Improve Your English By Learning These 30 Phrasal Verbs in 30 Minutes (With Quizzes!)

Welcome back to JForrest English.

I'm Jennifer.

And today you're going to  learn 30 mas, no phrasal verbs,  

to help you communicate your  ideas fluently and naturally.

So you sound just like a native speaker, and  I'm going to quiz you throughout this lesson  

so you'll learn 10 phrasal verbs, complete  a quiz, and then repeat that two more times.

Let's get started to run out of something.

This is when you use all of something  and therefore have none left.

We commonly use this with  food items, for example milk.

We ran out of milk.

This means you have no milk  left because you used it all.

Now notice ran.

That's the past simple of the verb run.

The conjugations are run, ran, run.

You can also say we've run  out of milk in the present  

perfect because it's a past action  with a connection to the present.

In a business context, you might  say we're running out of time.

So here, notice in the present continuous we're  running out of and then the something is time.

It means you're in the process  of having no time left.

So if the meeting ends at 11:00 and right now  it's 10:50, you can say we're running out of time.

We need to end the meeting in 10 minutes.

You can also use this with ideas.

We're running out of ideas or patience.

I'm running out of patience, which means I'm  in the process of having no patience left  

to bring up.

This means to raise a topic for  conversation or to raise a child.

For example, he brought up an  interesting point at the meeting,  

which means he raised an interesting point.

He shared an interesting point.

He brought up an interesting point at the meeting.

Here, brought is the past simple of bring Now.

Remember, this also means to raise a child.

When you raise a child, it  means you care for and nurture.

Nurture a child from the time that child  is an infant until that child is an adult.

That is, to raise a child.

For example, she's bringing  up three children on her own.

So this means she's raising three children on  her own to look after someone or something.

This means to care for someone or  something for a period of time.

So generally we don't use this if you're  caring for someone or something permanently.

Like when you bring up a child, you're  caring for that child permanently, but  

if you're looking after a child, it sounds like  you're doing it temporarily for a period of time.

For example, my son's 16, so he looks after  his younger brothers while I'm at work.

So my son who is 16, cares  for his younger brothers,  

but he's not bringing them up because  he's not doing that permanently.

He's caring for them for a period  of time, the time while I'm at work,  

so maybe 2 hours a day between after  school and when I get home from work.

My oldest child, who's 16, cares for my  younger children, his younger brothers.

We also use this with things to care for things.

For example, can you look after  my plans while I'm on vacation?

If someone asks you to look after something  for a period of time while they're on  

vacation or while they're traveling,  they're asking you to care for it.

So that's a lot of responsibility for you.

You better not kill my plans to take off.

This means to remove something commonly from your  

body or to leave in the sense of  removing something from your body.

When someone comes to your house, you might say  please take off your shoes before coming in.

So you want to keep your floors nice and clean,  

so you ask them to take off their shoes, to  remove their shoes now in the sense of to leave.

We commonly use this with flights.

For example, my flight was supposed to  take off at noon, but it was delayed.

So if my flight's delayed,  

it means it's now taking off later  than scheduled, later than expected.

And when your flight takes off,  that's when your flight leaves.

It leaves the ground.

It leaves the airport.

So you can use this one every single  time you're traveling and daily to  

talk about removing something  from your body to turn on.

I'm sure you know this one, but just to make sure,  

this means to activate a  device, to turn on a device.

This is something that I ask Siri to do daily.

And you might ask Siri or Alexa or  whoever your personal assistant is,  

Hey, Siri, turn on the lights.

Or you might say can you  turn on the air conditioning?

It's really hot in here, so think of all  the different devices you have in your home,  

in your office, and even on you everywhere you go.

And you can use turn on to mean activate.

And if turn on means to activate,  well then what's the opposite?

What's the phrasal verb for?

To deactivate a device?

Of course it's turn off.

Turn off a device.

Deactivate a device again.

Something you can ask your  personal assistant to do.

Hey, Siri, turn off the music.

And this is also something that parents have to  remind their children to do quite frequently.

For example, make sure you turn  off the lights before you leave.

Get up.

This is one you can of course use every  single day, because when you get up,  

it means you wake up in the morning.

For example, I get up at 5:50  AM every day except Sundays.

On Sundays I get up at 7:00 AM.

So I sleep in on Sundays and oh, I enjoy that.

What about you?

What time do you get up?

Share that in the comments we also use get up to  mean to rise from a lying or sitting position.

So let's say you work in an office that  has some really comfortable couches and  

you might just be relaxing and lying on the couch.

But then your coworker says, quick get up, Rob's  coming and Rob is your boss, and you don't want  

your boss to see you just lying on this couch  when you should be at your desk working, right?

So in this context, it doesn't mean  that you were sleeping on the couch.

It simply means you were in a  lying or even a sitting position.

So we talked about how take off is used  to remove something from your body.

