Speak English Like a PRO | 10 MUST-HAVE Verbs for Perfect English!

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That's me, Harry, where we try to help you to get a better understanding of the English

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Okay, so what are we going to talk to you about today?

Well, today we want to talk to you about verbs.

And in particular, verbs related to beginnings.

Like always, I'm going to go through them one by one.

I have a list here of 10.

Some of them are phrasal verbs, and some of them are more formal verbs.

So I'm going to give you examples of each, how to use them, so that you can practise

them, hopefully remember them, try to use them in your conversation.

The next conversation you have or the next email or letter that you write.

And again, if you have any questions, I'll give you the contact details at the end of

this particular video.

Okay, let's get cracking.

Let's get started.

So here's the list.

One - set up.

Two - to introduce.

Three - implement.

Four - set off.

Five - generate.

Six - prompt.

Seven - strike up.

Eight - embark on.

Nine - trigger.

And finally ten - launch.

Okay, so 10 particular verbs.

As I said, some of them are phrasal verbs, and we're gonna go... go through them now,

one by one, give you some worked examples.

Okay, let's get started.

Number one set up.

For example, to set up a company.

That's the beginning, when you start a company, the very beginning, you have to set it up/

You need a legal team or you need an accountant or an advisor.

You have to fill in some documentation, register the company.

So the phrasal verb to set up, set up the company, okay?

Now, we can set up lots of things.

We can set up the house to move into it.

We can set up and set the table for a meal, okay.

But setting up - establishing, getting ready to start set up that in company, your first

adventure, your first time to work for yourself, set it up.

Number two, introduce.

Well, governments introduce legislation all the time.

So new legislation comes in about driving laws.

New legislation about taxation.

New legislation about social payments to people who might be unemployed, so they introduce

these particular rules and laws.

Now, we can also introduce one person to another.

So I'd like to introduce you to my partner.

I'd like you to... to introduce you to my husband or wife or girlfriend or boyfriend.

I'd like to introduce the shedule for next week.

So all of these opportunities, there are beginnings, beginning of a meeting, beginning of a relationship,

the beginning of a new law.

Okay, so to introduce.

Number three, implement, okay.

So implementing it's quite a formal verb.

To implement means to begin the plan, to start the plan.

So somebody writes the plan, somebody discusses and agrees the plan, and then yet they pass

it on to you to implement.

Implement the plan, to make sure it works.

When will this be implemented?

We've got a new budget, the new budget kicks off or starts on the first of April, so it

will be implemented.

Every department has to stick to this new budget, this new plan that we have.

So to implement means to get cracking, or to start, or to work on that particular plan

or schedule, whenever it will be.

Planes, trains they often change their schedules.

Particularly for different seasons, like the summer season or the winter season.

So when they introduce a new sheduled, it will be implemented from the beginning of

that season.

So for the summer season, perhaps from the first of May or the middle of May.

For the autumn season, from the first of October.

For the winter season, from the first of December.

So they will implement the new schedule so that everybody will know when the plane arrives

and departs.

When the train arrives and leaves, okay.

So to implement.

Next number for, to set off.

And again, this is another phrasal verb.

You've got the verb "set," and you've got the preposition "off."

To set off.

For example, to set off the fire alarm, okay.

Or to set off the smoke alarm.

So if you are cooking in your apartment or your house, and you overheat the pan and...

or you slightly burn the steak on the... on the grill.

Yep, what's going to happen?

You're going to set off the smoke or the fire alarm.

Buhbuh buhbuh buhbuh.

To set it off, okay.

Another way to use set off is to start a journey.

What time do we set off tomorrow for the airport?

The traffic is always bad.

Well, we'll leave half an hour earlier.

To set off.

He set off on a journey, he wasn't sure where he was going to go.

A journey of discovery.

Now, to set off to start or to begin.

Next number five, yeah, generate.

To generate.

Then again a more formal verb here.

To generate.

We can generate a lot of interest.

So marketing campaigns, big advertising campaign for a new product will generate a lot of interest

in that particular product.

And that's, of course, what the company wants.

We're going to spend a lot of money on advertising campaign, we're going to go on the internet,

we're going to go on TV and radio, all the billboards.

So yeah, we expect to generate a lot of interest.

So when the product comes out to the market, first of all, then everybody will be interested.

And hopefully everybody will want to buy it.

So the next change in the smartphone, the next change in the iPad, the latest trend

of fashions will always generate a lot of interest.

You can also generate interest in your book.

You can have a book launch, you can have a reading of your book, and the press would

be invited or certain people from bookshops or other individuals will come along.

And this reading or narration of some part of your book will generate a lot of interest

and hopefully, get your book up the list to the top of the pick for that particular week.

To generate interest.

Number six, what have we got yet number six?

To prompt.

Yeah, okay.

When we prompt somebody, we give them a little bit of a nudge, or a little bit of a push

or a little bit of encouragement.

Actors sometimes have to be prompted with the lines.

So when they are rehearsing for the stage play or the movie production, they have to

be prompted if they forget or don't put enough emphasis on a particular word or expression.

So somebody will prompt them, the director or the producer will come over to them and

tell them.

No, I would like you to say it that way or No, I would like you to put a bit more emotion

into it.

So actions by certain people will prompt speculation.

Okay, so if the government cancels some particular bill, or some particular presentation, or

some particular change that people are expecting, it prompts speculation.

People begin to wonder why.

Why is there a change?

So maybe the government are about to resign?

Maybe the government are about to increase the taxes?

Maybe the government are going to do something that we won't like?

So at the moment, we're in a period of quite high inflation.

And one of the issues will be what will happen with interest rates.

