An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'play up' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my blog all about English phrasal verbs. Each week, I take a different phrasal verb and look at how it is used by native speakers, with a focus on the different meanings that it has and the expressions and idioms that it is used in. This post is all about the phrasal verb 'play up' and its different meanings and uses in English. 'Play up' has a few different meanings, however some of these tend to be more commonly used in British English and so are very familiar to me but they may not be to English speakers in the USA or elsewhere. So, without further ado, let's take a look at these different meanings.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Play Up - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'play' and 'up' Play Up - Meaning 1: To exaggerate the importance of something Play Up - Meaning 2: To not work properly 🇬🇧 Play Up - Bonus: My back is playing up! Play Up - Meaning 3: To misbehave 🇬🇧 Play Up - Meaning 4: To influence someone to make them like you Play Up - Bonus: The expression 'stop playing up for the camera!' I love writing this blog and helping learners but I get very little feedback so I don't always know if it is helpful for you. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like and share it or leave a comment at the end. I would be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS PLAY UP: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 4 Separable? Sometimes Past tense forms Played up / Played up As is customary at the start of each post, we'll start by looking at the component words which make up our phrasal verb under the spotlight. Firstly, we have the verb 'to play', which can mean to take part in a game or sport, as well as to portray a character in a performance in a theatre show or movie etc. This second meaning is the one that is more relevant for the phrasal verb meanings, as you will see shortly. Secondly, we have our prepositional particle up, signifying movement to a higher position away from the ground or towards the sky ⬆. So now we have covered the basics, let's move on to the phrasal verb meanings... MEANING 1: To exaggerate the importance of something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Separable? Yes Potential synonyms ​To exaggerate, to emphasise, to big something up The first meaning of 'play up' that we will look up in this post requires a small amount of dishonesty, as the meaning is to exaggerate or emphasise something, in order to make it seem better, more important or more interesting to other people than it really is. In other words, if something is not very important or trivial, but we want other people to think that it is important, we can tell some white lies* and play it up in order to make them think that it is important. The extra emphasis that we place on something when we play it up can be used for both positive and negative purposes; on one hand something could be played up in order to raise publicity for a good cause and on the other hand a small, insignificant detail about someone's past could be played up by another person in order to make them look bad (this often happens in politics). Another key aspect of this meaning is expectation as things are often played up by people in order to increase people's interest levels about something upcoming in the future. A new TV show, a musical performance, a new product being launched onto the market or a baby gender reveal are all things which can be played up by people in order to generate interest. Photo: Pexels Additional nouns that you may come across with 'play up' are rumours or speculation, both of which could be 'played up' for humorous effect by the people who the rumours are about, especially if they are not true. In terms of sentence structure, this use of 'play up' requires a direct object, which can either be the noun specifying the thing being played up, or the pronoun 'it'. The government has been accused of playing up the significance of the tax cuts. It was obvious that the footballer was playing up his leg injury. The media has played up reports of the quarrel between the two politicians. *White lies are lies that people tell which are generally harmless or trivial in nature, often told in order to hide the truth from someone as it will make them unhappy - this is the good kind of lies 😝 MEANING 2: To not work properly Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Common Where is it used? British English Separable? No Potential synonyms To act up, to malfunction The second meaning of 'play up' is primarily used in British English and means 'to not work or function properly'. This is often used by (slightly annoyed) British people when they have problems with items such as their car, their computer or smartphone. When we use 'play up' in this sense, we do not mean that the problematic item has stopped working completely and is now out of order, but rather that it is working erratically, developing problems from time to time or is not working to 100% efficiency. This usage is quite an informal one and in more formal settings a verb such as 'to malfunction' may be more appropriate. Despite its informality however, this usage is in frequent usage among British people, so you are likely to hear it from time to time if you have British friends or colleagues. I am going to be late into work today as my car is playing up. My laptop has been playing up for the last couple of weeks, I think I should get a new one. Photo: Wix Media OUCH! MY BACK IS PLAYING UP! In addition to complaining about dysfunctional equipment or devices, it is also very common to use 'play up' to describe body parts that are not working properly and causing you health problems as a result. This is typically used to describe chronic problems which come and go, such as back pain or pain from a long term injury and, rather understandably, is used most frequently by the older generation. My back is playing up again, I am in agony! Speak up! My ears are playing up and I can't hear you properly! Moreover, with this usage it is also very common for people to add an object pronoun (me, you, him, her or them) to say that the particular malfunctioning body part is causing them pain or discomfort. My eyes play me up from time to time but that's just a normal part of getting old I guess! My feet have been playing me up something dreadful since I ran the marathon! MEANING 3: To misbehave Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Common Where is it used? British English Separable? Yes Potential synonyms To misbehave, to act up For our third meaning, we have another usage that is primarily used in British English and that is 'to misbehave'. Logically, this is really the same as the previous meaning, however instead of a device or body part not working in the way it should, we are rather talking about a person not behaving in the way that they should, in other words they are misbehaving. As this meaning is primarily concerned with bad behaviour, it will come as no surprise to you that it is used often to talk about naughty children. However, we can certainly also use it to talk about pets (my cats play up all the time) and occasionally even adults. Again, this usage is largely informal and more formal alternatives such as 'to misbehave' should be used in formal environments. Furthermore, it is also possible to play someone up. We use this variation when someone is responsible for looking after a child e.g. a babysitter, and the child misbehaves whilst in that person's care. We could then say that the child plays the babysitter up. The kids were so well behaved today, they didn't play up once! Our cats have started playing up ever since the building work on our home started. Ok children, we are off now so please do not play the babysitter up. MEANING 4: To influence someone to make them like you CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Separable? No Potential synonyms To curry favour, to suck up Our fourth and final meaning of 'play up' is a return to the dishonesty that we looked at in the first meaning of this post because it means to act in a certain way in order to make someone like you and treat you well. This could be by flattering them, doing something to help them or buying them gifts - regardless of the action however, the ultimate aim is to gain some sort of advantage from them. For this usage the additional preposition 'to' is required since we 'play up to' the person that we are trying to impress. A typical example of when this is used would be in work environments when someone wants to play up to the boss in order to get a promotion or special treatment of some sort. This usage is not limited to the world of work though and can be found in any situation where someone wants to gain an advantage with another person. Lisa is blatantly playing up to the boss, she's desperate to get his secretary's job! Photo: Pexels Bonus: Stop playing up for the camera! Before finishing this post, I want to give you one more expression which features our phrasal verb 'play up'. The expression in question is 'to play up for the camera', which is used to describe when a person acts in a certain way when they are being filmed, in order to come across well. The idea is that they do not not normally act that way in reality and their behaviour is all just for the camera. Another variation of this is also 'to play up to the camera'. Photo: Pexels 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 'play up'. 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 'play up'. 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!!! Sign up on the form below if you want to receive new blog posts directly by email every week as soon as they are published. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. See you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'pull off' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels 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. 'Pull off' is a useful English phrasal verb to have in your active English vocabulary. Although it doesn't have as many meanings of some other phrasal verbs, most of the meanings it does have are very useful, especially for the drivers amongst you. Read on to learn the different the ways to use it in English, with lots of examples in context. Don't forget to leave a comment at the end!   TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Pull Off - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'pull' and 'off' Pull Off - Meaning 1: To remove something by pulling it Pull Off - Meaning 2: To start moving in a vehicle Pull Off - Meaning 3:To stop on the side of the road 🇺🇸 Pull Off - Meaning 4: To manage to do something difficult or unexpected Pull Off - Meaning 5: To masturbate manually Photo: Pexels THE BASICS PULL OFF : KEY INFORMATION Usage Medium Number of meanings 5 Past tense forms Pulled off / Pulled off Separable? Sometimes To start, let's take a look at the different meanings of the words 'pull' and 'off' and what they mean on their own. The verb 'to pull' is a common verb in English that means to apply a force in order to move something, typically towards oneself or in the same direction that the object exerting the force is moving. This can be either be when you are not moving and you force something towards you or if you are moving and you cause something to move along with you or behind you. John pulled his girlfriend towards him and gave her a big kiss. I walked through the airport and pulled my suitcase behind me. The horse pulled the carriage through the park. Often, when combined with prepositional particles to form phrasal verbs, 'to pull' can be used to mean 'to move', with the direction of the movement specified by the given preposition. The prepositional particle 'off' is the opposite of the particle 'on' and, like most particles of this type in English, it has a wide variety of different meanings and applications as an adverb, preposition, adjective, noun and even a verb! It exists as the natural opposite of the particle 'on' and some of its main meanings include 'moving away from somewhere or something', 'stopping functioning' and 'no longer being on or in contact with a surface'. In phrasal verb constructions 'off' can often incorporate the ideas of separation, starting and, confusingly, finishing something...ah the strangeness of the English language 😀 So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'pull off'... MEANING 1: To remove something by pulling it Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level A2 - Elementary Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To pull off, to yank off Separable? Yes As this is the first meaning of the phrasal verb 'pull off' that we will look at, let's start with a nice and easy one. This initial meaning is a literal one and therefore is 'to remove something from a surface by pulling it'. For this meaning to be applicable, we first need an object to be on a surface. If we then pull the object in a certain direction, so that it falls off the surface or is no longer on it, then we can say that we have pulled it off. This is normally used specifically when there is a pulling action involved. It can sometimes also imply that some force was needed or used. I pulled the dirty sheets off the bed and put them in the washing machine. John accidentally pulled the kettle off the work surface in the kitchen and it fell on the floor and broke. Naturally, this is often used with flat surfaces such as tables, shelves and worktops but this can also be applied to any other surfaces with which we use the preposition 'on', such as a wall or clothes that are on your body. Susan tried to pull the clock off the wall but it was stuck there. I pulled my shoes and socks off and went for a paddle in the shallow water. This usage is not limited to objects, however, and can also be applied to people, both in a literal sense when a person is pulled off a surface by a force or if they are pulled off a sports team or a job etc that they are on. My dog is very strong and managed to pull me off my chair yesterday. The coach has pulled me off the football team as my performance has not been good recently. Roger was pulled off the flight before it departed as there was a problem with his passport. MEANING 2: To start moving in a vehicle Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To start, to pull away, to move off Separable? No The next two meanings that I will explain to you are both to do with cars and driving and the first of these is 'to start moving in a vehicle'. This application is used specifically to describe the first few moments when a vehicle goes from being stationary to being in motion. Furthermore, this is only used when the driver intentionally makes the vehicle move and not when it moves accidentally, such as when someone forgets to put on the handbrake when parked on a slope and the car starts rolling (I know people who have done that...not me!). Although we can use this application of 'pull off' with any type of moving vehicle, it is most commonly used with cars and other road vehicles. This usage is derived from the combination of the idea of moving that we get from the verb 'to pull', with the meaning of 'off' as in away from the stated place. Lisa put the key in the ignition, started the engine and pulled off. As I was pulling off this morning, I realised that I hadn't locked the front door. The police car pulled off and sped away down the road in chase of the criminal. MEANING 3: To stop on the side of the road Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? American English Potential synonyms To pull over Separable? No We come now come to our second vehicle-based meaning of 'pull off'. Now, we all know how peculiar the English language can be and this is definitely a great example of its weirdness as this second meaning of 'pull off' is 'to move to the side of the road and stop the car'.  That's right, almost the exact opposite of the previous meaning! 