Top 10 Phrasal Verbs in English - Most Common Phrasal Verbs

Hello and welcome to this video. Today,  you're going to add the top 10 phrasal verbs  

to your vocabulary. Of course I'm Jennifer from  JForrestEnglish.com and this channel is dedicated  

to helping you feel confident speaking English in  public, so you can take your career and your life  

to the next level. Now before we go any further,  make sure you subscribe and hit that bell icon  

so you're notified every time I post a new  lesson. Now, let's dive in with this lesson.  

Are you ready to add the top 10 phrasal verbs  to your vocabulary? Well let's get started with  

number one. To bear with someone. This is a very  common phrasal verb, and it has a simple meaning.  

It means to be patient with someone. So we use  this a lot with customer service representative  

or any time someone is providing you with  a service. Now it's very common when that  

person is providing you with that service to  say, please bear with me, please bear with me,  

please be patient. So notice our verb tense,  that's in the imperative, the imperative.  

So we're starting with the base verb. Now,  if you use this verb in other verb tenses,  

it's an irregular verb. The past simple  is bore. And the past participle is...any  

idea? It's born(e). That's right, born(e) with  an optional E for spelling, but pronunciation  

is exactly the same. In the past simple, you  can say I bore with him for 20 minutes. I was  

patient with him for 20 minutes. And in the  past participle, you can use this in the  

present perfect, you might say, I've born with  you for 20 minutes. Our next phrasal verb is to  

attend to. Now notice we're using the verb attend.  And I could say, last night I attended the party.  

But that's not a phrasal verb. That's just a  regular verb, because I don't have a preposition.  

I attended the party, I went to the party.  But if we use the phrasal verb, attend to,  

the meaning is different. I could say, I attended  to the party. Now, in this case, this means that I  

worked on, or I paid attention to the party.  So how could you work on a party? Well you  

could work on organizing a party. So organizing  all the details, sending out the invitations,  

buying the food, cleaning the apartment, getting  the decorations. I attended to the party.  

So pay attention because the verb, attend, and the  phrasal verb, attend to, have different meanings.  

Our next phrasal verb, to cool down, to cool  down. We use this when someone is really angry,  

upset or frustrated and you want them to relax,  you can say cool down, cool down. So let's say  

a client has been sending you a lot of emails and  you're feeling really angry, irritated, annoyed,  

frustrated with that client. But before  you call that client, you should definitely  

cool down, you need to take a minute and relax,  because you don't want to call that client  

when you're angry and frustrated and  annoyed, you need to cool down, relax, chill.  

Our next phrasal verb to fix something up. When  you fix something up, it means you repair it  

or you change it, in order to improve it. Now in  this case when you change it, it's not necessarily  

broken, it could be that it's functioning, but you  want to improve it so you make some changes to it,  

you fix it up. So for example I could say  Sally loves fixing up old cars in her free  

time fixing up all cars so she repaired from, but  it could also mean that she just changes them,  

maybe the car is working perfectly, but  she changes it she changes the color or she  

adds something to it, she fixes it up. Now this  is a very common phrasal verb around the house,  

because there's always something to fix  up right to change, to repair to improve  

our next phrasal verb to have something out, when  you have something out, it means you talk about  

something specific, with other people, and you do  not because you want to get agreement, you want to  

get agreement on the details. So you can use this  when you're planning a conference planning a party  

planning a project, any kinds of events. And, of  course, with a project or conference there are  

many details, the date, the time, who's doing  what. So you need to hash out those details  

you need to talk about them to get agreement,  okay we agreed to the time of the conference,  

we hashed it out. We have so the time of the  conference. Our next phrasal verb to lighten up.  

Now remember I already taught you to cool down,  and that's when you're really angry, frustrated,  

annoyed and you want to relax. Well when you tell  someone to lighten up you also want them to relax,  

but they're not angry, frustrated or annoyed.  They're just being too serious. That's it,  

they're being too serious. They don't have a sense  of humor. So maybe you were joking around with a  

co worker, and they took it too seriously. And  you just wanted to have some fun and joke around,  

but they're too serious. So you  might say lighten up, lighten up.  

Laugh a little, smile a little. You're  too serious. So someone who's always  

like this, you know they're not smiling,  they're not laughing. They're just always very  

serious, you might want to tell that person to  lighten up smile, relax. Wow. But just remember,  

it isn't the same as cool down because cool  down you're angry and annoyed. Lighten up,  

you're too serious. That's the difference between  the two. Our next phrasal verb to pay off.  

Now, when something pays off. It means that  you see the benefit of the something, it's  

the one thing you spent the last month, at home,  studying for a big exam, and you took the exam,  

and you pass, you got a really high mark, you  can say, all my studying paid off. So remembers  

something pays off all my studying paid off.  I now see the benefit of all this studying,  

I did. So we use this a lot for any kind of work  or effort that you put in. Now it can be mental  

work for studying for your job, but it can also be  physical work as well so all your dieting you're  

exercising paid off, because now you lost weight  you're stronger you see the benefit of all your  

work so we can use this with both mental work, and  physical work. Our next phrasal verb to rule out,  

we use this when something prevents something else  from happening. So a classic example we have COVID  

and we have traveling. Now COVID is preventing  traveling from happening. Right, so we can  

say the COVID ruled out traveling, right COVID  prevented traveling COVID ruled out traveling.  

Our next phrasal verb to chew someone out, to  chew someone out. This is when you tell someone  

that they've done something wrong, but you tell  them angrily. So you don't tell them calmly,  

you know you made a mistake, you shouldn't have  done that. No, you're angry. So you might yell  

a little, you might use language that you  normally wouldn't. You're angry. Somebody  

did something wrong, and you tell them. So maybe  your boss chewed you out because you were late  

for an important meeting. So your boss was not  calm, your boss was angry. Why were you late,  

you shouldn't have been late. Why haven't  I fired you yet. He chews you out. Or maybe  

you're on a sports team and your coach chewed you  out because you missed an important practice. Now  

if somebody chews you out and they're really  angry...what phrasal verb goes with that?  

Phrasal verb that we've already learned? Cool  down, right. Because if somebody's angry. Why  

were you late! You can say cool down. Cool down,  relax. And then you can explain why you were late.  

Our final phrasal verb to settle in. When you  settle in, it means you get comfortable in a new  

environment, and that new environment is generally  a new house, a new school, a new workplace. And of  

course at the beginning you're not comfortable  just because everything is new, right. But then  

you need some time to settle in. So settle in just  means to get comfortable in a new environment.  

So let's say you move to a new city, and a few  weeks later, a friend could ask you oh have you  

settled in? Have you settled in? So they're just  asking you, Do you feel comfortable in your new  

city. And then you might reply back and say yeah,  I've settled in, or No, I haven't settled in yet.  

So now you have the top 10 phrasal verbs added to  your vocabulary. So it's your turn to practice.  

I want you to let me know which one your favorite  from the list is. So put your favorite in the  

comments below and then leave an example sentence  practicing your new favorite phrasal verb. And  

of course if you have two or three favorites  from this lesson, you can share all of those  

in the comments below. And if you found this video  helpful please hit the like button, share it with  

your friends and of course subscribe, and before  you go, make sure you head on over to my website,  

JForrestEnglish.com and download your free  speaking Guide. In this guide I share six  

tips on how to speak English fluently and  confidently. And until next time, Happy Studying.