20 Phrasal Verbs with “Take” to Help You Speak More Naturally [579]

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In this episode, we go through 20 common phrasal verbs with take and explain them in a clear, practical way. You’ll see how these verbs are used in natural English, so they are easier to remember and easier to use when you speak.

This lesson will help you build more flexible vocabulary, understand native speakers more easily, and stop relying on the same basic verbs again and again.

If you want your English to sound more fluent and more natural, this is a very useful episode.

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Transcript

0:09

Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to Advanced English Lessons with Harry where I try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language. So anything that you need, you know where to contact me, www.englishlessonviaskype.com. I'm always very, very happy to hear from you. So in this particular lesson, this advanced English lesson, it's all to do with phrasal verbs. I know how you like phrasal verbs and they're really, really important part of speech. And in this one, we're using and looking at the simple verb and one that is used by lots and lots of people on a regular basis, the verb to take. Okay, so all of these are phrasal verbs using take. Now you might be familiar with some of them, in which case great. This is a part of the whole idea of revision, but some of them might be unknown to you. So you need to look at those, practice them, and understand how and why we use them. So I've got 20 of them, a nice even number. I'll go through them with you one by one. So the first one, take after. This is quite common, take after. And we use this when we are telling people that a son or daughter has similar habits to a relative, like the father or the mother. You take after your father. You walk the same way as your father walks. You sit the same way that your father sits. You eat your food the same way that your father eats his food. So you take after him, or you take after her, or you take after your grandmother. So it's not necessary in the way you look, but it's usually to do with habits. You take after somebody. Number two, this one is a little bit unusual, to take against somebody, to take against somebody or someone. And what it means is you begin to dislike that person. He took against me when I disagreed with him at the office meeting. So perhaps you had a reasonable relationship with your colleague or even your boss, but at an office meeting, you disagreed with the proposal or the suggestion. And since that particular meeting, he has said things or he has disagreed or he has acted differently. So we can say he has taken or he took against me after that particular meeting when we had a disagreement. So to take against somebody is to no longer like, so to begin to dislike someone. Number three, to take apart. Well, we can take apart lots of things. We can take apart a document, okay? So we can break it down into different pieces, okay? Or if somebody is reading your proposal or perhaps your paper that you've submitted and they're being really, really critical, you could say, wow, he took my document apart page by page. And at the end of it, I'm not so sure he agreed with any of it. There were red rings and strokes all over my document. He really took it apart. So he disagreed with lots of bits and pieces that I included. He told me to leave this out. He told me that I should include something else. He told me that my examples were wrong. He really took my presentation apart. Okay. So you could be submitting a paper at a presentation or a conference and perhaps the press or the journalists were interested in it and they really took it apart. They went through it page by page with lots of criticism. So it's usually looked on as a negative. They took it apart. Now we can, of course, take something apart bit by bit. For example, a simple construction of Lego. Let's take it apart and build it again. So that's just a simple way to use it. Or a jigsaw puzzle. Let's take it apart and we'll start all over again. It's good practice. So you can have it someone complex in terms of taking apart a document or physically taking something apart, even like a car engine, to take apart. And for those of you and your friends or family who want one-to-one lessons, well, you know what to do. Just get in touch, www.englishlessonviaskype.com and you can apply for a free trial lesson and we'd be very happy to hear from you and very happy to help you. Number four, to take a side. Well when we take someone as side, now this now be careful, it's A-S-I-D-E. It's not about taking sides with somebody. So you're supporting somebody. It's to take someone as sides. When we take them aside, we remove them from the rest of the group because we might have to have or we might want to have a quiet word with that person. So during a business meeting in the office where there were 10 or 15 of your colleagues, my boss took me aside for a few minutes to advise me what he wanted me to say in the meeting. So he was giving me a few tips or suggesting that I might ask a particular question or to tell me to be aware of some little issue. So he took me aside. So he had a quiet word, as we say, a quiet word in my ear to take someone aside. So remove them from the rest of the group and have a quiet word so that we can't be overheard or with something in private to take you aside. To take away from, we can look at this positively and negatively. So we could say not to take away from. Okay, so if your colleague makes a great suggestion in the meeting and everybody's going, yeah, yeah, that's really, really good. And you have some comments to make, maybe a little bit of a criticism or just something that might embellish or improve it, you could use this expression. I don't want to take away from your suggestion because it's really, really good. But what I would say is that we should maybe delay this for a further few weeks. So you want to make a suggestion, but