project like

we’re going to kick off a new project

next year or let’s kick off this new

policy

in january or what time should we kick

off the party

as well we can use it for parties too

but for

business it means to start a project to

start something new

and it sounds like the beginning to

something big

so kick off to kick off something means

to start

something set out

the next phrasal verb is set out set out

means decide

or determine or choose something so we

usually use

set out to mean to decide something

within

a project for example we need to set out

some guidelines for this project

or we need to set out some rules for

dress code in the company

or what do you think about setting out

some

new guidelines for company parties for

example so set out means to decide

something and determine

something usually like a policy rule

guideline

check in the next phrasal verb is check

in so check in means update or give a

status report to

share new information check in about

something

we usually say to check in about blah

blah blah so

for example what time should we check in

about the project or do you have time to

check in about this later

or when can i check in with you we can

also use it

uh to refer to a person so can i check

in with you

about this later or will you check in

with me later

we usually say check in with please be

careful this is different

from check-in to a hotel totally

different meaning

here at work check in with someone or

check in

about something so check in with someone

means to give

someone an update to share new

information with them

check in about means to share new

information

probably with someone like in a meeting

about a specific

project so you can use check in with or

check in about

something go through go

over the next one is go through

or go over we can use go through or go

over

these both mean to review something like

i want to go through your essay with you

or i want to go over

the latest draft with you i want to go

through our new policies with everyone

in the company

i want to go over some changes that are

going to happen

so it means review usually like review

plus maybe explain

it means to do this in detail usually

too so

introduce some new ideas review some old

ideas perhaps

and have a chance to discuss things so

to go through or to go

over is sort of to examine to review

to look at some information with

somebody

so we can also say i want to go over

this with

you later or can we go through this

together

later so it means to look in detail to

examine something

clock in clock out the next

pair of expressions really is clock in

and clock

out clock in is to check in

at your office to clock in means to

begin your work day

officially to register the time you

begin work

and to clock out is the opposite to

register the time when you

leave work when you finish work for the

day so when you you

maybe depending on your office you have

to clock in

in other words register or record the

time you begin work or arrive at your

office and clock out so record the time

you leave your office

so in a sentence we could say i always

forget to clock in to work

or what time did i clock out yesterday i

totally forgot

or it’s important to clock in and clock

out at the same time every day

start up okay so the next phrasal verb

is start

up start up means begin to begin

something

please be cautious start up something

like start up a new policy or start up

a new project means to begin a new

project however

you may see the noun expression no space

between start and

up startup maybe you can hear the slight

difference in pronunciation

when i say the phrasal verb start up

there’s a disconnect between the words

like we need to start

up a new project for example however

startup

is a little bit different startup as a

noun means a

usually small new company it’s big in

the news these days startups

so startup companies are very small

companies they are

just beginning that’s the nuance of a

startup company that’s the noun phrase a

startup

however to start up something sounds a

little bit different like we should

start up some new projects this year

it’s more used for like policies

projects uh maybe a new product launch

um we should start up some new things

for example but it means

to begin to begin something

call back the next phrasal verb is call

back

call back call back means to return

a phone call to return a phone call is

call

back so some common examples are just

uh i’ll call you back later or please

call me back when you have time

um you can separate a call and back like

i just said please call

me back when you have time you can

separate the person

receiving the call you can separate call

and back

and put the person receiving the call

between

call and back so please call me back

when you have time or i’ll

call you back so this person between

call

and back is the person receiving the

call

so uh you should call her back later

or um why don’t you call your mother

back tonight for

example you can separate these two

that’s fine

one more example sentence would be i

need to call my clients back this

afternoon

send over the next expression is

send over send over means to email

or to physically mail something to send

over it means to send to someone else’s

office or to send to someone else’s

computer

send it over there is the idea sending

it away from you

over to a different building or to a

different department

please send this over when you have a

chance so again just as with callback

we can use the expression send over

separately we can separate these two

words uh please send

this over please send the files over

please send the documents over

or please send over the documents both

are fine we can use both of them here

so send over just means mail or send

something

in another example sentence hey can you

send over the updated files

clean up clean out the next phrasal verb

is really a pair

it’s clean up or clean out we can use

clean up and clean out these are a

little bit different but i put them

together because they both use the word

clean so to clean up something means to

tidy or to make it nice again to clean

up something like you need to clean up

your house we can also use this at home

meaning like to wash windows or to to

wash dishes

or to to make something tidy and clean

to get rid of

germs to keep germs away to clean up

your house to clean up your office to

clean up your desk

there’s a similar phrasal verb however

clean out

to clean out means to remove

everything from some location so if i

say

i’m cleaning out my desk it has the

nuance of i’m removing

everything from my desk maybe i’m

leaving my job

for example maybe i’ve quit or maybe my

desk just has a lot of things i don’t

need

but clean out has the nuance of removing

a lot of things we can also use this

phrasal verb at home like clean out your

closet

i’m cleaning out my closet so it

cleaning out my closet in that case

it means removing everything from your

closet

the same nuance applies to your desk so

to clean out your desk at work

means to remove everything you can also

use this for the refrigerator like i

need to clean out the refrigerator it

smells really bad

so meaning take everything out clean it

and maybe put some things back

so clean up is just too tidy clean out

is like a deep clean of something

make up for the next phrasal verb is

make up make up usually make up for

please be careful not

makeup as in like things that we put on

our face to change our appearance makeup

but make up for something so to make

up for means to compensate to compensate

so if there’s been a problem in a

project for example like a

delay or a schedule change or some

some unexpected thing happens and you

need to

compensate for that you need to make

some changes

to fix that problem you can use the

phrasal verb

make up for so for example our project

was delayed because

our president got sick for example we

need to make up

for lost time so we follow make

up for with the item that is the problem

so in my example sentence we need to

make up for lost

time lost time is the problem we lost

time it should be a noun phrase we lost

time on the project we need to

compensate for it so we need to make up

for

lost time or we need to make up for the

mistake that we made last week or

we need to make up for lost sales last

quarter for example

angry first is the word angry

angry so angry is the most basic word

you can use

i feel angry she is angry he is angry

it’s the basic level of a negative and

slightly aggressive

feeling my dog looks angry my boss was

angry um we use it to talk about that

feeling so in a sentence

my mother was really angry with me

furious next is furious

furious so furious means very angry

so instead of saying i’m very angry you

can say i’m

furious this sounds much stronger it’s

one word

it means very angry but it sounds like

much stronger than just

very angry so angry is aggressive and

negative

furious is like the next level or maybe

two levels up so like my boss was

furious at the team for their mistake or

my neighbors were furious with me

for my huge pool party last night or

i was furious with my brother for

locking me out of the house

for example uh one more my teacher is

furious with us today mad

the next word is mad mad mad is like

going back down to that sort of basic

level angry and mad or pretty much the

same thing

mad sounds like a word a little kid

would use though like i’m so

mad right now or i’m so mad i can’t do

this or

it’s like it’s it’s like unhappy with a

little bit of aggressive so it means

angry really but

um a lot of adults don’t really use the

word mad

it sounds more childish the word mad

does like i’m really mad right now

or i’m mad at you or she’s mad at him or

something like that it sounds a little

bit childish the word mad so another

example sentence

i’m so mad i lost my keys

upset the next word is upset

upset this is a really useful word we

