10 Important Phrasal Verbs You Need To Know To Understand Native Speakers (With QUIZ)

Do you want to expand your vocabulary  with common phrasal verbs to help you  

sound just like a native English speaker?

Well, that's what you'll do today.

Welcome back to JForrest English.

Of course.

I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started.

First, in this lesson, I'm going to quiz you to  see how well you know these common phrasal verbs.

And then after, we'll review  each phrasal verb in detail.

So let's start the quiz right now.

Question one, we should the  party with some karaoke.

Now, I'm only going to give you 3 seconds to  answer, so feel free to hit pause, take as  

much time as you need, and when you're ready,  hit play to see the answer we should kick off.

Question two, you don't need to your team.

I've heard great things about them.

Talk up question three,  Make sure your team doesn't.

While the CEO is here, horse  the round question four.

It really, when Jeremy took credit  for my work, ticked me off question 5.

He's been since he lost the  contract, moping around Question six.

We're on a tight budget, but  we have enough to to get by.

Question 7, the expense reports, have  been since Sarah left, piling up.

Question eight I've learned to my mother when  she gives me relationship advice, tune out.

Question nine.

She used to be very serious,  but she's a bit loosened up.

Question 10 My boss is going to when she  learns we lost the account, slip out.

So how did you do with that quiz?

Don't worry if it was difficult, because now I'm  going to explain every phrasal verb in detail.

Let's get started.

Number one, to tune out.

This is a very useful phrasal verb because  it's used to say you stop listening to someone,  

You stop paying attention to them because you  don't like what they're saying, basically.

So you tune someone out.

This is something that kids do all  the time with their parents, right?

If your parent is giving you advice and you  don't want to hear it, you just tune them out.

So your parent is talking, but  you're just not really listening.

So you might say, I always tune out my  mom when she gives me relationship advice.

Now this can also happen a  lot in a workplace situation.

Let's say the coworker that sits beside you is  just a very negative person and complains a lot.

You might just simply tune them  out so you stop listening to them  

because you don't want to hear all  that negativity and complaining.

So you just tune them out.

They're talking, but you're  not listening #2 to tick off.

This is a useful one because it means  to annoy, to anger, or to irritate.

Now we use this in two very  specific sentence structures.

It ticks someone off.

It ticks me off when my coworker doesn't help.

So it ticks someone off.

And then you explain the situation.

That causes the anger, the  frustration or the irritation.

Now the other sentence structure is just  to say someone or something ticks me off.

John really ticks me off.

He's so negative.

John really irritates me,  frustrates me, annoys me.

John really ticks me off.

He's so negative.

But I just tune him out number three to talk  up and you talk someone or something up and  

that means you speak in a way that makes that  someone or something sound really beneficial,  

really positive, really amazing,  maybe even more so than the reality.

So let's say you're in sales and you're trying  to sell this piece of software to a company.

Well, you're going to talk up that software.

You're going to talk about that software in a  way that really highlights all of its positive  

features, features, and you probably  won't mention any negative features.

You're going to talk it up, or let's say that your  

really close friend applied  for a job in your company.

Well, you're probably going  to talk up your friend.

You're going to speak about your friend  very enthusiastically, very positively,  

because you want your friend to get the job.

You're going to talk up your friend #4 to pile up.

This means simply to increase in amount,  and we generally use this with work.

So in general you could say  work is really piling up.

Work is increasing in amount.

You can use this with specific work.

So you might say my expense reports are  piling up, or even with household chores.

You might say the laundry is piling  up, The Dirty dishes are piling up.

They're increasing in amount #5  to mope around, to mope around.

This is when someone moves from one location to  another, but they do it in a very unhappy way.

A lazy way.

A disappointed way.

And it's generally because something is wrong.

Something specific is wrong.

So maybe they just lost their job or  they just broke up with their girlfriend.

So they mope around the house all day.

They go from the couch to the  kitchen, back to the couch,  

but they look really upset and lazy and no  energy, so this isn't really a positive thing.

We generally say stop moping around.

You need to stop moping around  and start looking for a job.

If that's the reason why you're moping  around because you lost your job,  

stop moping around and look for  a job number six to loosen up.

This is a great one.

It means to be more relaxed, more  comfortable, or less serious.

So you might say she was very shy at first,  

but then she loosened up so she  became more relaxed, more comfortable.

Now we often use this as advice to someone.

If someone is just being too serious,  you might say loosen up, loosen up.

It's similar to saying relax a  little, relax a little, loosen up.

You need to loosen up.

Oh, just loosen up #7 to kick off.

This is a great one because when you  kick something off it means you start.

We use this in the context of a sports event,  a meeting, a conference or even a party.

So some sort of event with people.

So when sports is very common to say the game  the match kicks off at and then you say the  

time the match kicks off at 3, the game kicks  off at 7 and that's just when the game starts.

Now you could also say, let's kick  off the meeting by and then you can  

explain how you're going to start the meeting.

Let's kick off the meeting  by introducing the new CFO.

Or let's kick off the meeting  by sharing the good news #8.

This is a fun one to horse around.

When you horse around, you  behave in a silly or noisy way.

So basically what children do all the time.

They horse around, but you might say the kids were  horsing around and they broke my favorite vase.

Now, although this is commonly used in children,  it can of course be used for adults as well,  

because adults act in silly and  noisy ways all the time, right?

Even in workplace context.

So you might be talking about how your  team is constantly horsing around.

And as a bonus, you can also say goof around.

It's an alternative, but  they're both very commonly used,  

so horse around or goof around #9 to get by.

This is when you have just enough money  to live on, but not very much extra,  

so you can basically pay all  your bills and that's about it.

So you might say, sense our twins were  born, it's been more difficult to get by.

You have two new babies in the house.

Well, first, congratulations.

But of course, that's very expensive.

So now you only have enough money  to pay your bills to buy the food,  

buy the diapers, buy the groceries,  pay your mortgage, things like that.

We're getting by, We're getting by.

You're just surviving.

So if someone knows you're going  through a tough time financially,  

maybe you lost your job and  they ask you, how's it going?

Is everything OK?

You could say, well, I'm getting by, I'm getting  by, which lets them know you're surviving.

You have enough to pay all your core  expenses, and finally #10 to flip out.

Now this can mean to become very excited, but it  can also mean to become very angry or agitated.

O It's when you have a very strong emotion.

But that emotion can be positive  excitement or it can be negative anger,  

and it will be obvious based on context.

So if you just won a competition  or a prize or the lottery,  

you might flip out and become  very, very excited, right?

The sports team flipped out  when they won the gold medal  

or the team flipped out when they lost the game.

The team became very angry.

So you can use it in both situations and for  

this expression you can also say  freak out, freak out, flip out.

They mean the same.

And again, positive excitement or negative anger.

So now that you're more comfortable  with these phrasal verbs, how about  

we do that exact same quiz again so  you can see how much you've improved.

So here are the questions.

Hit, pause.

Take as much time as you need.

And when you're ready, hit  play to see the answers.

Here are the answers.

Go ahead and hit pause and figure out how you did.

So how'd you do with that quiz the second time?

I'm sure it was a lot easier.

Make sure you share both of your  scores in the comments below so  

you can see the difference from the  first score to the second score.

And do you want to learn more phrasal verbs?

If you do, then put phrasal verbs,  phrasal verbs in the comments,  

and I'll keep teaching you  the most common phrasal verbs.

And of course, make sure you like this video,  

share it with your friends and subscribe so  you're notified every time I post a new lesson.

And you can get this free speaking  guide where I share 6 tips on how  

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You can click here to download it or  look for the link in the description.

And why don't you keep improving your  English with this lesson right now?