22 LOOK Expressions Phrasal Verbs look up to look back on look as though MORE
Well hey there I’m Emma from mmmEnglish
coming at you from my new house.
Now I know it kind of looks exactly the same
as it was before back there but I can assure you
that what’s happening on that side of the camera
is not okay. I spent the last couple of weeks
packing and lifting and sorting and moving house
always takes way longer than you think.
I was a little disorganised last week so I didn’t
make a new lesson for you and I’m sorry about that
but today I’ve got an awesome lesson for you
to help you expand your vocabulary and learn new
expressions all using the verb look.
Now I’m sure there’s going to be some familiar ones
in there but that’s great because you’ll get
to review them and practise with me a little
and make sure you’re using
these expressions accurately.
And there will definitely be some new ones that will
help you to build your vocabulary further
and it’ll be interesting to see them used accurately
in context as well. And as always, I’ve got a mini quiz
at the end to help you practise so stick around.
We’ve got a lot of phrasal verbs and expressions
to get through today so make sure you’ve got
a notebook handy where you can write down
some of the new expressions
and ways of using them.
Watching and listening is great but to make
these words stick in your mind, practise using them
yourself, write some sentences down
and be especially mindful of the prepositions and the
words that are commonly used with look.
This means that you’re learning to use these
expressions accurately and it’ll help you to sound
more natural as you use them in spoken English
as well.
Let’s start with these useful structures right here
all right take a close look at the options.
We have look as if, look as though and look like.
All of them are used with a clause following.
It looks as if it’s going to rain.
It looks as though she’s brought her kids.
It looks like he’ll arrive late again.
So all of these expressions have the same meaning.
We use them to make a statement about a likely
result in the future and it’s based on information
that we have
which means it’s likely, it’s a good assumption.
But there is one little rule to take note of.
If it’s just a noun following look, you can’t use as if
or as though, you have to use like.
It looks like rain.
You can’t say: It looks as if rain
because that sentence sounds a little unfinished.
You could say it looks as if rain is coming.
That’s okay.
But just to keep that in mind, if look
is followed by a noun, you need to use like.
And of course
we can look like someone as well
and that means that they’re similar in appearance.
She looks like her mother.
He doesn’t look like his parents.
And we also say that people look alike.
They look alike.
It has the same meaning.
They really look alike.
And as a noun, a look-alike is someone who has
a really similar appearance to someone else
and it’s especially if it’s a famous person.
Her mum is a Michelle Obama lookalike.
Her mum looks like Michelle Obama.
They really look alike.
So all of these sentences have the same meaning,
really similar meaning. You can express that idea
in lots of different ways.
Now you can give someone a look
as well and when we use look as a noun,
we’re usually using it with an adjective to describe
the way that someone is looking at someone else.
He gave me an angry look before he left the building.
I know that look, that look means
you don’t want to be part of that conversation.
You’re annoyed.
We also often hear a dirty look and that’s to look at
someone in a bad way like
in a really negative way.
I was late for my sister’s birthday and I knew she was
annoyed at me because she gave me such a
dirty look across the room.
That was my best dirty look.
When we think about or we talk about the past
then we can use look back on something,
an event or a time or an experience in the past.
I try to look back on the mistakes I made in the past
and learn from them.
We look after people you know, we take care of them.
I offered to look after my sister’s kids
on Thursday night.
Who’s going to look after your dog while you’re away?
Do you look after anyone?
Or does someone look after you?
See if you can make a sentence using that
phrasal verb down below.
To look down on someone is to have a low opinion
of them or to think that you’re better than them
in some way.
It’s really common for people who value university
education to look down on
those who don’t have a degree.
Can you think of other times in your life or
around you in your community
where people look down on each other?
See if you can write a sentence about that
down below.
We look for things right? You know when we lose
something and we’re trying to find it.
Now, of course, we always need to use a noun that
follows this phrasal verb right to explain
what it is we’re looking for.
I’m looking for my keys. I can’t find them anywhere!
Of course, we look forward to something happening
right? We are waiting for something
to happen and feeling really excited
or really pleased about it.
Lots of you know that I love the warm weather
and I usually complain about our relatively mild
winter here in Australia but as you can imagine,
we are just coming out of winter and heading
into summer now and I am very excited about it.
I’m looking forward to summer.
I’m also looking forward to seeing my family again.
I haven’t seen them all year thanks to
COVID and the lockdown and all of that stuff.
I’m sure you probably have something that you’re really
looking forward to doing, right?
Let me know down in the comments.
We look around or we look round.
And that’s when we visit a place and see what’s there.
Before I book the venue, I’d like to come and
look around if that’s okay,
just to make sure that it’s suitable.
Look out!
To look out. We use it as an exclamation
to tell someone to be careful.
That’s a really common use. We say: Look out!
