22 ‘LOOK’ Expressions & Phrasal Verbs: look up to, look back on, look as though + MORE!

Well hey there I'm Emma from mmmEnglish

coming at you from my new house.

Now I know it kind of looks exactly the same

as it was before back there but I can assure you

that what's happening on that side of the camera

is not okay. I spent the last couple of weeks

packing and lifting and sorting and moving house

always takes way longer than you think.

I was a little disorganised last week so I didn't

make a new lesson for you and I'm sorry about that

but today I've got an awesome lesson for you

to help you expand your vocabulary and learn new

expressions all using the verb look.

Now I'm sure there's going to be some familiar ones

in there but that's great because you'll get

to review them and practise with me a little

and make sure you're using

these expressions accurately.

And there will definitely be some new ones that will

help you to build your vocabulary further

and it'll be interesting to see them used accurately  

in context as well. And as always, I've got a mini quiz

at the end to help you practise so stick around.

We've got a lot of phrasal verbs and expressions

to get through today so make sure you've got

a notebook handy where you can write down

some of the new expressions

and ways of using them.

Watching and listening is great but to make 

these words stick in your mind, practise using them

yourself, write some sentences down

and be especially mindful of the prepositions and the

words that are commonly used with look.

This means that you're learning to use these

expressions accurately and it'll help you to sound

more natural as you use them in spoken English

as well.

Let's start with these useful structures right here

all right take a close look at the options.

We have look as if, look as though and look like.

All of them are used with a clause following.

It looks as if it's going to rain.

It looks as though she's brought her kids.

It looks like he'll arrive late again.

So all of these expressions have the same meaning.

We use them to make a statement about a likely

result in the future and it's based on information

that we have

which means it's likely, it's a good assumption.

But there is one little rule to take note of.

If it's just a noun following look, you can't use as if

or as though, you have to use like.

It looks like rain.

You can't say: It looks as if rain

because that sentence sounds a little unfinished.

You could say it looks as if rain is coming.

That's okay.

But just to keep that in mind, if look

is followed by a noun, you need to use like.

And of course

we can look like someone as well

and that means that they're similar in appearance.

She looks like her mother.

He doesn't look like his parents.

And we also say that people look alike.

They look alike.

It has the same meaning.

They really look alike.

And as a noun, a look-alike is someone who has

a really similar appearance to someone else

and it's especially if it's a famous person.

Her mum is a Michelle Obama lookalike.

Her mum looks like Michelle Obama.

They really look alike.

So all of these sentences have the same meaning,

really similar meaning. You can express that idea

in lots of different ways.

Now you can give someone a look

as well and when we use look as a noun,

we're usually using it with an adjective to describe

the way that someone is looking at someone else.

He gave me an angry look before he left the building.

I know that look, that look means

you don't want to be part of that conversation.

You're annoyed.

We also often hear a dirty look and that's to look at

someone in a bad way like

in a really negative way.

I was late for my sister's birthday and I knew she was

annoyed at me because she gave me such a

dirty look across the room.

That was my best dirty look.

When we think about or we talk about the past

then we can use look back on something,

an event or a time or an experience in the past.

I try to look back on the mistakes I made in the past

and learn from them.

We look after people you know, we take care of them.

I offered to look after my sister's kids

on Thursday night.

Who's going to look after your dog while you're away?

Do you look after anyone?

Or does someone look after you?

See if you can make a sentence using that

phrasal verb down below.

To look down on someone is to have a low opinion

of them or to think that you're better than them

in some way.

It's really common for people who value university

education to look down on

those who don't have a degree.

Can you think of other times in your life or

around you in your community

where people look down on each other?

See if you can write a sentence about that

down below.

We look for things right? You know when we lose

something and we're trying to find it.

Now, of course, we always need to use a noun that

follows this phrasal verb right to explain

what it is we're looking for.

I'm looking for my keys. I can't find them anywhere!

Of course, we look forward to something happening

right? We are waiting for something

to happen and feeling really excited

or really pleased about it.

Lots of you know that I love the warm weather 

and I usually complain about our relatively mild

winter here in Australia but as you can imagine,

we are just coming out of winter and heading

into summer now and I am very excited about it.

I'm looking forward to summer.

I'm also looking forward to seeing my family again.

I haven't seen them all year thanks to

COVID and the lockdown and all of that stuff.

I'm sure you probably have something that you're really

looking forward to doing, right?

Let me know down in the comments.

We look around or we look round.

And that's when we visit a place and see what's there.

Before I book the venue, I'd like to come and

look around if that's okay,

just to make sure that it's suitable.

Look out!

To look out. We use it as an exclamation

to tell someone to be careful.

That's a really common use. We say: Look out!