🤦 I imagine many of you are scratching your heads in confusion at this, so I'll try and add some much needed logic here to explain why 'pull off' has two completely contradictory meanings. This can actually be attributed to the word 'off' and its many different meanings. In the previous meaning, we were talking about how 'off' is used to mean in motion, however the meaning of 'off' in this second meaning is not the same and actually means to no longer be on the road. In order to for this to happen, you must pull the steering wheel to the left or right. I stated at the beginning of this section that this meaning also involves stopping the car at the side of the road. Whilst this is true, it is also possible to use 'pull off' when you want to stop driving on the road in general, whether this be to go and get some food, to get some gas / petrol or have a short sleep. Furthermore, it can also just mean that you turn off the road and onto another one. The central idea is that you stop driving on the road that you are referring to. This usage is primarily an American one, but as is often the case, it would certainly be understood in the UK and other English-speaking countries if you used it. We pulled off the road in a lay-by to have a snack and a quick rest. Ok kids, stop moaning! We will pull off at the next service station so that you can go to the toilet. MEANING 4: To manage to do something difficult or unexpected Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To manage to do, to accomplish, to achieve Separable? Yes Let's now move away from the confusing world of driving phrasal verbs and look at our next meaning of 'pull off', which is perhaps the most commonly used of them all and means 'to manage to do something that is difficult or unexpected'. To clarify this, if you pull something off, you succeed in doing something that people do not think is likely or possible. This may be because they do not think that you are capable of the task or perhaps because there are obstacles and difficulties which make the task hard or unachievable. In other words, this usage is all about surprising people and defying their expectations. The usage of this application is very broad and can be used to talk about anything from politics, where a politician is elected despite people thinking he or she would not be, and sports, where an athlete can win something against the odds to things like business deals that people did not think would ever happen. This usage is a separable one and can be used both ways without any discernible difference in meaning. Nobody thought that Susan would be able to bring up her children, work part time and study for a university degree at the same time but somehow she pulled it off! Despite being 3-0 behind at half time, Aston Villa were able to make a comeback and pull off a surprising victory, with the match finishing 4-3 in their favour! This is a big job and we don't have much time. Do you think we can pull it off? Lisa wasn't sure if she would be able to convince people at the party that she her name was Laura, but she pulled it off and none of the guests suspected that Laura was lying. MEANING 5: To masturbate manually CEFR Language Level C2 - Proficient Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Separable Yes I don't normally like to include slang or vulgar uses of phrasal verbs on my blog, however I do think that sometimes it is necessary to be aware of them to avoid risking awkward or embarrassing situations. This next meaning of 'pull off' means to masturbate and is usually used in reference to males. It can be used with a reflexive (self) pronoun or a personal pronoun, depending on the situation e.g. "to pull yourself off" or "to pull someone off". When talking about pulling a person off (as in the first meaning in this article), if you do not refer to a surface from which a person is being pulled or if it not clear from the context, then it is possible that you may be understood in this way. I don't want to spend too much time on this meaning for obvious reasons, however you should check out this video, which is a classic example of where this extra meaning can cause embarrassment, or in this case, laughter, even with native speakers. The man is trying to use 'pull off' in the fourth meaning as he is wondering if he will be successfully be able to impersonate the presenter at a Comic Con event, however it all goes horribly wrong. For clarity, what he should have said to avoid this error was "do you think I can pull it off?". Photo: Pexels 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 'pull off'. 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 'pull off'. 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!!! Sign up on the form below if you want to receive new blog posts directly by email every week as soon as they are published. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. See you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'stand up' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels 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 post is all about the phrasal verb 'stand up' and its different uses and meanings in English. I am sure that many of you are already familiar with at least one or two of the meanings of 'stand up' but do you know all of them? For instance, do you know what it means if something stands up to scrutiny or what it means if you've been stood up? Not to worry if you don't as in this article, I will explain to you how this strong and courageous phrasal verb is used in English, with lots of examples for reference and understanding. So, without further ado, let's get started. Make sure to leave a comment at the end and impress me with your own sentences! TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Stand Up - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'stand' and 'up' Stand Up - Meaning 1: To rise from a lying or a sitting position Stand Up - Bonus: To be upstanding Stand Up - Meaning 2: To fail to meet someone Stand Up - Meaning 3: To be accepted as valid after scrutiny Stand Up - Meaning 4: To defend someone or something Stand Up - Meaning 5: To defend yourself Stand Up - Meaning 6: To not be damaged by something I love writing this blog & helping learners but I receive very little feedback as to how useful it is or if people enjoy & learn from it. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like & share it or leave a comment at the end. I'd be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS STAND UP: KEY INFORMATION  Usage Common Number of meanings 6 Past tense forms Stood up / Stood up Separable? Sometimes Before we learn about the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'stand up', let's first of all let's take a quick look at the words 'stand' and 'up' and what they mean on their own. Firstly, we have the verb 'to stand', which has a few different meanings in English, but by far the most common one is to be in an upright position, so that you are supported by your feet. Photo: Pexels I was standing on a beach, looking out to sea. John stood on the table and gave a speech to the party guests. Another common meaning of the verb 'to stand' is used to talk about objects, buildings or cities and means 'to be situated'. London stands on the banks of the River Thames. A castle once stood in this spot, however it was destroyed many years ago. The prepositional particle 'up' is one that you will often find in phrasal verb constructions and is often used to incorporate the idea of a movement to a higher place or an increase of some sort. Aside from this, it can also add the ideas of completion and readiness, among other things. Now that we have looked at the meanings of the individual words, let's move on to the meanings of the phrasal verb 'stand up'.... MEANING 1: To rise to your feet from a sitting or lying position Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level A2 - Elementary Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To stand, to get up Separable? No The first meaning of 'stand up' is a nice and easy one as it it simply means 'to rise to your feet from a sitting or lying position'. Whilst the verb 'to stand' normally means to be on your feet in an upright position, we use 'stand up' to describe the upwards motion of our bodies when transforming from a sitting or lying position to an upright, standing one. You should note that 'stand up' is used for any movement when we change to an upright position, except for when we first leave our bed in the morning to start our day. For this particular action we use 'get up' instead and 'stand up' does not sound right here. All of the students have to stand up when the teacher enters the classroom. I felt fine until I stood up and I had to quickly sit back down again as I felt extremely dizzy. Could everyone please stand up to sing the national anthem. The patient tried to stand up but his legs were not strong enough. CAN STAND UP BE USED SEPARABLY? In the table above I stated that this usage of 'stand up' is not separable as it does not take a direct object and while this is generally true, there is one exception to this....if you have an object that you want to put in an upright position, then you can stand it up. This would normally be for something that is normally in a supine or lying down position and which you want to make upright, either by leaning it against something or by changing the surface that is in contact with the floor. I stood my umbrella up on its end to let all of the rainwater run off it. Roger tried to stand the Christmas tree up several times but it kept falling over again as it was too heavy on one side. BONUS: To be upstanding There is also an adjective that is derived directly from this usage of 'stand up'. The adjective 'upstanding' is a fairly common word in English with two distinct meanings. The first meanings is linked directly to this application of 'stand up' and means 'to be in a standing or upright position', whilst the second meaning is used to describe people who are respectable and honourable within society. Would everyone please be upstanding to welcome in the bride and groom. I am an upstanding member of this community! MEANING 2: To fail to meet someone Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To jilt, to let down Separable? Yes For the second meaning of 'stand up', we have a classic case of heroes and villains.... Imagine that you have arranged to meet a friend for dinner at a restaurant. You arrive at the restaurant at the agreed time and your friend is not there, so you order a drink and wait for them to arrive but after half an hour they are still not there. You check your phone and they haven't contacted you to say they will be late, at which point it is probably safe to assume that they have stood you up. That is because the second meaning of 'stand up' is to fail to meet someone when you have agreed to do so. In the example above, I was talking about a friend not turning up when they were supposed to, however in reality, this application is used much more for dating, because most friends just don't do that to each other without a very good reason. Of course, in this situation there are always two parties involved. Firstly, we have the innocent heroes (good guys) who are the people who are stood up and when referring to them, we tend to use the passive voice. Moreover, it is common to use the passive forms 'be stood up by someone' or 'get stood up by someone' here. My date stood me up last night and I was sitting waiting for him to arrive for two hours in the restaurant. It was so embarrassing! Have you ever been stood up before? I thought it would never happen to me but I got stood up by a girl last week for the first time. She's blocked me on social media now, so I can't even find out why! Then, we have the horrible villains (bad guys) who stand people up and leave them waiting for hours (in extreme cases). For them, we tend to talk about them using the active voice and separate the verb with the name of the good guy or relevant pronoun going between 'stand' and 'up'. I was supposed to meet John in the new bar on Oxford Street this evening but I stood him up. Charlie was going on a date tonight with someone he'd been chatting to on a dating app but at the last minute he decided he didn't want to go and ended up standing his date up. MEANING 3: To be accepted as valid after scrutiny Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To fly, to hold up, to pass, to hold water, to check out Separable? No If you enjoy watching English language courtroom drama series or movies, then this next usage of 'stand up' might be one that you are familiar with already as the meaning is 'to be accepted as valid after scrutiny or investigation'. To put this meaning into context to help your understanding, let's use the courtroom as an example. If a crime has been committed and somebody gives evidence as part of the court trial, the evidence must be carefully examined, scrutinised and questioned and at the end of this process, if the evidence is proved to be true and correct, you can say that it stands up. Conversely, if it is found that the evidence is false or is not true, we can say that it does not stand up. It is quite common to hear the expression 'to stand up in court' used with this application to refer to something that is deemed acceptable or admissible in a court following close examination. Outside of the courtroom, 'stand up' can be used in this way to talk about other areas of life where investigations needs to be carried out and evidence or data need to be examined closely in order to be proven, such as police investigations and scientific explanations. If this evidence stands up, then we are pretty much guaranteed to win the court case. Following close scrutiny, this information has been deemed to be irrelevant and therefore will not stand up in a court of law. The scientific paper is currently being peer reviewed by other scholars to see if it stands up. If we want to specify or state a noun such as scrutiny or investigation here, then we require the additional preposition 'to'. The big question is whether or not this will stand up to scrutiny. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the decision stood up to judicial review. MEANING 4: To defend someone or something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To defend, to protect, to guard, to stick up for Separable? No For our next meaning of 'stand up', we need to enlist the help of the extra preposition 'for' to give us the construction 'to stand up for something', which means to defend someone or something'. More specifically, if you stand up for someone, it means that you defend them when they are under attack or are being criticised. Generally, in this situation the victim may be perceived to be weaker than the person who is attacking them or not able to defend themselves in some way, so another person feels that they need to defend them. In general, if you stand up for someone, then you do so with words and you do not physically defend them. My best friend was always bullied at school and nobody ever stood up for him. As I mentioned, it is also possible to stand up for something and in this case the thing that we are trying to defend is usually something that is under threat and therefore can be nouns such as 'rights' or 'freedom'. If we do not stand up for our basic rights, we are at risk of losing them under this government. The defiant politician claimed in a fiery speech that he would stand up for free speech. MEANING 5: To defend yourself Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To defend yourself, to oppose, to challenge, to defy Separable? No Meaning number five in today's post is also about defending and is 'to defend yourself' and for this one we require the additional preposition 'to'. My original intention with this fifth meaning of 'stand up' was to include it with the fourth meaning that we just looked at as they both mean 'to defend', however upon reflection I think it is better to include them as two separate meanings. Unfortunately bullies and mean people are a fact of life, and we can experience them anywhere from school to the workplace. In today's world, it is sadly very common for people to be picked on and persecuted in many different ways. The main idea with bullying is often a power imbalance with the more powerful or aggressive person or people seeking to harm or intimidate their victims who they view as inferior to them and vulnerable. Now, if the victim ever decides to refuse to let the bully intimidate them and defends themselves against the bullying, we can say that the victim 'stands up to the bully'. Essentially, this is the meaning of 'to stand up to someone', which I guess goes back to the idea that you stand up to the same height as the bully, can look them directly in the eye and show that you are not scared or intimidated by them. Furthermore, going back to the idea of the power imbalance that is inherent within bullying, it is possible to use 'stand up' for any kind of intimidation, bullying or mean behaviour from one more powerful person or group towards the perceived less powerful one. The next time that the boy threatens to hit you, you need to stand up to him and make it clear that he will regret it if he does. The defending army stood up the invader's aggression and repelled them. I know that I need to stand up to my boss when he is rude to me but I am terrified of losing my job. MEANING 6: To not be damaged by something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To withstand, to endure, to survive, to hold out, to bear up Separable? No For our sixth and final meaning, we again require the additional preposition 'to' but this time we are talking about things and objects rather than people and it means 'to not be damaged or negatively affected by something'. Typically, we use this application with buildings, roads and infrastructure and whether or not they are damaged or affected by things such as bad weather or extreme usage. The hurricane was severe but luckily our house stood up to it and was completely intact afterwards. Engineers are keen to find out how the old railway lines will stand up to the increased frequency of high speed trains that will pass over them. Photo: Pexels We have now reached the end of this post and i hope that you've enjoyed it and have been able to learn something new. So, just to recap, standing up is generally good, especially if you have been sitting down for a long time, however standing someone up is bad and not a very nice thing to do. If you stand up for someone, you defend them and if you stand up to someone, you defend yourself. When something stands up to scrutiny or investigation, it is considered to be valid and acceptable and if your house stands up against a hurricane, then that is a very good thing as it means it is still there and not damaged! Now it is YOUR turn. Leave a comment on the blog post with your own sentence using 'stand up', comments or suggestions....don't be shy!!! Sign up on the form below if you want to receive new blog posts directly by email every week as soon as they are published. