Improve Your Vocabulary: KNOW, MEET, MEET WITH, or MEET UP?

Hello.

My name is Emma, and in today's video I am going to teach you about the difference between

"know" and "meet".

This is a very common mistake I hear many, many students making.

Okay.

I'm also going to teach you about the difference between

"meet", "meet with", or "meet up with".

Okay?

And this, in case you're wondering, is the past tense of "meet".

Okay? So in this video we're going to talk about:

"know", "meet", "meet up with", and "meet with",

and: What are the differences between those different words?

So let's get started.

So I have here four sentences.

"I knew Chelsea last week."

And "knew" is the past of "know".

"I met Chelsea last week."

"Met" is the past of "meet".

"I met with Chelsea last week."

and: "I met up with Chelsea last week."

Do you know what the difference between these sentences are?

Are there any ones that have a mistake in them or all these all good sentences?

Okay, so take a moment and think about it.

Okay.

So, let's first look at the difference between these two:

"I knew Chelsea last week." and "I met Chelsea last week."

So I have here some pictures.

Pictures can really help you remember things, and they can really, you know, help make a point...

A stronger point.

So, let's get started over here.

We have "meet", which is now and the past, which is "met".

I have here two people.

These people do not know each other.

It's the first time that they are talking.

Okay? They don't know each other.

So what do they say?

They say: "Nice to meet you!"

We use "meet" when we're meeting somebody for the first time.

We use "meet" with strangers.

Okay?

So these guys, they don't know each other and now they are meeting for the first time.

Okay, so these two, we could say: "They met last week."

Meaning: The first time they shook hands:

"Hi. Nice to meet you." was last week.

Now, compare this to "know" or "knew", which again, is the past tense.

We have here two friends.

Okay?

We can call them David and Ken.

They're friends forever.

Okay? They've been friends for a very long time.

In this case they know each other.

They have history.

It's not they're meeting for the first time.

No. They met a long time ago.

So if there's history between two people, they know each other.

If there is no history between two people and, you know, it's their first time shaking

hands, saying: "Nice to meet you", they meet each other.

Okay? So this one we would never say...

This is a mistake I hear a lot.

A lot of people say:

"Oh. It's nice to know you."

We don't say that.

Okay? Because "know" means you met the person a long time ago and you've...

You know, you have a history together.

For this, this is the first time, we would use "meet" not "know".

Okay?

So another thing I wanted to say on this is a lot of the times you want to...

You know, you want to talk about how long has somebody been friends with somebody or

how long has somebody had this person for their teacher.

So the...

What we usually use is the present perfect, so we often say how long we've known someone.

Okay? So "known" is the past participle of "know".

So what you can say if somebody says:

-"Oh. How long have you known your husband for?"

-"I've known my husband for 10 years."

-"How long has Dave known Ken for?"

-"Dave has known Ken for five years."

Okay? So, again, this is asking about: How long is your history?

How long have you known each other for?

Again, this is key English.

It comes up a lot in conversation.

When you meet somebody, you know, and there's like a couple, you often say:

"Oh. How long have you known Bob for?

How long have you known Jennifer for?" Okay?

So now let's look at some of the differences with "met", or, sorry.

"Meet", "meet with", and "meet up with".

Okay, so quick question to you.

We've just gone over the difference between "know" and "met".

For these two: "I knew Chelsea last week.", "I met Chelsea last week."

which one do you think is correct?

Well, if you said number two: "I met Chelsea last week."

that's right. Oh, okay.

"I met Chelsea last week."

This one is correct, because usually you know somebody for a long time and we usually don't

use "knew" because it makes it sound like the person has died or that you don't know

them anymore.

So we usually use "know" or we use "have known".

We don't use "knew" a lot.

So, what you could say is: "I have known Chelsea since last week."

But if you're talking about, like, meeting first time, we would use "met".

"I met Chelsea last week."

Means: -"Nice to meet you, Chelsea."

-"Nice to meet you, too."

Okay? So in general what you're looking for is "met" for a first time meeting.

Now let's look at these other sentences and how we use them.

Okay, so we've talked about "know" meaning you have a history with somebody, and we talked

about "meet" meaning for the first time.

Now, what's the difference between: "meet", "meet with", and "meet up with"?

Let's look at that now.

So, I told you before "meet" has to do with strangers meeting for the first time, or maybe

they met a couple times but they don't know each other well.

Each time they see each other:

"Oh. It's nice to meet you."

So, for example...

This isn't true, but just for this example: "I met Taylor Swift twice."

This means Taylor Swift has no idea who I am.

Or maybe, you know, just at that meeting we say:

-"Hi. Nice to meet you.

My name's Emma. What's your name?"

-"Oh, I'm Taylor Swift."

And then we see each other maybe a couple years later:

"Oh. It's nice to meet you again."

But we don't know each other.

Okay?

We don't have history together.

We've only met two times.

Now, compare this to: "meet with".

"Meet with" is when we're talking about usually a business situation or some sort of formal

situation where we're talking about some sort of serious matter.

Okay? So, for example: "I met with my professor today."

Or: "Tomorrow I will meet with my boss to talk about our company.",

"Today I had a job interview. I met with some people about the job."

So we're usually talking about formal situations when we use "meet with", or again, this is

the past: "met with".

Okay?

So notice there is no "with" here, because it's the first time.

Here, there is "with", and it just indicates a formal meeting.

And for this one, you know, it doesn't have to be the first time.

Maybe you've met with your boss a hundred times before, so it can...

It has a different meaning than this.

Okay, the next one: "meet up with".

So, "meet up with" is another way to say hang out or do something social with people.

It's fun or it should be fun.

Okay?

So usually it's with friends, it can be with other people, too.

But when you meet up with somebody it's not a business meeting, it's not formal.

It's you're meeting for fun.

So, for example: "I met up with my friends tonight."

So, this is why people get really confused by these things because when we just have

"meet" with no prepositions after, it indicates a first or second meeting where you don't

know the person.

For "meet with" it indicates some sort of formal situation, whereas "meet up with" is

about a fun situation.

It's pretty much saying: "I'm hanging out with somebody.

I met up with my friends tonight.

I'm hanging out with my friends tonight."

Okay? So, we've covered a lot in this video.

We've covered the difference between "know" and "met".

Remember "know" is you have a history with someone, "meet" is, you know, you're pretty

much strangers.

We covered "meet" versus "meet with" versus "meet up with".

So this is a lot of different concepts and different vocabulary to remember.

So what I would like you to do is come

check out our website at www.engvid.com,

and there you can take a quiz to really practice

the differences between these four different words

and phrasal verbs.

So I invite you to come check out that website.

You can also subscribe to my channel.

I have a lot of different resources there on grammar, vocabulary, IELTS, TOEFL,

pronunciation, speaking, all sorts of different things.

And we also have a lot of great resources on engVid as well.

So I hope you check it out.

Until next time, thank you for watching and take care.