can use it to mean

angry yes but upset means just

that you are different from the regular

like your regular personality your

regular

level of emotion like your calm state

if you feel disappointed or you feel sad

or you feel angry

you can use the word upset to describe

that it means you’re just

not in the right place you’re not quite

in balance

upset so we can use the word upset

actually as a verb it’s kind of an old

meaning but like if i use my water

bottle my thermos whatever

as an example the verb upset means to

move

something from its correct position like

so in my case i could say like i

upset my water bottle when i moved my

arm so i

moved it from its correct position we

can use the word

as an adjective then too i’m upset

meaning my

emotions have been moved from their

original or their correct position

so we can use it to mean angry too like

i’m so upset with my boss right now or

i’m so upset with myself

as well so we usually say like i’m upset

with something or someone in another

example sentence

i’m really upset pissed off

okay warning next one is a little bit

rude a little bit rude

but you might hear it in uh in british

english and you’ll hear it in american

english as well

um it’s it’s sort of light on the scale

of rude words but um

the expression is pissed off pissed off

so to say i’m really pissed off

it’s a casual word but it’s uh it’s

considered a rude word i would say it’s

considered a curse word in some families

so to mean i’m pissed off is like it’s

usually for

um a fairly small thing that creates a

lot of

anger so maybe if for example someone in

your team

or one of your friends makes a really

really

silly mistake or just just there’s no

reason for this mistake but it creates a

huge

problem you might say ah i’m so pissed

off at that person right now or i’m just

so

pissed off my feeling is that so it’s

typically not for a

really really serious problem i suppose

you could use it in that way

but it usually has this like a very

casual

slangy rough feeling about it so do not

use this at work

don’t use this with people that you

respect it is not a polite phrase

but you might hear it actually in tv

shows and in movies

and in other media pissed off i’m really

pissed off right now

so please be careful that’s what it

means in a sentence

sounds like the neighbor is really

pissed off

seething with rage next expression is

seething with rage seething with rage so

i included a rather formal

kind of like spooky sort of a little bit

scary expression here

so like seething it sounds like your

whole body is just

filled it’s like it’s your body is

almost moving because of how

angry you are so rage is a noun

rage means a very very high level of

anger so we talked about the word

furious near the beginning of this

lesson

furious is an adjective rage is a noun

so anger is like an aggressive unhappy

feeling

anger as a noun rage is like a few

levels

up there so seething your body is

seething with rage it’s like your body

is shaking it’s like your body is almost

moving

out of control because you are so

angry so this is a really serious issue

this is a serious level

seething with rage however this is not

an expression that’s commonly used

in speech we would use this in writing

more often than not you might hear this

in writing or perhaps

in maybe formal expressions i don’t

think i’ve ever used this expression

myself to talk about my experience or my

feelings

but perhaps i could talk about it if

maybe maybe i see a fight happen for

example

i could say whoa that guy is like those

guys were like seething with rage for

example

so i don’t know to me it sounds a little

bit too formal to

use for everyday conversations but if

you if you’re writing a story for

example or you’re reading a story

and you want to really communicate a

strong level of anger you can say

seething with rage in a sentence that

guy at the bar was seething with rage he

was scary

okay next one livid

the next word is livid livid livid is an

adjective i am livid right now so livid

means

angry but i think livid is like between

angry and furious so livid to me

has the impression of maybe like

extremely angry and maybe you’ll you’ll

shout and or like your voice the volume

of your voice will pick up like just

live it

um about something so yeah

very angry about a mistake about

something bad that happened

um so it’s i don’t think it’s quite at

the level of

furious uh maybe it’s just a little bit

below

furious but um like my boss was livid

when he saw the reports

from last month for example so like

maybe shouting

or screaming or something like that so

it’s not in my head anyway the image is

that

there’s like a high-volume reaction um

someone who is livid

maybe has a very loud voice in that case

in another sentence some guy at the

station was

livid over a ticket charge

lose one’s temper okay the next

expression

is kind of a set expression to lose

one’s temper to lose your temper

so temper is like think of temper as

your anger

control your anger control so for you to

lose your temper it means you

lose control of your anger and you begin

to shout or scream or cry maybe

to lose your temper is to lose control

of your angry

feelings so this is a very common

expression like my boss lost his temper

with the management yesterday

or my mom lost her temper when the dog

ran

into the house with dirty feet or i

don’t know i lost my temper when my

computer wouldn’t start this morning for

example

so you lose control of your anger in

another sentence

she lost her temper when her computer

crashed and her work disappeared

go off on someone the next expression is

go off on someone to go off on someone

this is a very casual expression very

casual that we use in american english

in past tense we’ll say he went off or

she went off

on someone so to go off uh the idea is

like you can maybe think of it as

go off like a bomb uh

if it helps like like a bomb could go

off like a bomb could explode

so to go off on someone is like to lose

your temper

at someone um so it’s losing your temper

at the direction or in the direction of

some person

but we use the expression on that person

so my boss

went off on me today for all of my

mistakes

over the last month i don’t know that’s

not true or like

my neighbor went off on the delivery guy

for

being three hours late um i don’t know

something that causes another person

they lose their temper

at someone or something in another

sentence

my boss went off on one of my co-workers

this afternoon

have a heated argument the last

expression is have a heated

argument have a heated argument so here

the word heated is in there heated like

hot so meaning hot like aggressive so a

high level maybe like a high temperature

argument so to have an argument and to

have a heated argument

are similar heated just sounds like it’s

there’s a little more

intensity in the argument so you can

have an argument or you can have a

discussion whatever argument sounds

stronger than discussion

heated argument therefore is perhaps the

next

level of that kind of discussion or

argument so

um the neighbors are having a heated

argument over there or

i heard my boss and the ceo having a

heated argument in the conference room

one more sentence i got into a heated

argument with one of my friends

re the first prefix is re

re r e re means again

so we see the word re in like redo

or replay or re-imagine

or recreate for example so it means to

do

the base word again so whatever you see

re in front of or not everything but

if you see re before a base word like

that it can mean

to do that thing again so in a sentence

i have to redo my homework

anti the next prefix is anti

anti or you might hear anti as well anti

or anti

both are fine um but it means against

or in opposition to or like kind of the

opposite

of something so against against anti so

we see this in like um

antifreeze or antisocial or

anti-inflammatory or antibiotics so they

all mean against

something um so like the word antifreeze

for example means like against

freezing so it’s a it’s antifreeze is a

product that prevents

a liquid from freezing for example an

antibiotic

is a medicine that we take to kill like

bad microorganisms in our body

germs in other words so we see bio in

that word so relating to like biology

antisocial refers to someone who does

not like social situations they are

against

social situations an anti-inflammatory

another type of medicine is against

inflammation so inflammation can mean

like swelling or like turning you red

for example so

anti means against something we see anti

before words which mean like

opposing or against that thing in a

sentence

my boss is anti-overtime dis

so the next prefix is dis dis so dis

essentially this means

not so we see this in words like

disrespect or disapprove

or disconnect or like disagree for

example

so these words all mean not plus the

base word so like disagree for example

means to

not agree or disconnect means to not

connect so something is not connected to

the other thing

disrespect means to not respect

something for example so

dis means not plus that base word in a

sentence

a good editor should be disinterested

x the next prefix is x

x x means former former so

something that was once true is not true

anymore

we see this very commonly in

relationships so for example

my ex-husband ex-wife ex-girlfriend

ex-boyfriend

ex-boss so all of these mean my former

something my former boyfriend my former

girlfriend my former boss my former

roommate for example

in a sentence the x-ceo was in the news

this week

mid the next prefix is mid

mid so mid means like in the middle of

or

during something so we can see this in a

word like uh

midnight or mid-summer for example or

mid-morning so meaning in the middle of

or roughly in the middle of something

during that time period

midnight means in the middle of the

night or mid-morning it’s like in the

middle of the morning

so all of these refer to mid something

