Understanding common phrasal verbs in English | Learn English with Cambridge

Hello, hello, everyone.

My name is Andres Herrera, and in this video,

I’m going to teach you three phrasal verbs.

And believe me, they can cause confusion.

As Maria said on one of her previous videos,

a phrasal verb is an idiomatic phrase consisting of a verb

and another element,

usually an adverb or a preposition.

There are lots of phrasal verbs

and they usually have very different meanings.

So, let’s start.

No, man.

I’m still looking for a new job.

By the way, I heard that you got a new job.

How are you doing there?

Oh, not really good, actually.

I am fed up with cleaning up after that boy.

He is all the time

with his toys and you know.

Wait a minute.

Some learners might think

that to clean up after someone means to clean somewhere

that other people have already cleaned.

The real meaning

of this phrasal verb is to make a place clean

after it has been left dirty or messy by someone.

Hey, man.

Did you pass your exams at university?

Actually, it was really hard.

I scraped through my final English exam.

Wait a minute.

Of course, you can scrape your arm,

if you fall down.

But if you join the words scrape

and through, it means to succeed in something,

but with a lot of difficulty.

Like your final English exam.

You look a bit tired.

Are you feeling well?

Well, I’m okay,

but I think I’m coming down with flu.

Achoo!

How about you?

Are you still going to university?

Wait a minute.

Come down might be really confusing,

because you can come down two floors in a building,

or when your mother says, come down for dinner.

But when you add with,

it can also mean to start to suffer from an illness,

especially one that is not serious like the flu.

If you want to deepen your knowledge of phrasal verbs,

I highly recommend using the Cambridge

Phrasal Verbs Dictionary and English Phrasal Verbs in Use.

They will be linked in the description box below.

Bye.