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. See you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'get in' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels 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 post is on the phrasal verb 'get in' and the different meanings and uses that it has in English. You may already be familiar with the phrasal verb 'get in', however it might surprise you to learn that it has at least 10 different meanings and uses in English...it certainly surprised me when I was researching it. In this post, I will explain the different ways that it is used by native speakers from arriving somewhere on public transport, to collecting debts and submitting votes. So, without further ado, let's get started Don't forget to leave a comment at the end! TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Get In - The Basics: Key information & the individual words 'get' and 'in' Get In - Meaning 1: To enter inside something Get In - Bonus: Don't confuse 'get in' with 'go in' Get In - Meaning 2: To arrive Get In - Meaning 3: To bring something inside Get In - Meaning 4: To be elected Get In - Meaning 5: To submit something Get In - Meaning 6: To manage to find time for something Get In - Bonus: The expression 'to get a word in edgeways' Get In - Meaning 7: To enlist a professional's help Get In - Meaning 8: To buy supplies 🇬🇧 Get In - Bonus: Pub talk Get In - Meaning 9: To become friendly with someone Get In - Meaning 10: To participate in a profitable activity I love writing this blog & helping learners but I receive very little feedback as to how useful it is or if people enjoy & learn from it. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like & share it or leave a comment at the end. I'd be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS GET IN: KEY INFORMATION   Usage Common Number of meanings 10 Past tense forms Got in / Got - gotten in Separable? Sometimes The phrasal verb 'get in' is made up of the super common verb 'to get' and the prepositional particle 'in', so let's just take a minute to consider the individual meanings of these words before we move on to the meanings of it as a phrasal verb. The verb 'to get' is a difficult verb for English learners and teachers alike as it has so many diverse meanings such as 'to become', 'to receive' and 'to understand', among others. The most relevant meaning of 'to get' for this post however is 'to arrive'. Moreover, when used in phrasal verbs, the verb 'to get' can be used to express arrival at a place or in a position, often when there is a difficulty or a process involved. I don't know how I got home last night! We finally got to Los Angeles at midnight after several hours' delay. 'In' is an extremely common prepositional particle in English, which normally refers to being on or moving towards the interior of something and this is often reflected in the phrasal verb constructions that it features in. When used as an adjective, 'in' can mean both 'trendy' and, more fittingly for this post, 'at home'. I knocked on your front door earlier but you weren't in. Now we've looked at those, let's move on to the meanings of the phrasal verb 'get in'.... MEANING 1: To enter inside something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To enter, to go in, to get into Separable? Sometimes Let's start with the first meaning of 'get in', which is to enter inside something, typically a car or a building. He said goodbye, got in the car and drove away. Lisa got in the house by climbing through an open window Aside from these two examples, it can also be used to talk about entering any interior space, particularly when there a process involved or it is complicated in some way. My cat somehow managed to get in the washing machine. Luckily I found her before I turned it on. My son was playing hide and seek with his friends and thought it would be a good idea to get in the kitchen cupboard. DON'T CONFUSE 'GET IN' WITH 'GO IN' 'Get in' is often confused with the phrasal verb 'go in' as both of these broadly mean the same thing, however there are differences in when they are used. Firstly, 'go in' tends to be used for more polite invitations to enter inside somewhere, whilst 'get in' would be used more as a direct command and in most cases would be far less polite. Secondly, 'go in' is used when you can enter somewhere in the normal way without any difficulties, however 'get in' would be used when there is either a difficulty  with entering e.g. a locked door or a process  involved, which means that it is not simple to enter. Furthermore, due to the often difficult circumstances of getting in to somewhere, it can often be used when there is an element of force or trickery involved. I imagine that most of you will also be familiar with the variation 'get into', which is also frequently used by native speakers and is normally interchangeable with 'get in' for this particular meaning. You should note a small difference in usage between the two. As 'get into' specifies both motion and direction, you cannot end a sentence with it as it needs to be followed by a noun or pronoun, whereas it is perfectly possible to end a sentence with 'get in' as it doesn't have to be followed by anything. I tried to open the door and it was locked so I couldn't get in. I tried to open the door and it was locked so I couldn't get into the house. Lastly, whilst 'get in' is mostly used in an intransitive way without a direct object, it is also possible to use it with a direct object, in which case you can use it separably. Again, 'get into' could also be used here as an alternative. Although the potato was big, I was able to get it in my mouth. Lisa managed to get the baby seat in the car. The rat was able to get into the pipe and escaped. MEANING 2: To arrive Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To arrive, to arrive home, to get to Separable? No As I mentioned earlier in the Basics section of the post, one of the meanings of the verb 'to get' is 'to arrive at a destination' and this second meaning of 'get in' means the same thing, however there are particular circumstances in which is it used. Firstly, we tend to use 'get in' with forms of public and mass transport, which often run on a timetable. These typically include airplanes, trains and coaches and we use 'get in' to say when these arrive at their destination, in particular when specifying the expected time of arrival. My train gets in at 3pm later this afternoon. Would you be able to pick me up from the station? What time does your plane get in tomorrow? Our bus got in a bit late due to severe congestion on the M25 motorway. Secondly, 'get in' is often used to specifically to mean 'to arrive home'. In this case, just the words 'get in' are necessary without the word 'home', as this meaning is normally implied and understood from context. Less commonly, this application of 'get in' can be also be used by people to talk about arriving at work. Once again, if the context is clear, then the words 'to work' are not necessary. I didn't get in until 7pm last night. What time did you get in this morning? John got in to work 30 minutes early this morning as there was no traffic. My manager was really late for work this morning. He didn't get in until 10am and he was late for his first meeting. MEANING 3: To bring something inside Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To bring in, to fetch in Separable? Yes Another meaning of the highly polysemous verb 'to get' is 'to fetch something', as in to go to a place, collect something and bring it back. If this place is outside and we bring the desired item into an interior space, then we can use our third meaning of 'get in', which is 'to bring something inside'. This usage is quite broad in terms of the different possibilities that there are to use it as it can refer to bringing anything from an outside space into an inside one. For example, in the UK it is possible to have milk delivered to your doorstep overnight by a milkman and so in the morning, you need to the get the milk in from outside your front door. Alternatively, if you have ever worked in a bar or restaurant with an outside terrace, you will often have had to get the empty glasses and plates in once the customers have finished with them. It looked like it was going to rain, so the farmer decided to get his sheep in to prevent them from getting wet. Can you go and get the clothes in that are drying in the garden, please. Furthermore, 'get in' can also be used in a more broad sense to mean to collect or to gather something. Typically, this is collecting debts from people who owe money or gathering crops from fields at harvest time in late summer. How can farmers can get their crops in more quickly and efficiently at harvest? It is very important for businesses to get in their debts as quickly as they can to ensure that they have a healthy cashflow. MEANING 4: To be elected Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To win, to be elected Separable? No Politics may not be everyone's favourite subject but it certainly affects all of our lives. This is especially so when it comes to voting and elections and here is where the fourth meaning of ‘get in’ is relevant as it is ‘to be elected in a political vote’. For this usage, we can refer to a politician, a president, prime minister or a political party and if we say that they 'get in', it means that they have been elected to serve in office. This application comes from the idea that when a politician or political party is elected, they are then in a position of power, with ‘get’ again giving the idea of arriving in this position. If the liberal party get in at the next election, I will leave the country. Do you think the Conservative Party will get in this time around? When Margaret Thatcher got in in 1979, she promised to deliver change on an enormous scale. MEANING 5: To submit something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To send, to submit Separable? Yes Staying with the subject of politics and voting, in many countries it is possible for citizens who live in other countries or who are on holiday at the time of the election to submit a postal vote, rather than personally going to a polling station. In this instance, we could implement our fifth meaning of 'get in', which is 'to submit something', and therefore say that you got your vote in by post. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Application Entry Email Report This slightly more informal synonym of 'get in' can be used with anything that you need to submit, normally either by post or email. It tends to be used when there is a deadline for the submission and is therefore found alongside words such as 'by', 'until' and 'before'. Additionally, the extra preposition 'to' is needed when specifying the recipient of the thing being sent. Get your votes in for the student's union representative election by Friday at 5pm. If you want to enter to enter the competition, you have until midnight tonight to get your votes in to us. Lisa is stressing as she has to get her sales report in to the board of directors before midday and she has a lot of work to do on it. MEANING 6: To manage to find time for something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To do Separable? Yes The next meaning of 'get in' is an informal one thats means 'to do something within a particular period of time'. To illustrate this meaning, let's use the example of a mother of a small child. She works from home and for much of the day she is unable to do her work as she has to look after her young son, however when he goes for an afternoon sleep she is then able to get some work in for a few hours until he wakes up again. In other words, whilst the toddler is napping, she has the time to get some work done. As this usage is commonly used with situations where you need to do something within a time window, before a deadline or at a time when you are very busy doing other things, it is often used in relation to work or jobs that you need to do. However, you could theoretically use it in any situation in which you manage to do something in a set period of time, often that is outside of your control. Jamie went for a nap, which gave me a chance to get a bit of work in to keep the boss happy. Despite a busy day of activities, I was able to get some study in for my exam next week. I have a really busy morning tomorrow, so I don't think I will be able to get a gym workout in as well. BONUS: The expression 'to get a word in edgeways' This meaning can also be used when you are having a conversation with someone and the other person dominates the conversation, meaning that you are not able to say much. In this instance, you can say that you 'can't get a word in', meaning that you aren't able to say anything as the other person is talking so much. Furthermore, you should know that an idiom also exists for this meaning, which is 'to not get a word in edgeways'. Poor Helen! She is chatting to Lisa and it doesn't look like she can get a word in! I love my Grandmother but she talks a lot and often you can't get a word in edgeways when you're having a conversation with her. MEANING 7: To enlist a professional's help CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To enlist, to employ, to hire, to call in Separable? Yes At the moment I have a problem with the electrics in my house as one of the fuses has blown and now most of the lights do not turn on. As you can imagine, this is not ideal at night 😡! Anyway, as I do not know much about electricity and I am not an electrician, it is not safe for me to try and resolve the problem myself, so I will need to get an electrician in to do it for me. This therefore is the seventh meaning of 'get in', which is 'to enlist the help of a professional to do something for you, normally for a cost or fee'. The professionals that we get in to do work tend to be tradespeople who are hired to resolve a problem or to carry out some maintenance work and these include electricians, plumbers, builders, carpenters and even pest controllers etc. This is a separable usage of 'get in' and I would say that it tends to be used more commonly in the separable way, with the name of the professional going between 'get' and 'in'. You won't be able to work from home next Tuesday as we are getting the electricians in to carry out an upgrade to the switchboard. Lisa found a wasp's nest in her attic and so immediately got a pest control service in to deal with it. We need to get a plumber in to have a look at this leak as I don't know how to fix it myself. MEANING 8: To buy supplies Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? British English Potential synonyms To buy Separable? Yes Are you the sort of person who enjoys food shopping? I certainly am not, but I must admit that I do like it when it is done, I have bought some supplies and the cupboards are no longer empty. This brings us to the next meaning of 'get in', which is to buy supplies and is primarily a very informal British one. Although the term 'supplies' is used here to mean something that is needed or wanted in a household, most of this time with this application it refers to food and drink. Although this usage does mean 'to buy, we only tend to use it in certain circumstances. These are when we have run out of something and we need to buy some more and when we do not have enough of something and need to buy the amount that is required to meet our needs. We have run out bread and milk, so my wife has gone to the shop to get some in. I'm just going to the supermarket to get some supplies in as the cupboards are empty! We are hosting a dinner party tonight and we don't have enough cheese or wine, so I will go and get some in now. BONUS: Pub talk In the UK we are very fond of going to the pub with our friends for a drink or two and if you are ever invited along with a group of British people, then there is a usage of 'get in' that you need to know. In British pubs it is very common to have 'rounds', where the members of the group take it in turns to buy drinks for the others. One of the ways to say that you will buy the next round of drinks is to say that you will "get the drinks in". In other words, you will order them. An alternative of this may be "get the beers in", if everyone is drinking beer, which is often the case. Whose turn is it to get the drinks in? I'm going to be a bit late arriving at the pub, so get the beers in and I will join you at the table when I get there. MEANING 9: To become friendly with someone Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To befriend, to get involved with Separable? No For the next meaning of 'get in', we require the additional preposition 'with', as 'to get in with someone' means to become friendly with someone or a group of people'. To clarify, although this does mean to make friends with someone, it is not always used in the same way. If you get in with someone or with a group of people, it tends to mean more that you get involved with them and start spending a lot of time with them. It can often be used in a negative way, especially if the people with whom you get in with are a bad influence or not nice people. A popular expression that exists when someone becomes involved with a perceived bad group of people is 'to get in with the wrong crowd'. John's daughter has got in with the wrong crowd and her behaviour is terrible. Roger has managed to get in with his boss at work and is being treated really well as a result. Amy got in with a great bunch of people in college and still keeps in touch with many of them today. MEANING 10: To participate in a profitable activity Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To take part, to participate Separable? No We are now at the final meaning in this post, so well done if you have made it this far! This last meaning of 'get in' is to become involved in a profitable activity, or in other words, an activity in which you make a lot of money. Furthermore, this is always an activity that someone else is planning or organising that you can join or become a part of. For this usage, we require the additional preposition 'on', giving us the construction 'to get in on something'. Due to the nature of the subject, this is something that you will often hear in reference to investments, money making schemes and business opportunities. You should get in on this investment opportunity before it becomes too expensive to buy into it. Phrasal Verb Inc wants to get in on the company alliance. Photo: Pexels 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 'get in'. 