you don't want to in any way diminish or reduce the value of the suggestion that your colleague has made. So you say, I don't want to take away from your suggestion because it's really, really good. Now, we can also use take away from in a positive way. So if we have a very, very detailed meeting, lots of information, lots of suggestions, lots of new ideas. Well, the boss might say, well, this has been a really great day. It's been really successful. I've learned a lot. So I'm going to take away lots of ideas from this meeting. So to take away from means to take away lots of new suggestions, lots of positive thoughts, lots of positive vibes. So I'd really like to thank you all for your participation. It's been really helpful, really eye-opening for me. So I will take away from this lots and lots of suggestions that I will try to implement and I will get back to you as soon as I can. So we can use it positively or negatively to take away from. Number six, to take back something. Well, when we take back something, we want to act as if it never happened, usually words, okay? So if you say something in anger or if you say something without thinking properly, then you say, oh, no, no, no, look, let me take that back. I didn't really mean to say it that way. So perhaps, again, you're in that meeting and you're thinking about it and you just say out loud, ah, but that's stupid. That's not going to work. Oh, look, look, sorry, I didn't mean it in that way. I didn't mean to say it was a stupid idea. Let me take that back and let me start again. So to take back something means either to apologize or to rephrase what you're going to say and put it in a better way so that somebody won't feel offended. Now, we can be asked by somebody, please take that back, meaning please effectively cancel that comment. So if you said something, oh, you don't look so good in that outfit. Oh, what do you mean I don't look so good? I just bought it yesterday. The guy in the shop said it was perfect for me. Please take back that comment. So don't be so insulting. Okay, so to take back something means to replace what you've said with some other ideas or thoughts or to apologize for something that might have been said in a fit of pique or a fit of anger or some little outburst. So to take back something. Next, number seven, to take down. Okay, now we can take down Christmas decorations. So we are effectively dismantling the tree. So you've got an artificial tree or a real tree for Christmas. You have all the decorations on it, all the lights. At some stage, you have to take it down. So we're going to take the Christmas tree down next week or tomorrow. So you dismantle it. You take, if it's a artificial tree, you take the different parts, separate them, and you put the lights in the box and you put the decorations, the baubles and whatever, the toys in boxes, and you pack them away until the next Christmas to take down the Christmas tree. Now, literally, we can take down a note means to write it. So if you're on the telephone and somebody calls looking for Michael or Jonathan or David or Mary or Kathleen and you just take a note down, say, just a minute, I'll just take down your details and I'll send a note to Michael or Kate or Mary and let them know that you're looking for them. So to take down a note or take down some details. Number eight, to take four. Now this one can be a little bit tricky. So yeah, let me give you a couple of examples. When we take four, it could be that we mistake somebody for somebody else. Wow, when I saw you standing there with your haircut and that jacket, I could take you for Brad Pitts. You look very, very like him. Okay. Or what do you take me for is a common question somebody would ask when they're a little bit annoyed. You know, so they maybe your colleague has said something and say, look, you need to be really, really careful how you approach that customer. You need to be really, really careful how you talk to the boss. You need to be really, really careful in case you make a mistake. And you say, excuse me, what do you take me for? Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think I've no experience? Of course I know how to speak to the customer. Of course I know how to speak to the boss. So what do you take me for? Do you take me for a fool? Do you take me for an idiot? Or as I said earlier on, when you catch somebody in a certain light or they're standing in a certain way or they say something in a certain way, wow, I could take you for Brad Pitt. You look just like him or you behave just like him or you sounded just like him. Okay, so to take somebody for somebody else. Oh, wow, you look so much like your sister. I could have taken you for your sister. You've really grown in the last couple of years and you're the image of her, really. You're the image of her. So to take somebody for somebody else. Number nine, to take something forward. Well, this is all about progress, okay? When we move forward, we progress. So to take something forward means to deal with something and hopefully make it successful in the future. So again, let's go back to those ideas that we had at our business meeting. And the boss says, okay, well, what we need now, we've agreed on these particular ideas. What I need is a show of hands. I need a volunteer. I need somebody who's going to take this forward and really run with it. And then come back to me with a few suggestions and let me know how it's working out. So this is the whole thing. Time to stop the talk, talk the talk and walk the walk, as they say. So it's time to act time to get things in gear. So I'm looking for volunteers to take this project forward. So to take something forward, make it a turn it into a success. And then number 10, take in. Well, again, this has a couple of different meanings. To take in information, when you're sitting there, you're listening, you don't participate, but you're taking in everything around you. You're taking in the atmosphere, you're taking in the suggestions, you're taking in the mood of the people. So you're