So the increase of the announcement that inflation has increased from, let's say, 3% to 6%, or

7%, might prompt speculation that the government are about to increase interest rates.

And if you've just taken out a mortgage, well, that might be a little bit painful.

So yeah, something you have to be aware of.

So prompting, speculation.

Number seven to strike up.

Normally, we use this... and it's another phrasal verb "strike up."

You've got the verb "to strike," which can be to hit.

And the preposition "up."

Up.

So to strike up.

We often use it with strike up a conversation.

So you're on a long journey on a boat, on a train, or a plane, and you want to do something

to relieve the boredom.

So you strike up a conversation with the person sitting beside you.

I don't know about you, but anytime I travel on a plane, the last thing I want is the person

beside me telling me their life history over the period of the two hours or three hours

on the plane.

But unfortunately, that's what happens.

So people like to strike up a conversation perhaps because they are a little bit nervous,

or they're interested to know why you're going to the same city that they are going to so

they will strike, have a conversation.

For kids, when they go to school for the first time, strike up a relationship with certain

kids in their class.

Not perhaps with everybody, but they pick somebody or somebody picks them or for some

reason, they have some common interest.

And they strike up a relationship, and they're friends for life from that day forward.

Great way to start friendships.

To strike up a relationship, strike up a conversation.

Next, to embark on something.

And usually, we use embark on a journey because embarkation.

Yeah, it's a word we use when we're talking about journeys, particularly when we're talking

about planes and ships, and vocation to get on.

And when they get off the plane, they leave the plane.

Okay, so to the... embark.

So embark on the journey, the beginning of the journey.

Now, it's quite a formal verb, okay.

So when we might just say he got on the plane, or he started his journey.

But to embark is quite formal.

But if you are reading a book about some famous explorer, or somebody who's going to investigate

something happening in some part of the planet, well, the explanation or the description in

that journal entry, or the book entry might be, he embarked on his journey in Paris.

Or he embarked on his journey on a ship in New York, heading for the West Indies or heading

for Antarctica, whatever he happens to be, or she happens to be investigating.

So the journey began in New York, the journey began on a plane, train, whatever it might

be.

To embark.

When our kids leave school, and then they head to university, they embark on the next

stage of their life.

Their all-important journey through university, when they will get some professional qualifications

that hopefully will give them some opportunity to get a job of their dreams, or the job of

your dreams for them.

So they embark on the next part of their life.

When our sons or daughters get married, that's the next journey that they embark on.

When they form their own family, or they're having kids and the grandkids are going to

arrive.

Again, another beginning, another start the...

Embark on another part of life's great tapestry.

Okay?

Trigger, like a trigger of a gun.

So to trigger something is to begin, okay.

So when, at the old-fashioned athletics races, when the starter would fire a gun, pull the

trigger, bang, and the runners would run at the beginning of the race.

So that would trigger, that would begin the race.

When we use trigger, now, we often use it with the word crisis, C-R-I-S-I-S To trigger

a crisis.

So if there's a sudden shortage of oil, or petroleum around the world because the producers

are not producing enough, this might trigger a crisis in the price of oil.

So immediately, what will happen is the price of a barrel of oil will jump very, very suddenly,

it will go up, it will rock it, okay.

So to trigger a crisis.

Or indeed, some problem in the government, and some minister has been accused of some

form of deception, or some form of corruption, that might trigger a crisis in the government.

When the government have to resign, or a few ministers have to resign, and we might have

an early election.

So to trigger a crisis.

Lots of things can trigger, or start, or begin a particular crisis.

So to trigger.

Trigger, pull the trigger, fire the gun, start the beginning of something happening.

As I said, to trigger a crisis.

And then finally, launch.

Again, a nice verb "launch," the beginning of something.

We can launch your career.

Earlier, I spoke about going into the next phase of your life.

To embark on your journey through university.

And when that university courses over, you then are at the next stage where you launch

your career.

So having got the results, the results that you want from your university course, you

then apply for some jobs, eventually, through many tried and tested methods of interviews,

you get offered a particular job, and this might be the beginning of your career.

It might not it might just be a couple of jobs before that, but at least it's the beginning

of a career somehow, and you're launching your career.

So you're on the first step, the first of many steps.

Companies can launch a new product to the market.

So they've developed, or designed, or changed some particular product, and they're going

to launch it on the first of June, the first of July, or whatever the date happens to be.

So the beginning of a new event.

We can also launch rockets.

So if they're going to go up to the International Space Station, the rocket has to leave the

the earth, and the beginning of that journey is the launch of the rocket.

So the countdown from 100 down to 0, and the rocket takes off and up they go and dock with

the International Space Station.

So to launch another beginning.

Okay, so they're all adjectives...

Sorry, they're not.

They're all verbs, and they're all connected with beginnings, okay, so all related to beginning.

So, let me just make sure you understand they are verbs, not adjectives.

Verbs about beginnings, or different ways in which we can start something or begin something.

So let me give them to you one more time.

Set up.

Set up a company.

Introduce.

Introduce legislation.

Implement.

Implement a or implement the plan.

Set off.

Set off the smoke alarm, the fire alarm.

Generate.

To generate a lot of interest.

Prompt.

Prompt speculation about or something.

To strike up.

Strike up a conversation with your neighbour, the person sitting beside you.

Embark on.

Embark on a journey, the next step in your life, embark on.

Trigger.

Trigger a crisis.

And then finally, launch a career.

And just in case I confused you.

Very definitely verbs related to beginnings.

Okay, I really appreciate you listening and hopefully, you got something from those you'll

be able to practice them if you have any problems and come back to me on www.englishlessonviaskype.com.

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