You're about to knock the glass off the bench.

Look out!

Now I want to highlight a really neat

little pronunciation tip here, one that is useful

for learning hundreds of English phrasal verbs because

this pronunciation pattern is really, really common.

Often native speakers link the consonant

at the end of one word to the following word

if it starts with a vowel.

So instead of releasing the K after look,

we combine it together with the vowel sound

at the start of out.

Look out.

This little pronunciation tip is going to help

you to sound more natural and relaxed as you speak

in English and I go into this in lots more detail

in a series of videos about linking

in English pronunciation, linking natural

pronunciation. Find it up here.

We look out for people.

Can you hear that? Look out.

Look out for someone, it means to take care of them

and make sure that they're okay.

My nephews are always looking out

for each other at school. It is so sweet.

Now a phrasal verb that has a very similar sentiment

is to look in on someone and that means

to visit someone, to check that everything is okay.

So it's a little different to look out for,

to take care of someone, it means to specifically stop

by their house or visit them somewhere

to make sure that they're okay.

I'll stop by the hospital after work to look in

on my grandma and make sure she's eaten.

You might already know the phrasal verb look up.

Are you already thinking of a few different

phrasal verbs that use look up?

When we look something up, usually we're trying to

find out some information right or we use a

dictionary or Google or Youtube to find

the right answer or the truth right.

If you don't know a word

you look it up in the dictionary.

Now look up is a separable phrasal verb

and that means that we can insert the object

into the phrasal verb or we can have it follow.

So we can say look up the word or

look the word up.

Both of them are okay, it's possible.

Now we can also say that a situation is looking up.

If a situation is looking up, it's getting better

and it's most often used in the continuous form

just like this but not always, you can also say  

Now that I've got a job again, things are starting

to look up.

Okay, the situation is becoming more positive.

Now unlike the previous use of the phrasal verb

look up, this is inseparable. We can't say

that we are looking up the situation.

That doesn't make sense, it's the wrong meaning

of this phrasal verb. But we can say

the situation is looking up

if we mean it's starting to look more positive.

Now if we keep thinking about look up,

then I can say that I look up to someone right.

I respect them, I want to be like them.

I really look up to my boss.

I guess you could say that she's my mentor.

Now this phrasal verb is also inseparable,

the object always follows the phrasal verb.

Who do you look up to? Is there someone in your life that you

respect and you admire?

Write about it in the comments below.

To look into something is to investigate it and this phrasal

verb is quite useful to use in a professional context.

If a colleague says

We sent out the invitations last week but no one's responded.

Do you think there's a problem with the website?

That's odd, maybe. I'll look into it and report back after lunch.

Another great phrasal verb to use in a work context is

to look over something and this means  

to examine it but usually quickly you know,

probably not going into a whole heap of detail.

I'll look over the report tonight

and let you know if I want to add anything.

We can look through something.

Now of course, we have the more literal meaning of look through

but like look over, it's also used when we examine something

especially to find the information that you need.

I can spend hours looking through recipes

getting inspiration for dinner each night.

We can look to someone and we use this when we expect

to get help or advice from them.

She looked to me for the answer but I didn't know.

If I ever feel unsure, I look to my friends for advice.

And last but definitely not least, we have the expression

to have good looks and that means

that someone is attractive right.

We use the verb have or has and the noun good looks.

She has good looks, she's got an awesome job, recognition

in the industry, a gorgeous family.

I'm not trying to compare myself to her at all.

We can also say that someone is good-looking,

using the adjective form as well.

He's a really good-looking guy.

Okay it's time for a mini-quiz. I've got six questions

and you'll need to choose the correct expression

to complete the sentence the right way

so make sure you're paying attention to the words

around the expression in each sentence.

They're going to give you some clues but my best advice

is to go with your gut and see how many you get right.

He has good looks but he's not very intelligent.

We spent hours looking through her record collection.

I can't get my laptop to connect to the projector.

Can you look into it for me?

John has been unemployed since April but he finally got

offered a job at a local factory so things are looking up.

My friend Sarah doesn't have any family living nearby so I always  

look out for her.

It looks as though it's going to rain.

Now this is a trick question. It can't be look like

because the verb doesn't match the subject.

I was just testing.

How did you go?

Let me know if you've got any questions about these expressions

down in the comments below

and take the opportunity to practise a little right now.

Hit pause just for a few seconds

and write a couple of sentences especially to practise the new

expressions that you learned.

Make sure you add your sentences down into the comments.

I'm going to spend some time this weekend

checking them for you

and if you can think of any more phrasal verbs or expressions

with look

then let me know in the comments too.

If you love building vocabulary and learning collocations

then definitely check out one of these two lessons right here.

I will see you in there!