MUST KNOW Collocations with GIVE used in English speaking

Hi there, this is Harry with advanced  English lessons with Harry and welcome back.

So this is where we try to help you to get a  better understanding of the English language.  

Help you with your conversational skills, business  English, proficiency exams, if you're preparing  

for those, even job interviews. Expressions,  phrasal verbs, vocabulary, whatever it takes.

And is, in this particular advanced English  lesson, we're looking at the verb give, okay.

And before we get on to that, as always, if you  do like this particular lesson, and please like  

the video, and if you could also subscribe to the  channel, I would really, really appreciate it.

So as I said, in this advanced English lesson,  we're looking at collocations with the verb  

"give." And give is one of the easiest,  and most frequently used verbs. Give this,  

give that. And I'm going to give you some  information that will help you. So we're looking  

at collocations with give. Unusually today I have  14 in the list. So there's quite a lot of them,  

so I'm going to go through them, and then  I'm going to give you a situation when you  

can use them. So there'll be plenty of  opportunities for you to practice, okay.

So here they are, as, as I said  14. To give it some thought.  

Give an example. Give somebody a  call. Give a hand. Give a speech.  

Give notice. Give an opinion. Give an  answer. Give evidence. Give priority. To  

give information. Give a description. Give credit.  And then finally, give a performance. Okay?

So all collocations advanced English collocations  with that verb "give," to give. Okay, so I'll go  

through them now. And I'm going to give you an  example, or situation when you can use them.

So the first one is, give it some thought. Well,  this is very well-used phrase. You would use  

this all the time, when somebody wants us to do  something, or somebody has made a suggestion,  

or they're asking you a particular situation.  So you don't want to give an immediate answer.

Or perhaps you're trying to find a way out of it.  So you might just simply say, I'll give it some  

thought, and I will get back to you. So somebody's  suggestion, some change to some procedure in the  

office, Okay, leave it with me, I'll give  it some thought. And I'll get back to you.

Or the kids want to do something for the holidays,  they don't want to go to the normal place you go.  

And you say, well, oh, look, we like going there.  And it's, it's easy just to pack up and go,  

we know what we're doing. But I hear you, I'll  give it some thought. And I'll get back to you.

Okay, so when you give it some thought, you're  going to dwell on it for a little while,  

and then consider and give it  your considered opinion. Okay.

To give an example. Well, every  time we make a presentation,  

every time we're meeting with a customer,  every time we're trying to sell something,  

we always give an example, because giving examples  is the easiest way for people to understand.

It works for me, when I'm giving the lessons  I always give examples, and these examples  

will show you how to use it. So when you give an  example, then you understand it a lot, lot better.

So let me give you an example. Meaning let me give  you a situation. And you can see how it works.

Give somebody a call. Well, you know, we  always give somebody a call. We are always  

calling people on a mobile phone. But that  would be a time I'll give you a phone call.

But now it's just give you a call because  we'll just press a button on our mobile phones,  

and we'll ring our partners to tell  them we're going to be late home.

Will ring our kids to see how  they're getting on in college.

We will ring our parents to see is there anything  that they need? So to give somebody a call.

Or indeed you come back from your lunch, and  there's a note, there's an email from somebody  

who took a call when you were at lunch and  say, Could you give Mike a call? Could you  

give Tommy a call? Okay, so you reminding you  to ring them because they were looking for you.

To give a hand or give somebody a hand. So  would you like me to give you a hand? As  

a question, meaning would you like me to help you?

Can I give you a hand? When you offer  to help somebody to do something.

Or perhaps you'd go and give  your grandma a hand to bring  

in the dishes and we can set the table for dinner?

Or go out in the garden and give you a  grandad a hand to dig up the vegetables, okay.

So to give a hand means to  help somebody to do something.

Give a speech. Well, how many of you  have had to give a speech? There are  

many situations when you will have to  give a speech during your lifetime.

Perhaps when you get married,  you'll have to give a speech.

Perhaps when it's your children's  21st party, you have to give a speech.

Or some special birthday when you are obliged or  required or people rely on you to give a speech.

Perhaps in the office, when  you're making a presentation  

to somebody retiring, you'd have to give a speech.

I remember when I had to make my first  speech, and I had to give a speech. Wow,  

it was a disaster. But to give a speech  means to make a speech to stand up and  

present yourself to other people or to thank  people for coming to open a particular event.  

All examples of when you have to give a  speech to stand up and say a few words.

Give notice. Well, when we give notice,  we often complete it with the expression  

"to give notice to quit" means to  hand in your notice at work. Okay.

I'm going to tell the boss tomorrow, I'm going to  hand in my notice, I'm going to give my notice to  

quit. So you have to work two weeks or three  weeks or two months or three months. It's part  

of your contract if you want to leave, but you  have to officially inform him. So you give him  

notice that you intend leaving the job on the  first of October or the first of November, okay?

You can also give notice to quit, where you are  renting an apartment. So you write and inform the  

landlord or the agent for the landlord that  you will be no longer interested in renting  

the apartment from the first of December because  you move into another city or you found another  

apartment so you give notice to quit. Okay, so to  give notice to quit something to end something.

To give an opinion. Oh well, people like  giving opinions. I always like giving opinions,  

but not a lot of people like  listening to opinions. Okay,  

so when you want to give an opinion, you  want to tell somebody what you think?

Well, if you want my opinion.... Well,  if you want to listen to me for a minute,  

I'll tell you what I think that's  all about giving an opinion.

So some people are very free and  easy with their opinions. They  

give opinions on everything, even  when people don't want them. Look,  

I don't want your opinion. Well, I'm  going to give you my opinion anyway.

Okay, parents love to give opinions. Children  don't like to listen to them. To give an opinion.

