DELIVER Basic Verbs Learn English Grammar
want to speak real english from your
first lesson
sign up for your free lifetime account
at englishclass101.com
hi everybody welcome back to know your
verbs my name is alicia and in this
lesson we’re going to talk about the
verb
deliver let’s get started
let’s begin with the basic definition of
the verb deliver
the basic definition is to take
something from one person
and give it to another person some
examples
fedex delivered my package today he
delivers pizzas three nights a week
now let’s look at the conjugations for
this verb present
deliver delivers
delivered past participle delivered
progressive delivering
now let’s talk about some additional
meanings for this verb
the first additional meaning is to give
birth
or to help someone give birth
let’s start with some examples our
doctor has safely delivered
many babies the mother delivered twins
so this use of the verb deliver refers
specifically to childbirth sometimes the
verb is used to talk about someone like
a doctor
or a nurse or a midwife or other helper
aiding a mother in giving birth to
children
in that case we see sentences like the
first example sentence our doctor has
safely delivered
many babies that means the doctor has uh
assisted in the birth of many different
uh babies has assisted in
safely it’s probably a key word here but
safely delivered safely helped many
babies into the world
the second example sentence however is
focused on
the mother so the mother delivered twins
means the mother
gave birth to twins so deliver
refers to giving birth in that sentence
so depending on the subject of the
sentence it can mean either
helping someone give birth or actually
giving birth when we’re talking about
the mother usually
so deliver can refer to both of these
things but they’re both related to
childbirth child care let’s go on to the
second additional meaning for this
lesson
the second additional meaning for
deliver is to speak
or to sing especially when directed at
somebody let’s look at some examples
martin luther king jr delivered a moving
speech in washington dc the judge is
delivering the verdict later today
so both of these example sentences show
kind of a
formal event the first example sentence
refers to a very famous
speech the second example sentence
refers to a formal situation like a
courtroom where a judge
is delivering as in the example sentence
a verdict a verdict means a choice
a legal choice or a legal decision
really
so in the first example sentence uh
martin luther king jr
delivered a speech it means spoke yes
but there’s usually some kind of like
big
intention there’s a specific aim behind
the words
we could also use it to talk about
singing
like delivered an amazing performance
for example
if you’re talking about maybe opera just
to give an example
but there’s kind of some large aim some
purpose
some big like intention for the
performance uh
in the case of singing or for the words
in the case of speaking
so in the first example sentence we see
that it’s a speech it’s an important
speech
we’re talking about so martin luther
king jr delivered
an important speech we could say gave an
important speech
yes but using deliver kind of upgrades
the formality upgrades the seriousness
of the situation
the second example sentence about the
judge delivering
a verdict we see that choice of deliver
there because it’s a formal situation
again
we could say the judge gave the verdict
or the judge provided the verdict as
well
but deliver is like the judge is sort of
passing the information
in a formal manner this is kind of the
nuance of the word choice
deliver here so you can see deliver used
to
talk about communication informal and
kind of
important situations in this way let’s
go on to the next
additional meaning for this verb the
next additional meaning is
to produce results as promised
let’s start with some examples i’m not
sure they’re going to deliver on time
they delivered on their promises so this
use of the verb
deliver means to provide something
that’s expected like there’s some
order or there’s some request that has
been made
and that needs to be fulfilled so
someone needs to keep their promise
that’s the feeling of this use of
deliver
so in the first example sentence we see
i’m not sure they’re going to deliver on
time means i’m not sure they’re going to
keep their promise
on time like maybe the schedule has
changed some problem has arisen we don’t
know
but i’m not sure they’re going to
deliver means i’m not sure they’re going
to complete
the thing they said they would complete
in the time
frame we agreed upon so i’m not sure
they’re going to finish i’m not sure
they’re going to be able to do the thing
they said they would do on time the
second example
sentence is more positive though they
delivered on their promises here past
tense delivered so
they were able to do the things that
they promised to
so there was a promise made in the past
there was some agreement reached in the
past
and the agreement or the promise was
fulfilled they delivered on their
promises they were able to do the things
they said they would do
let’s continue to the next additional
meaning for the verb deliver
the next additional meaning is to save
someone
from something let’s start with some
examples
deliver us from evil the rescue team
delivered people from danger
a key point about this meaning of the
verb deliver
