Top 10 Phrasal Verbs You MUST Know for English Fluency

Welcome to this video. Today you're going to add  the top 10 phrasal verbs to your vocabulary. And  

of course, having phrasal verbs in your vocabulary  is going to help you understand native speakers,  

because our vocabularies are filled with phrasal  verbs, idioms and expressions. And it will also  

help you sound more natural. Because you'll sound  just like us. And who sounds natural in English?  

Native speakers! So you want to sound like us.  And you can do that by using more phrasal verbs,  

instead of direct translations. So these  10 phrasal verbs will help you sound way  

more natural. And 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 make sure you watch right  

until the end because first I'll explain each  one, give you an example sentence to make sure  

you understand it. And then at the end, I'm going  to quiz you. So that way you can make sure you  

really understood all of these 10 phrasal verbs.  And you feel confident using them in your speech.  

So make sure you stay right to the end to complete  the quiz. Our first phrasal verb, ask around,  

when you ask around, it means you ask a number of  different people for advice, information or help.  

Now notice how I said a number of different  people. If you just ask one person,  

you're not asking around. You have to ask  many different people. So I would say, 3-4-5,  

or more people, but not one or two people. So  let's say your friend is in the same industry  

as you and your friend wants to know if anyone in  your company is hiring, because they need a job.  

Now you could say, I don't know, but I'll ask  around. I'll ask around. So what are you doing?  

You're committing to asking, three, four or more  people if they're hiring, right. Imagine if you  

work in a large organization, and there are 5, 10,  15 or 20 different departments, different sections  

within that organization. Well then you could  go to every one of those sections and ask: hey  

are you hiring. Are you hiring. Are you hiring.  Are you hiring, and then after you ask around,  

you could come back and let your friend know  the result. Oh, actually, this person is hiring.  

Or sorry, I asked around, but nobody's hiring.  So when you use ask around, your friend knows  

at least that you asked many different people. You  didn't just ask one person because that wouldn't  

be very helpful, unless you worked for a small  organization, and there's only one person who does  

the hiring, right. Now, you can ask around  for any information or any advice or any help  

that you need. Our next phrasal verb to come  across something. When you come across something,  

it means you find it by chance. So, by  chance, that means, accidentally, you weren't  

looking for it specifically. So you found it  accidentally. By chance, you came across it. Now,  

the, it is always a something, it can be  an object, so for example you could say,  

I came across this antique bays, When I  was cleaning out my closet, so of course  

when you were cleaning out your closet you  weren't looking for an antique bays, right,  

you just moved all these boxes and all of a  sudden, well, this antique base, you found it  

by accident, you came across it, so you can use  it for any object. Now we commonly use this for  

information. So you might say, Oh, I came across  this interesting study today. So you can imagine,  

you were looking for that particular study,  let's say you were just browsing on social media,  

or you were browsing on Google, or you're browsing  the headlines of the day, and all of a sudden you  

see a headline for this interesting study, you  weren't looking for it on purpose, You came across  

it. Our next phrasal verb to blurt out when you  blurt something out, it means you say something  

without really thinking about it so often the  things that you blurt out, you instantly think  

oh I shouldn't have said that why did I blurt  that out. So often people will blurt things out  

when they're nervous, right, or even when they're  angry, and they're not really thinking, and then  

they just see something, they might say something  mean like you've never helped me around the Hulk.  

And then the second you say you you regret it  because you don't actually feel that way, it just  

came out, you blurted it out. You said it, without  really thinking about it. So we've all been there.  

We've all done that, we've all regretted it  as well so this is something you probably  

don't want to do, you don't want to blurt things  out. Our next phrasal verb to check something  

or to check, someone out. Now I'm sure you know  this phrasal verb in the context of a hotel,  

you check in and out of a hotel, you check in  when you arrive and you check out when you leave,  

right, oh I'm checking out at five, what time is  checkout. But there's another way we're going to  

use this phrasal verb, don't get me wrong,  check out a hotel is very useful but I'm  

assuming you already know how to use that one. Now  you can also check something out, or you can check  

someone out when you check something or  someone out is when you want to draw someone's  

attention to something specific. So let's say  you're walking down the street, and there's this  

amazing car, a Lamborghini and and you never seen  a Lamborghini in your city, before you would say  

to your friend. Check it out. Check out that  Lamborghini, check that Lamborghini out, and you  

would probably make some sort of motion, like a  pointing in the direction of the car, as you say,  

check it out. Check out that Lamborghini and  what you're doing is you're drawing your friends  

attention to something specific. Now  remember, you can also check someone out.  

