ONE HOUR ENGLISH LESSON - Top 50 Phrasal Verbs in English

Welcome to this one hour English vocabulary  lesson. Today you're going to learn the 50  

most common phrasal verbs in English. Because  this video is very long, what I've done is I've  

divided it into five different parts. So you'll  learn 10 phrasal verbs. You'll understand what  

that phrasal verb means, how to use it in your  speech, and you'll see some practical example  

sentences. So you'll learn 10 phrasal verbs,  and then you'll complete a quiz. So you'll  

repeat that five times. So by the end of  this lesson, you'll complete five quizzes,  

and you'll learn 50 new phrasal verbs. How awesome  is that! of course I'm Jennifer. Welcome back to  

JForrest English training, your place to become  a fluent and confident English speaker. Now let's  

get started. Number 1, to ache for. This is a  very nice romantic phrasal verb. Now we really use  

this in the context of a romantic relationship.  So make sure you use that appropriately. And ache  

for something or someone is when you really  really want that something or someone. For  

example, he was lonely and aching for love. So  this is perhaps a little more of a poetic phrasal  

verb. You will probably hear it in novels,   stories, movies, TV. He was aching for love. So  

maybe you won't use that in your vocabulary, but   you'll likely hear it in romance movies or romance  

novels. Now you may be more likely to use ache  for someone. Let's say your husband is overseas  

on a business trip and he'll be gone for two  or three weeks. You might say, I'm aching for my  

husband. So if you're talking to your friends or  family, even your colleagues, you can say oh, I'm  

really aching for my husband. He's been gone for  two weeks already. Number two, to beef up. This  

is a fun one. When you beef something up, you  make it stronger or more important. Now we do use  

this in the context of bodybuilders, and they   can beef themselves up, become more muscular.  

So you can use that in a fitness context. But,   we also use this in more of a business context,  

perhaps surprisingly. Because you might say,   I need to beef up my resume. I need to make my  

resume stronger, or more important. I need to   beef up my communication skills, for example.  

Number three, to make up. And in this context,   we're talking about to make up with someone, with  

someone. To make up with someone is when you   forgive someone after an argument or a dispute. In  

a family context, young kids fight a lot, right,  and older kids too. But you might say to your son,  

your daughter, you need to make up with   your sister. You need to make up with your  

brother. You need to make up with more cousin,   or a friend. And you list a specific person.  

Which means you need to forgive that person,   stop being angry at that person, stop fighting  

with that person. So we definitely use this in  a social context or family context. But you can  

absolutely use this in a professional context.   Coworkers fight as well. There are disagreements  

in companies. So you might say to one coworker,   Sally, you need to make up with Mark. You work  

on the same team. You have to get along, you  need to make up with each other. Number four,  

to nail down. This is when you understand  the exact details of something or you get a  

firm decision on something. So let's say you're  planning a conference and you have a general idea  

of the conference. It will take place in summer.  It will be on this general topic or theme. But  

when is the exact date. What specific topics.  Who specifically will be the keynote speaker. Who  

specifically will be presenting. Who will you  hire to cater the conference. You need to nail  

down those details. So you need to either   understand the exact details or you need to  

make a firm decision on who is going to cater,  when the conference will exactly take place.  

So that's a very useful phrasal verb. And you can  use it in a business context or a social context.  

Number five, to open up. When you open up  to someone, you talk very freely about your  

feelings or your emotions, things that make  you quite vulnerable. Things you probably  

don't share with everybody. For example, after  years, she finally opened up about his death.  

So for many years, there was this tragic death  perhaps, and she didn't really talk about it.  

She didn't talk about her feelings. About the  death. But then after a year, she opened up.  

She started talking freely about how she felt,  the circumstances, how she's dealing with it,  

those types of things, her inner feelings and  emotions. Now notice I didn't use 'to someone'.  

I could say, she opened up to her family about  his death. So you'll have 'about' and then the  

specific topic, and 'to' and the specific people.  You'll commonly hear people say, I've never opened  

up to anybody like this before. If someone says  that to you, they're basically saying they feel  

very comfortable around you. They feel like  they can share their inner thoughts, feelings,  

emotions. And that's a very positive thing. It  shows you're have a very close relationship.   

