8 Phrasal Verb Opposites in English: pass out, come to, talk into...

Hi, it's James from engVid, once again, with Test Your English.

Are you ready?

Today's test is on phrasal verbs, those naughty words that cause people so many difficulties.

And I understand why.

You've got a verb and a preposition, and when the verb is by itself, it means something

almost completely different than when it's in its phrasal verb form.

For example, "pick up".

Pick means to choose, but when you say "to pick up", it means to meet a friend and take

them to a restaurant.

You pick them up.

Crazy, I know.

So today, we're going to test your English with phrasal verbs that mean the exact opposite.

So I'm going to teach you four pairs of phrasal verbs, and how they're opposite, and how you

can use this English to improve your English so you're like a native speaker.

So let's go to the board.

And I've noticed E is playing the game himself.

Puss out.

He's saying, "What happened?"

Do you know what that means?

Let's go to the board and play.

So question number one.

Which phrasal verb means "to come to a place that was not planned or expected"?

Is it "end up" or "start out"?

Were you able to guess?

The answer is "end up".

Did you get it wrong?

Did you get it right?

Don't worry.

After this segment, we're going to take an opportunity to explain what each one means.

But you're still playing the game.

That would have got you 10 points if you got it right.

If you didn't get it right, don't worry about it.

How about the next one?

Put on your thinking cap.

Which phrasal verb means "to accumulate something by putting parts or materials together"?

And "accumulate" means to put things together, okay?

In case you get confused.

So "accumulate", alright?

So which phrasal verb means "to accumulate something by", and that means make it larger,

by gathering things, "by putting parts or materials together"?

Is it "build up" or "die down"?

That's annoying for you?

It's annoying for me, too.

Kills my throat.

Anyway, is it "build up" or "die down"?

What did you guess?

Did you guess "build up"?

You got yourself 10 points.

If you didn't, stick around.

Alright, question number three.

Which phrasal verb means "to be conscious"?

Which phrasal verb means "to be conscious"?

Is it "pass out" or "come to"?

For 30 points, did you get "come to"?

I hope you did.

And if you got zero, I'm glad you're watching this lesson because you've got a lot of education

coming up in a second or two.

Now finally, our final question.

This will show, and you can pat yourself on the back if you get this one and all of these

correct.

Which phrasal verb means "to prevent someone from doing something by talking about it",

sorry, "talking about good reasons for not doing it"?

That's a mouthful.

Which phrasal verb means "to prevent someone from doing something by talking about good

reasons for not doing it"?

Is it "talk out of" or "talk into"?

This is a tough one because they're both "talk".

It's "talk out of".

So, if you did this right, you got 40 points.

If not, you need to join me in a second or two.

See you on the board.

Wow.

These kids don't even appreciate the work I...

Hi.

We're back.

Game show.

That's right.

Test your English.

Now, think back.

What was your score before we went away?

Did you get perfect?

Don't worry about it because here I'm going to give you the information you need to understand

how these pairs work.

Now, if you recall rightly, I told you these were opposites and I placed them on the board

that way, that one is the opposite of the other.

Sometimes it's easy because you can see that they have opposite words, as in "start" or

"end".

But what do they mean?

Let's find out.

"To start out", it means to begin, just as "start" means the beginning, "to move" or

"to act".

We usually use this with businesses when you can say something like, "I started out with

$1 and I grew a multi-billion dollar business."

Right?

It means we began here and we moved to a certain place.

So, what does "end up" mean?

It doesn't just mean "end".

When we talk about phrasal verbs, and I mentioned at the beginning, a verb has a specific meaning,

but as soon as you end up at a preposition, it can slightly change it.

In this case, "end up" means, yes, you got to a certain place or ended there, but it's

not what you planned on or expected.

Okay?

So, you could imagine going to a - this happened to me one time - I went to a bar, a popular

bar, some friends invited me to, and I didn't know this at the time, but it was a drag show.

Maybe you don't know what that is.

It's where men can dress up as women and they entertain people.