we can also use it for like an action

like

mid-meal for example or she was a

mid-presentation when the phone rang for

example so

mid means in the middle of something in

a sentence

i was mid-breakfast when i heard the

news

ill the next one is ill

ill so ill means again not or it’s like

a negative prefix

it means uh the base word but not

that base word so we see this in words

like illogical

or illegible or illegal for example so

these all mean not plus the base word so

illogical means not

logical ill legible illegible means

unable to read legible means readable

illegible means cannot read that thing

unable to read that illegal means not

legal in other words so an action that

is against the law

so ill means not in a sentence

highly illogical captain that’s a star

trek reference

the next prefix is

also means not it means not words that

fit this pattern for example

could be impossible or impeccable

or improbable or imperfect for example

so again it means

not so imperfect means not perfect

uh impossible means not possible

so im means not it means not in a

sentence

this is impossible

the next prefix is in in so again

in also means not it’s a negative prefix

that we use

there are a lot of words that start with

this in meaning not so like

inconsiderate incapable inconceivable

inappropriate so they all mean not plus

the base

word for example like the word

inappropriate means

not appropriate so behavior that is not

appropriate

in a certain situation or incapable

means

not capable someone cannot do something

they are expected to do

so in means not plus our base

meaning the opposite then of that

meaning in a sentence

he’s incapable of running the country

ear the next prefix is ear

ear so the pronunciation is ear even

though it’s

ir ear for example we see this in like

irresponsible or

irredeemable or irregular so again this

means

not something so irresponsible means not

responsible

irregular not regular irredeemable

is something that cannot be made up we

cannot redeem

that thing so ear is another negative

prefix

meaning not or no in a sentence

your behavior was irresponsible

none the next prefix is

non-non-n-o-n so n-o-n is a prefix again

it means

not or against or like i shouldn’t say

against

so none also means not something

so for example we see it in a word like

nonsense or like

non-sequential or non-sequitur

so these are words that all mean like

not

something so for example non-sense means

no

sense essentially not sense uh

non-sequitur so

sequitur the base there is like think of

the word

sequence we see that same sort of base

in sequence

as we see in non-sequitur and that

actually comes from the latin meaning

like to follow something so it

non-sequitur means like it does not

follow so a

non-sequitur means something that just

it’s not part of the conversation it’s

like a random comment

is a non-sequitur so it does not follow

non-sequitur is one so non means

not or no in a sentence this is nonsense

break fracture the first word

is break or fracture so these two

verbs are used interchangeably actually

they both refer to a broken bone or a

fractured bone so

two pieces of bone become separated or a

bone becomes

broken so fractured it comes apart

so to break a bone in present tense is i

broke a bone in past tense

fracture is a regular verb which means

the past tense is

fractured so in a sentence i broke my

wrist when i fell snowboarding

that’s true that’s true i broke my wrist

when i fell snowboarding and that

inspired today’s lesson spraying

the next word is spraying spraying to

spraying

something refers to a refers to

hurting or to injuring a ligament so

a ligament are these sort of like

fibrous things like kind of

uh they connect they’re the parts of the

body inside your body

they connect bones to muscles or bones

to

or to like organs they hold the

parts of the body together inside so

a sprain is damaged to a ligament

a sprain so we can say um for example

to sprain a part of the body a specific

part of the body

um some common examples come from sports

injuries like

he sprained his ankle playing basketball

last week

or i sprained my wrist uh

working in the garden or something i

don’t know but i think a sprain happens

when you push the like the joint or you

push that part

of the body beyond the possible

or the reasonable range of motion so my

example sentence i already said it but

he sprained his ankle at the basketball

game last week

bruce the next word is bruise bruise so

a bruise refers to

taking like a taking an impact something

that’s

not a sharp impact it’s usually like a

blunt

impact i suppose i don’t know kind of

depends but anyway

a bruise we can use it as a noun or as a

verb actually

uh to bruise something means you damage

usually like uh

this the a certain area of skin and

blood collects under the skin

creating like a black or blue or maybe

even like greenish color

purple maybe to use it as a noun we can

say that that spot

is a bruise we refer to that damaged

area as a bruise

to use it as a verb however we can say i

bruised my

arm or i bruised my leg so to bruise

something means to cause

damage but it’s like under the skin we

can see

the color change because of the damage

the blood collecting there so that’s

to bruise something in a sentence i

bruised my

arm when i ran into the door cut

the next word is cut cut so cut is done

with a

sharp object a cut a cut refers to

an injury which causes blood

to emerge usually unless it’s a very

shallow cut shallow is the opposite of

deep

so a cut is caused by a sharp object

so a knife is probably the most common

thing that comes to mind

when talking about cuts though another

very common type of cut

is is called a paper cut as a noun so

uh if you’ve ever tried to take a piece

of paper

and the pa the piece of paper has kind

of

made a small cut on your hand that’s

called a

paper cut a paper cut so it’s that kind

of

slice motion that injures the body

is a cut all right in a sentence be

careful not to cut

yourself when using a knife

wound the next word is wound

wound so a wound is just a place

of injury on the body um we have

a couple of different words we can use

to be specific

about wounds they’re like an open wound

and a closed wound i suppose you could

say but

usually people say things like don’t

touch open

wounds so an open wound is usually like

a fresh

wound so something has been recently

damaged on the body recently injured

and the wound is fresh maybe we can see

blood or maybe we can see

into the body or something that’s

considered an

open wound so a closed wound would be

perhaps

a wound which has been fixed by a doctor

or for small wounds like

maybe the body has created a new layer

over the top of the wound that’s called

a scab you

you scabs ew but that’s that’s not an

open wound then but we should still care

for it so a

wound is a place on the body that is

injured in some way a wound

um that’s used as a noun we can also use

wound as a verb

which means to hurt

something like um i wounded my arm

but wound is not so common i think in

everyday speech instead we use the verb

hurt i hurt my arm but i’ll talk more

about this later

so in a sentence don’t touch open wounds

injure the next word is injure

injure so i’ve been talking a little bit

about the word

injure to injure means to hurt a part of

the body

so to injure your arm to injure your

head to injure your neck

these mean to take damage on

that part of the body to injure

something um so it’s typically a bad

thing to

injure something the noun form of this

word is

injury injury so i have an injury

we use this word more with uh like

perhaps sports

i guess military yeah i guess so um but

for for

every day like just small i don’t know

for small

injuries i suppose like paper cuts for

example or like maybe a cooking

accident i suppose we don’t really say

injury we will say we’ll use the verb

um hurt actually again i’ll talk about

that word a little later but

injury injury is damaged taking damage

to a part of the body

in a sentence she injured her shoulder

this morning

tear the next word is tear

tear be careful this word is spelled

t-e-a-r

it looks like tear but used as a verb it

is tear

tear to talk about an injury so a tear

if you can imagine like a piece of paper

when we want to uh separate it into two

pieces we can

tear the piece of paper now imagine that

same

idea but with a muscle in the body

so a muscle tear refers to that kind of

damage

to the muscle so quite painful i think

you can imagine so

to tear a muscle uh requires yeah some

serious recovery time i imagine i have

never torn a muscle yeah that’s a good

point

the past participle form is torn

torn have you ever torn a muscle uh or

the past tense the past tense is tor i

tore my

shoulder muscle last week i don’t know

awful awful in a sentence tearing a

muscle is painful

pull pull pull so we use

pull again with muscles but this is

different from

tear so to tear a muscle refers to this

kind of

break motion so to pull a muscle means

to stretch a muscle

too much so it the muscle is like just

taken beyond

uh its limits essentially and so it kind

of causes some discomfort there’s kind

of a bad feeling in the muscle

uh in a sentence i think i pulled a

muscle ouch

dislocate dislocate dislocate so here we

see

the word locate referring to location

and dis dis which means not in other

words so

to dislocate something refers to

removing a part of the body from its

correct position

and shifting it slightly so this is

something that you hear

with joints so a joint is a

part of the body where two things come

together so

for example a shoulder we can talk about

the shoulder and dislocate together so

if we say a sentence like i think i

dislocated my shoulder

maybe the correct position of part of

the shoulder is to fit into

another bone like this but maybe

dislocating the shoulder means like it

moved this way

or i don’t know how to dislocate a

