PHRASAL VERBS: 3 ways to use “give back” in English

Could you give me back my copy of 1984? Talk to you soon. Send.

I love that book, and I want it back. Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking,

and welcome to this lesson on "Give Back". So, today I'm going to tell you the three ways

that you can use this very versatile phrasal verb. And if you enjoy this lesson and you're

interested in learning even more phrasal verbs, you can pick up a copy of my book,

"100 Practical English Phrasal Verbs" at EnglishAlex.com. The link to the book,

to the website, is attached to the description of this video. So, check it out. Let me know

what you think, especially if you enjoy this video. So, "give back". Let me let you take a

screen capture if you like doing that. "Give back", the first definition, the most common definition,

it means to return something to someone. For example, give me back my phone. Hey,

return my phone to me. Maybe someone, one of your friends, a family member, they take your phone

from you because they want to see what you're looking at, what picture you know you're looking

at, or what website, and it's private, and you say, "Hey, give me back my phone." A very common

sentence with "give back" is just, "Give it back. Return it. Give it to me now." Okay? So, give it

back. Let's repeat that after me. Give it back. There you go. So, you're just asking for them

to return that thing to you. So, give me back my phone. Did he ever give back your book? So,

if you lent a book to a friend, like I did, and I haven't... I haven't. What am I saying? I haven't

seen it in a long time. See, I'm so upset. I'm so frustrated. I don't even know how to speak properly.

So, did he ever give back your book? Did he ever return your book to you? Okay? So, give back,

number one, to return something to someone. Number two, let's take a look.

To do something for a person, a community, etc., to show gratitude for something that they did for

you. So, if you grew up in a community, if you grew up in, you know, a religious community,

for example, and when you were a child, they did a lot for you. You went to parties, they took care

of you, you made your friends there, and it was a very positive community for you to be a part of.

And as you get older, maybe you're not part of this community as much anymore, but you're so

grateful for what they did for you that you want to give back to them. Now, you can give back

financially, you know, you can make a donation to them. You can also give back through your time,

through volunteering for something. So, you can give back to a community, a person, a website,

it doesn't matter. If something had a positive impact on you and you want to show your gratitude,

you can give back to them or it. So, for example, very common sentence, and this is why I chose it,

"I want to give back to my community. I want to do something for my community to show that

I am grateful for everything they have done for me." Next, "She has never given back to her family."

Obviously, this is a negative sentence, and it means that she is ungrateful, that she has never

given anything back, not her time or anything to show gratitude for everything her family

has done for her. So, again, it's a negative example, but it is an example. All right?

Finally, number three, "to return an emotion or feeling to someone that he or she stopped feeling."

Now, another way to, you know, say this is to get back an emotion or feeling. So, you can give

an emotion or feeling back to a person or you can get it back yourself. So, two example sentences

here. "He lost his passion. He needs to get it back." Right? So, he needs to get back his passion.

You can get back your passion for something. You can give someone back their confidence or their

love of something. So, imagine that you used to love the Star Wars movies, right? The original

three Star Wars movies, and then the prequel trilogy happened, and you said, "I don't really

like Star Wars anymore." And then J.J. Abrams makes The Force Awakens, and you're like, "Oh,

he has given me back my love of Star Wars." It's not necessarily true for me, but maybe it's true

for you. The third movie is just... I have feelings about that third movie. Not all of them are

positive. Back to the lesson. So, second example. "Yoga has helped to give her back her confidence."

So, "Yoga has helped to give her back her confidence." So, if someone is not a confident

person, maybe they lost their confidence because of a bad relationship or they lost their job and

they don't feel good, and they start exercising, and you can say, "You know what? My yoga routine

or my exercise routine has really given me back my confidence. I am getting back my confidence

because of this action." So, three definitions, three uses for the phrasal verb "give back".

One more time, let's do a quick review. One, to return something to someone. "Give it back.

Give me back my phone." Two, to do something for a community or person to show gratitude,

to say thank you for something that they did for you. "I want to give back to my community.

I want to give back to my church. I need to give back to my family for everything they have done

for me." And number three, to return an emotion or feeling to someone that they lost feeling,

maybe because of a depression, maybe because of something negative that happened to them,

and you want to give them back their confidence, their passion, their love for something.

So, if you want to test your understanding of these three uses of the phrasal verb "give back",

as always, you can check out the quiz on www.engvid.com. If you're watching this on

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Huh. Do you know what you can get on EnglishAlex.com? Yes, I'm selling you a book right

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three definitions of "give back" as well as 99 other phrasal verbs with over 900 examples,

20 context-based lessons, and only the most current usages. So, check out the link in the

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