The Phrasal Verb 'Pick On' Explained
- Phrasal Verbs Explained
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'pick on' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context
Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native.
This week on Phrasal Verbs Explained, we are looking at the phrasal verb 'pick on', which will be a nice and short phrasal verb lesson as it only has two meanings. In the post, I will explore both of these meanings and provide you with lots of example sentences for each one to show you in which situations and contexts you may come across it. So, without further ado, let's get started....
TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one)
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THE BASICS
PICK ON: KEY INFORMATION
Usage | Medium |
Number of meanings | 2 |
Past tense forms | Picked on / Picked on |
Separable? | No |
If you are a regular visitor to this website, then you will know that at the start of each phrasal verb post, I take a short look at the individual words that form the phrasal verb that I am going to be explaining. This post is no different and so let's briefly review the individual words 'pick' and 'on' and what they mean on their own....
To pick - 'To pick' is a relatively common English verb with a couple of main meanings. The first of these is 'to choose or to select something' and the second is 'to remove something or a part of something from what it is attached to, normally with your hands'. This second meaning is perhaps most commonly heard in relation to picking flowers, fruit and berries. You will be pleased to know that, unlike many other common verbs in English, 'to pick' is regular and takes the standard 'ed' ending for both past tense forms 😀
You can pick any book you like from the shelf to read.
Nikki picked the blue dress for the party.
We spent the day picking apples at the orchard yesterday.
Neil picked fresh flowers from the garden to give to his wife for her birthday.
On - The prepositional particle 'on' is one that is found in a lot of phrasal verbs. In more literal phrasal verb applications, it is often used to talk about a movement on to something (get on a bus) but more often than not its use in phrasal verbs is not literal. In these cases, it can add different ideas to the construction, including continuation (carry on), persistence (keep on), activation (turn on), focus (work on) and motivation (come on).
So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'pick on'....
MEANING 1: To tease someone repeatedly
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To bully, to tease, to harass, to victimise, to punish, to criticise, to persecute |
Separable? | No |
There are only two different meanings of the phrasal verb 'pick on' and so if you have ever heard it being used, then there is a good chance that it will be this first application as it is the most common one and means 'to tease someone repeatedly'.
The verb 'to tease' is one that you may already be familiar with. It means to make fun of someone, annoy them or laugh at them and it can be used in both a playful friendly way as well as a cruel and unkind way. In this application of 'pick on' it is the latter of these two that we are talking about, i.e. being cruel and unkind.
If you pick on someone, you continually treat someone in an unfair and unpleasant way, which can be anything from criticising or insulting them to being physically violent towards them. Essentially, it is a form of bullying and so therefore this is something that you will hear being used to talk about schoolchildren or adults when they were at school in the past.
Although we use it most commonly to talk about children and teenagers picking on one another, it is absolutely possible to use it for adults too as this still happens frequently i adult life as many of you will be aware, I'm sure.
On a grammatical note, this usage is not separable and always follows the same set structure. We can also add the additional preposition 'for' to specify the reason that someone picks on someone else e.g. a bad haircut or being overweight.
The older kids always pick on Sam because he’s quiet.
Stop picking on your sister; you know she hates it!
Amy felt like the teacher was picking on her all week for no reason.
Tim's colleagues pick on him at work because he’s the newest employee.
I was a goth at school and so I was picked on by the other kids for the way that I dressed.
The school bully used to pick on me for my ginger hair until I punched him and then he quickly stopped.
One other thing to note here is that when talking about being picked on, we do not always know (or care) who the bully in the situation is, especially if someone is picked on by a group of people rather than just one individual. in these cases, we tend to use the passive constructions 'to be picked on' and 'to get picked on' to describe this.
Ben is always picked on at school.
Amelia gets picked on whenever she speaks up in class.
Lucas gets picked on for the way he dresses, but he doesn’t let it bother him.
Yolande is getting picked on more than usual this week.
PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE!
If you've ever been in a situation in which you see a person being picked on by someone who is physically smaller or younger than the bully, you may have felt the urge to intervene as situations like that are particularly unfair. In moments like these, you might be tempted to say to the to bully "pick on someone your own size!", meaning that you want them to leave the victim alone and to try and bully you instead (this is presuming that you are indeed the same size or bigger than the victim). It is surprising how many of these bullies don't actually have the courage to pick on someone their own size! 😂
Why don't you pick on someone your own size instead of picking on little kids!
Try picking on someone your own size, you big coward!
MEANING 2: To select something or someone
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Rare |
Where is it used? | Mainly British English |
Potential synonyms | To choose, to select, to focus on |
Separable? | No |
Our second and final application of the phrasal verb 'pick on' means simply 'to select someone or something'. It is the rarest of the two meanings and is mainly heard in British English.
You may be wondering what the difference is here between 'to pick' on its own and this application of 'pick on'. Whilst these two are certainly synonyms of one another, there are some small differences in usage and nuance to make you aware of.
When we use 'pick on' in this sense, we are specifically talking about choosing someone or something from a group of options. While we can also use 'to pick' for this, 'pick on' would typically be used when the chosen person or thing receives special attention, treatment or focus as a result. This is often done in such a way that the other unselected options are ignored or forgotten about afterwards. Depending on the context, this can either be neutral or slightly negative in tone.
The movie critic picked on one minor flaw and ignored the rest of the film.
Marjorie always picks on the smallest details when she edits.
The health and safety inspector picked on that one loose wire as a major safety concern.
During the meeting, Joe picked on a single statistic to support his argument.
The reviewers picked on the costume design rather than the quality of the acting.
Alan tends to pick on wording instead of addressing the main issue.
We have now reached the end of this post and I just want to say thank you for clicking on my post and reading it. I hope that you've enjoyed it and have been able to learn something new about the phrasal verb 'pick on'. If you enjoyed this post, please go ahead and check out some of my other posts.
Now it is YOUR turn. Can you think of a sentence yourself using 'pick on'. Write it in the comments section below if you can, or alternatively any comments, suggestions or feedback that you may have....don't be shy!!!
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THE END
She always has a bone to pick with me. This is unbearable.
Don't pick on your little sister, she's crying now.
Please pick on only the ripest fruit.