pOkay you've been asking for this video
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
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
I'm going to teach you six things that you need to know
A phrasal verb is a standard verb
Now don't let that confuse you!
is either a preposition or an adverb.
Go out, go after, go together, go away.
But of course, there are many, many more phrasal verbs.
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
or an intransitive phrasal verb?
which means to respect or admire someone
"I really look up to"
The first thing that I would have to ask them is
who?
"Look up to" is a transitive phrasal verb.
But some phrasal verbs are intransitive
which means they work fine on their own.
For example, to "grow up"
and you never need to add an object here.
Here are a few examples of how this works.
Your children are growing up so fast!
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Now some phrasal verbs are either
So take the example "come over"
The first is an intransitive phrasal verb
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,
because it helps you to understand
if a phrasal verb is transitive or intransitive,
and this is as simple as it sounds!
Separable means that the verb and the particle
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.
I'm going to take the project on.
We can separate the words in the phrasal verb
Now an inseparable phrasal verb means
that we can't separate the main verb
from the other words in the phrasal verb.
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 just doesn't work because it's inseparable.
Here's an example of how it could work though.
Now learning whether a phrasal verb
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.
like any other verb in a sentence.
They need to show us which tense is being used
and they need to match the subject
He always gives up without really trying.
See how the verb changes each time with the tense.
Find the right phrasal verbs to practise.
don't type "phrasal verbs" into Google
and then wait for a big list to appear
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
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.
Read the news. Read blogs that you love.
Read the transcripts of TEDTalks.
that are related to your profession.
take a blog post from your favourite English blog
about English or just written in English.
all of the phrasal verbs that you see.
to look for how phrasal verbs are used
is to use Google or any other search engine
to search for specific phrasal verbs
So I'll type in the phrasal verb.
a whole list of current examples
where that phrasal verb has been used
Look!
Here, someone will be put up for sale.
So he's made available for sale.
Women don't have to put up with something.
that this phrasal verb can be used.
you're exploring which phrasal verbs
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
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
And if you don't know all the phrasal verbs
then try looking at a blog post about the topic
or search YouTube for a lesson
that can help you to learn this vocabulary.
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,
is to start with a list of phrasal verbs
They could be the ones that you highlighted earlier
Now try to write your own story using the phrasal verbs.
So use a dictionary if you need to
And to check if they are transitive or intransitive,
because the dictionary will tell you that!
Now let me show you with an example.
Take these phrasal verbs, as the example.
On Thursdays I look after my nephew in the evening,
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
But I love to hang out with him!
So I just built a really simple story about
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.
for learning and using English phrasal verbs.
Do you have any other tips that you want
I'd love to see your suggestions.
I'll be making more videos about phrasal verbs soon
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!