Right?

So, I thought we were going to sit down and have a nice dinner, and I'm all dressed up

for it, and they've got, "Young man, do-do-do-do-do-do", and dancing in the middle floor, I'm like,

I didn't know I was going to end up here.

I wouldn't have dressed like this for that.

So, where I ended up, yes, it was dinner, but not the way I had planned.

And that's "end up".

Okay?

So, the next one we have is "build up" and "die down".

Okay?

So, when we talk about building up, it's to accumulate or assemble by putting parts together.

Some of you guys - I don't have it today.

I don't have my Batman shirt, or the Batman mask, and if you've been with me long enough,

you know I love Batman.

Well, I have built up a collection of Batman - I probably have a thousand, and that's just

one section of things I've collected over years.

Right?

So, it builds up to accumulate over time.

The opposite of that is to "die down", because as something builds up, it gets bigger and

bigger.

Well, "die down" means to go smaller and smaller.

So, "In fact, the crowd was very loud, and then it died down."

So, it means to go from something larger to something smaller.

Right?

So, if it's really windy, the wind can die down to nothing.

So, the opposite of getting more is getting less, to gradually become less strong.

Right?

So, what about these ones, "pass out" and "come to"?

Well, if you love to drink like I do, and I love a nice glass of whiskey, sometimes

I drink too much and I pass out, and when I come to, I end up at the weirdest places.

My bad Scottish accent, thank heavens no Scottish people will watch this video.

So, when you pass out, it means to suddenly become unconscious, and that's not about alcohol

only.

A lot of people pass out because they drink too much.

So, you drink too much, you fall asleep unexpectedly.

But you can pass out because it's too hot.

Like, if you're on a bus and it's very, very hot, and they don't take down the windows,

someone might pass out beside you.

Or, like my mom, my mom, I love you, mom, she hates the sight of blood.

If she sees blood, she'll pass out.

Right?

It means you just lose consciousness suddenly and unexpected.

So, what does "come to" mean?

Well, "pass out" means that, but "come to" means to come back to consciousness.

Now, you're going to say, "Oh, James, I know.

When I go to sleep at night, I sleep, and then I come to in the morning."

Wrong.

Just like passing out is unexpected, you come to after being knocked out.

That could be from it being too warm, drinking too much, getting punched in the head, right?

Mike Tyson.

If Mike Tyson punches you in the head, you're going to come to next week.

That's right, Michael.

I'm making fun of you, but you don't know where I live.

I shouldn't do that because I hear the man's making a comeback, and he looks really good.

So, "to come to" is if you get knocked out by something, something makes you fall asleep,

or if you drank too much, and it's almost the opposite of "pass out".

Right?

Almost.

Except we talk about being knocked out.

When you pass out, then you're not going to be - it's not someone hitting you, right?

It's other conditions that make you fall asleep unexpectedly.

So, "come to", you don't come to in the morning because you didn't fall asleep unexpectedly,

did you?

You went to bed with the idea of sleeping, so you wake up.

Wow.

Remember that.

All right.

All right, grasshopper.

So, after we've done that, let's talk about "talk out of" and "talk into".

These are very, very similar, and you might have been able to guess this simply because

we go "talk out", "talk into", and you know "out" would mean to leave, and "in" means

to come into.

So, when we talk people out of something, we can do it in two ways.

You will find most of the dictionaries will say "to talk someone from doing something",

and talking about the good reasons not to do it, but you can also talk them out of doing

it by telling them the bad things that will happen if they do it.

Okay?

So, that's it.

When you talk someone out of something, you prevent them from doing something they wanted

to do by talking about either the good reasons not to do it...

Don't quit school when you're 15.

It's going to be very bad and hard for you to get a job in the future.

Right?

And if you don't quit school, you can get a good job.

So, I've done both negative and positive, but I'm trying to talk you out of doing something.

To talk you into something is to get you to do something, right?

Many of you have bought cars or clothing that maybe you didn't want, but that salesperson

was like, "You look just so good in it.

