VERBS to PHRASAL VERBS: Their meaning changes!

Hey, there. I'm Ronnie, here to teach you English. It's the purpose.

Phrasal verbs. Oh, everyone hates them because

they're so confusing, and they have a couple

different meanings sometimes, and they're just

kind of weird, and awkward, and difficult.

A phrasal verb is a verb with a preposition.

Up, by, for, to, down. And I'll tell you how

this lesson came about, or how I thought of this lesson. I was riding my bicycle on a

beautiful day, and I was riding next to the lake, Lake Ontario, not that beautiful, and

I saw a sign that said, "We are cleaning up Lake Ontario." And if you've ever been

to Lake Ontario... Not Ontario Lake, it's

the lake in Toronto, in the surrounding area.

It's pretty dirty. It's polluted. It's not

really safe to swim in it. We cannot eat the

fish from it. I mean, we could, but you might

die or get really sick. I don't think that

I've ever put my body in the lake, just because

it's so dirty. Like, yeah, you be the judge,

though. You can go and have a look. And when

you're there, come visit me and I give you

some lessons. You can take private online lessons with

me, englishwithronnie.com, www.englishwithronnie.com.

Hit me up for private online lessons. But let's get back to this. So, I'm riding my

bike and the sign says, "Cleaning up Lake Ontario", and I thought, "Hmm, why did the

sign say 'cleaning up' and not 'cleaning' Lake Ontario? Why does it say 'cleaning up

Lake Ontario' and not 'cleaning Lake Ontario'?

Or, "We want to clean Lake Ontario. We want

to clean up Lake Ontario. Why do they use a phrasal verb 'up'?" So I thought about it,

and this is what I came up with. And it is confusing. So, to clean something, the base

verb, we clean dirt. We can dust something, you know, dust. We can wipe something, use

some toxic chemicals, get that really shiny there. But if we clean something up, like

an object, we're not necessarily just removing

the dirt or the dust. We're actually putting

things away. We're removing things, like garbage.

So, it's kind of hard to clean a lake. You

just, like, get some spray, it's clean. But if we clean up the lake, we're taking the

bad shit out of it. We're taking out all the

chemicals. They're never going to get this

done. They're taking out the chemicals, they're

taking out the garbage, all the crap that's

in there that doesn't belong. You can clean your room, you can dust it, you can get the

dirt out, but if you clean up your room, you're

taking the garbage out, making your bed, making

sure it's all beautiful. So, cleaning up your

room or cleaning your room is very different.

You can't clean the lake. You can clean up the lake because you take stuff out of it.

Okay? Next one... Oh, I forgot. We can also

use the past tense. So I can say, "Oh, yeah,

yeah, yeah. Hey, guess what? I cleaned my room." Woo-hoo. Or if you're doing it now

in the process, "I'm cleaning my room." Okay?

"I cleaned up the area" or "I'm cleaning up

the area."

The next one is "to find". Do you know the past

tense of "find"? The past tense is "found",

f-o-u-n-d. So, if we find something, we look

for something specific, like, "Oh, oh, look,

I found my red marker." Purple marker, red marker. So, we look for something. But if

we add "find out" or the past tense "found out", it means we discover information. We

discover something that we didn't know before. It

can be through observation or through learning.

You can say, "Oh, I found out through this

video that there's a difference between phrasal

verbs and just regular verbs. It was great."

Next one, "pick". The past tense is easy, it's just "picked". But the pronunciation's

kind of weird. We have to say it like a "t",

we have to say "picked". "I picked this one."

So, we write it like an "ed", but it sounds like a "t" sound, so we say "picked". Can

you do it? "Picked". "Pick" or "picked" means

you choose something. "Oh, I picked this shirt

today because it's a beautiful colour." But if you pick up something, it's different.

Maybe if you're ordering food, people will say, "Oh, do you want delivery or pick up?"

Choose. I'm not choosing. I've already chosen.

So, "pick up" means you retrieve, or less

formal, get something. So, I can go and pick up

a takeout order, or get. I can lift something,

like, "Oh, hold on, let me pick up the marker

off the table." So you're physically lifting

something. You've already chosen it, you're just physically actually lifting it.

What are some other things? You can pick up

people. "Oh, yeah." So you'll hear people say,

"Oh, yeah. I went to the bar and I picked up

a guy last night." Like, damn, you're strong.

But it doesn't mean to lift. It has two meanings.

One of them means, like, get, the other one

means lift. So, if you pick up somebody at

the bar, it means that you've lured them into

your bedroom. "Oh, what are you going to do? Are you going to play chess?" Mm-hmm.

"Bring". Past tense is weird. "Brought". That's

even a hard one to say because the spelling

looks so weird. B-r-o-u-g-h-t. So, if I brought

something or I bring something, I mean I physically

carry it with me to another place. "Oh, look,

I brought some markers today." But this one,

"bring up" or "brought up" has three completely

different meanings. So, "bring up" means to

talk about. I can say, "Hey, shh, don't bring

up the fact or don't talk about the fact that

I'm wearing a yellow shirt today. Shh, don't,

don't. Mm-mm, mm-mm." Or, "Oh, please talk

about, please bring up the issue of the black

curtains. We want to talk about it." It also

means mention. Okay? "Oh, let's talk about the red cup. Please mention the red cup in

your speech." Oh, you might hear people say,

"Oh, I brought up dinner." It's like, you

talked about dinner? No, it means I barfed

or I vomited. "Vomit" is a very formal word.

I prefer "barf". "Oh, I brought up my lunch.

Oh, I had a sandwich. Mm, yum." And it can also

mean that you raise a child. Okay? We don't

grow children. Mm-mm, we raise children. So you,

if children are misbehaved, we'll be like, "Who

brought you up?" It means basically who educated

you, who raised you. "Were you brought up..." Oh,

there's an expression. "Were you brought up by

wolves?" My mother brought me up. My mother raised

me, cared for me, educated me. So there's one,

two, three different meanings for this one. Be

careful. And the last one, "show". Past tense,

"showed". That pronunciation's easier, at least.

So if I show you something, it's like display,

like... Markers. Now, let me show you my pet

hamster. But if I show up, you'll hear people

say, "Oh, hey, where's Ronnie? She didn't show up

for the... The shoot. Where is she?" I don't know.

"Oh, hey, you didn't show up last night." You're

like, "I didn't display? Was I supposed to display

something? Did I forget?" But "show up" means

attend. So if you don't show up for something,

it means you didn't go. Okay? So, hey, please show up for the classes.

Englishwithronnie.com, I have private online

classes to help you with all of this confusion

about phrasal verbs. So if you show up or you

attend your class, you're going to be amazing

at English. You're going to learn so much and

have fun. If you have questions, write them in

the comments. I hope that you enjoyed everything.

And maybe you could go to the bar and pick up

something more beautiful. Bye.