So let's say, a woman is walking down the  street and she's wearing the exact same sweater,  

as the friend you're with, you might think check  her out. Check her out, she's wearing the same  

sweater as you and again you would probably point,  because you want your friend's attention to go to  

a specific point, right, so it's useful to use  your body language to let your friend know where  

you want them to put their attention. So this is  an extremely common phrasal verb native speakers  

use it as a regular part of our vocabulary and I  highly recommend you use that as well. Our next  

one to me You're out. When you figure something  out, and being that you solve a problem, you find  

a solution to a problem. So this is a very common  phrasal verb we use this a lot when we're looking  

for the solution so I could say, I can't figure  out how to update this app, or I can't figure out  

why this app isn't working. I can't figure out  what to do next. So we commonly use this with  

the W H word, and we commonly use figure out in  the negative as well, but you can definitely use  

figure out in the positive to talk about arriving  at a solution. I figured out, so when the past  

simple. I figured out how to update this app,  I finally figured out how to update this app,  

I finally figured out why this app wasn't working,  so you can use it in the positive, and it's  

commonly used in the negative. Our next one. Calm  down, calm down. Calm down. Everything blow right,  

you need to calm down. This is a very common  one, and we use it to tell someone to relax.  

So that's exactly what it means, relax, and relax  is very common as well so you can say to someone,  

relax, relax, or you can say, calm down,  calm down. So if a friend or family member or  

anyone is really stressed out, then you can just  say, calm down, calm down. Now, thinking about our  

last one to figure out what remember we use  that when you're trying to solve a problem,  

or find a solution. So, you could come in late  help someone to calm down when they're stressed  

out because they can't figure something out,  right, I just use three phrasal verbs, calm down,  

stressed out and figure out, so there you go,  you can definitely combine these all together  

and native speakers commonly do, it's very common  that a native speaker will say one sentence with  

three or more phrasal verbs in it, and that's why  it's really important for you to get comfortable  

with them and add them to your vocabulary. Our  next phrase over dress up when you dress up,  

it means you were nicer than normal clothing. Now  notice I say nicer than normal because there is  

no one definition of dress up somebodies idea  of what nicer than normal clothing is could be  

very different from someone else's idea, right. So  if you normally wear ripped jeans and a T shirt,  

and then you wear khaki pants and a button down  shirt. You are dressed up, because you're wearing  

nicer than normal clothing and your friends would  probably say, Hey man, why are you dressed up  

today, because they know you always wear ripped  jeans and a T shirt, so for them to see you in  

other clothes, it would be quite surprising right  so they want to know Hey, why are you dressed up,  

and of course there are many times when you dress  up for example the job interviews, weddings,  

anniversaries special specially then, anything  like that you're going to wear nicer than normal  

clothes. Our next one to fill up. When you fill  something up, it just means to build something  

completely. So the off, you can just think of  it as 100%. It is filled up 100% Remember back  

in the day when you would go to a gas station  and they would actually pump your gas for you.  

I mean maybe in the country you're in, they  still pump your gas for you but in North America,  

they don't pump your gas for you anymore,  you do it yourself, but back in the day,  

you would go to a gas station you would roll down  your window, and they would ask you, how much,  

how much gas do you want. Now one of the most  common replies was fill it up, fill it up.  

What does that mean, fill it 100% So give me as  much gas as the car can handle, fill it up our  

next one, just show up. This is extremely common,  it has a simple meaning, it just means to arrive,  

or to appear, so it isn't really that common to  say, oh, what time did John arrive to the party.  

It sounds a little formal, to be honest, I  would say, oh, what type of don't show up.  

What time did John show up. What time did John  show up to the party, which is just the exact  

same thing as saying arrive, it's just a more  natural, conversational way to say it. And our  

final phrasal verb to leave something out. When  you leave something out, it means you omit it,  

you exclude it, you don't include it. So of  course, in this video on the Top 10 phrasal  

verbs, there are many many many many many many  phrasal verbs that I left out. To be honest,  

it should be the top 1000 phrasal verbs, because  that is probably how many are commonly used by  

native speakers on a day to day basis. But  of course I can't make a video on the Top  

1000 phrasal verbs, because that would be a 10  hour video. And that's just crazy. So I had to  

leave out many phrasal verbs. So there are times  when you purposely leave out information. You  

purposely leave something out. But it's also  possible that you left it out accidentally. So  

your boss could ask you, oh why did you leave out  the chart. Why did you leave out the chart. So you  

didn't include the chart in the report. Oh why did  you leave out the chart? Oops, I didn't mean to.  

I forgot to include it. So you accidentally left  it out. And then you might be in trouble because  

it should be in the report. So you can use this  both when you purposely leave something out,  

or it could be accidental as well. So now you have  the top 10 phrasal verbs, added to your vocabulary  

to help you sound more natural and professional  English. So, are you ready for your quiz? Here's  

how it's going to work. I'm going to show you the  questions and you just need to fill in the blank.  

I'll only show you the questions for 10 seconds.  Obviously that's not enough time. So hit pause  

and complete the questions. And when you're ready,  just hit play. So here we go with your quiz.  

So, how'd you do with the quiz,  how many did you get right?  

Let us know in the comments! And also leave some  example sentences practicing your three favorite  

phrasal verbs from this lesson. Of course you  can practice all 10 as well, but that's a lot,  

so I'm just recommending three. Practice  as many as you want 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.  

Awesome job with this lesson. Have fun using your  

new phrasal verbs. And I'll  see you my next one, Bye.