shoulder but either way the correct

position is here

the dislocated position is maybe here or

here

i don’t know so the bone is not broken

there’s no

crack there’s no break there it’s just a

shift in position

so the word we use is dislocate to

dislocate something

in a sentence he dislocated his shoulder

and

popped it back into place

hurt hurt to hurt something i’ve talked

about this verb a few times already in

this lesson

but to hurt means to injure or to wound

it’s like the very

general verb that we can use to describe

all damage to the body so hurt

generally means kind of a small injury

like

ah i hurt my finger i slammed it in the

door

or i think i hurt my arm playing tennis

last week

we usually use this for kind of minor

injuries not such

big injuries so in this case for example

if i say i hurt my wrist

it sounds a little too minor actually

this is probably a more severe injury

i would probably say yeah i i broke my

wrist i would use something very

specific

instead of hurt to refer more generally

to just small

everyday damage to the body you can say

hurt

we also use this word to refer to pain

in the body too like ow

my arm hurts ow my wrist hurts

instead of saying painful we use the

verb

hurts more often so it’s less natural to

say my wrist is so painful

instead we say my wrist hurts it

hurts is better than painful so try that

out

in a sentence i hurt myself a lot on

accident

i have an idea the first expression

is i have an idea i have an idea this is

a really

general expression you can use to

introduce a new idea

this is pretty casual but you can use it

in slightly more formal situations

as well i have an idea let’s get

thai food for lunch or i have an idea

let’s go to the beach this weekend i

have an idea

let’s take a nap in this example

sentence i have an idea

let’s start a company i’ve been thinking

the next expression is i’ve been

thinking i’ve been

thinking you can use this to say i’ve

been thinking

and then begin an idea or you can say

i’ve been thinking about

topic i’ve been thinking about topics so

i’ve been thinking about finding a new

job or

i’ve been thinking what do you want to

do for summer vacation

so you can use it in a couple of

different ways i’ve been thinking about

or i’ve been thinking

both are okay so in this sentence i’ve

been thinking about baking a cake

all day here’s a thought

the next word is here’s a thought here’s

a thought so again this is a word you

can use to introduce

an idea here is a thought in other words

here is an idea

a thought from my mind here you are

here’s a thought

so you can use this to introduce an idea

you have had

here’s a thought why don’t you get a

haircut

in this example sentence here’s a

thought why don’t you take tomorrow off

what do you think the next expression is

what do you think what do you think very

common way to ask for someone’s

opinion what do you think we connect the

words do

and you quite closely in this expression

what do you think what do you think

sounds much more natural than

what do you think so try to use what do

you think

so this is uh this is just a general way

to

ask for someone else’s opinion about

anything

really in a sentence i kind of want to

eat something spicy for lunch

what do you think you want to know what

i think

the next expression is you want to know

what i think

so this is sort of a like a challenge

almost like it’s asking the other person

do you want to know my opinion do you

want to know what i think

because i’ll tell you only if you want

to know

so you want to know what i think or you

can drop

wanna and say you know what i think so

that

you becomes ya you know what i think you

know becomes you know

so you know what i think or you want to

know what i think so it’s a little bit

of a challenge a little bit of an

introduction

before you actually share your opinion

in a sentence

you want to know what i think it’s a

terrible idea

i’ve thought about this a lot the next

expression is

i’ve thought about this a lot i’ve

thought about this a lot

in this expression we’re actually using

the present perfect tense

i’ve thought i’ve thought so that’s

i have thought about this meaning

i started thinking about this in the

past

and my thinking has continued to the

present

i’ve thought about this a lot so this

implies

this tells the listener it’s something

that has been

on your mind for a while i’ve thought

about this a lot

so your opinion is based on

all of this past thinking so something

you have been thinking about

for a long time in a sentence i’ve

thought about this a lot

and i really think you should quit the

company

i have no idea i have

no idea i have no idea means i don’t

know

but i have no idea means zero

i have no information no ideas i can’t

think

of anything absolutely nothing no idea i

have no

idea so this is typically used in

response

to a question for information like

where’s your brother

i have no idea like

what did you do with the keys i have no

idea

so some things like you just you have no

information

absolutely no information you can say i

have no idea

i don’t know please note though that the

idea part of the sentence is in the

singular form

i have no idea we’ll talk about why in

just a moment but i have no idea to

refer to having

no information about something in

another sentence

the best hotel in the city i have no

idea

i have no ideas the next expression

is i have no ideas i have no ideas

so here different from i have no idea

we’re using the plural form ideas

ideas meaning someone is asking you for

a proposal

someone is asking you like to create

something to

make something perhaps so um they’re

asking for a suggestion and if you don’t

have any suggestions nothing to propose

you can say

i have no ideas i have no idea so what

do you want to do this weekend

i have no ideas or what do you want to

eat for lunch

i have no ideas really so if you don’t

have

any ideas nothing to propose you can use

this with an

s at the end of ideas in another

sentence

something to do this weekend i have no

ideas

i don’t know the next expression is i

don’t know i don’t know

so michael and i talked about this in an

episode of english topics

many years ago but i don’t know is i

don’t know the casual contracted version

of

i don’t know i don’t know i don’t know i

don’t know

so we use this when we don’t know the

answer to something i don’t know or when

we just want to kind of like relieve

pressure or when we’re when when we’re

out of things to say

as well i don’t know so when we’re like

not feeling sure

not feeling confident as well we can use

this phrase

in a sentence why are you asking me i

don’t know

i knew it the last expression is

i knew it i knew it so here we’re using

the past

tense of no the verb to know something

meaning to understand or to comprehend

we’re using the past tense new i knew it

so we use this expression when we

guessed correctly about something or

when

something we thought was true

uh is proven to be correct so i

knew it i knew it so this is typically

said with a positive

positive voice you hear this a lot in

movies as well i think

all right in a sentence you had my keys

i knew it

let’s begin with the basic definition of

this verb the basic definition of the

verb to put

is to place something in a location

examples

put your bag over there don’t put your

feet on the sofa

let’s look at some conjugations for this

verb now present

put puts past put

past participle put progressive

pudding

let’s talk about some additional

meanings for the verb to put

the first one is to write to write

examples

put your name on this line she put her

name on the list

so when we say put in this way we refer

to writing so you’re adding some

information to

a written document or a typed document

as well so it can mean to write or like

to type

information so put your name on this

line means like write your name or

type your name on this line in the

second example sentence she put her name

on the list

it means the same thing she wrote her

name on a list or she added her name to

a list in some way

it means writing information okay let’s

go on to the second additional meaning

the second additional meaning is to use

words to express

something to use words to express

something examples

how should i put this you’re putting it

quite simply

so we can replace the word put with

express like

how should i express this in the first

example sentence but we use

put because put sounds much less formal

than express

how should i express this it sounds way

too formal way too polite

instead we say how should i put this we

use that uh

expression when we’re not quite sure how

to say

something like we’re maybe talking about

a sensitive topic and we don’t know the

correct words to use or

it’s difficult to explain you can say

how should i put this

in the second example sentence you’re

putting it quite simply

it means you’re expressing things quite

simply so maybe it’s a complex situation

but the listener

is explaining things or expressing

things maybe too simply so the speaker

in this case could say you’re putting it

quite simply

okay let’s go on to the third meaning

the third meaning is rather open and

kind of vague which is to cause to be

in a situation to cause to be in a

situation let’s look at some examples

this change puts the whole company at

risk

your terrible driving puts us all in

danger

so in these examples we see put is used

to refer

to a situation that some

group of people or some person is caused

to be in so in the first example

sentence this

change puts the whole company at risk

this change causes the whole company to

be at risk in a situation of risk

in a condition of risk we use put to

refer to that to

refer to being caused to be in the

situation

of risk the second example sentence is

the same

your terrible driving this is the reason

why the people are in danger in this

example sentence your terrible driving

puts us all in danger your terrible

