FLY Basic Verbs Learn English Grammar
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hi everybody welcome back to know your
verbs my name is Alicia and in this
episode we’re going to talk about the
verb fly let’s get started
okay let’s talk about the basic
definition of the verb fly the basic
definition is to travel through the air
to travel through the air some examples
we flew to Moscow from London a bird
flew into my window now let’s look at
the conjugations for this bird present
fly flies past flew
past participle Sloane progressive
flying
okay so now let’s talk about some
additional meanings for this verb the
first additional meaning is to wave in
the air while being attached to
something else so this is like flags or
well we’ll see some other examples
example sentences that boat is flying a
French flag let’s fly kites this
afternoon so in both of these examples
sentences we see objects which are
waving in the air in some way but
they’re attached to something else in
the first example sentence it’s a flag
the boat is flying a French flag which
means the boat is displaying a French
flag the flag is attached to the boat
but it’s waving in the air in the second
example sentence let’s fly kites this
afternoon
a kite is a toy that waves in the air
but it’s attached to a string that a
person holds so we use the verb fly to
talk about this activity let’s fly kites
this afternoon okay let’s go on to the
second additional meaning for this verb
the second additional meaning is to move
very quickly to move very quickly some
examples of this his sports car flew
past us on the highway she flew down the
hall to turn in her paper before the
deadline okay so in both of these
examples sentences we see the word fly
or a conjugated version of it however it
doesn’t mean traveling through the air
it just means moving super fast so in
the first example it’s a sports car the
sports car flew past us on the highway
means the sports car went past us very
very quickly so we use the verb flew I
think because flying like in order to
fly you have to move quickly there’s not
really slow flying so we use the verb
fly or in this case flew past tense to
express that the car was traveling very
fast in the second example sentence she
flew down the hall it means probably she
was running so she was traveling really
quickly to turn in her paper before the
deadline so when we want to talk about
moving fast like extra extra fast we can
use the verb fly instead of like move or
run or drive so it’s kind of like an
extra level of speed
so you can try that out okay let’s go on
to the third meaning for this verb the
third meaning is to escape to escape
some examples my bird flew its cage he
had to fly from the city to save his
life
okay so fly is used in these sentences
to mean escape you won’t really hear
this used so much in everyday
conversation you may however see this in
novels or in other writing it’s a little
more common these days to see that in
written English especially when telling
stories or maybe when reading things
from a long time ago we don’t use it
that much in everyday conversation in
American English these days but it does
have this meaning to escape the fourth
meaning is to pass information quickly
like gossip or rumors or accusations
passing information quickly examples
accusations of mismanagement are flying
rumors flew that they were dating so the
idea here is that information is moving
so quickly it’s like the information is
flying from one person to another it’s
so fast in the first example accusations
of mismanagement were flying so here
it’s a passive expression we’re flying
presumably among people in the company
or in like among people who are related
to the situation but accusations were
flying means like all these accusations
were going around at very fast speed in
the second example sentence rumors flew
that they were dating it’s like all
these people have rumors have ideas
about this couple are they dating aren’t
they dating what’s the story so all of
those are rumors that people are passing
quickly among one another
okay so now let’s look at some
variations some other ways to use this
room the first variation is to fly at
someone to fly at someone this means to
move quickly at someone like an attack
examples the murderer flew at the hero
she flew at me shouting about my
mistakes when when someone flies at
someone else the key preposition there
is at someone else it’s like one person
doesn’t move but another person usually
because they’re feeling extremely
emotional like kind of moves quickly
towards them usually like because
they’re angry I think and maybe they’re
gonna attack this other person but they
move very suddenly and very quickly to
another person so again we use the verb
fly to talk about that it’s like very
quick very sudden motion in the first
example sentence the murderer flew at
the hero it’s like the hero was standing
somewhere and a murderer tried to attack
the hero flew at the hero moved quickly
the second example sentence is the same
she flew at me shouting about my
mistakes so there’s some anger some
unhappy feeling that’s happening there
but we use the verb fly to talk about
quick motion like attacking motion to
the next variation is to fly blind to
fly blind this expression means to do
something without being able to see the
way forward it means to do something by
guessing when I was researching this
actually it’s said that this phrase
originated or started in world war ii
actually pilots in World War two when
like their radio controls or are their
communications stopped working they had
to fly their planes using only like the
controls they had in the plane so they
couldn’t contact anyone outside the
plane so flying blind actually come the
flying part comes from that apparently
blind means unable to see unable to see
so flying blind now these days doesn’t
only mean flying a plane without having
communications it means doing something
without being able to have like outside
help or outside guidance or knowing
exactly what
so examples our radios are down we’re
flying blind I have no idea how to fill
out these forms I’m flying blind so in
the second example in particular it’s
kind of a modern-day situation where I
don’t know what to do I’m doing my best
with these forms but I’m flying blind I
have no idea what to do I’m guessing so
those are a few new ways I hope that you
can use the verb fly there are some
other ways too so if you know some other
ways or if you have any questions or if
you want to try to make an example
sentence please feel free to do so in
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for other good study tools thanks very
much for watching this episode of know
your verbs and we’ll see you again soon
bye Mike
[Music]
you