watching, listening, and observing. And it's a very good way to behave at meetings, particularly when you're the new kid on the block, the new member of the staff. You're just there taking everything in. Have you noticed the way he sits there? He doesn't say a lot, but you know he's taking it all in. So that's a comment that you'll often hear when somebody seems to be a little bit quiet, but indeed they are observing, they are watching, and they're taking in everything they hear and more importantly, everything they see to take in. Now, literally, we can take in something from the car into the house. So you open up the boot of your car, you take out the messages, the groceries, and you take them into the house and you put them in the cupboard, in the fridge, or wherever you're going to put them. You take in the washing. So you hang it out to dry, to air, and then somebody says, oh, it's raining, it's raining. Oh, quick, quick, take in the washing. Yeah, so you rush out to the garden, take in the washing so it doesn't get wet again. Okay, so to take in. So the next one, number 11, is take off. Lots of different uses, lots of different meanings for takeoff. I'll give you some of them. The aeroplane will take off. Aeroplanes take off all the time. What time are we taking off? The flight will take off in 10 minutes, so it leaves the ground. When we come from home from work, from school, whenever we have been outdoors, we take off our shoes or our boots and we put on slippers, or we just walk around in our socks. We take off our coat, we hang it up on the railing. Come in, take off your coat, make yourself feel at home. Okay, so that's to take off. Now, there is another way in which we can use it. When we take off somebody, we try to imitate their actions. So mimics, people who mimic other people, they watch them, they see the habits they have, and then they take them off, meaning they imitate them. Okay, so they scratch the head in the same way they scratch the head, they rub the chin in the same way they rub the chin, they open their eyes in the same way that they open their eyes, so they mimic their actions, which is to take them off. Wow, you take him off so well. I'd almost believe it was him that I was looking at. Yeah, so to take off. Number 12, take on. Take on is all about extra responsibility. Who's going to take on this work when you're on maternity leave? So your colleague is going to have a baby, a really happy event, but you look at her and you go, oh my God, I hope it's not going to be me. Who's going to take on all of that extra responsibility? Who's going to take on your work when you're on maternity leave? I don't care. I'm going to be home looking after my beautiful baby to take on. Or the boss might look for a show of hands. Who's interested in taking on this project? Really interesting, interesting new client. You'll get some opportunities to travel. It's a great chance for you to develop, to take on a new client, to take on a task, to take on the opposition. Yeah, if we talk about sports, who are we taking on next week? We don't care. We've won our last five, six games. We'll take on anybody. We will challenge anybody and we'll hope and we believe that we might win. So to take on. Number 13, to take out. Well, again, we had before to take in. So this is the opposite take out. So you take something out from the house to the car. Who's going to take out the rubbish? Who's going to take the dirty papers and the stale food? And who's going to put it into the recycling bins to take out the rubbish? Who'll take out the shopping from the back of the car and bring it into the house? I'm looking for volunteers. Come on. Somebody has to help me to take out. Or indeed, something quite financial. We can go to a bank to take out a loan. We need to buy a new car. The car has been running for 12 years. It's about time we had a new one. This one is on its last leg. So I'll go and talk to the bank manager. I'll take out a loan. It'll be only for two or three years. Borrow some money and we'd buy ourselves a three or a four year old car. So to take out a loan means to borrow money from the bank. Or finally, to take out a book from the library. Again, it's about borrowing, but in this case, you know, it's not costing you any money. So you go to the library, you find a few books, and you take them out to take out or borrow books from the library. Take over. What number are we? Number 14, to take over. Well, it has a couple of meanings. Again, take over, one company takes over another. This is corporate actions. This is the activity in the corporate market where a big competitor takes out a smaller competitor. They want to grow. They want their particular products and it'll cost too much money to develop them themselves. So they get the idea that they will purchase that company. So they will absorb it. They will take over the company. So you'll see the announcements in the paper. Company A has taken over company B because it was their main competitor. It has grown their market share by another four or five percent as a result of this action. So to take over another company. Okay, so take over means to get control. You can also take over in a short term. If I'm driving my car and I'm sitting there with my wife and after 150 or 200 kilometers, I'm feel a little bit tired and I ask, could you kindly take over from here? Will you drive the rest of the way? So you share the driving responsibility. So I can sit back and rest and you can drive the remaining distance or another couple of hundred kilometers and then we'll change over or change around again. So to take over the driving, take over the controls, take over responsibility. Number 15, to take through. Okay, so if I want you to, sorry, if I want to take you through a particular document, then I'll say, okay, look, let me take you through it. So I'll explain how I understand it to be. And maybe at the end, then if you've got questions or you've got some issues, then we can discuss, debate, or go through them. So let me take you through this presentation. I'll run through