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 'get in'. 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!!! Sign up on the form below if you want to receive new blog posts directly by email every week as soon as they are published. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. See you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'come to' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels 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. In this post, I will be explaining the phrasal verb 'come to' and the different meanings that it has in English. Unlike many other phrasal verbs, 'come to' is not always considered a true phrasal verb as many of its most common meanings are verb and preposition combinations that are not single lexical units on their own. However, 'come to' does have a couple of true phrasal verb meanings too and I will cover all of these meanings, both true not true, in this post to enable you to see the diverse different ways that 'come to' can be used. So, without further ado, let's make a start.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Come To - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'come' and 'to' Come To - Meaning 1: To physically come to someone Come To - Meaning 2: To reach a point or situation Come To - Meaning 3: To enter your mind Come To - Bonus: The expression 'to come to mind' Come To - Meaning 4: To amount to a number Come To - Meaning 5: To regain consciousness Come To - Meaning 6: To stop moving (ship) Come To - Bonus: Common expression featuring 'come to' I love writing this blog & helping learners but I receive very little feedback as to how useful it is or if people enjoy & learn from it. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like & share it or leave a comment at the end. I'd be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS COME TO: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 6 Past tense forms Came to / Come to Separable? No The phrasal verb 'come to' is formed of the verb 'to come' combined with the prepositional particle 'to' and so as a starting point in this article, let's briefly consider what these individual words mean on their own. 'To come' is one of the most common verbs in English with a variety of different meanings. It is first and foremost a verb of motion and is used primarily to talk about a movement towards or with the speaker. It is an irregular verb and also intransitive, so it does not take a direct object (i.e. you cannot "come something"). Therefore, the phrasal verbs that it features in are not usually separable. I am coming to your house tomorrow. Susan came to see me in hospital. Do you want to come with us to London next week? Robert doesn't want to come to the football match. We came on the quiet roads and avoided the freeway. The prepositional particle 'to' is one of the most commonly used words in the English language but surprisingly it appears in only very few 'true' phrasal verbs. Nevertheless, as a result of how it functions,'to' is used in many prepositional verbs such as 'listen to' and 'belong to' as a preposition to link the verb to its object. So, now what we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'come to'..... MEANING 1: To physically come to someone (literal) Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level A1 - Beginner Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To go to, to approach Separable? No The first application of 'come to' that we will cover in this post is the literal meaning of the combination of the two words, which is simply to physically move towards someone or somewhere where the speaker is, was or will be. You should note that this application is typically used to focus on when we a person moves towards someone or somewhere and reaches it. If we are just concentrating on a movement in the direction of someone without reaching them, we tend to use 'come towards' instead. As we are also focussing on the idea of reaching the person or place, 'come to' can sometimes also be used to mean 'to arrive' or 'to get to'. I think that the main meaning of this literal usage is quite clear for you, so we won't spend any more time on this one, but here are a few example sentences for you before we move on.... John wants to come to our house next week. Who is coming to the party later? After class, one of my students came to me and told me that they had really enjoyed it. I remember you, you came to my book signing event a few days ago. MEANING 2: To reach a point or situation Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To arrive at, to reach Separable? No For our second application of 'come to', rather than thinking about arriving at a physical place, we are instead thinking about reaching a particular point, state or situation. We use this particular application to refer to when a situation develops until it reaches a certain point, which is normally an end point or a climax of some sort. It may be a decision or something else that will fundamentally change or end the situation or force the person involved to act in some way. Frequently, when 'come to' is used in this way, it is rather negative in nature. Often, we use it to talk about how a situation could hypothetically get worse and specify what the worst case scenario would be. We then follow this up by saying "if it comes to this / that.....". After several weeks of dispute, the union and the company came to an agreement. Jamie and Lee still haven't come to a decision about where they will get married. We finally came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth the money. I might lose my job next week, so if it comes to that, we will need to think about moving house. I know we used to argue a lot but I didn't ever think it would come to this. When 'come to' is used in this way, it features in a LOT of common set expressions with various nouns. As there are so many of them, I have included a section at the end where I cover some of the most common of these for you - click here to jump straight to these. MEANING 3: To enter your mind Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To occur to, to realise Separable? No Next, we move on to our third meaning of 'come to', which is all about things that happen inside your head and means 'to enter your mind'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Idea Thought Memory Answer Solution Have you ever been in one of those awkward situations in which you see someone who you have not seen for a long time and you forget their name and then remember it 10 minutes later once they have gone? These situations are perfect for using this third application of 'come to' as you could say here that "the name came to you afterwards" to refer to the moment when you suddenly remember the person's name. The reason for this is that 'come to' in this sense is used to describe when anything comes into your mind, so that you can remember or think about it. This may be an idea that comes to you in the middle of the night, a memory of your childhood that comes to you after smelling something that reminds you of that time or the answer to a question that comes to you whilst you are in the middle of making dinner. On a grammatical note, this application of 'come to' needs to be followed by an object pronoun, such as me, him or her. I was trying to remember her name, and suddenly it came to me. A brilliant solution came to Terry in the middle of the night. A long forgotten memory came to her as she walked past her old school. I don’t know why, but the image of that day just came to me As soon as he asked the question, the answer came to him immediately. The girl's name didn’t come to me until after she had left. The thought came to Roger that he might never see Lisa again. Photo: Pexels BONUS: To come to mind An extremely common expression featuring this application of 'come to' that exists in English is 'to come to mind'. This is essentially the same meaning as the one we've just covered i.e. when you are able to think of something immediately or with ease. I would say though that speakers use this more commonly in the negative form when they are asked for some information and they are not able to think of or remember anything. When my boss asked me if I knew anyone who was looking for a job, you came to mind straight away. Nothing comes to mind right now, but I’ll think about it. The police asked me if I could remember anything suspicious or strange about that day but nothing came to mind. MEANING 4: To amount to a number Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To amount to, to make, to add up to Separable? No This next application is one for those of you who enjoy maths*, doing sums and crunching numbers as it means 'to amount to a number'. *math in American English Nouns commonly used with this application.... Bill Shopping Amount Invoice Total Regardless of your mathematical ability or how you feel about the subject, this meaning of 'come to' is one that affects all of us on a regular basis as we use it when talking about the total amounts of things when numbers are added together etc. It is particularly common when discussing money and how much of it has to be paid. In fact, we use it so much to talk about how much things cost that it exists as a synonym of the verb 'to cost' and is regularly used in this way. We've added up the total sales figures and it comes to over 1000. If you multiply the figure by 10, divide it by 20 and multiply it by 2, it comes to the same amount. With taxes and tips, the total comes to nearly £100. Altogether, the repairs came to less than we expected, which was a pleasant surprise. The damages could come to millions of Euros. Margaret's medical expenses came to over $10,000 last year. If we divide it by 6, it only comes to a few dollars per person, so it is good value for money. The total cost comes to less if you buy in bulk. After adding the service fee, the price came to $45. All his debts came to a staggering amount. MEANING 5: To regain consciousness Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To regain consciousness, to wake up Separable? No As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, most of the applications of the phrasal verb 'come to' are not considered "true" phrasal verb meanings in the sense that they are verb and preposition combinations without much meaning on their own. BUT this fifth meaning of 'come to' IS a true phrasal verb application and means 'to regain consciousness'. If a person ever suffers a head injury or has a severe medical condition, it can cause them to lose consciousness, meaning that they are no longer aware of their surroundings and cannot respond or communicate to people (not the same as sleeping). When the person regains consciousness and is once again aware of everything around them, we can say that they "come to". Unlike the other applications of 'come to' that we have covered, it does not need to be followed by any other words when used this way as we are not used the 'to' as preposition to link an object but rather as a particle. Kevin came to a few minutes after fainting. Beth slowly came to in the hospital bed, dazed and confused. I don't remember what happened after I hit my head; I was on the floor when I came to. When Phillip came to, he had no idea where he was. The patient came to shortly after the operation. It took Aaron a while to come to after being knocked out. The boxer came to moments after the referee ended the fight. MEANING 6: To stop moving (ship) Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To stop, to halt Separable? No We have now arrived at our sixth and final meaning of 'come to', which is much rarer than the other uses that we have covered and is specifically used to describe when ships, boats or other waterborne vessels stop moving in water. Nouns commonly used with this expression.... Boat Ship Yacht Vessel Typically, this application is heard in reference to when a boat drops its anchor, turns into the wind or turns its engines off in order to stop moving. As with the previous application, this one is also a "true" phrasal verb usage as 'come to' exists on its own and does not require any additional words to give it meaning. The captain ordered the vessel to come to and drop anchor near the shore. We came to just outside the harbour and waited for clearance to dock. The ship came to quickly after the engines were cut. As the storm intensified, the boat was forced to come to and ride it out. After drifting for hours, the boat finally came to near a small island. Photo: Pexels BONUS: Common expressions featuring 'come to' As I mentioned earlier in the post, 'come to' features in a large number of commonly used expressions in English and so here is a list of some of the most frequent ones that you may come across.... To come to nothing - This expression is used in situations when we plan or prepare for something and it fails or does not happen for some reason. It is often used to say that time and effort on something was wasted. I spent years working on the project but sadly all my hard work came to nothing when it was cancelled. To come to fruition - This one is the exact opposite of 'come to nothing' and is used when something that you have planned is successful. Note that the word 'fruition' comes from the word 'fruit' and refers to when your efforts and hard work bear fruit. Let's just hope that the project comes to fruition and none of our time and energy has been wasted. To come to rest - This one has some similarities with the sixth and final meaning that we have just looked at as it means to stop moving and take position in a particular spot. The wreck of the Titanic came to rest on the ocean floor after sinking. Kelly hit the ball as hard as she could and it flew through the air for ages before finally coming to rest on in the top branches of a tall tree. To come to light - We use this expression when information that was previously unknown is made available. This is particularly the case when this information changes what people thought about a situation and what caused it. Since the police ended their investigation, it has come to light that the victim knew the murderer and so they have decided to re-open the investigation. As more information has come to light about the crime, the judge has recalled the previous witnesses for further questioning. To come to harm - If someone or something comes to harm, it means that they are injured or hurt in some way (or damaged for a non-living object). I would say that it is more common to hear the negative version 'to come to no harm'. Don't worry, you will come to no harm with me. I pray every day that my children come to no harm. To come to terms with something - This common expression is used to mean to accept something that has happened in your life and make your peace with it. It is typically something unpleasant or life-changing such as the death of someone close to you or the diagnosis of a serious illness. I've spent the past few weeks trying to come to terms with the death of my wife. Sarah finally came to terms with the news of her cancer diagnosis and vowed to beat the disease. To come to your senses - We use this particular expression to talk about when someone starts acting normally or rationally again after a period of stupid, foolish or irrational behaviour that is not normal for them. I'm going as I can't deal with you at the moment; give me a call when you have come to your senses. To come to someone's attention - If something comes to someone's attention, they are made aware of some information. This may be something that the person is told or something that they find out by accident. This is something that I hear managers using all the time in business English. It has recently come to my attention that several employees have been taking longer lunch breaks than permitted. To come to pass - This one is a literary expression that simply means 'to happen'. It is one that you will possibly come across in books and in TV shows but not so much in spoken everyday English. If it comes to pass that the princess marries the earl, it will be a great day for our nation. To come to blows - If two or more people engage in a physical fight, we can say that they 'come to blows'. Note that this would not be used for an organised fight such as a boxing match but for an unplanned fight that breaks out between people. The two drunk men came to blows in the pub after one insulted the other man's girlfriend. When it comes to.... - This final expression is used to introduce a subject, specifically when you want to tell someone about a person who is an expert in that subject or knows a lot about it. When it comes to gardening, my Dad is one of the most knowledgeable people that I know. Photo: Pexels 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 'come to'. 