driving causes us all to be in a

condition of danger it’s very clumsy

but we use the verb put to make this

quite short and easy to say

your terrible driving puts us all in

danger okay

there are so many variations so many

phrasal verbs to use with put yeah so

check a dictionary

for more these are just a few i’m going

to introduce but check a dictionary for

this

the first variation for the verb put is

put aside to put aside

so to put aside means to stop thinking

about something

to seize or to pause an activity while

you do something else

examples put aside your worries and

relax for a day

i put my phone aside and tried to focus

on my work

so in both of these example sentences we

see that one thing is kind of being

moved away

from the focus so for example in the

first example sentence

put aside your worries it means like

stop thinking about your worries like

put those to the side

in your mind like like uh don’t think

about those things for a while

so in the second example sentence i’m

talking about my phone where i’m saying

i can literally put my phone aside

put my phone to the side of the thing

i’m doing and focus

on my work i put my phone aside so we

can use this to talk about a concept in

our minds or to talk about a physical

object as well

okay let’s go on to the next variation

so the next variation is to put someone

down it means

to disrespect someone or to make fun of

someone to make them feel bad about

themselves

some examples don’t put down your

classmates it’s rude

his boss keeps putting him down in front

of his co-workers so in both of these

examples we see

situations where one person is being

disrespected by

another person so don’t put down your

classmates it’s rude so this in this

case

the listener is maybe a kid in school

who is disrespectful to his or her

classmates so a parent or a teacher

might say

don’t put down meaning don’t disrespect

your classmates don’t be mean to your

classmates don’t make fun of your

classmates

so you know be kind to them in other

words don’t put down your classmates you

could also say don’t put your classmates

down if you like that’s fine too

in the second example sentence we see a

work situation like his boss always puts

him down

in front of his co-workers means the

boss disrespects this person in front of

his co-workers so

it’s a disrespectful situation okay

but one point about this the expression

to put someone down

refers to disrespect with regard to

humans however when

talking about animals like we had to put

the cat down we had to put the dog down

it means usually due to some serious

sickness or some serious

injury or illness the owners of the pet

usually a pet or the animal decide

that the pet should have doctor assisted

death so to put down an animal means to

choose to

allow the animal to die peacefully

instead of

suffering so we used that expression i

had to put my cat

down this is a much more soft expression

than the doctor killed my cat which is

essentially what happens but it’s

because of some kind of suffering

or some kind of illness or injury the

owner wants to prevent

we use the expression to put an animal

down

in those cases we do not use this for

people we don’t say

i had to put my brother down though we

do actually have

an expression for babies which which we

use when we put babies to bed

like i’m going to put down the baby for

bed we do have that

but please be cautious of the

differences between animals and humans

with this expression to put someone down

has very different meanings okay let’s

go on to the next variation which is to

put

up with to put up with means to tolerate

something

examples i don’t want to put up with

this crazy schedule anymore

don’t put up with their bad behavior in

these examples

put up with refers to tolerating or

being able to stand something or

continuing to live with something

in the first example sentence i can’t

put up with this crazy schedule anymore

means i don’t want to live with this

crazy schedule anymore i can’t stand it

i don’t want to do it anymore

in the second example sentence don’t put

up with their bad behavior it means

don’t tolerate their bad behavior so put

up with something means like to continue

living with something

and we often see it in the negative form

as in don’t

put up with something

let’s begin with the basic definition of

this verb the basic definition

of carry is to move while holding or

supporting something examples can you

carry this bag

i always carry a pen

okay let’s look at the conjugations for

this verb present

carry carries past

carried past participle carried

progressive carrying

now let’s talk about some additional

meanings for this verb the first

additional meaning is to move a person

or an object from one place to another

example veins carry blood throughout the

body

the bust carried the children to school

so here we see objects and people

being moved from one place to another

through

or via or by something else and we use

the verb

carry to describe that in the first

example sentence

veins carry blood throughout the body

veins are the

like you can see them on your arm

usually blue colored

they’re the kind of like pipes i guess

you could say like imagine them as pipes

that carry blood

so blood travels through the body

through these veins

so we can say veins carry blood

through the body so veins are the method

through which

blood moves throughout the body so veins

are carrying

the blood we kind of can imagine in that

way they’re caring they’re responsible

for

carrying the blood so we can say that

veins are kind of responsible for

moving blood around the body we can use

the verb

carry to explain that in the second

example sentence the bus

carried the kids to school the bus is

the method of transport for the kids

so the kids are moving from one place to

another place

the bus is the method of movement so the

bus

carried the kids to school we can use

carrie to talk about this

transportation the second additional

meaning is to have a gene

or illness examples

rodents are known to carry rabies

some people carry diseases they don’t

know about

in the first example sentence we see

rodents are known to

carry rabies so rodents are like

small like rats or mice those kinds of

dirty sort of creatures

wild creatures rabies is a disease a

serious illness that like

causes you to behave strangely and your

body has really strange problems too

i won’t talk about rabies that much not

so important here but

rodents are known to carry rabies so

the um the small like the biological

parts the things that cause rabies they

carry that illness rodents are known to

carry

so it doesn’t mean carry like a backpack

really but

carry a gene or carry an illness carry a

sickness

inside the body in this case rodents are

known to carry the sickness that is

rabies

inside their bodies in the second

example sentence

some people carry diseases they don’t

know about

it means some people have diseases in

their body

but they don’t know about the disease so

you can imagine like we

carry the disease we hold it in our body

and we move around

but we don’t know about it we use the

verb carry to talk about this

let’s move on to the third meaning the

third additional meaning is to make

something a success to make something a

success

examples his leadership carried the team

through a difficult time

her performance carries the show so in

both of these examples we see that

someone carried something

so someone caused something to be

successful

because of their actions or because of

their leadership

as we see in the first example sentence

so his leadership

carried the team through a difficult

time means

the team was successful in a difficult

time because of his leadership but we

use the verb

carry to mean that so we can kind of

imagine that this one person in this

case his leadership

his leadership and his abilities to be a

good leader

in other words were kind of the thing

that carried the team so we can imagine

the whole team

is on top of this one guy’s leadership

skill so he is responsible

for making the team a success in a

difficult

time so we use carrie to explain that

in the second example sentence her

performance carried the show

it means her performance was so good it

was so

important that the show was a success

because of it so without her performance

maybe the show would not have been

successful but her performance was

really really good

her performance made the show a success

her performance

carried the show the fourth meaning of

this verb is to

reach a distance to reach a distance

this can be like sound or it can be

something

physical some examples of this

the sound of the thunder carried 20

kilometers

ash from the volcano carried into the

air

so here we’re not actually carrying

a physical object in the first example

sentence it’s

sound traveling so the sound of thunder

carried 20 kilometers it means we were

able to hear the sound of thunder 20

kilometers away from the source

so the sound carried in other words we

use carry to refer to

sound traveling a distance in the second

example sentence ash from the volcano

carried into the air it means the ash

from the volcano

moved into the air we could even say

like the ash from the volcano

carried into the next city for example

so it traveled

into the next city it traveled some

distance but we can use

carry to talk about that as well

let’s move on to some variations for

this verb so the first variation

is to get carried away to get carried

away this means to get too excited or

too

involved in something usually it has

like a positive meaning we get carried

away because we’re excited

about something but let’s look at some

examples first i got a little carried

away

baking last night he got carried away

listening to music

both of these examples are pretty

innocent in the first example sentence

we see i got a little carried away

baking last night it’s like i baked too