it quickly. I won't start at the beginning because that's just the basic introduction. But let's get straight to the meat of this presentation. So I'll take you through it. I'll take you through it slowly. If you have any questions, leave them to the end and then we can go over them again. So when you take somebody through something, you go through it step by step. Let me take you through the meeting yesterday. You weren't there, so I'll tell you what was said, how we reacted, and at the end what we agreed or what we didn't agree and what the next steps will be. So to take you through whatever the discussions were. Number 16, to take to something. When we take to something, it usually means we like it. He can take to swimming like a duck to water. Okay, so if you take your young son or daughter for their first taste of swimming when they're six months or even six weeks, whatever age they happen to be, and they start splashing around and gurgling and laughing, you can say, ah, he took to it like a duck takes to water very, very easily. Yeah. Or if somebody takes up a new habit, a new pastime, a new sport, they take to it or don't take to it. So you say, ah, he didn't take to it. He didn't like it. So we'll have to find something else that might interest him. So you wanted to get son or daughter interested in piano or guitar or violin, whatever it is. Ah, he didn't really take to it at all. I think he's more interested in just banging the drums to make a lot of noise. So to take to something means to like it, to be interested or not to take to it, the opposite. And the next one, number 17, is exactly the one I use to take up. So when we take up a new hobby, it means we start something from scratch. Oh, it's great. I'm going to retire next week. And when I retire, I'm going to take up those hobbies I've been meaning to do for a lifetime. I'm going to take up French. I'm going to learn French. I'm going to take up knitting. I'm going to take up gardening. I'm going to take up horse riding, running, go to the gym, all sorts of activities that I didn't have time to do when I was working. So this is the time when all of us retirees, as I saw on the TV the other night, the super agers, we can take up all sorts of new hobbies and habits and enjoy ourselves. And that's what retirement is all about. So to take up means to start a new hobby. Take up on something. Well, when I take up on something, it means I raise an issue. So if we go back to our business meetings and somebody says something that maybe I didn't understand or maybe I disagree with strongly, or maybe I've got another opinion of it, I might say, I'd like to take you up on that, meaning I'd like to come back to that suggestion and I'd like to examine it in a little bit more detail. Or where the boss is looking for those volunteers. So he says, okay, I need somebody to take this project forward. I need them to run with it. I need them to operate it and come back to us with some suggestions. So you might say, okay, I'd like to take you up on that offer, meaning I will put myself forward as the person capable of doing it who wants to be responsible, the person responsible. So I'll take you up on your offer and I will deal with it once you give me the details and all the various issues that I need to understand. So to take you up on the offer. Next, number 19, to take up with. Okay, now here to take up with somebody means perhaps to start a relationship. So if somebody's in university, they haven't had a girlfriend or a boyfriend during their school years, but when they get to university, they start meeting some very interesting people and they may take up with one of them in a semi-serious way. So if you're talking about your son or daughter, so let's say David, ah, David has got a new girlfriend. He's taken up with one of his college friends that he met when he started his university there a few months ago. Or Mary has taken up with Lawrence. Yeah, so she seems to be really interested in him. They've got similar interests. They're studying the same topics and they've got really, really similar ideas. So she's taken up with him. Okay, so to take up with means to start friendships and it doesn't have to be a romantic relationship. Somebody could take up with a new group of friends they met in the photography club or they can take up with a new group of friends they met in the political group that they have in the in the university. So to take up with means to join or to enjoy activities where they have common interests. And finally, number 20, you'll be delighted to hear we're at the end, to take a pawn. So we can take a pawn means to take responsibility for something. He has taken it upon himself to do this, to write the letter to the local government to tell them that this building should not go ahead, that we're going to protest against it. And if they don't change their mind, then we're going to organize the local people and we're going to demonstrate against this development that is really not in the interests of the people in this area. So he has taken it upon himself. So he has taken the responsibility to write the letters, to get the response, to organize the people, to organize the demonstration or the protest, whatever it takes. So when you take something upon yourself, you take the responsibility for all of those actions. So I've taken it upon myself to give you this particular lesson relating to phrasal verbs and using the verb take. So we've gone through 20 of them in total. I've given you examples. So what you have to do to take it upon yourself is to practice to see which ones you know very well, which is great. They'll just remind you and it's a little bit of revision. Those you don't know so well, well, have a listen, have write some sentences and then come back to me if you have any comments or any help that you need. And as always, you can contact me on www.englishlessonvyskybe.com. Always happy to hear from you and always happy to get your suggestions. So this is Harry saying goodbye. Thanks for listening. Join me for the next lesson.