is that it’s rather formal and perhaps
even biblical biblical means it relates
to
the bible so if you have read
the bible or if you’re familiar with
some of the prayers
um or some of the ways of speaking
from the bible you might be familiar
with this use
that we see in the first example
sentence deliver
us from evil so deliver us from evil
means
save us from evil save us from evil
things
so deliver in this way is not so
commonly used in everyday speech if you
attend church or if you attend another
kind of religious or
maybe religiously related organization
you might hear this use of deliver there
in your community
in general however in the news we don’t
use the verb
deliver to talk about saving or maybe
even
rescuing people in those cases
like i said save and rescue are more
common deliver tends to be used more
like in biblical contexts
the second example sentence like the
rescue team delivered
the people from danger that’s kind of
i’m kind of stretching the meaning of
that one a little bit that might
not be such a typical example but it’s
sort of
um the kind of situation that you could
imagine deliver being used in so if i
were
writing a report or if i were making the
news for the day i probably would
not use deliver in that way but
um the meaning is still communicated
there so deliver tends to be
used in like serious situations like
deliver us from evil evil is quite
serious or to deliver someone from
danger or from a very stressful
situation
um so it tends to be something uh more
serious in nature but like i said
deliver is
not used so commonly in this way in
everyday speech you might hear it more
in like specific religious organizations
let’s continue on to some variations for
the verb deliver
the first variation is to deliver a blow
to deliver a blow
this means to have a damaging effect on
something
some examples she delivered a blow to
the company when she announced her
decision
the team scored another goal delivering
a blow to their opponents
okay so to deliver a blow means like to
cause some damage or to cause some
harm but this doesn’t usually mean
physically it’s more like mental or
emotional
damage in the first example sentence she
delivered a blow to the company with her
decision
that means she made a decision and that
somehow
damaged her company so maybe she was
like the
ceo or a top management person at her
company she decides to quit
and she’s a very valuable worker so it’s
damaging to the company physically not
damaging
but the company loses something
important so
we can say she delivered a blow to the
company she caused damage or she had
like a damaging effect
on the company as a result of her
decision
so uh she delivered a blow we could say
in the second example sentence we see it
in a sports situation
so team a scored another goal so we see
another goal meaning there was a
previous goal or goals already
but the team scored another goal
and delivered a blow to their opponent
so team b
so that means team a their score
went up and team b’s maybe motivation
or morale was damaged so deliver a blow
again doesn’t mean physically attacking
someone it means that there’s some kind
of damage usually like kind of a mental
or emotional damage
in this case perhaps motivation related
damage occurs
so to deliver a blow can mean to cause
damage
to someone or something like an
organization or a company
let’s go on to the second variation for
this verb which is to deliver
the goods to deliver the good this is a
very informal and very casual expression
that means to give the things that have
been promised
examples i’m not sure they’re going to
be able to deliver the goods on time
you have to be prepared to deliver the
goods if you want to work here
so both of these refer to some kind of
service or some kind of
goods some kind of like there’s items of
some kind
being provided so you will hear this
perhaps in movies and in tv shows
this is a very very very casual
expression
um that sometimes has the nuance of
maybe activities that
aren’t legal uh so it could refer to
like like drugs or
medication um that’s illegally obtained
or to some other kind of substance or
some other kind of
um like stolen goods for example there’s
something
that you don’t want to say specifically
like what it is
so we say deliver the goods so the goods
can mean
any number of things deliver the goods
means like
give the things that are promised like
we talked about in one of the additional
meanings
um but it’s like you have to promise to
provide the things you say you’re going
to provide
so it has a little bit of kind of a a
dark feeling about it i think
um sometimes we may casually use this
expression
among friends now and then with various
like small situations like
deliver the goods like the party
supplies for example
um but in more serious situations it can
refer to maybe
not completely legal activities to
deliver
the goods okay so those are a few
hopefully
new ways to use the verb deliver if you
have any questions or comments or if you
know a different way of using the verb
deliver
please feel free to let us know in the
comment section of this video of course
if you like the video don’t forget to
give it a thumbs up
subscribe to the channel and come check
us out at englishclass101.com
for some other good english study
resources thanks very much for watching
this episode of know your verbs and
we’ll see you again next time
[Music]
bye-bye