Phrasal Verb Magic 2 - How to Learn Phrasal Verbs like Native English Speakers

hello again guys it is drew badger here

again the world's number one english

fluency guide reminding you to learn

things visually if you want to remember

them today we're going to do a bit more

phrasal verb magic and let's take a look

at some blocks that i have on the table

here I took these from my daughter today

hopefully she won't miss them too much

but we're just going to use a couple of

these to talk about a few maybe some

more slightly more difficult phrasal

verbs but things that are connected with

building and destroying things building

and destroying things because this is

one set of things are one idea generally

that when I'm speaking with my daughter

we're reviewing things like this and I

general i generally or I tend to cover

opposites so we're talking about one

thing i want to explain her instead of

how something works by explaining what

it is just by showing her the opposite

so last night we were practicing small

and big and this is just something that

I can explain if I just say you know try

to explain to somebody what small means

without giving the opposite definition

it's quite difficult but if you can just

look at the differences in something

like one block versus two blocks then

it's pretty easy to see the difference

and understand what it means without

having any kind of explanation

again this is so important to english

fluency training into learning like a

native English speaker the more pieces

that you have or the more steps that you

have between where your languages or

where your current level is and where

you want to be the more difficult it's

going to be to get fluent as an example

if you're trying to learn something but

you want to have explanations and you

want to learn it through your native

language first and then try to translate

it into English all of these steps are

extra things that you put into your

brain to make it more difficult for you

to get fluent so don't do this anyway

let's look at some of these and see what

we can make so I think we covered in a

previous one using the uno cards

creating something where I'm putting

something on something else so this is

the phrasal verb to put on so we've got

put if I'm just going to put something

put one block on another block so put on

put on put on now I've got a stack of

four blocks instead of saying put on

because you can use that for anything

like I put on this shirt or I put a

block on the table

am I putting a block on the table yes I

am am I putting one block on another

block

yes I am am I putting two blocks on two

more blocks as I am so now I have a

stack of four blocks now I can also say

i'm stacking them up so if i have four

blocks I can stack up the blocks like

this so I'll tell my daughter can you

stack up the blocks and then she start

stacking them up so can you stack up the

blocks can you stack the blocks up

yes I can no I can't now you can't stack

down we don't really say this in English

but depending on how you want to

disassemble this try to think about that

before i introduce what this would be

how would you call this if I'm going to

do this action here now what do you

think I would do or what do you think i

would say in that instance so if I have

a stack i'm stacking up blocks right now

I have a stack of four blocks and I'm

doing this what action am I really doing

if you try to take a verb and a

preposition what am i doing so if i take

a verb verb would be eat drink sleep go

in a preposition is something like up

down I'm taking something and I'm

putting it down so I'm taking the stack

down I'm taking down a stack of blocks

and so this is something that you could

use if you have a system of something

again we always start with a physical

idea of how something works so you can

understand it and then we're taking that

and having a more figurative idea like

let's say I have like some building the

scaffolding so scaffolding is the

construction term for those little bars

and things that you see on the outside

of buildings when people are doing

construction construction so when you

you put up those are you putting up

scaffolding just like this you can also

take it down when you're done using it

so anything any piece of equipment like

I used to do stereo and sound

engineering back when I was in college

so we would have to set up something we

would have to build something

then after the show where the concert

was finished we would take it down take

it down so I'm being nice right here i'm

taking care this is another great

phrasal verb I'm being very delicate

with something i'm taking care so with

care i'm doing something so i'm taking

the blocks down with care

now what my daughter usually does is

this

now what would you call that what would

you call that

now in this case I'm not taking care

with it and the verb is not take because

i'm not really taking something in a

nice weight in this case I am knocking

something down to knock something down

now when you knock something down

typically that thing comes in a couple

of different pieces to knock something

down so if i have maybe one thing like

this let me see if I have to I'll take

my phone case here or the let's see how

this might not be so good to use but

notice the difference here we've got

actually for individual things and so

when we when we hit this i'm going to

i'm going to hit it violently well maybe

not violently I don't want to make it

too loud but because each of these

things moves in a separate location when

it falls down so we're like that so I'm

going to hit something and look we've

got one two three four separate blocks

now each one of these pieces again

because it's a separate thing we're

using knock and we call this knocking

something down knocking something down

now the slight difference here is knock

over now knock over is usually when we

have one thing like this that's one

physical thing if I hit it or if i make

it fall it's going to fall over like

that so I'm knocking something over so

typically you would see something like

if I have a tall lamp next to me and I

move quickly and I knock it and it falls

down like this i'm knocking it over

knocking it over a block when you have

something that physically moves from a

up location to a Down location in a

straight line this is to fall down fall

down fall down fall down but if i have

something like this

this is to fall over so if you cut a

tree the tree falls over but again just

think about when you're talking with

phrasal verbs what actions are you

really doing what are you trying to say

are you trying to say that it's a

delicate thing you're doing or that it's

maybe a bit more violent

so are you knocking something down or

you pushing something down so in this

case i could maybe if I want to push it

gently i could push i can push it over

so I could take someone and push them

over and then they would fall like this

but if I may be a bit more angry i'm

going to knock it over like that now i

might not be angry but again the speed

of the action is what's important so

what's the actual verb and then what's

the actual preposition that you're

trying to use in this case so don't

think about what's the actual phrasal

verb that you would use but actually try

to build up an understanding of how

phrasal verbs work this is how English

speakers learn to do it and when they

don't know of a specific way of

explaining something they will just

create a phrasal verb in that way and

this is what you should be training

yourself to do so always be thinking

about what's a physical way of

understanding of phrases over because

every phrasal verb can be understood in

this way and I think it's pretty easy to

do if you just take some time and

actually look at an example like this

with blocks or something like this where

we have maybe one physical thing anyway

if you'd like to learn more about how to

create phrasal verbs and how to be

thinking like a native English speaker i

highly recommend you check out our

visual guide to phrasal verbs and you

can sort of learn more about this in

English anyone dot-com and also see some

example videos right here on youtube

just search our channel for visual guide

to phrasal verbs and if you have more

questions

do let us know in the comments below if

you're enjoying this series and you'd

like to learn more i'd be happy to show

you some more physical things again this

is getting exactly how i teach my

daughter and help her understand things

i'm i'm just using very simple

principles but I want to make sure that

you understand the same way that you

would teach a baby is the same way that

you would teach an adult in this way so

just because you're older doesn't mean

that you need to have lots more

explanations you really should be

learning things simply in the same way

I'll does and this is how you do it

anyway hope you've enjoyed this video if

you had do click that like button and i

look forward to seeing you in the next

video bye bye

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