much last night the idea is that i was

too excited about my baking

and i baked too much or maybe i stayed

up too late

making something i got carried away with

it i did too much of it because i was so

interested in this thing in the second

example sentence he got carried away

listening to music it maybe means he

spent too much time listening to music

maybe

he forgot to do his homework or he

forgot to go to work or he was late for

work or something

because he was carried away he was so

interested in listening to music

he forgot something or he did too much

of it in other words so

this generally just means that you’re

too excited about something or too

involved in something so it can have a

positive meaning

the next variation is to carry over to

carry

over means to continue into the next

period to continue into the next period

examples

unused data will carry over into the

next month

my airline miles carried over into this

year so these two

expressions both use like points or

miles or some kind of data

in the first example sentence it’s like

a mobile phone contract

unused data will carry over into the

next month

if for example i have one gig of data

available on my mobile phone

every month but i only use 500 megabytes

i have 500 megabytes remaining that’s my

unused data that amount carries

over to the next month that means i have

one gigabyte

plus 500 megabytes of data to use in the

next month

so carry over means that amount

continues to the next period

we see the same thing in the second

example sentence my airline miles

carried over

into this year meaning my airline miles

from the previous year

carried over or continued into this year

so maybe i didn’t use those miles last

year

but they continued into this year and i

can still

use them so carrying over means

continuing something

we see it a lot in like credit card

contracts or like mileage plans or data

plans

anything with data points numbers we

might see that sort of thing

the basic definition of the verb catch

is

to gain hold of something that is

traveling through the air moving through

the air usually examples

she caught the ball catch this

let’s look at the conjugations for this

verb

present catch catches

caught past participle caught

progressive catching

now let’s talk about some additional

meanings for this verb

the first additional meaning for this

verb is to find or

see someone doing something wrong

some examples i caught you trying to

steal from the company safe

have you ever been caught eating late at

night so in both of these example

sentences we see behavior

being discovered that is wrong in some

way

in the first example sentence i caught

you trying to steal from the company

safe

someone was discovered trying to steal

from the company’s safe that was a bad

behavior so we use the verb

catch in this case past tense caught i

caught you

meaning i discovered you i saw you doing

this thing that was

bad we see the same thing in the second

example sentence but it’s phrased as a

question

have you ever been caught eating late at

night so eating late at night is kind of

considered to be unhealthy is not

typically a good behavior so we can use

the verb

catch in this case caught have you ever

been cosh a past participle form

to express this question have you ever

been caught eating late at night

let’s move on to the second additional

meaning for this verb which is

to be held or stuck to something so

examples

my jacket got caught on the door i

caught my hair on a hook

so both of these examples refer to

something on our bodies like the first

example sentence is about a jacket but

we can use it for clothing

so it’s like if your clothing gets

caught on something this is

my shirt is caught on my finger right

now i would say so it’s stuck here i

can’t move it

so i have to release it from my finger

we use cot to talk about that

my second example sentence was about my

hair like i got my hair caught on a hook

or i

caught my hair on a hook it’s somehow

stuck or attached to something else

so we use catch to talk about this of

course we can use it with other things

like

headphones for example like i always

catch my headphones on doorknobs that is

true

like the doorknobs to like or door

handles like

my headphones like will wrap around as

i’m leaving the house and like ah

i can get stuck on that that happens all

the time

so you can use it to talk about your

body parts your clothing

or just other objects too that get held

in place on accident with

catch i got something caught on

something else

the third additional meaning for this

verb is to be able to hear

something to be able to hear something

examples

i didn’t catch what you said she

couldn’t catch any of the announcements

in the noisy train station

so this means to be able to hear

something in the first example sentence

it’s a negative i didn’t catch what you

said in other words

i was not able to hear what you said i

didn’t catch what you said

or i didn’t catch that means i couldn’t

hear you in other words

in the second example sentence it’s

about a noisy train station where a

person

cannot catch the announcements can’t

hear the announcements i can’t quite

catch what the announcements are saying

so that means it’s difficult to hear or

it’s difficult to understand the

announcements because it’s a noisy

environment

so catch can mean be able to hear

something

okay the fourth additional meaning for

this verb is to start

burning like to start a fire

specifically

examples his house caught fire late last

night

the curtains caught fire because they

were too close to a candle

so to catch fire means to start fire to

start something burning to catch fire is

the moment that a flame appears

somewhere

so catching fire is not um like kind of

the smoldering

coals not like the glowing coals in

something

but it’s actual flame so to start a

fire it’s like that moment of wow like

there’s suddenly heat

and there’s suddenly you know like a

candle for example the candle we can

light a candle on fire

though i should say we tend to use the

expression

catches fire or something caught fire

because of an accident so we don’t say

like

um i went camping and the wood

caught on fire we use caught on fire for

like something that was maybe not

on purpose so in my two example

sentences the first one

his house caught on fire late last night

he wasn’t planning

for his house to go up in flames but it

happened

in the second example sentence it’s

curtains too close to a candle so

there’s kind of this nuance of an

accident a bad accident

if you don’t want to imply an accident

if you want to show that something was

on purpose you can use the verb

light past tense lit like i lit a fire

with a lighter

or let’s light a fire in the barbecue

for example

so to light a fire is on purpose for

something to

catch fire sounds like oh it was maybe

an accident or not on purpose

let’s move on to some variations for

this verb now

the first variation is to catch

someone’s eye to catch someone’s eye

this means to attract

attention usually for a positive reason

examples that sail caught my eye

an advertisement for a wine party caught

his eye

so this is kind of a strange expression

when you think about it like to catch

someone’s eyes like

kind of gross like you imagine like

someone’s eyeball catching an eyeball

but

actually it just means drawing the

attention of the eye so in the first

example sentence

it’s about a sale the sale caught my eye

so meaning i saw an advertisement for a

sale

my eye was attracted to the

advertisement for that

the second example sentence is the same

an advertisement for a wine party caught

his eye so there’s some wine party

tasting wines whatever

for whatever reason it attracts his eyes

it attracts his vision so he looks at it

we say it caught his eye attracts

attention

usually for a positive reason so the

second variation is to catch up with to

catch up with so this is an expression

that means to talk about

life since the last time you met some

examples

i caught up with a friend from

elementary school let’s catch up again

soon

so catching up with someone refers to

talking with another person

or talking with other people about the

recent events in your life

so from the last time you saw someone

what have you done so if you haven’t

seen someone since elementary school

as in the first example sentence you

talk about all the things that you have

done

since elementary school so maybe that’s

a long time for some of you

or if it’s somebody that you have seen

recently you could try using the second

example sentence let’s

catch up again soon meaning maybe after

a few weeks or a month or so

you want to meet that person again and

find out what they did

so this is a nice expression that’s like

you want to know what the other person

is doing or what they have

done since the last time you saw them

let’s catch up

the basic definition of this verb is to

put something in a specified location

examples i placed my cup on the desk

she placed her earrings next to the bed

let’s look at the conjugations for this

verb

present place places

past placed past participle

placed progressive placing

now let’s talk about some additional

meanings for this verb

so let’s look at the first additional

meaning of this it’s

to make to make this is commonly used as

to make an order or to make a bet

let’s look at some examples of this

place your

bets she placed an order for 50 plates

of fried rice

so here we see place being used to mean

make the first example sentence place

your bets that’s an example of a

sentence you’ll hear at a casino

so dealers card dealers inside casinos

will often begin a card game

by saying place your bets to the people

who are playing which means

make your bet or decide on an amount of

money

you want to play for this game they use

the verb place

place your bets maybe you’ll hear make

your bet but i think place your bet

is probably the most common expression

used in the second example we see

