DELIVER Basic Verbs Learn English Grammar

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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

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this episode of know your verbs and

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