MY TOP TIPS! Learn & Use More Phrasal Verbs | English Lesson

pOkay you've been asking for this video

for a long time,

so here it is!

Phrasal verbs in English.

I'm Emma from mmmEnglish!

Now, why are phrasal verbs so difficult to learn?

Because there are many of them,

because they're so commonly used

that they can become overwhelming,

because one phrasal verb can have

multiple meanings.

For example,

the phrasal verb "put down"

can mean

to place something down on the ground or a surface,

to humiliate or criticise someone

or to kill an animal that was sick or suffering.

Many phrasal verbs are idiomatic, as well,

so their meaning is not always

as the individual words suggest.

For example to "look up to someone"

can mean that you respect them.

You don't actually have to be shorter than someone

and physically looking up to them

to be able to use this phrasal verb.

No wonder phrasal verbs are so frustrating!

If you're determined to understand

more about phrasal verbs,

then this lesson is for you.

I'm going to teach you six things that you need to know

about phrasal verbs.

Starting with

what is a phrasal verb

actually?

A phrasal verb is a standard verb

such as put, go, or take,

plus one or two particles.

Now don't let that confuse you!

A particle in a phrasal verb

is either a preposition or an adverb.

Go out, go after, go together, go away.

These are prepositions

and these are adverbs.

But of course, there are many, many more phrasal verbs.

Hang out,

look after,

bring together,

put away,

hang up,

look out for,

bring out,

put up with.

Now, once you know how to recognise a phrasal verb

you need to learn how to use it correctly

and one of the first things that you need to find out is

is it a transitive

or an intransitive phrasal verb?

If it's transitive,

you need something or someone

after the verb.

If it's intransitive,

it stands on its own.

Take the example from before,

the phrasal verb "look up to"

which means to respect or admire someone

but this phrasal verb

always has to be followed

by a person,

by someone.

You can't just say

"I really look up to"

The first thing that I would have to ask them is

who?

Who do you look up to?

"Look up to" is a transitive phrasal verb.

You need to have someone

after the phrasal verb

to make it make sense.

But some phrasal verbs are intransitive

which means they work fine on their own.

For example, to "grow up"

means to mature

and you never need to add an object here.

Here are a few examples of how this works.

He grew up in Singapore.

Your children are growing up so fast!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Now some phrasal verbs are either

transitive or intransitive,

depending on the meaning.

So take the example "come over"

which has two meanings.

The first is an intransitive phrasal verb

and it means to visit someone

in the place where they are,

usually their house.

Why don't you come over?

It stands on its own.

But "come over" can also be transitive

if a feeling suddenly comes over you

or an emotion that affects you in a strong way.

You would say that that emotion came over you.

A wave of anger came over him.

So whether a phrasal verb is transitive or intransitive,

it's important to know

because it helps you to understand

how to use it correctly.

Now in addition to knowing

if a phrasal verb is transitive or intransitive,

you also need to know if

it's separable or inseparable

and this is as simple as it sounds!

Separable means that the verb and the particle

are able to be separated

in the sentence.

So for example, the phrasal verb "take on"

which means to become responsible for something.

It's a transitive phrasal verb

it doesn't make sense on its own.

I'm going to take on the project.

But we can also say

I'm going to take the project on.

We can separate the words in the phrasal verb

so it's separable.

Now an inseparable phrasal verb means

that we can't separate the main verb

from the other words in the phrasal verb.

No way!

Let's go back to the example "look up to".

So we know that this is a transitive phrasal verb.

It's also an inseparable phrasal verb.

You can't separate the words in the phrasal verb.

It's not possible to say

"look someone up to"

or

"look up someone to"

It just doesn't work because it's inseparable.

Here's an example of how it could work though.

I really look up to your dad.

Now learning whether a phrasal verb

is transitive or intransitive

or separable or inseparable,

right from the start,

will help you to use it correctly from now on.

So when you learn a new phrasal verb,

it's really important that you write it down.

