10 Advanced Phrasal Verbs To Help You Sound FLUENT! (with QUIZ)

Welcome back to JForrest English. I'm  Jennifer. And today you're going to learn  

the top 10 phrasal verbs to help you sound  just like a native English speaker and make  

sure you watch until the end, because I'm  going to quiz you to make sure you really  

understand these phrasal verbs. Let's get  started. Number one, to act out. This is  

when you perform or explain something using  actions and gestures. For example, right now.

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.

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 South. 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 slipup. What do you notice here? A slipup?

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 do you do with that quiz? Make sure  you share your score in the comments below,  

and also leave an example sentence practicing  your favorite phrasal verb. What's your favorite  

phrasal verb from the list? Mine is  probably slip up, but as the noun.

I made a slip up a careless mistake because  let's be honest, it happens to everyone,  

right? What's your favorite? Share that  in the comments below and make sure you  

download this free speaking guide where  I share 6 tips on how to speak English  

fluently and confidently. You can click  here to download it or look for the link  

in the description. And why don't you get  started with your next lesson right now?