PHRASAL VERBS: How pronunciation changes their meaning

Hi, everybody. Welcome to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. Today's lesson

is a bit of a lesson in pronunciation. And it may be a little bit confusing, so

I'm just giving you a little bit of a warning. But I'm going to show you how

to pronounce... how to properly pronounce phrasal verbs. And, again,

what are "phrasal verbs"? These are verb and preposition combinations that often

have different meanings. So, today, I'm not going to show you phrasal verbs and

their different meanings. I'm going to show you how pronouncing these phrasal

verbs can change their meanings, and can give you a bit of a clue as to what

meaning the person is intending, what the... when the person uses it. So, it's

gonna be a little bit tricky to pick up little, slight differences. So, it's a

little bit more of an advanced lesson, and especially for those living in... in

an English-speaking country. Right? Because you're going to hear these

phrasal verbs a lot, and sometimes they're not even phrasal verbs;

sometimes they're actually just compound nouns or adjectives. So, you need to be

able to hear the difference when you can't actually see the words. Like,

here, you can very clearly see the two words are separated. Here, you can very

clearly see that it's one word. But when all you're doing is listening, you have

to hear that gap; you have to hear that combination, that conjunction. Right?

So, I'm gonna show you a few things to keep in mind. And then it's all about

practice, practice, practice — speak with native speakers, watch movies,

watch TV shows, etcetera.

So, we're going to start with the phrasal verb: "come on". And you'll

notice I... I wrote it slightly different ways. This is a very common

expression: "C'mon". And many people actually write it like this; in a very

informal style. This is technically not correct, but because this is how the

word is pronounced, many people just write it this way, and you will see it

sometimes in informal things. So, when someone says: "Come on", especially like

if you say to a dog: "C'mon, c'mon", or if you say to a little kid: "C'mon,

c'mon". "Come to me", right? So, we're... we're not really pronouncing...

we're not stressing the full phrasal verb. We're not saying: "Come on". We

don't separate. We make the first word very small, and we put a little bit more

stress on the second part of it; on the second syllable, as the case may be,

when we're saying them quickly. Right? So, and... and we're joining the two

sounds. And especially when... you'll notice you have a consonant and you have

a vowel — and whenever you have words that end in a consonant and a vowel, the

consonant blends into the next vowel. But that's a... we have a video about

that as well. So: "C'mon" means come.

Now, sometimes... and this is not the correct spelling; I wrote it just to

show you. "Come on, come on", right? If I say: "Come on", and I'm stressing the

second syllable; not the verb. I'm stressing the preposition. And,

generally, we put more stress on the preposition, because "come" has many

phrasal verbs. Come... "Come on", "come out", "come in", "come over" — all kinds

of different, so we put a little bit extra stress on the preposition, so we

have the correct phrasal verb that's understood. But when I say: "Come on,

come on". Okay. Actually, that's gonna be this one. "Come on". I'm showing that

I don't actually believe what you're saying. Something you're saying is

unbelievable. Not that I think you're lying; just that the thing is so

surprising that it's hard to believe. "Come on, come on". Like: "You're

joking, right?" That's how the pronunciation would sound. And, again, a

lot of it should be clear in terms of context. If somebody is saying something

that sounds unbelievable, and someone reacts like this, you understand they're

saying: "Oh, you're kidding", or "that's unbelievable". Sometimes we do separate

the two words, but we do this for emphasis. "Come on". If somebody says:

"Come on", it means they're very frustrated. Right? Let's say I... I'm

watching my favourite hockey team play, and they're doing well, doing well; and

then suddenly, they start sucking — right? — and they're not playing so

well, and the other team starts scoring goals. And every time the other team

starts... gets a goal: "Come on!" Like, I'm very frustrated and I'm very angry

with my team because they suck — right? — as the case may be. Sometimes we only

stress the second word: "Come on, come on, come on". It basically means hurry

up; hurry. If I'm stressing this, I'm stressing the fact that I want the

person to hurry. And, again, you'll see four different meanings for the same

phrasal verb; but a lot of the times, the way it sounds will tell you which of

the meanings is actually being used. Now, I'm gonna show you a few more

examples just to get a better idea of this.

