Today on LetThemTalk I'm answering a question from a viewer to this channel
Now recently I posted a video "101 Really Useful Phrasal Verbs" and if you haven't
seen it yet then you should definitely have a look
at that the link is somewhere up here. And in the comments of that video I
received a question from Kirill Mozgunov and he said this
"Good morning Gideon thanks a lot for another useful lesson everybody knows
how important phrasal verbs are please make a video dedicated to how to learn
phrasal verbs learning phrasal verbs is a great challenge share your experience
with us tell us about the most efficient methods to get it many thanks in advance"
Good question. So let's look at that today so
first of all we need to define what a phrasal verb is. A phrasal verb is a
verb followed by one or more prepositions or and adverbial particle
but let's just call them prepositions here and what's specific about phrasal
verbs as opposed to an ordinary verb with a preposition is that in a phrasal
verb adding the preposition will completely change the meaning of the
verb to that if it's used on its own. So let's look at an example of that. LISTEN T0
So that's not a phrasal verb it's a verb and preposition LISTEN TO
still has the meaning of listening so "I listened to the radio" is not a
phrasal verb. Let's have a look at an example of a phrasal verb GIVE that's a
normal verb but if I add the preposition IN we have GIVE IN which means to
surrender or admit defeat so for example "there's no way I can win this tennis
game so I give in" now it would be difficult or impossible to understand
GIVE IN from the GIVE alone okay so it's a phrasal verb
so you have to learn GIVE IN as a separate word to GIVE sometimes you get
a verb and a preposition which can have more than one meaning. Let's have
it to that LOOK DOWN is not a phrasal verb when I'm looking to something below
me LOOK DOWN but when I say "he looked down on people who didn't have
his level of education" it's quite a different meaning. it means to consider
someone inferior. So a phrasal verb has a completely different meaning to
the verb on its own so you need to be very careful about that when you are
reading and listening because you can completely misunderstand the meaning so
if you read "The King looked down on his subjects"
well actually could mean literally look down from the top of his castle or a
phrasal verb meaning he considered his subjects inferior. So the
context is very important. Let's have a look at one more example TO TURN
Let's add the preposition down now TURN DOWN has two phrasal verbs
TURN DOWN means REFUSE "I asked her out to dinner but she turned me down"
TURN DOWN can also mean REDUCE THE SOUND "the music is too loud can you
turn it down" now there are thousands of phrasal verbs that's the bad news but
the good news is they are just vocabulary every language has vocabulary
your language has lots of vocabulary and these are just words
albeit in two or three parts but they are just words and once you realize that
then it's a little less intimidating so the big question how do we learn them? It's a
good question and different teachers will take different approaches and at
the end of the day you have to decide what's best for you. One way of
teaching them and learning them of course is to bundle all the phrasal
verbs with the same preposition together and see how the preposition
indicates a similar meaning. Let's look at some examples of
that. Take the preposition UP. UP can
have the meaning to move to a higher level, to increase, greater intensity, so
for example SPEAK UP. SPEAK UP means speak more loudly so to a greater
intensity TURN UP can mean make it a greater intensity "turn up the music"
GO UP so "prices went up this month" here UP means increase. UP can also
mean finished completely so for example "Tidy up the room" So tidy to the end
"Eat up your food" So that means eat it completely FINISH UP up "I have to
finish up my my work" so finish to the end. UP could also mean destroy,
break completely, SMASH UP means smash completely "he smashed up the room" he
smashed everything. BREAK UP "our relationship has broken up" it's finished
definitively. BLOW UP "my engine blew up" So completely destroyed. With
other prepositions: ON, OFF, DOWN, IN, you you can you can also recognize similar
patterns and the things that they have in common and many teachers
teach phrasal verbs in this way and some really
excellent teachers here on YouTube use this method to teach phrasal verbs and
you should definitely check out their videos. However for me personally I
prefer a different approach the problem I have with this grouping method is that
there are too many exceptions too many irregularities I'll show you what I mean.
So now I know that if I see a verb followed by UP it means
add to intensity, completely, add, to a higher level, increase, okay yeah all
right but what about QUEUE UP what does that mean QUEUE UP it's the same as to QUEUE
isn't it? and same with WAIT UP and WAIT what does the UP mean? I'm not
quite sure. So you WASH UP the dishes-
wash up completely is that right? yeah so you can wash up your clothes
can't you? No you can't! You wash your clothes but you wash up the dishes. why? I
don't know. okay So TALK and SPEAK have similar meanings so SPEAK UP means
increase the volume, that fits into the pattern but
what about TALK UP? It should have a similar meaning shouldn't it? but it doesn't TALK UP
means to speak about something in a favorable way so for example "The
company just launched a new product and they're trying to talk it up in the
media". LOOK UP we look up in the word look up a word in the
dictionary why UP? the other thing about this method it leads to some
false assumptions so for example PLUG IN means insert an electrical
device into an electricity supply so logically the opposite of IN
is OUT so it should be PLUG OUT right? "I plugged out the computer" No
the opposite of PLUG IN is to UNPLUG "I unplugged my computer" you PICK UP the
phone right you PICK UP and the opposite should be no PICK DOWN shouldn't it?
well no it's HANG UP you PICK UP then you HANG UP that's illogical there might
be a pattern to it I can't see it's. It's so complicated that
if you're reading an article by the time you finish it you're pulling out
your hair you've taken eight paracetamol and you're still got a headache
and you need some need some psychotherapy. Language is not a science
so the method I suggest is to learn phrasal verbs in a more natural, more
organic way. You come across a phrasal verb in the process of your everyday
life when you're listening to someone or reading or watching a TV show whatever.
Then make a note of it make a note of it write it down on a spreadsheet or
whatever suits you. Check the meaning in the dictionary. Write down the
definition and especially make a note if there is a non-phrasal verb equivalent
and this is often the case. So you write down the structure as well. What
type of phrasal verb is it? is it a transitive phrasal verb? that's a verb
that takes a direct object such as MAKE UP which means to invent or lie "he
intransitive phrasal verb? One that is not followed by a noun for example GROW UP
"Children grow up fast" is it a separable phrasal verb?
These are phrasal verbs that can be separated so that you can put words
between the verb and preposition for example THROW AWAY
"I threw the rubbish away" or "I threw away the rubbish" it's a separable phrasal
verb the non phrasal verb equivalent by the way is DISPOSE "I'm going to
dispose of the rubbish" and then there are inseparable phrasal verbs LOOK INTO
for example two means TO INVESTIGATE "I'll look into the problem" or "I'll
investigate the problem" would be the non phrasal verb equivalent. Next write
an example. Very important write an example if you saw the video of 101
phrasal verbs I did I had 101 examples. Next again very important use the
phrasal verb in conversation or in writing. So you must use it. That
helps you helps you remember it. Now let's look an example let's take SIGN UP
so what's the definition? it means to put your name down for something to join
something to register. what type of phrasal verb is it? It's an
intransitive phrasal verb and it's inseparable. Let's have an example "I
signed up for the newsletter" Another example CALL OFF. TO CALL OFF
which means to cancel it's a transitive phrasal verb and it's separable. "I
called off the meeting" or "I called the meeting off" can you use CANCEL in these
examples? Yes you can. It has an equivalent "I cancelled the meeting"
So do the same for all the new phrasal verbs that you come across
(come across that's another phrasal verb) build up your spreadsheet of phrasal
verbs. Listen I'm sorry this is not like the magic solution you were hoping for that
requires little or no work. No this does require
work and effort but I never said it would be easy but this is a very
effective method I promise you. Well that's it thank you for watching I
hope I haven't put you off learning phrasal verbs and as always stay mellow