Give an answer. Well, the teacher is  walking around the class and says, Okay,  

who knows the answer to question number  five? And she looks around to see which  

hand is going to shut up first so that  she can ask them so to give an answer.

So when you give an answer, make sure it's clear  

and it can be clearly understood.  Or if you're doing something online,  

you have to give an an an answer within 20  seconds. Otherwise, you have to reboot. Yeah,  

so to give an answer means to answer a question  that somebody has asked or proposed or suggested.

So I'll give an answer tomorrow. I'll give you  

an answer later. So you might delay  when you give the particular answer.

Give evidence. We give evidence in a trial. So  you might be called as a witness, you were wit...

You witnessed a motor accident where somebody  on a bicycle was knocked out off the bike by  

a car. And you're standing there and you saw  everything happening very clearly. Unfortunately,  

the man was a little bit injured. The police  came, but they were looking for witnesses,  

and you have to go forward. So in the trial  is there for damages, you have to go forward,  

and then you step into the witness box. And you  give evidence you tell the judge exactly what  

happened. You answered the questions from the  lawyer as to what took place to give evidence.

You can also give evidence in  writing. But as I was describing,  

it's given verbal evidence. So to give evidence  in writing your right to report, you sign it,  

or you give verbal evidence where you  sit in a courtroom in a witness box,  

and you give the evidence to the judge or  whoever's listening. Okay, so to give evidence.

To give priority. Here we can say  to give priority to something.

Okay, so you get the list of jobs that you  have to do for the week. But the boss asks  

you to give priority to those orders that came  in first. So there were orders that came in two  

or three weeks ago. You need to give priority to  those means do those first to give priority to.

Or you see an advertisement and it's talking about  

apartments available for children going  to third level education to university.  

And the notice might say at the bottom priority  will be given to those who are living outside  

the city. So in other words, it means that  those students who are travelling from other  

cities come into your particular city for their  third level education, priority will be given  

to them so that they can get apartments because  they're living many, many kilometres from home.

So to give priority to something means to  

treat it first, above every  other option that is there, okay.

Or, if you go to a hospital, there might be a  notice on the wall priority will be given to  

emergency cases. So somebody's really seriously  ill. So if you don't have a serious illness, and  

it's only a cut finger then perhaps you should go  to your GP, your general practitioner, your family  

doctor, not to take up time in the hospital. So  to give priority to something. Treated first.

Give information. Well, we  always give information.

We give information when we send emails.

We give information when we prepare a website.

We give information when we make  a presentation to customers,  

or staff or friends. Always giving  information passing on what we know,  

to other people. Let me give  you some information about that.

Information leaflets are a great way of  giving information. If you go to a new city  

for a holiday, you're staying in a hotel, you'll  probably find somewhere in the reception area,  

a little stand that has all sorts of leaflets  that will give information about local sites  

that you can visit things that you can see  restaurants that you can go to coffee shops  

that have been recommended activities that you  and the kids can do. So to give information.

Give a description. Well, if we go back to the  situation where you were witness to the car  

accident, where the car knocked the man off  the bicycle, then when the policeman comes,  

and he's looking for information, he wants you to  give a description of exactly what you saw. Okay?

Or, indeed, if you witnessed a robbery and  somebody ran away from the scene of the robbery,  

the policeman might ask you to give a description.  Meaning what did the person looked like? What was  

the height? What were they wearing? Was it  a male or female? Did they have long hair,  

short hair? Glasses? You know, colour  clothes... So in which direction did they go?

So you give a description, full details of  exactly what you saw as much detail as possible,  

because that will then enable the policeman  to get a better picture in his mind of exactly  

who they're looking for, and where they  might find. Okay, so to give a description.

Give credit, and there's an expression  to give credit where credit is due. Okay,  

so when we give credit to somebody, it  means we thank them for a job well done.

Well, I must give credit to all of  you, who worked so hard and getting  

this launch ready. And it's been  very, very successful. So well done.

So to give credit where credit is due.

To give credit to the people in the back  office who worked so hard, during the pandemic,  

to keep everything on the road, everybody  informed as to what was to happen, yeah.

To give credit to the IT staff who  got the system up and running in time,  

so that when we came in on a Monday morning,  everything was ready to rock and roll.

To give credit where credit is due to thank  people for and to appreciate what they have done.

And then finally, to give a performance. Well, if  you go to the theatre, or perhaps you go to some  

musical event, maybe it's the last performance  that this actor or singer is going to give.

And you could say, Oh, they gave  a performance of their life,  

they gave the performance of their career,  really nothing as good as this. I've seen  

them many, many times I've seen them  perform. So often I watched videos,  

this was really the best they give a performance  second to none. Okay, so a real performance.

The manager of the football team might tell  the team to go out and give the spectators a  

performance that they will be proud of. Don't  let them down. This is a great opportunity.  

You got to go out there and you've got to  really really be seen to be involved and  

interested. So go out there and give them  a performance to remember. Okay to give a  

performance something that they will  not forget in a long long time. Okay.

So there are 14 particular collocations with that  very simple verb to give then be given to you one  

more time. Give it some thought. Give an example.  Give somebody a call. Give a hand. Give a speech.  

Give notice either in writing or verbally, give  notice. Give an opinion. To give an answer.  

Give evidence in a crime scene. Give  priority to somebody or something.  

Give information. Give a description. And then the  finally, to give credit and give a performance.

Okay, so 14 particular collocations, advanced  collocations relating to that verb give.

And as always, you know the  drill by now, practice these,  

pick out some that you think you can use, perhaps  one or two that you're not so comfortable with.

See whether you can use them if you need some  more examples. Come back to me. Always very,  

very happy when you join us. Delighted that you  can watch and you can learn and we can help you.

As always, this is Harry saying goodbye  until next time, join me again soon.