So if you're hot, you can take off  your sweater, but what if you're cold?

What's the phrasal verb to  add something to your body?

Do you know it's to put on?

To put on is to wear clothing or accessory so you  can think of them as adding them to your body.

To put on also means to apply something  like makeup or sunscreen to put on.

For example, you could say to a friend it's  chilly out, you should put on a sweater.

Chili means a little cold, so maybe  your friend is going out in a tshirt,  

but you say it's chilly out.

You should put on a sweater to give up,  Hopefully a phrasal verb that isn't in  

your vocabulary to give up because this is  used when you stop trying to do something.

For example, don't give up just  because you made a few mistakes.

That's part of the learning process.

I'm sure some days you feel  like giving up learning English,  

which would mean stop learning  English but don't give up.

However, there are some things you should give up,  

like a bad habit and give up is  also used when you stop a bad habit.

For example, you should give up smoking,  which means you should stop smoking  

permanently, stop smoking.

So you should quit smoking.

You should give up smoking,  permanently, stop smoking, quit smoking.

But you shouldn't give up learning English  

just because you make a mistake or just because  it's taking a little longer than you expected.

Don't give up to look for When  you look for someone or something,  

you simply try to find to  locate someone or something.

For example, I looked for you at  the conference, but it was busy.

This means I try to find someone, a  friend, a coworker, someone I know.

I tried to find someone at a conference.

I looked for her or him, but I didn't find that  

person because there were too  many people at the conference.

The conference was busy.

Of course we use this with everyday  objects like our keys, our phone,  

power purse, even something simple like a pen.

Can you help me look for my keys?

This is another way of saying,  can you help me find my keys?

Can you help me locate my keys  because I don't know where they are.

Can you help me look for my keys?

So these are the 10 phrasal verbs that  you absolutely must know to understand  

native speakers and to sound fluent  and natural and advanced in English.

They were pretty simple, right?

Most likely, you knew most of them, but  let's see how well you know them with a quiz.

Here are the questions.

Hit pause.

Take as much time as you need, and when  you're ready, hit play to see the answers.

So how would you do with that quiz?

Let's find out.

Here are the answers.

Review them as long as you need, and  when you're ready, hit play to continue.

So how'd you do with that quiz?

Share your score in the comments.

Practice with your favorite phrasal verb from that  

section and let's move on and learn the  next set of 10 phrasal verbs to act out.

This is when you perform or explain  something using actions and gestures.

For example, right now I'm acting out.

It's raining.

Using my actions and my gestures, I'm teaching  you this one because when you don't speak a  

language fluently, often we act out what we  mean to help the other person understand.

For example, I couldn't think of the  word for sunrise, so I acted it out.

How you're going to act out sunrise?

I'm not sure.

You can try though.

Another example.

I'm not sure what you mean.

Could you try acting it out?

This could be a smart way for you to understand  what someone else is saying #2 to belt out.

I love this one because it means to sing loudly.

For example, the crowd belted out  the national anthem before the game.

So the crowd sang the national anthem loudly.

They belted it out.

And here's another example that is true for me.

I love driving alone because I  can belt out my favorite songs.

I can sing those songs very loudly  #3 to catch up with someone.

This is a must, no phrasal verb.

This is when you meet someone after a period  of time to find out what they've been doing.

So let's say you and your friend  haven't seen each other for one month.

Well, you don't know what your friend  has been doing for that one month.

So you could text your friend  and say we need to catch up.

Are you free tomorrow?

This is a very common way that two native  speakers will arrange a social gathering.

You could also simply say let's catch up  soon, and this means let's meet soon so I  

can find out what you've been doing  and you can find out what I've been  

doing since the last time we saw each  other #4 to grind away at something.

This is when you work on some for a  long time or with a lot of effort.

For example, I had to grind  away at my taxes all weekend.

So this means I worked on my taxes,  but because I said grind away at,  

you know, it took me a long  time and a lot of effort,  

You could also say I've been grinding away at  this report all week, but it's still not done.

So you've spent a lot of time on this report.

You've put in a lot of effort,  but it's still not done.

You've been grinding away at it.

#5 to not at.

This means to trouble, worry, or annoy someone.

First of all, notice that silent G  naw naw, it starts with a an N sound.

Not to not.

For example, his text message  has been gnawing at me all day,  

so his text message has been troubling  me, worrying me or annoying me.

You don't exactly know which one it is, but  based on context and based on my emotion,  

my facial emotion, you would know his text  message has been gnawing at me all day.

Or let's say you were in a meeting and  your coworker said something negative  

about you in front of everyone  and it's been bothering you.

Well, your friend could say don't  let his comment gnaw at you.

Don't let his comment bother you or annoy you.

Number six, to pull oneself together.

This means to become calm or to  regain control of your emotions.

Calm down, calm down, calm down.