Write down a few awesome sentences of your own

just to practise using the phrasal verb

and applying the rules that I've just mentioned.

Now, phrasal verbs are

just multi-word verbs.

So they need to be treated

like any other verb in a sentence.

They need to show us which tense is being used

and they need to match the subject

that they're being used with.

I give up! It's too hard.

He always gives up without really trying.

We're not giving up yet!

I thought you'd given up!

See how the verb changes each time with the tense.

Next tip.

Find the right phrasal verbs to practise.

Firstly,

don't type "phrasal verbs" into Google

and then wait for a big list to appear

and try to memorise them.

This will completely overwhelm you!

You need to look for and find the phrasal verbs that

are relevant to you and that are commonly used

because there are

thousands of phrasal verbs in English

but you will never need to know all of them!

But you will need to know the ones

that are coming up in your life.

Right? The important ones for you.

So you need to look for them.

Read the news. Read blogs that you love.

Read the transcripts of TEDTalks.

Read magazines and articles

that are related to your profession.

For example,

take a blog post from your favourite English blog

about English or just written in English.

Go through it and highlight

all of the phrasal verbs that you see.

Study how they're used.

Another great way

to look for how phrasal verbs are used

is to use Google or any other search engine

to search for specific phrasal verbs

in the news search tab.

So I'll type in the phrasal verb.

Let's try "put up"

and that's going to bring up

a whole list of current examples

where that phrasal verb has been used

in context.

Look!

Breaking Bad house owners

put up fence.

So they built a fence.

Here, someone will be put up for sale.

So he's made available for sale.

Another.

Signs will be put up.

Women don't have to put up with something.

These are all different ways

that this phrasal verb can be used.

Anyway the point is

you're exploring which phrasal verbs

are commonly used in

recently written documents online.

You're learning them in context

and often in a context that's interesting to you!

Now, practise using phrasal verbs in the right way.

Focus on topics, not on alphabetical lists

because that is how you're going

to use phrasal verbs

while writing or talking about a topic or issue.

For example, if you're planning to take a holiday soon

think about all of the phrasal verbs

you might use on your trip.

Get on the bus.

Take off in the plane.

Pick up the hire car.

Pack up your suitcase.

Go out for dinner.

Hang out with friends.

And if you don't know all the phrasal verbs

that you might need,

then try looking at a blog post about the topic

to inspire you

or search YouTube for a lesson

that can help you to learn this vocabulary.

Or

go to a list of phrasal verbs

and see which ones will be helpful to talk about travel.

But don't forget to pay attention

to whether they're transient or intransient,

separable or inseparable.

Another great way to practise

is to start with a list of phrasal verbs

- about ten would be perfect.

They could be the ones that you highlighted earlier

from the blog post.

Remember?

Now try to write your own story using the phrasal verbs.

So use a dictionary if you need to

and check the meaning.

And to check if they are transitive or intransitive,

or separable or inseparable

because the dictionary will tell you that!

Now let me show you with an example.

Take these phrasal verbs, as the example.

Hang out,

look after,

take over,

put away,

clean up.

On Thursdays I look after my nephew in the evening,

because my sister works late.

I only live over the road,

so I usually take over dinner

and we have a picnic in the back garden.

He's very cute but very cheeky.

I spend most of my time putting away his toys

and cleaning up after him.

But I love to hang out with him!

So I just built a really simple story about

this list of phrasal verbs.

Now it doesn't have to be true and it

doesn't have to be really intelligent

but it challenges you to think creatively

and to use these phrasal verbs.

So, those are my top tips

for learning and using English phrasal verbs.

Do you have any other tips that you want

to share with everyone here?

Add them to the comments,

I'd love to see your suggestions.

I'll be making more videos about phrasal verbs soon

but for now,

why don't you check out these lessons right here?

And make sure you subscribe to the

mmmEnglish YouTube channel just here

so that you never miss a lesson!

Thanks for watching and I will see you next time.

Bye for now!