Using phrasal verbs to improve your everyday English

Annyeonghaseyo, yeorobun.

George imnida.

Hello everyone, I’m George,

and today we’re going to look at something

that a lot of my students from Korea find very difficult

and perhaps you find this very difficult, too.

It’s using phrasal verbs instead of formal verbs

in everyday conversation.

Before I continue,

don’t forget to like the video and to subscribe to the channel.

If you search for a word using Google Translate,

for example,

or a Korean to English dictionary,

a lot of the time it’s

going to give you a very formal verb.

For example, if I type

in seonsaengnim-i sugje an haessdago honnaesyeoss-eoyo.

It says the teacher scolded me for not doing my homework.

You might be able to guess what scold means from looking

at the word in the sentence.

If a student misbehaves in class,

the teacher might get angry and they might say,

don’t do that again.

They’re scolding the student.

But to scold is quite a formal verb.

You might hear it in casual conversation,

but you’re more likely to hear the phrasal verb to tell off.

For example, the teacher told me off for not doing my homework

or I got told off.

Let’s type in another verb.

Hwahaehada, to reconcile.

If I had an argument with my friend:

You’re not very nice. You’re not very nice either.

And we then became friends again after the argument: I’m sorry.

I’m sorry, too. We reconciled.

But, again, this is a very formal verb.

Fortunately, if you look

below the verb reconcile you can see the phrasal verb to make up,

which we use more often in casual conversation.

For example, I got

into an argument with my girlfriend,

but we made up.

How would you describe what this person is doing?

If you use a formal verb,

you’d probably say, I'm disposing of the paper.

But if you use a phrasal verb, you’d say, I’m throwing it away.

What would you say about this milk?

If you use a formal verb,

you’d say the milk has expired, to expire.

But if you use a phrasal verb,

you’d say the milk has gone off,

to go off.

You might hear these formal verbs in casual conversation,

but you’re more likely to hear their phrasal verb alternatives.

You’ll probably read these formal verbs in novels

or newspapers or you might see them on signs.

And now I’m going to tell you a story.

Try to think of some phrasal verb alternatives

to these formal verbs.

A few years ago,

someone I worked with brought in a delicious-looking choco pie.

It was the best choco pie I’d ever seen.

However, it suddenly disappeared around lunchtime.

My colleague was deeply upset.

I promised to discover

who had stolen the choco pie and why.

I researched who the choco pie thief might be

and made a list.

The following day I

saw a teacher throwing a choco pie in the bin.

I looked more closely and, sure enough,

it was the stolen choco pie.

Horrified, I approached him and demanded an explanation.

What are you doing?

He said he tried a bit,

but thought it had expired, so he disposed of it.

I scolded him for stealing

and he promised never to do it again.

He later apologised to my colleague

and they reconciled.

I’m sorry for throwing away your choco pie.

That’s okay. I’m sorry, too.

Why are you sorry?

I don’t know.

What was wrong with this story?

Nothing really, but it sounds quite formal.

We can make it sound more natural by replacing

these formal verbs with some phrasal verbs.

A few years ago,

someone I worked with brought in a delicious-looking choco pie.

It was the best choco pie I’d ever seen.

However, it suddenly went missing around lunchtime.

My colleague was deeply upset.

I promised to find out

who had stolen the choco pie and why.

I looked into who the choco pie thief might be

and made a list.

The following day I saw a teacher throwing

a choco pie in the bin.

I looked more closely and, sure enough,

it was the stolen choco pie.

Horrified, I went up to him and demanded an explanation.

He said he tried a bit,

but thought it had gone off, so he threw it away.

I told him off for stealing

and he promised never to do it again.

He later apologised to my colleague

and they made up.

I’m sorry for throwing away your choco pie.

That’s okay. I’m sorry, too.

Why are you sorry?

I don’t know.

If you want to make your speaking sound more natural,

I would recommend looking at some movie or TV scripts online,

finding the phrasal verbs in the dialogue

and writing these down in your notebook.

Then you can try

and practice using these with your teacher

or language exchange partner.

You could also use the Cambridge Learner’s

Dictionary to find the meanings of these phrasal verbs.

That’s all we have time for today.

If you come across any new phrasal verbs,

please let me know in the comments section.

And don’t forget to subscribe to the channel.

See you in the next video.

Bye-bye.