So let's say your coworker made that  angry or rude or mean comment towards  

you in front of everyone else  and you became very emotional.

You became very upset or  very agitated or very angry.

Even your friend could say pull  yourself together to let you know  

you need to regain control of your emotions  because you're being too upset, too angry.

We also commonly use this in the imperative.

Pull yourself together.

So notice with the imperative, you start  with the base verb, pull yourself together.

You need to pull yourself together.

Both of those are very common.

And then an hour later, your friend could  say, hey, I was calling you, where were you?

And you could say, oh, I went for a  walk alone, to pull myself together,  

to regain control of my emotions and  simply to become calm, #7 to rack up  

this means to acquire a lot of something,  and that something is generally negative.

For example, I racked up a lot of  parking tickets while I was on vacation.

So maybe you're in a new city and you're not  familiar with the parking rules and regulations,  

so you racked up a lot of parking tickets.

Parking tickets are, of course, negative.

Or you could say when I was a student,  I racked up a lot of student debt.

Again, student debt is of course  a negative and you racked it up.

You acquired it.

#8 To rub off on this is when a quality  or a characteristic is passed from one  

person to another person, for example, her  passion and enthusiasm rubbed off on me.

So this means my friend.

Was being very passionate and enthusiastic,  and because of that I became very passionate  

and enthusiastic, so her passion  and enthusiasm rubbed off on me.

But we also use this with negative  qualities and characteristics.

For example, don't let Frank's  anxiety rub off on you.

So Frank is always anxious, and he's sharing  his anxieties in public with his team.

If you are not careful, his anxieties could rub  off on you, which means you will become anxious  

simply because Frank is anxious and you're  in the same room as Frank #9 to slip up.

This means to make a careless error or mistake.

For example, I can't believe I slipped  up and told her about her surprise party.

So there was a surprise party  being planned for this person,  

and because it's a surprise, you're  not supposed to let the person know.

But I slipped up and I told her about the party.

I made a mistake and it was a careless mistake.

I should have known better.

Another example, you purchased  1000 units instead of 100 units.

That was a real slip up.

What do you notice here?

A slip up.

Here it's being used as the noun  form to simply mean a mistake,  

a careless mistake, and finally #10, to talk down.

This is when you try to make  something sound less important,  

less important than it really is in reality.

For example, the CEO tried to  talk down the recent layoffs.

Layoffs is when you fire people from a company  because there is no longer work for them.

So that sounds like the  company could be in trouble.

But if you try to talk down the recent layoffs,  

it means you try to make them sound less  severe, less important than they really are.

Or remember when I accidentally ordered  1000 units instead of 100 units?

Well, I could say I try to talk down my slip up.

Remember here slip up is being used as the  noun form of the phrasal verb to slip up.

And it means a careless mistake.

I tried to talk down my slip  up, my careless mistake.

So I tried to make my mistake the fact I  ordered 10 times as many units as needed.

I tried to make that sound like  not a big deal, not a big mistake.

I tried to talk down my slip up and now you have  the top 10 phrasal verbs added to your vocabulary.

So Are you ready for your quiz?

Here are the questions.

Hit, pause, Take as much time as you need, and  when you're ready, hit play to see the answers.

How did you do with that quiz?

Well, let's find out.

Here are the answers.

Hit, pause, and take as much  time as you need to review them.

So how'd you do with that quiz again?

Share your score.

Practice your favorite phrasal verbs.

And we have one more set of 10 phrasal verbs.

Let's do it to dish out.

This simply means to criticize.

So when you criticize someone or something,  you say something negative about it.

For example, she really dished  it out to Tom at the meeting.

She really criticized Tom at the meeting.

Now notice I said dished it out.

What's the IT?

the IT represents the criticism she dished  out the criticism she dished it out to Tom.

And we always use this expression with  criticism, so you don't need to specify that it.

I'm sharing this phrasal verb with you because  we have a very common in expression in English.

You can dish it out, but you can't take it.

You can dish it out, which means you freely  give criticism to others, but you can't take it.

Which means if somebody tries to criticize you,  

you do not accept that you  become very upset or very angry.

So if someone is being very  critical, you might say,  

well, you can dish it out, but can you take it?

Can you receive the criticism that you're giving?

It's a way to remind someone that  maybe you shouldn't criticize others.

You can dish it out, but you can't  take it #2 to muddle through.

This is when you do or achieve something  accidentally without a specific plan.

For example, I'm muddled through making the cake,  so maybe I had no idea how to make this cake.

I didn't know the procedure.

I didn't feel prepared.

I'm muddled through making the cake,  but it was actually quite delicious.

So sometimes when you muddle through something,  

the result isn't very positive because  you don't actually have a plan.

Other times it can be positive.

In the end, #3 to nerd out.

Oh I love this one.

When you nerd out on something, it  means you discuss it in great detail,  

greater detail than the average  person would normally do.

