Learn English Vocabulary & Phrasal Verbs with "LOOK"

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com,

and this lesson is on the use of the word "look". And I'd

like to thank King Future who requested this topic on the engVid's Facebook page, so thank

you very much. I hope you're watching. Thanks for suggesting it, because it's an interesting

word. And we're going to be looking at five different ways of using the word "look". We

have three here. These are all verbal uses. We also have the use of "look" as a noun and

also combined with other words in the second part of the lesson. So, okay, let's have a

look at how to use the word "look". Okay?

So, first one is the obvious one, to use your eyes. Look. Look at that. Look at that picture

on the wall. Look both ways... When you're crossing the road, look both ways before crossing.

Okay? Just to make sure there are no cars coming, look both ways before crossing. And:

"Look at that! Look at that!" just telling someone: "What's that? Look at that." Or:

"Look at that picture." Okay. So just the simple "look", using your eyes.

Second way, a bit different, this means to appear like something, to appear something.

So: She looks tired today. She appears tired today. She seems to be tired today. Okay.

So that's to appear. She looks tired today. Or, more happily:

That cake looks nice. I'd like a piece of that.

My favourite chocolate cake looks very nice. So, that cake looks

nice. It's a sort of a hint that you would like a piece. Okay.

Right, so then moving on, phrasal verbs where you combine "look" with a preposition to create

a new meaning. So, we have 10 phrasal verbs here to illustrate how it can be used. So,

first of all: "I'll look after you." Okay?

So "look" with "after", it means to take care

of somebody. Don't worry. I'll look after you. Okay. Right. And then a fairly simple

one, if you go into a shoe shop and they say: "Can I help?" And you say:

"I'd like to look at some shoes, please."

Okay, so very simply, to look at some shoes. If you're buying anything

in a shop, you ask to look at something. Okay? Slightly different meaning:

"She's always looking back at her childhood." Okay? Looking back in time, in history.

She's maybe 70 years old now.

She's always remembering her childhood, looking back and telling people about it.

So, looking back in history. Okay? Another one:

"I'm looking for my hat."

So if there's something you're trying to find, you're looking for it. Okay?

Then instead of "looking back",

we have "looking forward": "We're looking forward to our holiday."

All right? We're anticipating. We really want to go soon. We want to have a nice holiday.

We're really looking forward to it. It's in a lovely place,

lots of sunshine, and nice food and everything.

Okay. Right. Now, the next one maybe this is one you get on the holiday, and you say:

"Oh. Isn't this lovely? The house looks onto the sea."

So you're staying in a house, you

look out of the window and there is the sea straight ahead of you. So the house looks

onto the sea. You can see the sea straight through the window. Right.

Now, if you're waiting for the postman... And sometimes, you know, the postman in this

country anyway, they don't knock, they don't ring, they just... They fill in a card, thinking

that you're not at home and they say:

"We tried to deliver something for you while you were out",

and they fill in this card and they put it through the letterbox, and they

haven't even tried to ring or knock. And you go to the front door or sometime later, you

see: "Oh. What's this card?" You pick it up. "What? The postman was here? He didn't ring."

So, next day I better get that postman, I'm going to tell him what I think of him. Well,

not really. Probably best not to get into an argument, but anyway, you might say to

your friend who's with you at home:

"Will you look out for the postman, please?" Okay?

"To look out for", so we've got two prepositions there. If you look out for somebody, you don't

want to miss them. If you see them through the window, you go to the door quickly and say:

"Oh. Could I have a word, please, about that card you put through yesterday? I was in, actually."

Okay. Would you look out for the postman?

Next. Okay, you go into a shop and maybe it feels a little bit... You're not sure that

you can look around. Maybe it's a very expensive shop, an antique shop or something, and you're

not sure it's okay to just look round, so: "May we look round the shop?"

Okay. You say it to the assistant there. "Is it okay if we look round the shop?"

And they say: "Yes", usually, because they want to sell you something.

Yeah. Okay. There are some shops apparently

where they don't like people coming in, and they say:

"Oh no. I don't think we've got anything for you."

Very strange. But anyway. May we look round the shop? Okay.

Next one: "He was looking through some books."

Okay? So maybe he's got a pile of books, trying

to decide which one to read maybe and just looking through that one, looking through

that one and that one, trying to decide: "Which one shall I read next?" So you're looking

through one at a time. Okay? And then finally in this section:

"I look up to my boss." Okay?

So again we have two prepositions here: "look up to". To look up to someone is if you...

If you admire them, respect them, you think they really do a good job. You would like

to be... Do your job as well as they do theirs. They inspire you, they impress you, you like

working with them. So: I look up to my boss. I think he's really great. Okay? Right. So

that's the first part of the lesson, and

now we'll move on to look at some nouns and other uses.

Okay, so let's continue with the word "look" as a noun. Okay? So:

"a look", "the look",

a noun. So, for example: "He gave her a strange look."

Meaning he looked at her in a strange

way. But you can give someone a look, like that kind of thing. Okay.

Strange look. He gave her a strange look.

Okay? And similarly, the way your face looks:

"She has that look on her face." Okay?

"That look", which means: "Ah. I know what she's thinking."

You know, a particular look. Maybe a friend who every now and again likes to go out shopping and

spend a lot of money because they're a bit bored maybe,

so: "Ah. I know she's got that look on her face.

She's going to go off shopping in a minute and spend hundreds of pounds.

I know that look."

Okay, so that's the idea with that one. And finally here:

"Can I have a look?"

So "a look". If some friends are looking at some photographs from somebody's

holiday and they haven't sort of asked you: "Would you like to see?" But you... You want

to see what the pictures are like, and so you come up and you say: "Can I have a look?"

So, that's what you say. "A look". Can I have a look? Right.

Okay. So that's as a noun.

Okay, so moving on to the final examples, other uses of the word "look" and where they're

sometimes combined with a longer word used in a particular way. So, for example, if somebody

says about somebody: "She's a looker!" it means she's very beautiful, very pretty. She's a looker.

Okay? That's quite a colloquial, slang way of saying it. A little bit more

formal, this means the same thing: "She's good-looking." She looks good. She looks beautiful.

Pretty. She's good-looking. Okay? So they mean the same thing, but this one is very

informal, this one is more formal. Okay?

And then, sadly, she's not been very well or she's got... She's now 10 years older or

something: "She's losing her looks."

So losing your looks is when you have been very beautiful

or very pretty, but then as you get older or if you've been ill,

you can lose your good-lookingness.

Okay? So, losing. Losing your looks. Okay.

And then a word that uses "look" in it: "a lookout post". "Can you see the lookout post?"

This is some post where it's quite high up, you maybe go up a ladder or something and

you stand at the top. It could be like on a beach where the... The people who rescue

people who are having difficulties in the sea, they run out and save them. So there's

the lookout post sometimes on the beach. So: "Can you see the lookout post?" So

"lookout post" is where you look out from. You look out from that position, so that's why it's

called lookout, always one word.

And then also using this word "lookout" in a slightly different way:

"I'm on the lookout for a good second-hand car."

So that means I'm looking out for. Like we had:

"Can you look out for the postman?" this has now turned into a noun. I'm on the lookout. I'm searching

for a good second-hand car. "Second-hand" is when someone else has already used the

car, but they're now selling it to another person. So, second-hand car, but a good one

that's still reasonable to drive.

Okay, so I hope that's been helpful.

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Okay. Well, that's all for now.

See you soon. Bye.