"DOWN" Phrasal Verbs in English: close down, bring down, break down...

hi,james from EngVid

Hi, James from EngVid.

Let me put this down for a second, because I want to start our lesson.

On phrasal verbs.

I'm going to teach you how to use the preposition

in order to understand the complete meaning of the phrasal verb.

Ready?

Let's go to the board.

E! What you're doing?

You're going down?

Down. That seems to be a direction.

And that's the direction we're heading.

You're ready?

There are two ways to teach phrasal verbs

both in my mind devalued

It's just up to you.

Some teachers prefer to teach you

you know, one phrasal verb like "turn up", "turn down", "turn on"

and use all of the verbs with the prepositions.

I prefer to reverse it.

Hmm.

Each is valued.

For me, this is sort of a shorthand.

If you understand

what the preposition means

is easier to put a verb with it

and visualize in my mind, then it is to teach each separate one

Each separate one has many meanings and can take a longer time to learn.

This way I think you can learn faster by yourself

because most of you are studying by yourself.

So

Are you ready? Let's go to the board.

This is sort of a mind map.

It's a little cheap one.

But it still gives you the idea.

We've spread out the ideas for "down".

There are phrasal verbs here.

But what I'm focusing more on

is the actual preposition.

So let's take a look at it.

"Down".

"Down" has essentially four meanings

One is a

downward movement

you know what that is, right?

To go down.

Another is a

decreasing motion.

Similar to "down".

I can go down the stairs.

Or down in an elevator.

But it doesn't mean I'm decreasing.

But if a price goes from one dollar to fifty cents

not only it has a move down, there's a decrease on how much you pay.

Ok?

Stopping.

You're probably thinking

"down" means

well, to go down

and decrease

but think about it: once you go to the very bottom, or you decrease to zero

it stops.

Right? There is no more movement to happen.

And finally

when you can no longer go anywhere it's now at the end, right?

So you stop the movement

and when you can go no more, you're ended.

So if you look at this,

they all make sense

They're just different ways of looking at it.

To go down

means a decrease,

which means you eventually stop

and you'll reach the end.

Why am I explaining this to you?

Because that's why we, as English speakers think.

So when you hear things just like

heart's breaking down

you can't see you're understanding why we said it.

So let's start with the first one: downward movement.

Sit down!