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 'come to'. 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!!! Sign up on the form below if you want to receive new blog posts directly by email every week as soon as they are published. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. See you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'pick up' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels This post is all about the phrasal verb 'pick up'. When I was researching this post, I was quite shocked when I realised how many uses and meanings this innocent little phrasal verb has. For instance, it if you pick someone up from an airport, it has a completely different meaning to picking someone up in a bar, which also has a different meaning to picking someone off the ground. Moreover, if you can pick up an infection, it is a bad thing but it is a good thing if your health picks up! Don't worry if this is confusing, as in this post, I will explain all of the different meanings of 'pick up' for you, with lots of examples in context. So, without further ado, let's make a start. Don't forget to leave a comment at the end!   TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Pick Up - The Basics: Key information & the individual words 'pick' and 'up' Pick Up - Meaning 1: To lift something from a surface Pick Up - Bonus: To pick up the phone Pick Up - Meaning 2: To collect someone or something Pick Up - Bonus: To pick something up from the shop Pick Up - Meaning 3: To learn something Pick Up - Bonus: To pick up an illness Pick Up - Meaning 4: To improve Pick Up - Bonus: To grow stronger Pick Up - Meaning 5: To detect or notice something Pick Up - Meaning 6: To stand up after a fall Pick Up - Bonus: To pick up your mood Pick Up - Meaning 7: To be arrested Pick Up - Meaning 8: To meet someone romantically 🇺🇸 Pick Up - Meaning 9: To win something Pick Up - Meaning 10: To refer back to something Pick Up - Meaning 11: To resume something after an interruption Pick Up - Bonus: The idiom 'to pick up where you left off' Pick Up - Meaning 12: To criticise someone Pick Up - Meaning 13: To do someone else's work Pick Up - Bonus: The idiom 'to pick up the bill I love writing this blog and helping learners but I get very little feedback so I don't always know if it is helpful for you. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like and share it or leave a comment at the end. I would be very grateful. Thank you! Jame Photo: Pexels THE BASICS PICK UP: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 12 Past tense forms Picked up / Picked up Separable? Yes Before we look at the meanings of 'pick up' as a phrasal verb, let's firstly consider the meanings of the component words 'pick' and 'up'. The verb 'to pick' is a fairly common English verb with two main meanings. The first is a synonym of the verb 'to choose', while the other, more relevant, meaning is to remove or detach something, normally with your hands and this is commonly used when referring to picking fruit, flowers and plants. Helen picked some flowers and put them in a vase. Picking fruit is a popular job for travellers. The prepositional particle 'up' is extremely common in phrasal verb constructions and often adds an idea of an increase or a movement towards to a higher position. Furthermore, it can also add the ideas of completion and readiness to phrasal verbs! So, now that we have looked at the basics, let's check out the many different meanings of the phrasal verb 'pick up'.... MEANING 1: To lift something from a surface Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level A2 - Elementary Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To lift, to raise, to hoist, to take up Separable? Yes The first meaning of 'pick up' is the closest meaning to a literal meaning that we have and is 'to remove something from a surface by lifting it, normally by hand'. As you would imagine, the most common surface that people pick things up from is the ground or the floor, and this is often implied with this meaning of 'pick up', although it can potentially be used with any surface. Don't forget that the extra prepositions 'off' or 'from' are required to specify the surface and both of these can be used interchangeably. The sofa was so heavy that it took four people to pick it up and move it. I picked up my jumper and hung it in the wardrobe. Pick these toys up from the floor now! John picked up a book off the shelf and started reading it. In addition to objects, 'pick up' is often frequently used with people and animals. My husband picked me up and carried me to bed. John's dog wasn't able to jump over the fence, so he picked him up and carried him over it. The central idea here, which will recur again later, is possession. The reason for this is when you pick something up, it is in temporarily in your hands and therefore in your possession. For example, if I pick up a newspaper from a table, it is in my hands and I have possession of it, although I do not own it. BONUS: To pick up the phone One sub-meaning of this particular application of 'pick up' is 'to answer the telephone to someone'. This comes directly from the idea of picking the receiver of the telephone up to be able to commence the conversation. This usage even applies to smartphones, despite there being no physical receiver to pick up. I called you several times but you didn't pick up. Come on pick up the phone, somebody please! MEANING 2: To collect someone or something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Wher is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To collect, to fetch, to get, to retrieve Separable? Yes If, like me, you do not have your own car, then it is highly probable that from time to time you need someone to pick you up when you need to travel somewhere and there is no public transport. That's because the second meaning of 'pick up' is to collect or fetch someone or something from a place. This is typically by car but can be used for other forms of transport. The idea here is that a person with a car drives to a place to collect someone and then takes them somewhere, whether that be home, work or somewhere else entirely (the destination is irrelevant here). The action of picking up is usually organised or booked in advanced and aside from a person picking someone else up, it is also possible to be picked up by a taxi, bus or other form of booked transportation. Our plane arrives at midnight and so my Dad has agreed to pick me up from the airport. Roger’s car is in the garage and he refuses to take the bus, so his wife is picking him up from work. The taxi has been booked and will pick us up from outside the shopping centre at 3pm. I am working today, so your Dad will pick you up from school In addition to picking up people, it is also very common to hear 'to pick up something', which is used as a synonym of 'to collect'. For example, a forwarding company will pick up a parcel from you, you might pick up your clean washing from the laundromat when it is done, or you may pick up your medication from the pharmacy when it is ready. I wasn’t at home when the courier tried to deliver the parcel, so now I have to go to the depot to pick it up. Your order is ready, so please arrange to come and pick it up at a suitable time. My medication is ready to be picked up at the pharmacy. BONUS: To pick something up from the shop It is also common to use 'pick up' in this way to talk about buying something from a shop or supermarket. Moreover, a sub-meaning of 'pick up' is in fact to buy something and this is used particularly when the purchased item was very good value or a bargain. I am just going to go to the shop to pick up some essentials. John picked up a new television at a really reasonable price in the January sales. MEANING 3: To learn something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To learn, to acquire Separable? Yes Have you ever learned a few words of a language just by being in the environment where it is spoken, without even really trying? If you have, then you could say that you have picked up a few words of the language. The reason for this is that the third meaning of 'pick up' is 'to learn something without trying very hard or without being formally taught'. In other words, you acquire this knowledge without much effort. This is commonly used with language but can also be used with other skills, for example someone could pick up basic electronics by watching other people do it or you might pick up the basics of needlework by practising it on your own and learning from your mistakes. Once again, this meaning goes back to the idea that something comes into your possession and in this instance it is knowledge or a skill. I lived in a France for a couple of months and managed to pick up quite a lot of French whilst I was there. My Dad was a carpenter and I picked up a lot of carpentry skills by watching him as a child. Through exposure to many different fields, industries and people in my career, I have picked up a lot of different skills. BONUS: To pick up an illness Aside from knowledge and skills, something else that people can pick up involuntarily is contagious illnesses and infections such as colds, coughs and the flu. Native speakers often use this to say that they caught a virus somewhere or somewhen and it is a nice synonym for the verb 'to catch' to have in your vocabulary. Amelia picked up a nasty virus at school and she has passed on it on to the rest of her family. I've got a nasty cold. I must have picked it up on the plane coming back from the USA. MEANING 4: To improve Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To improve, to recover, to strengthen Separable? No Our fourth meaning of 'pick up' is 'to improve' or 'to recover'. Unlike the first three meanings that we have just looked at, this one is used in an intransitive way (with no direct object). I would say that although this usage can be used in any area of life where we talk about improvement, it is most primarily heard in the world of business and economics. In business, it refers to improvements or upturns, when a company has more customers and business and is making more money, while in economics it signifies that the economy is growing and is generally viewed very positively as lots of rich people get even richer! Following a slow first quarter, business has now started to pick up and is predicted to continue improving for the rest of the year. Japan's economy is picking up slowly, however fears remain that the country could fall into a recession. Sales are picking up this year and so we hope to make a good profit. BONUS: To grow stronger The general idea of picking up when thinking of the economy is to grow stronger and another sub-meaning of 'pick up' is indeed to grow stronger. A prime example of this is commonly used is with the weather, in particular the wind. If we say that the wind is picking up, then it means that the wind is getting stronger and perhaps a period of bad weather is coming. Alternatively, we can also use this with health, when a person is recovering from an illness or injury and is getting stronger. The wind started picking up and before long, a full blown storm was upon us. After a long illness, Lisa's health began to slowly pick up. MEANING 5: To detect or notice something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To detect, to notice Separable? Sometimes When I was younger, I used to have an alarm clock with a built-in radio in my bedroom. At the time, I lived close to an airport and every so often when I listening to the radio, I was able to hear the airplane pilots' communication with the airport as they were landing. The reason for this was because my radio somehow detected and received, or picked up, the signal. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Signal Sign Activity So, as you will now be aware, the next meaning of 'pick up' is 'to detect something' and is very often used used with machines. As in the case of my radio, with certain types of machine, not only does it detect a signal but also receives it. Other types of machines that you will hear this being used with are alarms, scans, microphones and radar as well as things like anti-virus programs on your computer which scan to try and pick up viral threats and malware. The scans did not pick up any signs of cancer in the patient. You may find it difficult to pick up this radio station in the mountains. Our CCTV system picked up some very strange activity outside our house last night. Aside from machines, this application of 'pick up' can also be used with humans, in which case this would be a synonym of the verb 'to notice', especially if something is subtle or not very obvious. You should note that when used with humans in this way, we normally add the preposition 'on'. In other words, if you pick up on something, you notice it. Apparently Helen had been crying when she came into the office this morning but I did not pick up on it at all. I've picked up on some tension between you two. Is everything ok? John is very observant, he picks up on anything like that. MEANING 6: To stand up after a fall Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To brush yourself off Separable? No Ok grammar fans, this next meaning is a reflexive one and means 'to stand up again after a fall'. If you're not sure about reflexive verbs, they are those verbs where the subject and object of the clause are the same and in English we show this with the -self pronouns (myself, yourself etc.). I talk to myself all the time. The dog grooms itself . Whilst 'to pick yourself up' can be used in situations where you literally fall over onto the ground, it is more often used in a figurative way to mean 'to take action to recover from a difficult, stressful or traumatic life situation'. I fell over outside my office in front of all my colleagues, but I picked myself up and continued like nothing had ever happened. Following a bitter and stressful divorce, Susan picked herself up again and started rebuilding her life as a single woman. I know that you feel very sad now, but you just need to pick yourself up and get on with things. You'll soon forget about this! BONUS: To pick up your mood Another sub-meaning of 'pick up' here is to improve someone's general mood and is used without the 'self reflexive pronoun. If something picks you up, it puts you in a better mood or cheers you up. Typical things that pick people up are listening to music, a chat with a friend, or even a strong cup of coffee! This song always picks me up, every time I hear it! Here, drink this brandy, this will pick you up! MEANING 7: To be arrested Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To arrest, to apprehend, to bust Separable? Yes Hopefully, this next meaning will never apply to any of you, as it means 'to be arrested by the police'. If someone is picked up by the police, it generally means that they have committed a crime of some description and are then caught by the police, placed under arrest and taken to the police station. This can be used in both an active and a passive sense, with the police picking up a criminal and a criminal being picked up by the police. The burglar was picked up by the police a few streets away from where the crime had been committed. My brother was picked up by the police, who falsely accused him of a crime he didn't do! Criminal gangs often use children and teenagers to carry out their work as they are less likely to get picked up by the police. MEANING 8: To meet someone romantically Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Mainly American English Potential synonyms To hook up with, to flirt Separable? Yes Although I have called this next meaning of 'pick up', "to meet someone romantically", it is actually a bit more than that. In this sense, if you pick someone up, you meet them by chance, start talking or flirting with them and end up kissing them or even having sex with them. You normally hear this usage when it occurs in bars, pubs and nightclubs or anywhere else where is my be a bit surprising or unexpected. This usage is quite informal and perhaps a bit more American to my ears. It is usually used in the active sense as in a passive sense it doesn't quite sound right to me. John always seems to be able to pick up girls without even trying. What's the weirdest place that you have ever picked up a guy? MEANING 9: To win something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To win Separable? Yes The ninth meaning of 'pick up' that we will look at is 'to win' and is used specifically when referring to awards and prizes. This meaning is just a nice synonym of the verb 'to win' and you will often hear it on English language news programmes when talking about big awards ceremonies such as the Oscars and the Grammys. Incidentally, we don't tend to use 'pick up' when referring to winning games or races. This movie is expected to pick up a few awards at the Oscars next month. I didn't expect to pick up the award for best manager tonight, so I just want to thank you all for your support and for voting for me. The company picked up the innovation prize for the third year running. Another time that you may hear this used however, is when referring to parliamentary elections. 