For example, I can nerd out  on sentence structure all day.

I can discuss sentence structure, English  sentence structure all day, but my friends who  

are native English speakers have no interest  in discussing English sentence structure.

To them, that is boring.

But to me as an English teacher, and  most likely to you as an English learner,  

we can nerd out on the English language all day.

I can also nerd out on plants talking about plans.

Different types of plans, looking at plans.

I really love plants as well,  but the average person probably  

doesn't want to discuss it  in as much detail as I do.

What about you?

What's something that you could nerd out on?

Nerd out on this specific topic all day?

Share that in the comments #4 to stick around.

This is a very common phrasal verb and it simply  means to remain in a place for a period of time.

Let's say you just finished dinner with  a friend at a restaurant and you drove,  

but your friend took the bus.

So you can just get in your car and leave.

But your friend has to wait until the bus comes.

So you could say, oh don't worry,  I'll stick around until the bus comes.

I'll stay with you at this specific location, the  restaurant or the bus stop, until the bus comes.

Or let's say you're in the  mall and it's raining outside.

You might say, well, let's just  stick around until it stops raining.

So let's stay at this specific  location until it stops raining.

You'll absolutely use this  in your daily speech and  

hear native speakers using this  one all the time #5 to wash up.

This simply means to clean your hands, to  wash your hands and or to wash your face.

So before dinner you could say,  

oh I just need to wash up and most  likely you're going to wash your hands.

And I commonly say this in the  evening before I watch a movie.

I could say to my husband, oh just give me 5  minutes to wash up before we start the movie.

And for me it's to wash my face because I love  taking off my makeup before I watch a movie.

It's a lot more comfortable so women might  use the wash up for our face more frequently,  

so it can be for both hands  and face number six to lock up.

This is when you securely close your windows and  doors or entrances to your house or building.

So it's another way of simply saying lock.

For example, make sure you lock up before  bed, and in that case it's in your home.

And that's of course good advice.

But if you work in a building,  

someone is likely responsible for  locking up at the end of the work day.

So one person might be responsible for  making sure that all the entrances to  

that building are securely closed or locked.

So for example, Sally is responsible  for locking up #7 to Yammer on.

This is when you talk  continuously in an annoying way.

For example, I ran into Kate at the mall and  she yammered on for hours and I missed my bus,  

so I ran into Kate.

I saw Kate, but I wasn't expecting to see her.

I saw her accidentally.

I ran into Kate at the mall and  she yammered on oh hi Jennifer,  

I'd love to tell you about my vacation.

And then 10 minutes later, she's  still talking about her vacation  

and she doesn't realize that I'm not  that interested in her vacation or  

I'm just busy and need to leave  to Yammer on #8, to mouth off.

When you mouth off to someone, you speak to that  person in a disrespectful way or in an angry way.

So this is something that kids,  especially teenagers, do to their parents.

And when I was a teenager, if I moused  off to my parents, I would be grounded.

When you're grounded, this means that  certain privileges are taken away from you.

So if you're grounded, maybe you can't go to the  movies with your friends, you can't use the car,  

you can't use the computer privileges  you would normally have in the house.

You're grounded, You're grounded.

And as adults, we also don't want to mouth off  to certain people like our boss or an authority  

figure like a police officer is definitely  not a good idea to mouth off #9 to Max out.

When you Max something out, it means  you take that something to a limit.

For example, I maxed out my  credit cards on vacation.

So your credit card has a limit, maybe $10,000.

If you maxed out that credit card, it means  that you spent $10,000 the maximum amount.

The limit of that credit card.

Likely not the best idea.

Then finally #10 to load up on.

When you load up on something, it means  you consume a lot of that something,  

or you purchase a lot of that  something for a specific purpose.

So let's say you're an athlete right before a  race or a competition, you might load up on carbs.

Carbs are carbohydrates, energy for your body.

So you want to consume a lot of carbs.

Jim loaded up on carbs before the race.

Or you could say we loaded up on  toilet paper because it was on sale.

So we purchased a large amount of  toilet paper because it was on sale.

Now you have the top 10 phrasal  verbs added to your vocabulary.

Are you ready for your quiz?

Here are the questions.

Hit, pause.

Take as much time as you need, and when  you're ready to see the answers, hit play.

So how did you do with that quiz?

Well, let's find out.

Here aren't the answers.

Hit, pause and take as much  time as you need to review them.

And when you're ready, hit play.

So how did you do with that quiz?

Make sure you share your score in the comments  

below and share your favorite  phrasal verb from this list.

And why not try an example sentence  with your favorite phrasal verb?

Do that in the comments and you  can get this free speaking guide  

where I share 6 tips on how to speak  English fluently and confidently.

You can click here or look for  the link in the description  

below and you can keep improving your  vocabulary with this lesson right now.