You look amazing.

I tell you, you've got to have it.

Your friends are going to talk about it.

You'll be the greatest.

You'll be the greatest ever.

I promise you."

See?

They talked you into it, you bought it, and now you're at home regretting it.

Talking to a whole bunch of you, aren't I?

Okay.

So, people can talk you into something just as they can talk you out of something.

All right?

So, I've explained the pairs.

Now, what I want you to do if that was...

If you understand this, maybe go over the quiz I gave you at the beginning and check

to see the answers, and you'll go, "Oh, that just makes sense now", and clearly it will.

Now, this is a class and I consider it a full class that you're being given, so we have

to do the bonus section.

What's the bonus here?

"But, James, you just taught me past out and come to.

Did I?

Did I?"

Well, the other thing about phrasal verbs, which is most interesting, that if you have

a phrasal verb, or the reason why we as native speakers use it is because it can...

It's a very handy tool.

It's like a level.

It makes everything go straight.

What I mean by that is we can use one phrasal verb in several different instances.

We don't have to change it, and all native speakers understand it.

For instance, you can pick up your phone, right?

You can pick up a signal.

You can pick up a friend.

It's like, "How can you use that for so many?"

We know.

The same is here.

When I said "pass out", I told you it's to fall unconscious, unexpectedly.

However, it also means to give something out.

In schools, you hear people say, "Can you please pass out the books?" or "Pass out the

tests."

So, don't think that somebody is getting a test and falling asleep unconscious all of

a sudden.

They might say, "Can you pass this out, please?"

And it means to give out.

That's another meaning of "pass out".

And what about "come to"?

This is an interesting one, because you'll see native speakers go, "Okay, Ford..."

It means to add up to.

It means a total.

A total.

If you put this, and this, and this, it comes to this.

For example, you buy, I don't know, some water, "agua", or what is my little cousin saying?

"Apa".

Yes, if you're a Romanian, you know "apa" is water.

So, you buy this and this, and then you go to the counter to pay for it, and the guy

goes, "The pan's $3.50, and the water's $2."

That comes to $5.50.

You're thinking, "They're going to come alive?

They're unconscious right now?"

No.

They're saying if you add this and this, the amount comes to or adds up to this.

So, if someone says, "This comes to that", comes to this amount, they're saying, "If

I add this and this, this is the final total."

Kind of cool, huh?

But that's why you come here.

It's not just the lessons, it's the bonus information.

Of course, finally, we have my favourite of yours, the homework, in which I allow you

and give you the opportunity to make millions and millions and millions of points.

Yes.

And this is going to be a tough one.

It's a story about E and I going out.

I don't know the last time that happened.

But I need you to fill out the story, which I will read, and it will give you for each

answer you get correct.

Now, they're in pairs, so even though there are six spaces, it's a pair.

Let me see.

But because it's a pair, let's say you can get 2,000 points for each pair you get correct.

That's right, I'm being generous.

All right?

2,000 points.

So, whether you're on engVid, the website, or you're on YouTube, or whatever platform

you're using, students, if they got the right answer, give them a thumbs up, and for each

one thumbs up they get, they'll get 2,000 points.

Cool, yeah?

I think so.

So, E blank - sorry, I blank Mr. E blank.

What the hell could that be?

I don't even know.

Going to a bar with me.

He - blank, blank - after drinking too much, and we - blank, blank - going home.

You will deserve all the points you get if you get this correct, okay?

So, do that.

Make sure you give people the thumbs up, let them know, and you can also write any other

phrasal verbs you might find confusing, and we can play the phrasal verb game and test

your English with it.

Anyway, I've got to get going pretty soon, because otherwise I'll end up being late for

my next appointment.

So, we started out with the game, and I'm going to give you a little bit of information

I want you to take down, so make sure you go to www.engvid.com to do a quiz.

That's right, a further quiz on this to make sure you really understand it, right?

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Anyway, as always, thank you very much, you make it all possible, and I'll talk to you

soon.

Bye-bye.