'Pick up' is frequently used here to talk about the number of votes a candidate receives or picks up. The Green party are expected to pick up a lot of votes in the election this year. The candidate who picks up the most votes will be elected as the new mayor. MEANING 10: To refer back to something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To refer back to Separable Yes For those of you who enjoy debates, discussions and dialogue, this next meaning should be very useful for you as it means 'to refer back to something' and is used frequently in conversations of this type when someone wants to further discuss an earlier point that someone made. I'll give you an example of how this works. In a debate, one person speaks and gives three points as part of his or her argument. The next person then speaks in response and wants to refer to the first point that the first speaker made. He or she might then say, 'I'd like to pick up the point that you made earlier about XXX', to mean that they want to refer back to the person's point. The reason that they are doing this is that they want to comment on the point, refute it or develop it in some way. Note, that often the additional preposition 'on' is used, however this is not always required. I'd like to pick up what you said about the spending cuts earlier. I just wanted to pick up on the point that you made about the new legislation. MEANING 11: To resume something after an interruption Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To continue, to carry on Separable? Yes Many of us love a coffee break when we are at work but inevitably we have to start our work again once we have had our caffeine hit and this brings me to the eleventh meaning of 'pick up', which is start something again following an interruption'. In terms of usage, this can be used for interruptions from anything as short as a lunch break to a break of a few years. The idea is that you stop what you are doing for a time and then start it again at some point in the future. You may often hear this application being used with the adverbs 'back' or 'again' or a combination of both of these. I don't know about you but I am ready for lunch. Shall we go and eat and pick this up again afterwards. Roger learnt German when he was at school but stopped when he left. He picked it back up last year after a trip to Berlin. BONUS: The idiom 'to pick up where you left off' We also have a common idiom for this usage which is 'to pick up where one left off'. If you pick something up where you left off, it simply means that you resume something that you were doing from the point where you previously stopped. Ok, if everyone is ready to start again, let's pick up where we left off. MEANING 12: To criticise someone Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To criticise Separable? No We are now at the 12th and penultimate meaning of 'pick up', so extremely well done if you have made it this far!! There is only one more to go after this! This final meaning of 'pick up' is 'to criticise someone' and for this we require the additional preposition 'on'. If someone picks you up on something, it means that they criticise something that you have said, or sometimes done. For example, a language teacher may pick their student up on their pronunciation of a word or a manager in a company may pick their employee up on the unsuitability of their clothes. 'To pick someone up on something' is a set word order and cannot be changed. I never pronounce my t's properly and my mum always picks me up on it. The strict teacher always picked up her students on their bad language. MEANING 13: To do someone else's work Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To take on Separable? Yes For many people 13 is an unlucky number and I personally think that it is far too many meanings for a single phrasal verb. Nevertheless, here we are at the thirteenth and final meaning, which is 'to do someone else's work'. This usage is particularly useful for those people who work in office jobs. It is used for when somebody is sick, on vacation or is not able to attend work for a particular reason and so another person has to do their work for them for the period in which they are off. Although this is similar to 'take on' and can sometimes be used as a synonym for it, 'pick up' tends to be just doing aspects of someone's role whilst they are absent, or all of their work on a temporary basis, whilst 'take on' tends to be used more for when you accept a permanent new job or responsibility within your existing role. Aside from a person's tasks or work within a role, it is also common to use 'pick up' when referring to someone's emails, meaning that you will read and action them whilst the intended recipient is unavailable. Who is going to pick up Wendy's work whilst she is off sick? John is doing jury service for the next fortnight, so Lisa and I are picking up his work until he gets back. Helen was on holiday last week and so I picked up her emails while she was away. Photo: Pexels BONUS: The idiom 'to pick up the bill' Before I finish the post, there is one more idiom that I want to make you aware of that features the phrasal verb 'pick up' and is in common usage in everyday English. To pick up the bill is an idiomatic expression that means to pay for something, normally used in a bar or restaurant. For example, if you pick up the bill in a restaurant, you pay the entire bill for all of the people on your table. A common variation of this idiom also exists: 'to pick up the tab'. Everyone left the restaurant, leaving me to pick up the bill for all 10 people! My teenage daughter doesn't understand the value of money yet and still expects my and my husband to pick up the tab for everything. 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 up'. 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 up'. 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!!! Sign up on the form below if you want to receive new blog posts directly by email every week as soon as they are published. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. See you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'give in' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels 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. In this post, we are exploring a very useful phrasal verb: 'give in'. Although this is not one of the most common phrasal verbs that you are likely to come across in English conversations, it is definitely one that is in widespread use among native speakers. Furthermore, it is a great one to have in your active vocabulary as it is functions as a synonym for many other verbs and can therefore help to make your English more fluent. In this post, I will explain the different ways to use it and give you lots of examples in context for each application. So, without further ado, let's make a start.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Give In - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'give' and 'in' Give In - Meaning 1: To submit something 🇬🇧 Give In - Meaning 2: To do what someone asks against your will Give In - Bonus: To give in to temptation Give In - Meaning 3: To accept defeat Give In - Meaning 4: To collapse I love writing this blog and helping learners but I get very little feedback so I don't always know if it is helpful for you. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like and share it or leave a comment at the end. I would be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS GIVE IN: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 4 Past tense forms Gave in / Given in Separable? Sometimes I'm guessing that you are here to learn the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'give in' but do you know what the individual words 'give' and 'in' can bring to phrasal verbs? As a first step in our exploration of 'give in', let's consider this.... 'To give' is a commonly used verb in English, whose primary meaning is to transfer the ownership of something to another person for free. For example, if I give you a present, I offer it to you to keep and don't expect anything from you in return. It is not just used for physical objects however and 'to give' can also be used with nouns like infectious diseases compliments and looks. There are also some other meanings of 'to give' that are rarer; one of these that is particularly useful for the phrasal verb 'give in' is to bend or break when it is under pressure....we will come back to this idea several times during this post. My parents gave me a new car for my birthday. Arthur the cat likes to give his owners mice as presents. Who gave you that pen? It is mine! This loud music is giving me a headache. My daughter gave me a cold. Susan's boss always never gives her compliments on her work. The prepositional particle 'in' needs no introduction as it is one of the most common words in the English language. When used in phrasal verbs, it can add the idea of a movement towards the interior of something ( get in , run in). In addition to this, it can also add ideas like involvement (join in) and containment (box in), among others. So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the real reason that you are here and look at the meanings of the phrasal verb 'give in'.... MEANING 1: To submit something Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? British English Potential synonyms To submit, to hand in, to turn in Separable? Yes We are going to start the meanings of 'give in' with a British English usage that is the closest one that we have to a literal meaning and that is 'to submit something'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Work Notice / Resignation Paper / Thesis Application Report Document You can see from the list above that many of the nouns that are regularly used with this application are for documents or pieces of writing that are submitted to someone in authority e.g. a manager or a teacher. Typically, when you give one of these in, it is so that the authority figure can read it, correct it or act upon it in some way. If you are more familiar with American English, then perhaps you know the phrasal verb synonyms 'hand in' or 'turn in', which both mean the same thing. You should note that we also use 'hand in' quite a lot in British English too. Common examples of where you may hear this application are to give in your resignation when you decide to stop working for a company, to give in your homework to your teacher and to give in your CV (resume) to a company when you are applying for a job. This is a separable application, so you can put the direct object both between 'give' and 'in' or after them, without changing the meaning. The students were asked to give in their essays by Friday at the latest. Please give your application in at the front desk. Don't forget to give in your report well before the meeting starts. Luke gave his resignation letter in this morning. You must give in all your documents before the deadline. She gave in her homework late and lost marks. All candidates must give in their CVs by the end of the week. Have you given in your project proposal yet? Lastly, we sometimes also use the expression 'to give oneself in' to describe when a criminal surrenders to the police or an authority. It is much more common to use the phrasal verb synonym 'give oneself up' here but 'give in' is also fine to use to express this action. After 5 days of hiding from the police, Harry turned up at his local police station and have himself in. Do you think that the criminals would give themselves in if we promised not to send them to prison? MEANING 2: To do what someone asks against your will Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To yield, to acquiesce Separable? No Let's move on to our second meaning of 'give in' now, which I would say is the most common one and means 'to do what someone asks against your will'. Let me explain this one further: this is just not doing something immediately when someone asks you but rather when you don't want to do something and you are persuaded to do it. In other words, you say no to a request for a period of time before finally accepting to do it. This is usually after being asked several times with a period of persuasion. To give you some context, when I was a child, I had a good friend (who is still a good friend) whose grandmother had a swimming pool in her garden. I remember many times on a sunny summer's day my friend asking (and sometimes begging) her grandmother to let us use the pool. She always said "no" at first but then later gave in and allowed us to use the pool. In fact, last week when it was very hot, my friend messaged me about how we used to annoy her grandma on hot days about using her pool and how in the end she always gave in. If you think back to the Basics section earlier in the post, you may remember that one of the rarer meanings of the verb 'to give' is to bend or break under pressure and this is exactly what is happening here; the questions and the persuasion form the pressure and the other person's will is what breaks or bends. Lastly, this application isn't only used for singular people and can also be used for groups of people, organisations and governments. After hours of begging, Pete finally gave in and let his kids have ice cream. Sue didn’t want to go to the party at first, but she gave in to peer pressure. I kept saying no, but eventually I gave in and said yes. The shopkeeper refused to lower the price, but gave in after we threatened to walk away. The government gave in to public demand and cancelled the project. Sam gave in to his daughter’s request for a puppy. At first, Louise resisted the idea, but she gave in after hearing everyone's support. The toddler cried until his parents gave in and let him stay up late. Photo: Pexels BONUS: To give in to temptation Before we end this section, I wanted to make you aware of a commonly used expression: 'to give in to temptation'. As human beings, we all want things; it is a part of being human. Sometimes the things that want to have or do are not good for us or are not what we should be doing and we feel an inner conflict going on between what our hearts wants and our what our head tells us we should not. Sometimes, people can resist these temptations but other times they cannot. On those occasions when we are no longer able to resist the desire to do something, we can say that we give in to temptation. For example, if you are on a diet because you want to lose weight and someone offers you some chocolate, you would be giving in to temptation if you accepted the chocolate as this would not help you to lose weight. Some drivers cannot resist the temptation to look at their cellphones whilst driving. Despite Kath's strong will, she gave in to temptation and bought the expensive shoes. MEANING 3: To accept defeat Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To give up, to yield Separable? No Now for our third meaning of 'give in', which is a natural progression from the second one and means 'to accept defeat'. This application is heard a lot in reference to situations in which there is a degree of opposition or competition between two people, groups or sides. As such, you may well hear this being used to refer to sports, warfare and court cases, where one side is trying to defeat the other. We typically use 'give in' in these contexts when one of the sides or competitors decides that they cannot win and therefore admits defeat and stops trying to compete. Like with the previous example, we again have the idea of bending or breaking when the losing party realises that it is not strong enough to deal with the pressure coming from the opposition. The army gave in after suffering heavy losses and running out of supplies. Despite his best efforts, the chess champion finally gave in to his opponent's relentless strategy. Realising they were outmatched, the team gave in and walked off the field. After a long legal battle, the company gave in and dropped the lawsuit. Robert refused to give in during the competition, but exhaustion eventually forced him to admit defeat. The rebels held their ground for weeks before finally giving in to government forces. Cornered and overwhelmed, the general had no choice but to give in. The soldiers fought bravely, but they gave in when reinforcements never arrived. MEANING 4: To collapse Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To collapse, to cave in, to give way Separable? No Lastly, we have our fourth meaning of 'give in', which is 'to collapse' and is probably quite obvious when you consider the previous couple of meanings that we have looked at. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Ceiling Roof Structure Floor Wall Bridge For this application, we are specifically concerned with manmade structures that are usually built to support or hold things in place. If one of these structures 'gives in', its structure becomes so weak that it can no longer support itself or anything on top of it and it falls towards the ground. This may be the result of too much force being put on it or it may just be that it loses its strength over a long period of time. As with the other applications, we are again thinking about the meaning that the verb 'to give' has of breaking under pressure. This usage is quite rare in spoken English and you are more likely to hear the synonyms 'collapse', 'cave in' and 'give way' being used by native speakers here but it is worth knowing it all the same! The old wooden bridge gave in under the weight of the lorry. After several days of heavy rain, the dam finally gave in, flooding the entire valley. The roof gave in during the hurricane, trapping the residents inside. The floor gave in beneath their feet, sending them crashing into the cellar. The tunnel gave in after the earthquake, blocking the path of the rescue team. The wall gave in during the storm after repeated battering by the huge waves. Photo: Pexels 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 'give in'. 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 'give in'. 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!!! Sign up on the form below if you want to receive new blog posts directly by email every week as soon as they are published. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. See you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'take out' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels 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. I'm sure many of you will already be familiar with the phrasal verb 'take out', especially if you have spent time in the USA and eaten fast food there. Do you know the other meanings of 'take out', though? For instance, did you know that 'taking someone out' can either mean something very nice or very horrible, depending on the context? Or, did you know that someone can take something out on you, which may also take it out of them. I appreciate that this is very confusing, but don't worry as in this post, I will explain to you all of the different ways that 'take out' is used by native speakers, with lots of examples in context to help you understand and learn them. So, without further ado, let's get started.... PS Don't forget to leave a comment at the end with your own sentence using 'take out'! TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Take Out - The Basics: Key information & the individual words 'take' and 'out' Take Out - Meaning 1: To remove something from an internal space Take Out - Meaning 2: To buy food and eat it elsewhere 🇺🇸 Take Out - Bonus: The noun 'takeout' Take Out - Meaning 3: To take someone somewhere for pleasure Take Out - Meaning 4: To enter into a financial agreement Take Out - Meaning 5: To kill someone Take Out - Meaning 6: To treat someone badly because you feel bad Take Out - Meaning 7: To make you feel very tired I love writing this blog and helping learners but I get very little feedback so I don't always know if it is helpful for you. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like and share it or leave a comment at the end. I would be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS TAKE OUT: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 7 Past tense forms Took out / Taken out Separable? Yes Before we look at the meanings of the phrasal verb 'take out', let's first take a moment to consider the meanings of the individual words 'take' and 'out' on their own. Firstly, we have the verb 'to take', which is frequently found near the top of the lists of the most common verbs in the English language and which you will certainly be familiar with. The verb 'to take' has a lot of different meanings and uses in English, however the most relevant meanings for the purposes of this post are perhaps 'to remove something' and 'to carry something with you'. In addition to 'take' we have the prepositional particle 'out', which is normally used to refer to either being on, or moving towards, the exterior of something. When used in phrasal verbs, 'out' often adds the idea of movement away from the interior of something, as well as the ideas of resolution and exclusion, among others. Now that we have considered its constituent words, let's move on to the reason you are here and the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'take out'.... MEANING 1: To remove something from an interior space Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To extract, to remove, to extricate Separable? Yes I always like to try and start these lists of phrasal verb meanings with one that is nice and simple and this post is no different. The first meaning of 'take out' that I will explain to you is 'to remove something from an interior space'. As I mentioned above, one of the principal meanings of the verb 'to take' is to remove something from a place and when we combine this with the meaning of 'out', as in moving from an interior space to an exterior one, it gives us the nice literal meaning of removing something from an interior space. This literal meaning of 'take out' can be used in many different areas of life. You can use it to describe actions as diverse as removing the trash from your house, removing the batteries from a device when they have run out and having a dentist extract a tooth from your mouth. Regardless of the situation or circumstances, the general idea is that something is removed from an internal space, so that it is no longer there. If you can remove it or extract it from an interior place, you can take it out. In order to clean the fridge properly, I had to take out all of the food so that it was empty. John went to the dentist last week and had five teeth taken out. We will carry out the operation today and then you will have to come back in two weeks so that we can take out the stitches. Take your thumb out of your mouth when you are speaking! I can't understand what you are saying! As I was taking the clean clothes out of the washing machine, I noticed that they had all turned pink. MEANING 2: To buy food and eat it elsewhere Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? American English Potential synonyms To take away, to carry out Separable? Yes If you have ever spent time in the USA, then you may be very familiar with this next meaning of 'take out', which is 'to buy food and drink from somewhere and then go somewhere else to consume it'. It literally means that you are taking the food out of the restaurant. This is an application that you will hear mostly in fast food establishments where this usage originated and where customers are asked if they are eating in or taking out as standard. However, since the Covid-19 pandemic it has become more and more popular with traditional restaurants too (although perhaps not the 5-star ones). You should note that this is more of a North American usage and in the UK and Australia 'take away' is used instead (also carry out in Scotland), however 'take out' is absolutely fine in these countries and will be understood very well. BONUS: The noun 'takeout' You should note that the noun 'takeout' or 'take-out' also exists, which derives directly from this usage of the phrasal verb 'take out'. As a noun, 'takeout' can refer either to the food that is bought from an establishment and eaten somewhere else, or to the restaurant itself where the takeout food is purchased. Ok, so one burger and fries. Are you eating in or taking out? We bought some takeout food and went and ate it next to the river. MEANING 3: To take someone somewhere for pleasure Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To escort, to treat Separable? Yes Did you know that when functioning as adjectives, the particles 'in' and 'out' can be used to mean if a person is at home (in) or not at home (out). From this particular usage of the word 'out', we get our third meaning of the phrasal verb 'take out', which is 'to take someone to a place, for pleasure or fun'. This usage of 'take out' is all about treating someone or doing something nice for them. Normally, the person who takes out the other person will organise and invite the lucky recipient and, more often than not, will pay for them too. Most commonly, this application of 'take out' is used with bars and restaurants but can also apply to the theatre, cinema, museum or any other place where you may go for pleasure. It is important to note that we do not tend to use 'take out' for any overnight trips or holidays to a different place as 'take away' would be used here instead. My son is taking me out to London for the day tomorrow. Roger took Lisa out to the cinema last night. Can you babysit next Friday night for me? It's John's birthday and I would love to take him out for a meal as a present. MEANING 4: To enter into a financial agreement Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To buy, to enter into (a contract) Separable? Yes Do you own a car, motorbike or other vehicle? If you do, there is a very good chance that you have had to buy insurance for it at some point and this brings us to the next meaning of 'take out', which is 'to enter into a financial agreement with a company'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Mortgage Insurance Loan Policy To clarify, if you enter into a financial contract with a company, for example by agreeing with them to supply you with a loan or a mortgage, then you can say that you 'take out' a loan or a mortgage with them. I'm not sure exactly where this comes from, however one possible suggestion would be that in the past, if you wanted to 'take out' a financial policy or agreement with a bank, you would need to go to the bank to sign the documents and take a copy of them out with you to keep at home as your own personal record of the transaction....who knows? It's possible I guess! This also covers when you buy an insurance or any other type policy with a company as well and in this instance you say that you 'take out insurance'. It is a legal requirement to take out home insurance when you buy your new house. I tried to take out a mortgage with my bank, however the application was declined as I did not have enough money. We took a car insurance policy out with a company, which has since gone bankrupt. MEANING 5: To kill someone Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To kill, to murder, to injure Separable? Yes So, as we established earlier in the post, if a person offers to take you out, then it is usually a good thing and you should definitely agree. However, if someone looks at you with an angry look on their face and threatens to take you out, then you should probably think twice before agreeing as it is more likely that they want to kill you or do you harm, which is the next meaning of 'take out' that we will look at. In addition to killing or murdering someone, 'take out' can also be used to mean 'to injure someone to the point that they cannot fight you back or will no longer pose a problem to you. This usage may have originated from the idea that someone is 'in' a fight or a game, and once injured or hurt, they are then forced 'out' as they are no longer to compete. Luckily for most people, the chances of someone threatening to take you out in this way are extremely small, however it is something that you may come across whilst watching English-language TV shows and movies. Moreover, this usage is a relatively informal one and not one that you are likely to hear in official or formal situations. 'Take out' can also be used to talk about destroying things rather than killing people and this is perhaps most commonly heard when talking about warfare and the military. Grammatically speaking, this application of 'take out' is often used in the passive sense with the verb 'get'. For example, if someone gets taken out by someone or something, it means that they are killed or prevented from continuing in a competition or fight. One of the most important aspects of this computer game is to take out as many enemy spies as possible. The boxer took his opponent out in less than five rounds. The army has taken out all of the enemy's ships. I almost got taken out by a falling tree as I was cycling home during the storm last night. MEANING 6: To treat someone badly because you feel bad Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Separable? Always Have you ever been in a bad mood and then shouted at someone or treated them badly because of it? If you have, then you might say that 'you took your bad mood out on them' as the next meaning of 'take out' is to treat someone badly because you are feeling bad. For this usage, we require the additional prepositional particle ' on ' and the construction is as follows: 'to take something / it out on someone'. We tend to use this application of 'take out' when there is a specific reason why we are in a bad mood. This could be anything from feeling tired, having a bad day at work, having an argument with somebody or feeling disappointed about something. Whatever the cause of our ill temper, the result is always the same, i.e. we behave horribly towards someone else, although it is not their fault. People are not the only victims of this negative treatment though, as it is also possible to take a bad mood out on objects or things, normally by abusing them or even breaking them as a way of getting rid of the negative emotion. When the England team lost the football game, John took his bad mood out on his friends. I'm sorry for yesterday. I was in a bad mood and I took it out on you. I understand that you have had an argument with your boss, but I will not tolerate you taking it out on me! Sarah had a bad day at the office yesterday and so she took it out on the punching bag in the gym later that evening. MEANING 7: To make you feel very tired Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To tire out, to exhaust, to wear out, to drain, to sap Separable? Always For the final usage of 'take out', we are looking at a more idiomatic meaning, which is 'to make you feel very tired or exhausted'. For this we need the additional preposition ' of ', giving us the following set structure: 'to take it out of someone'. If something takes it out of you, it takes away all of your energy and makes you feel very tired and exhausted. This can be used for anything that tires you out, from looking after children to speaking a foreign language for a long period of time. Don't use this for when you feel a little bit tired though, it should be reserved for really tiring activities that make you want to lie down and sleep for a few hours afterwards! It was Freddy's first day at school today and he was so tired when he came home; it really took it out of him. I love looking after my grandchildren but it takes it out of me! John has been training for the marathon this week and it has taken it out of him. Photo: Pexels Well this brings us to the end of the post. I sincerely hope that it hasn't taken it out of you! Before we finish, let's quickly recap the different meanings of 'take out' to ensure that they stick in your memory.... Firstly, we have the literal meaning, which is to remove something from an inside space. If you go to a restaurant, buy some food and then take it somewhere to eat it, you are taking it out. If someone takes you out, it can mean either that they take you somewhere for pleasure or that they want to kill you or remove you from a competition. We also use 'take out' with insurance policies, mortgages and financial agreements when we first agree to them. If someone has a bad day, they may treat you badly as a result and take it out on you and lastly, if something makes you feel very tired, it takes it out of you. Now it is YOUR turn. Leave a comment below with your own sentence using 'take out' or any questions or comments that you have....don't be shy! Sign up below to receive weekly phrasal verb posts straight into your inbox and be the first to access each blog post as soon as it is published! Lastly, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. See you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'come down' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels 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. 