You’re about to knock the glass off the bench.
Look out!
Now I want to highlight a really neat
little pronunciation tip here, one that is useful
for learning hundreds of English phrasal verbs because
this pronunciation pattern is really, really common.
Often native speakers link the consonant
at the end of one word to the following word
if it starts with a vowel.
So instead of releasing the K after look,
we combine it together with the vowel sound
at the start of out.
Look out.
This little pronunciation tip is going to help
you to sound more natural and relaxed as you speak
in English and I go into this in lots more detail
in a series of videos about linking
in English pronunciation, linking natural
pronunciation. Find it up here.
We look out for people.
Can you hear that? Look out.
Look out for someone, it means to take care of them
and make sure that they’re okay.
My nephews are always looking out
for each other at school. It is so sweet.
Now a phrasal verb that has a very similar sentiment
is to look in on someone and that means
to visit someone, to check that everything is okay.
So it’s a little different to look out for,
to take care of someone, it means to specifically stop
by their house or visit them somewhere
to make sure that they’re okay.
I’ll stop by the hospital after work to look in
on my grandma and make sure she’s eaten.
You might already know the phrasal verb look up.
Are you already thinking of a few different
phrasal verbs that use look up?
When we look something up, usually we’re trying to
find out some information right or we use a
dictionary or Google or Youtube to find
the right answer or the truth right.
If you don’t know a word
you look it up in the dictionary.
Now look up is a separable phrasal verb
and that means that we can insert the object
into the phrasal verb or we can have it follow.
So we can say look up the word or
look the word up.
Both of them are okay, it’s possible.
Now we can also say that a situation is looking up.
If a situation is looking up, it’s getting better
and it’s most often used in the continuous form
just like this but not always, you can also say
Now that I’ve got a job again, things are starting
to look up.
Okay, the situation is becoming more positive.
Now unlike the previous use of the phrasal verb
look up, this is inseparable. We can’t say
that we are looking up the situation.
That doesn’t make sense, it’s the wrong meaning
of this phrasal verb. But we can say
the situation is looking up
if we mean it’s starting to look more positive.
Now if we keep thinking about look up,
then I can say that I look up to someone right.
I respect them, I want to be like them.
I really look up to my boss.
I guess you could say that she’s my mentor.
Now this phrasal verb is also inseparable,
the object always follows the phrasal verb.
Who do you look up to? Is there someone in your life that you
respect and you admire?
Write about it in the comments below.
To look into something is to investigate it and this phrasal
verb is quite useful to use in a professional context.
If a colleague says
We sent out the invitations last week but no one’s responded.
Do you think there’s a problem with the website?
That’s odd, maybe. I’ll look into it and report back after lunch.
Another great phrasal verb to use in a work context is
to look over something and this means
to examine it but usually quickly you know,
probably not going into a whole heap of detail.
I’ll look over the report tonight
and let you know if I want to add anything.
We can look through something.
Now of course, we have the more literal meaning of look through
but like look over, it’s also used when we examine something
especially to find the information that you need.
I can spend hours looking through recipes
getting inspiration for dinner each night.
We can look to someone and we use this when we expect
to get help or advice from them.
She looked to me for the answer but I didn’t know.
If I ever feel unsure, I look to my friends for advice.
And last but definitely not least, we have the expression
to have good looks and that means
that someone is attractive right.
We use the verb have or has and the noun good looks.
She has good looks, she’s got an awesome job, recognition
in the industry, a gorgeous family.
I’m not trying to compare myself to her at all.
We can also say that someone is good-looking,
using the adjective form as well.
He’s a really good-looking guy.
Okay it’s time for a mini-quiz. I’ve got six questions
and you’ll need to choose the correct expression
to complete the sentence the right way
so make sure you’re paying attention to the words
around the expression in each sentence.
They’re going to give you some clues but my best advice
is to go with your gut and see how many you get right.
He has good looks but he’s not very intelligent.
We spent hours looking through her record collection.
I can’t get my laptop to connect to the projector.
Can you look into it for me?
John has been unemployed since April but he finally got
offered a job at a local factory so things are looking up.
My friend Sarah doesn’t have any family living nearby so I always
look out for her.
It looks as though it’s going to rain.
Now this is a trick question. It can’t be look like
because the verb doesn’t match the subject.
I was just testing.
How did you go?
Let me know if you’ve got any questions about these expressions
down in the comments below
and take the opportunity to practise a little right now.
Hit pause just for a few seconds
and write a couple of sentences especially to practise the new
expressions that you learned.
Make sure you add your sentences down into the comments.
I’m going to spend some time this weekend
checking them for you
and if you can think of any more phrasal verbs or expressions
with look
then let me know in the comments too.
If you love building vocabulary and learning collocations
then definitely check out one of these two lessons right here.
I will see you in there!