Number six, to slip into something. Now this is  when you quickly put on a piece of clothing. So  

this is a very specific phrasal verb. It's only  used with clothing. Now, for example, this shirt  

is quite pretty, isn't it? But let's be honest,  it's not the most comfortable shirt. So after  

I'm done recording this video, I'm going to slip  into a t shirt. I'm going to put on a t-shirt. Or  

if it's first thing in the morning and you're in  your housecoat, but then you hear your doorbell,  

you might quickly slip into some sweatpants and  answer the door. So it's simply another way to say  

put on. Number seven, to stand by something.   When you stand by something. It's used to show  

that you still support or believe something.   So I might say, we stand by our opinion that  

interest rates need to increase. So that's  my opinion. That's my belief. Interest rates  

need to increase. And I stand by that. I still  support that. I still believe that. So you'll hear  

this a lot from people in power, politicians,  executives in business, will have an opinion,  

have a belief and then they'll state, I stand  by that to let you know they still believe that  

specific opinion. Do you stand by that? I stand  by that? Yes, the reason simply is that. We also  

use this with 'stand by someone'. When you stand  by someone, it means that you support someone,  

usually when something negative has happened.  So let's say that your coworker was accused  

of stealing from the company but you know  your coworker didn't do it. You might say,  

I stand by her. I stand by her, which means   you're willing to support her in this difficult  

time. Number eight, to wind down. To wind down.   This is an excellent phrasal verb because it  

means to relax after a busy or stressful day.   So you might say, I always read at the end of  

the day to wind down. To help me wind down,   I always read at the end of the day. Or I go  

for a walk after work to wind down. So it just  means to relax. But it's another way of saying  

it. And it implies that you were very busy or  stressed out, to wind down. Number nine, to zone  

out. This is when you stop paying attention for  a short period of time. Now we've all done this,  

especially when we were kids in school and   your teachers are talking, and you just zone out.  

Now generally people zone out because they don't  have interest in a particular topic. For example,  

whenever people talk about sports, I zone out.  I just stopped listening. And I started thinking  

about something else in my own head. And I'm  not listening to the conversation about sports.  

I zoned out. I stopped paying attention.  But then when the conversation changes,  

I'll pay attention again. So it's always  for that short period of time. Number 10,  

to turn in. This is a very useful phrasal verb  because it simply means to go to bed. It's another  

way of saying to go to bed, and it's very common.  So of course you can say I'm tired, I'm going to  

bed. But you can also say, I'm tired. I'm going  to turn in. I'm going to turn in. And it's really  

commonly used, so I'd suggest you use it. You can  use it as a suggestion. Hey, it's getting late and  

you have a job interview tomorrow. You should  turn in. You should go to bed. Or you can use it  

in question form as well. What time did you turn  in? What time did you go to bed? Are you ready  

for your first quiz? So here are the questions. Of  course, hit pause. Take as much time as you need   

and when you're ready, hit play and I'll share the  answers. So you can go ahead and hit pause now.   

Here are the answers. Go ahead and hit  pause and figure out how you did.   

How did you do on the quiz? Make sure  you share your score in the comments  

below and let's continue on with  the next group of phrasal verbs.   

Phrasal verb number one, to act on. This simply  means to take action, so to act. But you act on  

specific information, advice or recommendations  that you've received. For example, the manager  

acted on the findings of the report. So of course  in this report, there's lots of information and  

advice and if you act on that information. The  manager acted on the findings of the report. Or  

in a meeting you might suggest to your coworkers,  we need to act on the recommendations. We need  

to take action. Outside of the workplace, you  might say, we need to act on the advice from our  

financial analysts. So they gave you some advice,  you need to act on it. Number two, bargain for.  

To bargain for, this is when you expect something  to happen, but that something is usually  

negative. So you expect something negative to  happen. Now, notice the sentence structure here  

because we most commonly use this phrasal verb in  the negative form. We hadn't bargained for such  

a high interest rate. So we didn't expect. Or you  could say, we hadn't bargained for so many people  

at the conference. So this is a great expression  that you can use. But I recommend using it in  

the negative. Number three, opt in. When you opt  into something,