English Expressions: three-word phrasal verbs

Mr. E was just catching up with Mr. Smith when James walked by. Mr. Smith asked Mr.

E, "How could you put up with that awful smell of James'?" Mr. E asked Mr. Smith if he could

team up with Mr. Jones and come up with a solution for the smell. You're probably going,

"What's with this 'with'", right? With, with, with, with, with. Well, I want to talk about

phrasal verbs today. I'm sure you've heard of phrasal verbs before. Or you might have

heard of them by this other name, "compound verb". A phrasal verb is a two to three-word

verb, okay? Some are separable, which means you can take some things off, and the meaning

is the same. We'll talk about that when we speak about "team up with". And other ones

are not separable or nonseparable, which means you cannot change it or the meaning changes.

All right? So let's go to the board and see what Mr. E and Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones -- if

you ever watched The Matrix, there is something in there for you. All right? What were they

talking about? Well, I want to talk about phrasal verbs you

can use. And these ones, specifically in the work place, and you'll see what I mean. Right?

A phrasal verb is funny because by itself, if you just look at it, it doesn't make sense:

"come up with", "put up with", "team up with", "catch up with". You mean, "What does it mean?"

Because "catch" means this, right? Put means "place". And we look here. When I put the

verbs, "come", it basically means when you come somewhere -- arrive or bring. It's a

verb. These are all verbs, right? "Put" means "place". You say this, "you put", "place".

"Place it somewhere." "Catch" -- sort of like "receive". Okay? And "team" -- oops. Excuse

me for a second. And "team" -- "team" is a noun. It's also a verb. But "team" could be

teaming -- like, team -- "join". I want to put "bring here, like, "come". Bring, like

"bring yourself". You know, they're verbs. They're hard to explain in any simple way.

But basically, what this is what they mean. But as soon as you add particles or prepositions,

don't be confused. I use both because, well, all particles are prepositions. But sometimes,

prepositions are not particles. Welcome to English. I just teach it. I didn't make the

lesson up, okay? So when we add particles -- and a particle is just this. A particle

is a preposition that's added to a form, as in a phrasal form verb, and it cannot be changed.

So parts -- think of particle as "part" of something. Right? That's it. Prepositions

are basically the same. They're "up", "with", "and", "on", "along" -- those are prepositions.

But when they are joined with phrasal verbs, we call them "particles" because they have

a specific meaning when they're with that verb. Okay? So just remember a particle cannot

be separated from the phrase its attached to, and you're good to go.

All right. So what are we going to do with these particular particles, "up" and "with"?

Well, let's start off with the story. What did I say -- what was the first thing I said

to you? The first thing I said to you was the following: "Mr. E was catching up with

somebody." What does it mean to "catch up with"? Well, when we "catch up" with someone,

we can, in this case -- catch up -- exchange information. "So what did you do this summer?"

"I went to Barcelona." "Really?" "Yeah. It was fun." Just catching up with old times

or catching up with old stories. There's a second meaning for "catch up", though.

This one you will hear usually in the past tense. "His past caught up with him." "Catch"

becomes "caught". Right? "His bad decisions caught up with him." You can also say in the

present, "These decisions will catch up with you." And that means there's going to be a

bad end or a consequence for something you have done already. Usually, you hear it in

the past tense because those bad things are here now. Sorry. So if they say, "His past

caught up with him", it means all the things he did before, he is now in trouble for now.

So watch out that things don't catch up with you. So be good. All right?

So that's what "catch up" means. And at work, you can say, "Look, all our bad decisions

for our last project caught up with us." It means, "Now, we're facing the consequences

of what we have done, or we're getting in trouble for what we did before." Cool?

What about the next one? Because we've got "catch up" -- I said "catching up with Mr.

Jones", right? So one was exchange of information, and the other one I just said is you can get

consequences for what you've done. They said, "How could you put up with?" Well, "put" means

"place". "Where did you put it? Where did you place it?" Yeah? So when I say, "Where

did you -- how do you put up with", it's not the same meaning at all. You'll notice over

here when we said "catch" -- we had "receive" and "increase". Let's look at "put". "Put"

means "place". "Increase" and "surround". Well, this is what it means. "With" means

"surrounded", or "up" means "increase". When you "put up" with somebody, it means to accept

something without complaining. If you "put up" with someone, you accept a situation without

complaining. "This is a bad smell. How can you put up with it?" "I plug my nose. I go

to work. It's not a problem." Right? "How can you put up with his bad behavior?" "I

just ignore him. I don't pay attention." "Put up" means to accept, no complaints. Right?

"So how do you put up with the dog in the house?" "I take him for a walk, or I let him

go in the backyard. It's not a problem." Right? "Put up with."