placed an order she placed an order you

can substitute make here you can say she

made an order for

but to place an order this is just a

different way to say it to me

place an order sounds a little more

polite

than make an order like you could use

both on the phone i suppose like i’d

like to make an order for i’d like to

place an order for

both would be okay to me place sounds

maybe a little bit more polite but

it means to make something to make an

order or in the first example to make

a bet the second additional meaning is

to recognize to recognize

this meaning as you’ll see in the

example sentences

is often in the negative form

let’s look at some examples i feel like

i’ve seen that guy somewhere before

but i just can’t place him i can’t place

this quote

who said it so here we see place being

used to mean like recognize or we can’t

quite understand the origin of that

person or that thing

in the first example sentence we see i

just can’t place him we’re talking about

someone’s face

so if you know someone’s face but maybe

you can’t remember the name or

in this case you don’t remember where

you met that person or your connection

to that person

you can say i just can’t place him

meaning

i don’t know why i know this person but

i

recognize his face so here we see the

negative this is commonly used in the

negative i can’t

place him in the second example sentence

i can’t

place this quote means i don’t know

where this

quote originated from or i don’t know

where this quote

came from so maybe it’s a famous person

who said the quote

but i just can’t remember who that is i

can’t like recognize i can’t

uh recall where this information came

from

i can’t place this quote so this means

to recognize in these cases

okay the third additional meaning is to

put

in a certain condition or state

examples the court placed him under

arrest

she was placed on a strict contract so

in both of these example sentences we

see

some condition being set in the first

example we see

placed under arrest placed under arrest

means

the person involved was put in the

condition

of arrest placed under arrest

in the second example sentence she was

placed on a strict contract

it means she was put into a condition of

a strict contract

so we use placed to refer to that so to

place

can mean to put someone or something

into a state

or into a condition the fourth

additional meaning is to find someone a

location to live

or work examples we haven’t placed the

young man yet

they’re placing the family next week so

in these example sentences

someone is looking for a spot to live or

a spot to work

for another person there are two groups

or two parties involved here

in the first example sentence we haven’t

placed the young man yet

it means the speaker or the group

involved with the speaker

is looking for a location for the young

man in the situation to live

or work so what is the situation this

does seem kind of strange perhaps but

in some countries maybe it’s similar in

your country there may be kind of like

protection services

especially for children and for families

who

have had like legal trouble or trouble

with

like dangerous people in their lives and

they need to be

relocated to a new city or to a new

workplace so there are services for

families like that for individuals like

that

that’s a situation where we might use

this word we also might see this

in like schools for example if you are

looking for a location

looking for a classroom looking for a

dorm or something

for a student so one person is

responsible for finding a place for

finding a location

for another person we can use place to

talk about that

in the second example sentence they’re

placing the family next week it means

they’re completing the placing process

so that means they have found a place

they have found a location for a family

and are going to take the family

to that location next week so to place

is to find a location for someone

let’s move on to some variations for

this verb the first variation

is to find one’s place to find one’s

place

this means to determine how to fit in

socially okay examples of this

i think i finally found my place she’s

having trouble

finding her place at school so here

we’re seeing examples that involve

someone finding their social position so

to find one’s place

means to find a nice position a position

that’s

appropriate for them in their society or

within their life

in the first example i think i finally

found my place we see past

tense found my place which means i’ve

discovered this position

is best for me in the second example

sentence she’s having trouble finding

her place

at school it means she’s having trouble

positioning herself within the society

that is her school like she has her

school life and she hasn’t

quite discovered yet the best uh

location for her the best way to fit in

with the people around her so this

refers to your societal position in your

small or big society

the next variation is to know one’s

place to no one’s place

this refers to understanding your status

in society

and it’s typically used to refer to

people who are

below others as well like we typically

don’t use this to talk about people who

are above us

we might use it to talk about ourselves

in reference to

being below someone or someone from a

higher position might talk about the

people below them

oftentimes with a kind of disrespect

let’s look at some examples

he made sure his workers always knew

their place

i know my place that restaurant is way

too nice for me to visit

so here we see examples of people

behaving or being expected to behave

in accordance with their social status

in the first one

he made sure his workers always knew

their place

the nuance here is that he is like some

kind of boss or like

authority figure and the others the

workers which we see

workers indicates they’re below him they

know their place

so in other words they know that their

role they know that their status in

society is

lower and he wants to make sure they

know that so this has a bit of an

air of disrespect about it in the second

example sentence it’s a person talking

about himself or herself

i know my place that restaurant is too

nice for me

meaning i know that i am societally of a

level below

the level required to visit that

restaurant so in other words i shouldn’t

go there it’s too nice it’s too

expensive it’s too fancy for me

i know my place is below that restroom

so

interesting very interesting

listen to the dialogue what do you do

i’m an artist listen to it again

what do you do i’m an artist

first of all you need to learn how to

say what do you do

what do you do listen to it again

what do you do

what do you do

now how do you answer this question

this is the pattern you’ll need i’m a

i’m in your occupation

i’m a and your occupation

for example i’m an artist i’m

an artist

i’m an artist

here are a few more professions you can

use with the same pattern

police officer police officer

police officer

teacher teacher

teacher doctor

doctor doctor

engineer engineer

engineer

now listen to some examples

what do you do i’m a teacher

what do you do i’m a doctor

what do you do i am an engineer

okay now it’s your turn do you remember

how to say

what do you do

what do you do

imagine you’re a doctor do you remember

how to say doctor

doctor doctor

say i’m a doctor

i’m a doctor now answer the questions

saying that you are a doctor

what do you do

i’m a doctor

now imagine you’re a teacher do you

remember how to say teacher

teacher teacher

say i’m a teacher

i’m a teacher now answer the question

saying that you are a teacher

what do you do

i’m a teacher

now imagine you’re an engineer do you

remember how to say

engineer

engineer engineer

say i’m an engineer

i am an engineer now

answer the question saying that you are

an engineer

what do you do

i am an engineer

first question this week comes from

sithi

hi sithi sithi says hi alicia what is

the difference between

figure out and find out in terms of

meaning and when to use etc

okay nice question so first let’s look

at

figure out to figure out means to solve

we use figure out when we have a

challenging problem or we have like a

complex

puzzle something that we need to do

research

on or we need to investigate into a

little bit

in order to find a solution so to figure

out

means to solve for example i can’t

figure out what’s wrong with my computer

i figured out why the house smelled so

bad someone forgot to take out the

garbage

we need to figure out why the software

isn’t working

so let’s compare this to find out

to find out means to discover especially

when we’re talking about a secret

or a surprise or something else that we

need to hide for some reason

you may also hear it used as a neutral

way to say discover

but you can kind of tell depending on

the context so to find out means to

discover

especially when you’re talking about a

secret for example

my parents found out i left the house

late last night

my boss found out one of our employees

has been stealing

hey i found out about a great new

restaurant in the neighborhood want to

go

so we don’t use these words

interchangeably in some

to figure something out means to solve

something like a puzzle or you’re

finding the solution to

a challenge to find out means to

discover and it often has a negative

meaning

as when someone finds information that

they were not

meant to find so i hope that this helps

you understand the difference thanks for

the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question

comes from jerry’s song hi jerry jerry

says

i usually watch tv shows to practice

listening

but sometimes i can’t clearly hear what

the characters say

even though i know the words when i see

them in the subtitles

so how do i improve this ah that’s a

good question

keep in mind that there are a few

reasons why

it might be difficult to understand a

character

especially in unscripted tv like reality

