PHRASAL VERBS that mean the same thing!

Oh, hey, thanks for stopping by.

Hey, everyone, I'm Alex.

Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on phrasal verb synonyms.

So in this video, we are going to look at several phrasal verbs that mean the same thing.

And if you enjoy this lesson and you would like to improve your phrasal verbs, continue

improving your knowledge, your use of phrasal verbs, and to practice using them in real

context, check out 100 Practical English Phrasal Verbs.

You can check out the link that is attached to this video, where you can find the PDF

and EPUB, or if you want this beautiful physical version, you can go to Amazon to pick it up.

100 Practical English Phrasal Verbs, and that's my promotion for the book.

So check it out.

I think you will like it.

So let's start.

We have cut back on something, cut down on something.

Both of these phrasal verbs mean that you are reducing the usage of something, usually

something that's bad for you, because you feel like you need to, hmm, I need to reduce

like what I'm doing here.

So, for example, I'm trying to cut down on sugar.

So this means I am eating too many sweet things.

I have too much sugar in my diet.

I'm trying to cut down on sugar.

You can also say I'm trying to cut back on sugar.

Now, you saw my hand doing this and then doing this.

So visually, if you are visualizing cut down, cut back, both of them refer to reducing.

When you have cut back, think of I need to cut back.

So you're going horizontally back.

I need to cut down vertically, cut down the amount of sugar.

So you can cut down on screen time if you spend too much time on your phone.

You can cut back on alcohol if you drink too much alcohol.

Companies can cut back or cut down on their spending.

So how much money they spend.

It just means to reduce your usage of something, usually a bad habit.

Next, or something that is not good for you.

Next, we have, I said, "Hey, thanks for stopping by."

But you can also say, "Thanks for passing by.

Thanks for dropping by.

Thanks for popping by.

Thanks for swinging by."

And all of these mean, excuse me, all of these mean, there are so many of them that my tongue got mixed up.

So all of these mean to make a quick visit, a quick stop somewhere.

Let's look at the example sentence.

Could you pop by my office after work?

Now pop by is quite casual, as is swing by.

These two, pop by, swing by, they're a little more informal, a little more casual than stop

by, pass by.

Even drop by is a bit informal.

This is your cool boss.

Your boss is cool and says, "Hey, could you pop by my office after work?"

So think of pop, right?

You think of a pop.

A pop is usually very fast.

So a quick stop, you know, maybe he wants to ask you about your schedule for next week

or something.

So let me explain these one by one.

Stop by my office after work.

You stopped in front of the office, right?

Pass by.

You pass.

Oh, hey, right?

Next, drop by, drop.

So if I have something in my hand, I drop it and you can like drop by the office like

you're falling by the office.

Pop by, I explained, maybe like popcorn or like some kind of spell where you appear like

magic and swing by like Spider-Man, swing by the office.

So all of these mean to make a quick visit.

Think of any place, almost any place you can stop by or pass by.

Maybe on the way home from work today, you need to pass by the bank or pop by the bank.

Maybe you need to stop by your sister's house to pick up a cake for a party or something

like that.

Okay, let's continue.

We have mess up and screw up.

Both of these mean to make a mistake.

So if you mess up something, you screw up something, you didn't do so well.

Everyone messes up sometimes.

I can also say everyone screws up sometimes.

So repeat after me.

I really messed up.

One more time.

This time with screw up.

I really screwed up.

Okay.

So if you say I really messed up or I really screwed up, it means I made a big mistake.

Maybe you made a mistake at work.

Maybe you made a mistake in a relationship or in some kind of social situation.

You can mess up on a test, for example.

You can screw up on an exam.

So mess up, screw up, both mean to make mistakes.

There's another thing here.

You can also use the adjective phrase like that is messed up or that is screwed up.

If something is messed up or is screwed up, it's really chaotic, hard to understand, abnormal

in a way.

So if you see a picture of, I don't know, this is not really messed up, but my channel

is a little PG, so I don't want to do anything really messed up.

But if you see a picture of a rabbit riding on top of an elephant, I guess that's cute.

But you might say like, that's kind of messed up.

Like that's weird.

Like how, why would a rabbit ride on an elephant?

It's very strange.

I'm sure you can think of many messed up things.

The internet is full of messed up and screwed up things.

Okay.

And also great things.

Many great things on the internet like this channel.

Thank you for watching.

Nope.

Sorry about that.

I hope it wasn't too loud.

That was a little messed up.

Okay.

Actually, I messed up.

I screwed up by touching my microphone.

I made a mistake.

Perfect.

We learn all the time.

Next, push back and put off.

Now, okay, first let me talk about how these are similar.

They both mean to postpone something or to delay something.

So for example, could we put off the meeting until tomorrow?

Could we push back the meeting until tomorrow?

In both cases, you are postponing the meeting.

You say, no, I can't do the meeting today.

I need to put off the meeting.

I need to push back the meeting until tomorrow.

Put off has an extra meaning where it can mean to procrastinate a little bit.

So you can say, oh, I keep putting off my homework.

I keep putting it off and putting it off and putting it off.

Push back has this meaning too a little bit, but push back is more just about like postponing

and not procrastination.

So put off can also have an extra meaning of procrastinating.

It's like, yeah, I keep putting it off and putting it over there where I can't see it.

OK, but in the context of meetings and appointments and events, you can push back a meeting, push

back an appointment, put off a meeting, put off an appointment.

Finally, turn up and crank up.

So both of these mean to increase the intensity of something.

Typically, we use turn up with turn up the volume or turn up the heat.

Oh, it's really cold in here.

Turn up the heat or turn up the air conditioning because I want the air conditioning to be

stronger.

So to increase the intensity of something.

Let's look at the example before we talk about crank up a little bit.

Crank up the volume.

I love this song.

So crank up, crank like this.

That's a good sound, right?

If you crank something up, you turn it up, you increase the intensity.

And this is kind of like a slang version of turn up.

It's a more informal and casual way to say turn up.

So if I say I can't say, oh, turn up the volume.

I love this song.

But if I'm like super cool, I say, whoa, just crank up the volume.

I love this song like crank it.

Just you're holding something and you're turning it.

It's it's a lot more intense.

And you sound like you want to say, bro, crank up the volume or don't.

It's up to you.

It's your decision.

OK, so we did a lot of phrasal verb synonyms.

Make sure you check out the quiz on www.engvid.com to practice using all of these and to learn

and remember which ones are which and how to use them, what their meanings are.

So I have exposed you to these phrasal verbs.

The next thing you have to do is put them in to practice.

So try to use them in a sentence.

Try to use them while you are speaking.

Speak out loud, not just in your head and in the comments, whether on EngVid or anywhere

else online.

See if you can use these phrasal verbs in a sentence.

And if you're watching this on YouTube, make sure to like the video, subscribe to my channel,

share everything, and, oh, 100 practical English phrasal verbs.

Can I use one of these here?

Don't cut back on your English learning.

Make sure you pass by my website.

You are going to mess up if you don't get this book.

Stop putting it off.

You know you want to buy it.

Turn up the volume to this video and listen to me talk about this book.

Sorry, that was spontaneous.

That was the best I could do.

I hope you enjoyed it.

I did.

So, yeah, the PDF is available on my website, as is the EPUB.

Check out the Amazon links for the physical version.

That is all for today, folks.

Until next time, I never say folks.

It's a very American thing.

I am in Canada, but that's all, folks.

That's not copyright infringement.

Look up copyright infringement.

Until next time, thanks for clicking, and thanks for popping by.

See ya.