Now, what's the third one we did? The third one we did was "could we team up with". Now,

this is an interesting phrasal verb. Do you remember at the beginning I said there are

separable and nonseparable phrasal verbs? There's a reason for that. Many people will

say, "Can I just say 'team up'?" And yeah. You could. The general rule for a three-word

phrasal verb is you cannot change any of the words. But this one can be used or "team up

with". Now, specifically, it has to do with word order. When I say "team up with", you're

going to put the person or the object right away. "Can Mr. E team up with James on this

project?" Right? Cool? All right. So if you're asking if someone

can team up with something -- let me see. There. A small mistake. I'll correct that.

That's why I team up with this guy here. Always telling me what's going on, right? Thanks,

E. You got props. So where was I? So when we were talking about teaming up and I said

to you this is one of those, you know -- it could be "team up" or "team up with". It depends

on the word order. If you're putting it directly, like, "I want to team up with someone", then,

we'll say "with". Otherwise, you can do it in a different way. "Batman and Robin team

up all the time." Right? "Batman teams up with Robin." Not a big deal. But we're going

to follow the rule here. So remember we talked about teaming up, right? "Could Mr. -- sorry

-- Mr. E and Mr. Smith team up with Mr. Jones?" They want them to join. And remember when

we look up here with -- right? We've got "team up", "team up together". Work together. Right?

To improve a situation. Usually, when you "team up", you join together to make something

better. Okay? So we've got "team up with". And the last one was "come up with a solution".

Once again, "come" means, like, "bring" or "arrive". But "come up with" -- what the heck

does that mean? Well, we'll look at it. Come; come up with; in addition. Right? We go "in

addition" and "improve". So come with something in addition to make it better. "When I came

up with this idea" -- it's an idea we didn't have before, additional, and it's to improve

the situation. "So what did you come up with?" Right?

So I'll give you the story. I'm going to read it again. Try to work it through and think

about it. "Mr. E was catching up with" -- now, in this case, we're not talking about he got

in trouble from his past. Right? It "caught up" with him. We're saying "exchanging information".

Now, "Let's catch up. Let's catch up with each other in a couple hours." Right? Exchange

information. Modern information or new information that's happened from before. Okay?

Now, when we talk about "put up with", what is that? Accept without complaint. It doesn't

mean you love it. It just means you, in some ways, ignore it and say, "It's okay. I don't

really -- it doesn't bother me. I put up with it." If you're a girl and you have a lazy

boyfriend, they go, "How do you put up with that lazy guy who doesn't want to work?" "I

put up with him because I love him." Right? She accepts him. "I accept him with my heart."

It's acceptable. All right? Now, as I said, "team up". I love it when

the Justice League teams up with the Justice Society. That means nothing to you, so how

about this. When Barcelona -- Team Barcelona -- teams up with Team Madrid for the World

Cup -- I know it doesn't happen, but imagine if they worked together, they would be the

most awesome super team and maybe beat Brazil. Right? Not going to happen. All right? But

that's what we mean by "team up". "Join forces". Right? And we did "catch up". And we've done

"come up". "We need to come up with a plan." Well, like I came up with this lesson for

you. With "with", right? So we've looked at "with" or "up with". And we used it with different

verbs. And we've shown how even though the verb may have one basic meaning, when you

add particles -- or prepositions depending on your teacher -- almost the same thing.

When you add them together, it totally changes the meaning of the verb, okay?

Now, for us, what that means -- because I know; I was talking to Mr. E earlier. "Why

would they do it?" Well, specifically this. When you make phrasal verbs, they capture

a unique meaning, and it gives more richness or gives more information than just the verb

alone. "Come" means one thing, but "come up with" means something different. "Come" means

"I arrive" or "I bring something". "Come up with" means invent something new that's going

time prove the situation. Understand? That's why we use phrasal verbs. That's why

they're important. And that's why I want you to come back to EngVid because we have many

lessons on phrasal verbs. All right? We've got Valen, Alex-- who else do we have? Adam.

All these guys teaching wonderful lessons on that. I'd love you to look at not only

my own lessons, but theirs. All right? But where are you going to go, right I'll come

up with that in a second. I got it. Why don't you go to www.engvid.com, "eng" as in "English",

"vid" as in "video". And you can hear the siren. It's time for me to go. Right? My past

has caught up with me. I've been running. Five years we've been running this stuff,

and finally, they caught up with me. I don't know how you put up with me, but I guess the

gig is up. Listen, I'll team up with Mr. E another time. Anyway. I've got to go. Have

a great day. engVid -- click "subscribe". See you. Damn it. I knew it was going to catch

up with me!