tv where people

aren’t always speaking clearly the words

that people choose and the way that they

make sentences

may not be perfect so please keep that

in mind

people in unscripted tv shows often are

not speaking clearly

or maybe they have a specific accent or

a special way that they speak

they may also just be stopping and

starting in the middle of sentences and

that can create some weird sounds too

so try to keep in mind that unscripted

tv in particular

um might not sound as

clear as scripted tv it might not sound

as clear as like this youtube channel

either so those are a couple of things

to keep in mind

other things that you can consider

though are reductions

in speech and just speed of speech so

on this channel we speak at a slower

rate than native pace

and we also make an effort to speak very

clearly to help people as they learn

english but native speakers don’t do

this usually

something in general to consider like

even though characters may have accents

that are difficult to understand even

for native speakers

something that you can consider for your

english learning is

to consider reductions in speech

so by that i mean the connections that

we make

between words and the ways that we make

words

shorter for example i’m going to go to

the store

to pick up something for dinner that

sentence said by a native speaker at

native speed would probably sound

something like

i’m going to go to the store to pick up

something for dinner so we’ve reduced a

lot of those sounds together

these words like i’m going to go that

are

very commonly used together are often

reduced

to i’m going to go or i’m going to go to

the

so think about these common reductions

that you hear

on tv and in movies and so on and try to

practice those in addition

to considering how it looks on the page

so yes

it’s i am going to in the subtitle or

i’m going to

but at native speed it doesn’t sound

like that in many cases i’m gonna go to

the

is how i’m gonna go to the or i’m going

to go to the

sounds in native speech so another point

about reductions in speech

is prepositional phrases so those words

like to

and at and by and even conjunctions like

and and but

and so on those words tend to get very

very short when we’re speaking quickly

because they’re kind of giving us the

structure of the sentence

so you can think of these sort of

structure words as being sort of the

background of the sentence

and the content words like the nouns and

the verbs

are kind of taking the focus those are

sort of the highlights so these are some

other things that you can think of as

you’re practicing your listening and

your speaking with reductions

so please keep these things in mind and

also keep in mind as i said people speak

with different accents too

people from different areas of the us

speak differently people from different

areas of the world

speak different kinds of english too so

please keep in mind that in some cases

it’s actually difficult for native

speakers as well

but another thing that maybe you can

work on to kind of advance your

listening

and even your speaking is to consider

reductions so listening for those

reductions and then considering how you

can use those reductions in your speech

as well to sound more natural

so that would be my suggestion for

improving your listening

and improving your speaking as you

practice with these reductions in your

own speech

too so i hope that that helps you thanks

very much for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question

comes from juniodide

raza junaidraza hello janae junaid says

hello alicia

most people are confused about the

difference between

motivation and inspiration i know there

are definitions available in

dictionaries

but can you differentiate these two

words in detail

okay sure so inspiration is something

that

gives us an idea so we use

inspiration to create something new

inspiration is something that comes

naturally it comes from within us

so we have an experience we see

something or touch something we hear

something we smell something taste

something whatever

we have some kind of experience and it

gives us an idea so it comes from

like inside us this idea comes from

inside us

based on this experience that we had so

for example

my mother’s stories were my inspiration

for this book

or my childhood by the seashore was my

inspiration

for this dish so these are the things

that gave the speaker an idea to create

something else in the first example

there

the speaker’s stories were the

inspiration

for this book so that means the

speaker’s mother’s

stories were the thing that gave the

speaker the idea

in the second example sentence we can

imagine it’s about a chef

so the chef’s inspiration was a

childhood by the seaside

so that gave the chef the inspiration to

create that dish

so it’s something that happens and

there’s

a natural response in a person that

makes them think i’m gonna create

something in contrast then motivation is

something that comes from

outside us that gives us a push or that

helps us to continue

doing something and motivation is

usually for something that we maybe

don’t really want to do so like

on this channel we talk a lot about

finding motivation to study

so maybe studying is not something that

many people want to do

but we can recognize the benefits of

that so we need to find different

motivations for our studies

so some examples my mother’s

encouragement

provided the motivation i needed to

finish writing my book

my motivation to create this dish was to

share my childhood with the people who

eat at my restaurant

so in these sentences that are kind of

slightly changed from the first pair of

sentences i introduced

we’re talking about like the outside

reason

to do something so inspiration refers to

something that kind of comes naturally

from within you

motivation is more external it’s

something that’s pushing you or causing

you to move forward or to start

something to continue something

and it’s often for something we might

not otherwise have done

if this outside force had not been there

i would also say that personally i think

i

probably use the verb forms more than

the noun forms here

so that means i would use something like

this music really inspired me

and i hope to create my own music one

day or

my promotion really motivated me to work

harder so personally i think i tend to

use these as

verbs a little more often than as nouns

but

this is the difference in terms of

meaning between the two

so i hope that this helps you thanks for

the question okay let’s move on to your

next

question next question comes from tom hi

tom

tom says is it correct to say my

favorite song of all times

or do you have to use the form all time

yeah nice point we always say all time

we do not use

all times let’s look at a few more

examples

the greatest of all time my all-time

favorite food the most popular songs of

all time

so you’ll notice in these examples there

are actually two patterns that we can

use

the something of all time pattern and

the

all hyphen time plus adjective pattern

both are correct you can use both in

whatever situation you choose

they have the same meaning and the same

feel just note that these positions and

patterns are slightly different

also note that we always use the

singular time

there we’re not using times so please

make sure it’s always

all time greatest of all time and so on

so i hope that this helps you

thanks very much for the question okay

let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from mifta

hi again mifta

bifta says hi alicia i’ve heard the

idiom play

russian roulette how do we use it thanks

okay

nice one this is a very dark idiom that

refers to a

very very dangerous game so the origin

of this idiom is a game an actual game

called russian roulette so in the game

of russian roulette

one type of gun that’s called a revolver

is removed of all of the bullets except

for one

so one bullet remains in the revolver’s

chamber so this is the part of the gun

where the bullets are kept the bullets

are held

so one bullet is inserted into the

chamber of a revolver

and then the player spins the chamber

and closes

the chamber and we don’t know where the

bullet is

then the player points the gun at their

own head or at someone else’s head and

pulls the trigger so this is a very

dangerous and

very risky game so this is of course

not a game that i recommend in any way

but this is the origin

of this idiom today this idiom means to

do something very dangerous or to do

something very risky so it has a very

dark origin so we tend to use it to mean

something very dark for example

he’s playing russian roulette with his

career by skipping work all the time

so in this example sentence the item

that is kind of in danger is his career

so

playing russian roulette with his career

so his career

is the thing that is in danger we know

that because it’s connected to

russian roulette so to play russian

roulette with

this thing in danger and the action the

risky behavior is

skipping work all the time so he’s

playing russian roulette with his career

by skipping work all the time

that would mean in a non-idiomatic

expression

he’s in danger of losing his job at any

moment because he skips work all the

time

one more example they’re playing russian

roulette with their savings by making

this awful investment

so again here after russian roulette we

see

with their savings so here savings

refers to like a savings account or

money in someone’s savings

so that’s thing in danger that is the

item of danger here

and then the risky behavior is by making

an

awful investment or by making this awful

investment

so the they in this situation is making

this terrible investment this risky

investment

and putting their savings at risk so to

play russian roulette

means to do something very risky and

very dangerous and it has a very dark

and negative feeling

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