Speak Better English with Harry | Episode 570

In this podcast episode, we cover 20 commonly used English phrasal verbs that native speakers use in everyday conversations. You will hear clear explanations and practical examples that show how these phrasal verbs work in real spoken English. The focus is on meaning, context, and natural usage, so you can understand them easily and use them with confidence.

This lesson is ideal for English learners at intermediate and upper-intermediate level who want to improve speaking fluency, listening comprehension, and vocabulary for daily English. It is also useful for learners preparing for IELTS, TOEFL, and Cambridge English exams, where phrasal verbs are common in both speaking and listening tasks.

By the end of the episode, you will feel more confident recognising and using phrasal verbs naturally, helping you sound more fluent and more like a native speaker in real-life English situations.

Transcript

Speaker: 0:09

Hi there. This is Harry. Welcome back to Advanced English to help you to get a better language, to help you with your business English skills, goals are, we're here to help. And for those of you and your to one lessons, well, you know Just get in touch. Via Skype and you can apply for And we'd be very happy to hear from you and very happy to help you. Okay, let's get back to today's lesson looking at phrasal verbs So I'll go through them one by Number one put off, put off. To put off means to postpone or meeting to put off an postpone or delay something. So examples. I had to put off my trip to I had to put off my trip to Don't put off doing your Do it when you come home. Don't put off doing your Do it when you come home. Number two, look forward to something to anticipate, something with pleasure or excitement usually. So to to look forward to something means to anticipate something with pleasure or excitement. I'm really looking forward to I've never been. I'm really looking forward to I've never been. He's looking forward to starting Okay, so he's looking forward to starting his new job next week when we're looking at just as a give you a little bit of a tip here when you're using looking forward to the to is a preposition. And after the preposition, the verb that follows is always in ING. So here he is looking forward to starting, not looking forward to start. He's looking forward to starting All right. Number three to bring up to topic into a conversation. She brought up the issue of During our meeting she brought During our meeting, he brought up his concerns about the company's finances. At the board meeting, he brought up his concerns about the company's finances at or in the board meeting. Number four, to get along with means to have a good relationship with someone or somebody. Okay. I get along with my coworkers I get along with my coworkers I'm not sure if my dog will get sure my dog will get along with Yeah, I'm not sure they'll get Meaning, they'll not get along They'll fight, or they'll have Yeah. Number five to take after. Take after means to resemble perhaps in the personality. So often to do with family Yeah. Okay. So she takes after her mother in She takes after her mother in He takes after his father in his He takes after his father in his Okay. So to take after to resemble personality or appearance. Number six. Make up. Make up and make up means to To make up a story to reconcile. When there's been an argument we made up after our argument and apologized to each other, we made up after our argument and apologize to each other to make up. She made up a story why? She was late for work. She made up a story. Why she was late for work. Number seven set up and set up to arrange something. Okay, so we set up a meeting project in detail. We set up a meeting with the client to discuss the project in detail. He set up his own business. After working for the company for many years, he set up his own business after working for the company for many years to set up to establish number eight. Now number eight, run into, to run into, run into means to meet somebody unexpectedly. I ran into my old friend from I ran into my old friend in at the grocery store. We ran into some traffic on our We ran into some traffic on our Okay, so to run into is to meet someone or something unexpectedly. Either person you run into in We ran into some traffic on our airport, and we were delayed. They ran into some problems with They ran into some problems with So if you're trying to get a came across some difficulties in They ran into some problems with the project or you ran into meaning. You met the your old boss on the So to run into means to meet someone unexpectedly or something. Mm. Number nine to bring about to bring about about means to cause or have reason to cause something to happen to bring about the new policies brought about positive changes in the company. So to bring about change. So the new policies brought about positive changes in the company. The invention of the smartphone brought about a revolution in communication, as indeed it did so. The invention of the smartphone brought about a revolution in communication. So we all use smartphones. And then number ten to look into look into means either to investigate or to examine something. To investigate or examine something, we need to look into the issue of about customer complaints, or we need to look into the issue of customer complaints. The police are looking into the The police are looking into the So they are investigating. They're looking into it. Whereas we need to look into the We need to examine that in a Okay. So moving now on to number And just in case you forgot or reminder what we're talking English lesson looking at some for everyday use. So number eleven to come across And it means to meet or find or discover something by chance okay. To come across or it wasn't In other words, I came across an I came across an old friend that I hadn't seen for many, many years. He came across some interesting information while doing his research. He came across some interesting research, so he found something Number twelve take up. Take up and take up means to or a new activity to take up. I've decided to take up tennis. I've decided to take up tennis. She took up photography as her She took up photography as her So when you take up something, hobby or a new activity. Why don't you take up something Okay. To take up or to start Number thirteen to put up with, And it means to tolerate or to unpleasant or not so nice. So to put up with, to tolerate I don't know how he puts up with I don't know how he puts up with I can't put up with this heat I have to move to another I can't put up with this heat Okay, so when you put up with something, it means you tolerate or you just simply use the expression. I'm not going to put up with So you often hear that I just I'm not going to put up with I just cannot tolerate the constant arguing or fighting. Number fifteen to settle down, means to establish a life or a He wants to settle down and He wants to settle down and And after years of traveling, small town on the coast. So after years of traveling, she town on the coast. Number sixteen to turn down. Turn down means to reject or refuse something so you can reject or refuse an offer or a request. Okay, so I had to turn down the Okay. So this would be a good I had to turn down the job offer I had to turn down the job offer She turned down the invitation She turned down the invitation turn down the job offer because turned down the invitation to go really fancy the guy. Okay. All right, let's move on to Okay. And seventeen is breakdown okay. Still using that preposition So seventeen breakdown and breakdown means to something that stops functioning, stops working. Or you want to divide something So let me give you a couple of My car broke down on the way to My car broke down. So it stopped functioning. It stopped working. It broke down on the way to Or if we talk about breaking break down the problem into Let's break down the problem parts or pieces. So everybody takes a bit of the problem and we resolve it together. So to break something down into So number seventeen break down. Number eighteen is to give up Give up usually means to stop Okay. Or to concede some ground or to Okay, so I refuse to give up on So whatever your dream is, you footballer or you want to, uh, So I refuse to give up on my I'm not going to stop dreaming or achieve it. And after two hours of looking for the criminals. After two hours of searching, the police gave up looking for the criminals. They stopped the search for that But they they conceded that they They had disappeared. So to give up, to stop searching or to concede defeat, to give in number nineteen, carry on, carry on. And that means to continue doing continue doing something. So despite the rain, we decided Despite the rain, we decided to The teacher told the students to while she stepped out of the teacher told them to carry on stepped out of the room for a Okay, so to carry on and number twenty phrasal verbs, number And cut off means to either disconnect or to end or to stop communication. So the phone cut off in the phone suddenly cut off in the We lost power during the storm. The power was cut off and we had So during the storm the power electricity for many hours. Okay. So there you've got twenty really good phrasal verbs that you can use in any particular situation. I've given you examples of each So what I want you to do is But don't just practice the Come up with some of your own They might not always work, but sure when you're using a phrasal tenses as any ordinary verb and appropriate with the particular your phrasal verb. Practice them. If you have any problems, come back to me and I'll happily give you some more suggestions, ideas and practical, workable examples. Okay, this is Harry thanking you Thanking you for listening. As always, don't forget to come back and join me for the next lesson.