So, "cut above". Now, if I... if someone says: "Cut above the line", it means cut

above a particular area. It's the straight... very straightforward verb.

It's not a phrasal verb in terms of idiomatic; it doesn't have a second

meaning. It's very literal. "Cut above a certain level". But if someone says: "a

cut above", "a cut above" — the "t"... again, remember: You have a consonant,

you have a vowel, so it blends. "A cut above" sounds like it could be a

compound noun, but it isn't. We have just the "cut". The "cut" is the noun;

"above" is basically like a adjective in this particular case. It is a

preposition, but it's working like an adjective. This is an expression. If

something is "a cut above", it means it's a little bit better than average.

So, first of all, the "a" should give you a hint that you're... you're hearing

a noun; not a phrasal verb. And the fact that we blend it into one: "a cut above"

— I'm not stressing either one. I'm just using the expression: "a cut above".

Okay? That's how... it's a very flat stress. "Cut above the line". Here, I'm

going to stress the "above" because I want to very clearly say where to make

the cut.

Now, "make up" and... "make up" and "makeup". The same thing. When I put it

very quickly together, even though the "k" and the "u" will blend... Okay?

"Just kiss and make up." I'm still stressing... I'm putting the stress on

the... on the preposition to show that it's the meaning that I want to express.

Whereas "makeup", I'm putting the stress more on the first syllable; but

generally, it's pretty neutral. It's one word. Right? So it's a... it's a

two-syllable word, but with one stress on the whole word. So, "makeup" is the

stuff you put on your face. "Make up" means to make peace. Like, if somebody

had a fight and then, suddenly, they're okay. Or: "You have to make up your

test." In this case, I will put the stress on both. I want to stress the

verb, but I also want to stress the "up" because that's the meaning I want to

express. "You have to make up the test." You have to do the test that you missed;

maybe do it next week, etcetera. Or: "Don't make up stories." A little bit

neutral. "Don't make up stories" — don't create stories out of nothing. "Make

up". So, generally speaking, when you have a phrasal verb, you're going to

stress the preposition, unless you want to emphasize the actual verb itself.

Same with: "back up and "backup". "Don't forget to back up your files on your

computer". "Back up" means back up. I'm stressing the "up" more — move

backwards. "Back up" — I'm stressing the action of doing something, the backing,

the making the copy. Whereas "backup". If you have a "backup" — this is a noun;

or a "backup copy" — adjective. Right? But then... And, again, it's blending

here, and it's also blending here. But, here, I don't... I don't hear the break:

"backup", "backup". It sounds like one syllable for the one word. Whereas,

here, I definitely have a stress: "back up", "backup". I don't know if you can

hear the difference. "Back up your files". "Back up; move away." Different

meanings, depending on the stress. "Go for it". Now, "Go for it" means don't

hesitate; try. I'm stressing the "go". "Go for it"; "for it" I'm stressing

the... When I stress the "for it", I'm stressing the thing you want to try; I'm

stressing that thing. So, there's a... there's an opening for a job at Google.

So: "Oh, go for it." Go for the job. There's a job at Google, but I'm not

sure if I should try it. "Go for it." I'm stressing the "go", like, don't

hesitate. So, depends which one I stress will illustrate what... which meaning

I'm trying to get across.

Now, of course, it's very easy for me to say all this stuff. You have to hear the

different stresses; you have to pay attention to the context that the words

are being used in, in order to understand the meaning that the speaker

is trying to convey. Right? And the only way to do that is to practice. Now,

unfortunately, because we don't have audio on the website, I can't make a

quiz for this lesson. But if you want to ask me questions about this, you can go

to www.engvid.com, and there's a comment section — you can ask questions there.

You can also give each other other combinations and try to figure out:

"Which stress will we... will deliver which meaning?" But the most important

thing is: Watch movies, watch the news, speak to native speakers, and pay

attention to how they are using phrasal verbs and which meaning they're

definitely trying to express by how they say it; by which side they are

stressing. Right? Again, I know it's not easy, but hopefully you'll train your

ear to get all these differences. Okay? If you liked the video — I hope you like

this video — give me a like. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and

I'll try to give you some more pronunciation lessons, vocab lessons,

etcetera. Till next time, bye-bye.