Settle Down: Definition and Examples (Phrasal Verbs)

Hello. This is Jack from ToFluency.com and in this English lesson I’m going to talk

about the phrasal verb ‘settle down’. So, I’m going to show you how I used it,

give you further examples an explanation and then I’ll have a question for you at

the end. So, here is the video of how I used this phrasal verb.

Now, we wanted to settle down in the US. So, after a couple of years we moved here to Asheville,

North Carolina and it was then when I went full-time teaching one-to-one lessons.

In the video, I said, “Now, we wanted to settle down in the US.” And, what I was

talking about was how I was living in Spain and before that I went traveling but after

a couple of years of teaching in Spain, my wife and I wanted to settle down in the US.

Now, to settle down means to live permanently in one place. So, it’s to move to a place

and to stay there. Something that’s quite similar - a phrase - is ‘to put down roots’,

to put down roots.

Now, to settle down could also mean to get married and to live a quieter life and what

we did was a combination of the two. We actually were married already, but we moved to the

US to live there permanently and we wanted to settle down to have a quieter life, to

have a house, to have kids and do all those things you do when you settle down.

I’m going to show you some more examples now. “Football managers want their players

to settle down.” And, a very famous football manager, Alex Ferguson, he always talked about

how he wanted his players to settle down. He wanted his players to have wives and kids,

to get a house because the opposite of that is partying and going out and drinking and

doing those things so he wanted his players to settle down.

“Do you think he’ll ever settle down?” So, people ask this question about people

who like to party a lot and maybe they’re a little bit older but they’re still partying

and doing lots of things and they don’t have a girlfriend or a house. So, sometimes

people ask this question, “Do you think he’ll ever settle down?”

Now, this next one shows a different way that we can use this phrasal verb. “Settle down

and tell me what’s wrong.” What this is trying to say here is calm down, ‘be calm

and tell me what’s wrong’. So, we can also use settle down here when we want someone

to calm down and this is used a lot by parents when they’re talking to their kids, when

their kids are angry and screaming you say, “Settle down and tell me what’s wrong.”

And, here’s another way to use it too, “Let’s settle down on the sofa and watch a movie”

and this just means to spend some time on the sofa and not move from the sofa and to

watch a movie, and this is another way that you can use it.

Now, my question for this video is this, “Do you think it’s important for athletes to

settle down in order to reach their full potential?” So, leave your answers below this video. Thanks

for watching and I’ll see you next time.