'Come down' is a common phrasal verb in English with a variety of different meanings. For example, you can come down with a cold, possibly whilst you're coming down from a weekend of partying. Alternatively, you may hear an an English speaker say that they are coming down to your city or that they will come down on you like a ton of bricks. If these all seem a little strange to you, do not worry as in this post I will outline and explain all of the different ways that this versatile little phrasal verb is used in English. So, without further ado, let's get started....don't forget to leave a comment at the end! TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Come Down - The Basics: Key information the words 'come' and 'down' Come Down - Meaning 1: To decrease Come Down - Meaning 2: To fall and hit the ground Come Down - Meaning 3: To be removed or dismantled Come Down - Meaning 4: To travel to a place Come Down - Meaning 5: To stop feeling happy or high Come Down - Bonus: The noun 'comedown' Come Down - Meaning 6: To feel the first symptoms of an infection Come Down - Meaning 7: To be the most important factor Come Down - Meaning 8: To punish someone Come Down - Bonus: The idiom 'To come down on someone like a ton of bricks' I love writing this blog and helping learners but I get very little feedback so I don't always know if it is helpful for you. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like and share it or leave a comment at the end. I would be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS COME DOWN: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 8 Past tense forms Came down / Come down Separable? No Let's begin by considering the meanings of the individual words 'come' and 'down'. The verb 'to come' is one that you will certainly be very aware of as an English learner. It is primarily concerned with movement, specifically towards where the speaker is, was in the past or will be in the future. 'To come' is also regularly combined with particles, giving a large number of common phrasal verbs and expressions. It is an intransitive verb and does not take a direct object and this equally applies when it is part of a phrasal verb. As such, it is usually used for meanings where there the active agent initiating or causing the action is not specified. You will undoubtedly also be very familiar with the preposition particle 'down', which normally functions as an adverb and adjective in English. Commonly, it refers to movement towards the ground or a lower place, but it also has many other applications in English and, notably for this post, can be used to refer to things in written form, things that fall onto the ground and also movement towards a more southernly place. As an adjective, 'down' can mean sad or depressed and this is a theme that we will explore later in this post. So, now that we have covered the basics, let's check out the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'come down'... MEANING 1: To decrease Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To reduce, to decrease, to lower, to drop, to go down, to dwindle Let's start the meanings of 'come down' with a nice and easy one, which is 'to decrease', and is specifically used to talk about prices and levels. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Inflation Price Level Cost This meaning of 'come down' is a combination of the movement aspect of the verb 'to come' with the particle 'down', providing us with the concept of decreasing. As I mentioned, this application is normally used with levels, specifically when referring to ones that can fluctuate (go up and down) over time. We don't tend to use 'come down' in situations where one person is involved and actively causes the decrease to happen, but rather when it occurs organically or naturally, such as levels of inflation in the economy or a person's heartbeat after jogging for twenty minutes. I am a diabetic and my sugar levels were very high earlier today, but luckily they have come down to normal levels again now. Is there any chance that the wholesale price of gas will come down again this summer? The levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have gradually been coming down over the last two decades. During an economic recession, it is normal for the prices of many commodities to come down. MEANING 2: To fall and hit the ground Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To fall, to collapse, to tumble, to crash The next meaning of 'come down' is another nice and easy one and is quite similar to the previous one, except that now we are talking about physical things falling, rather than prices and levels. To clarify, this meaning is 'to fall and hit the ground' and is again derived from the same meanings of the words 'come' and 'down' as the first meaning. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Rain Snow Sleet Hail Airplane Tree Building As you can imagine, we can use this application of 'come down' with reference to anything that falls and lands on the ground, whether that be from a previously standing position or from the sky. As such, we often use this for the weather, specifically with rain and snow, especially in the UK! However, aside from that, this meaning of 'come down' is typically used when something falls to the ground because it is broken or damaged in some way and for this we can talk about fallen trees, an aircraft that crashes or collapsing structures. Again, similar to the first meaning, there is generally no direct human intervention involved or implied when something 'comes down'. A lot of snow came down overnight and many of the roads are blocked this morning. It is autumn and the leaves are coming down off the trees. A number of trees came down in the storm last week but luckily they did not land on any power lines. The airplane came down in the field and somehow the pilot and all of the passengers miraculously survived. MEANING 3: To be removed or dismantled Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To remove, to demolish, to take down One of the many meanings of the particle 'up' is to describe something that has been erected or is hanging on a wall. For example, if your Christmas tree is up, then it is standing in your house and if a picture is up on the wall, then it is hanging on the wall in an elevated position. As you will be aware, 'down' functions as the opposite of 'up' and therefore if a structure is no longer standing or if something is no longer hanging in an elevated position, we can say that it has 'come down'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Building Structure Decorations Picture Poster This usage of 'come down' can be used to refer to any objects that are placed in a high position and subsequently removed, as well as for structures that are built and later dismantled. Unlike the previous two examples, there is human intervention with this usage, however grammatically we tend to omit the person or people who perform the action, which is inferred from the context. It is the January 5th today, so the Christmas tree and decorations will all have to come down tomorrow. I really dislike those curtains. They need to come down soon! The telecom mast came down last year as the company wanted to replace it with a newer one. MEANING 4: To travel to a place Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To travel, to head, to go down, to go Every once in a while, friends of mine from Scotland contact me to tell me that they are coming down to England on a trip and they want to know if I will be available to meet up with them. The reason that they say they are coming down is because the next meaning of 'come down' is to travel in a southwards direction to a place. Interestingly, the opposite of this is 'come up', so if I ever go northwards to Scotland, I tell them that I am coming up to see them. Of course, we are not all geography experts, so this isn't a hard and fast rule, however most people have at least a basic idea of the locations of their major cities and tend to apply this usage naturally as they imagine their up or down movements on a map. To note, for this usage we only use 'come down' when we are talking to someone who is at the destination. For example, when my friends tell me that they are visiting me, they say that they are coming down to England because I am in England, however when they tell their friends who are in Scotland about their trip, they say instead that they are going down to England (unless the friends in Scotland are travelling with them). My parents are coming down to London this weekend to see me. John came down to Florida for a few weeks last summer and we met up. The next time you come down, please can you bring me some scotch whisky. My parents are going to come down with me to Melbourne next week. MEANING 5: To stop feeling happy or high Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To crash, to sober up As we are on the subject of trips to places, do you ever feel sad, low or a bit depressed after returning from a holiday or vacation? I often do and at such times I might say that I am coming down from the high of my holiday, because the fifth meaning of 'come down' that we will consider is 'to stop feeling happy or high'. To clarify, when used in relation to people, the noun 'a high' is used to mean a very happy and exciting moment and if you are 'on a high', you are feeling happy or pleased about something for example, your favourite football team has won the cup or you have had a job promotion. Moreover, if you use the adjective 'high' to describe a person, it means that he or she is under the influence of drugs and therefore is not able to think or act properly etc. Do you know the famous English expression "what goes up must come down"? Well, based on the premise of this, when someone is high, be it naturally or from drugs, they must eventually come down again, which generally means feelings of sadness and depression that are associated with being 'down'. Although this is used for people like us who often feel sad after vacations and holidays, this application of 'come down' is in fact primarily used to talk about people when they stop feeling the effects of drugs and alcohol, which can often be quite serious and damaging to their mental health. It was such a great weekend and it took me a long time to come down from it. If you're coming down, you should drink lot of water and practice breathing exercises. John came down from the marijuana and immediately wanted to smoke some more. BONUS: The noun 'comedown' The noun 'comedown' also exists and this is derived directly from this application of the phrasal verb 'come down' and means the period of sadness and depression following the end of a happy occasion or, more commonly, from stopping taking drugs. MEANING 6: To feel the first symptoms of an illness Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To fall ill Don't you just hate it when you are feeling fine one minute and then the next minute you can feel a tickle in your throat and the first signs of an illness are appearing. When this happens, you can say that you are coming down with an infection as the sixth meaning of 'come down' that we will consider is 'to feel the first symptoms of an infection'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Cold Cough Flu Virus Infection Bug For this usage, we require the additional preposition ' with '. This is the only meaning of the construction 'to come down with ' in English and the word order of this is fixed and cannot be changed. As you have probably gathered, this application of 'come down' is all about the initial period of an illness or a disease, when the symptoms first start to show and you go from being well to being ill. We only use it for infectious diseases such as coughs, colds and the flu that tend to be short-term and we do not use it for other types of diseases such as cancer. I'm not going to come with you to the cinema tonight as I think I am coming down with a cold and I want to stay at home and rest. We were supposed to go on holiday to Spain last week but the whole family came down with Covid the day before we were due to fly, so we had to postpone it. Lisa has come down with a nasty bug and won't be in the office today. MEANING 7: To be the most important factor Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To depend on, to hinge on We all have to make difficult decisions at times in our lives. Usually, when making these tough decisions, we have to identify what the most important factor is and then base our decision on it accordingly. This is where our seventh meaning of the phrasal verb 'come down' is required as it means 'to be the most important factor'. For this usage, we require the additional preposition ' to ' and, as with the previous one, the word order is fixed and cannot be changed. As I stated earlier, "to come down to " normally applies to decision making, for example "what I decide to wear tomorrow will come down to what the weather is like" however we can also use it for situations, particularly problems and questions, where one factor is more important than the others. I'm not sure whether or not to sell the house. It all comes down to how money we will make if we do. The government are currently working out if they need to increase their expenditure but it will all come down to how effective the spending will be. Our problem essentially comes down to the fact that we don't communicate enough. In penalty situations, the result of the football game will come down to whichever team has the best goalkeeper. MEANING 8: To punish someone Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To punish, to castigate, to chastise, to discipline The final meaning of the phrasal verb 'come down' that we will look at is 'to severely punish someone' and for this we require the additional preposition ' on '. If someone comes down on you, it means that they punish you in some way for something that you have done wrong. Usually, we add an adverb such as 'hard' or 'soft' to describe if the punishment was severe or light. BONUS: To come down on someone like a ton of bricks A nice idiom to be aware of with this application is 'to come down on someone like a ton of bricks', which means to severely punish someone. If he finds out what you have done, he will come down hard on you! Regardless of what she does, Roger always comes down soft on his daughter. The authorities came down on the criminals like a ton or bricks. Photo: Pexels We have now reached the end of the post, so let's quickly recap the different meanings.... Firstly, we can use 'come down' to talk about a reduction in levels and prices. A second meaning is to describe something that falls to the ground, is removed from an elevated place or is dismantled. If someone visits you from a place more northern than where you are, you can say they are coming down to see you and if you have taken drugs or have had a natural high and the good positive feelings start to fade, you can also say that you are coming down. Lastly, we can come down with an illness, meaning that we start to feel ill and somebody can come down on us, which means to punish us! Now it is YOUR turn. Leave a comment on the blog post with your own sentence using 'come down', comments or suggestions....don't be shy!!! Sign up on the form below if you want to receive new blog posts directly by email every week as soon as they are published. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. See you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'back up' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels 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. If you are a regular user of computers, which many of you probably are, then the phrasal verb 'back up' is a phrasal verb that you are sure to recognise. However, do you know its other uses and meanings outside of the world of IT? For example, have you ever backed a friend or colleague up when they needed it or have you ever had a problem in your house caused by water backing up? Don't worry if not as in this post I will outline the different ways to use this "supportive" little phrasal verb and explain to you how to use it like a native speaker. So, without further ado, let's make a start.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Back Up - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'back' and 'up' Back Up - Meaning 1: To support someone Back Up - Meaning 2: To confirm that something is true Back Up - Meaning 3: To make a copy of a computer file Back Up - Meaning 4: To move backwards Back Up - Meaning 5: To gradually collect or accumulate I love writing this blog and helping learners but I get very little feedback so I don't always know if it is helpful for you. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like and share it or leave a comment at the end. I would be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS BACK UP: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 5 Past tense forms Backed up / Backed up Separable? Yes To start the post, let's first look at the individual words 'back' and 'up' and what they mean on their own... The English word 'back' will most likely be most familiar to you as an adverb and a noun; giving the idea of a reversing action or a return when used as an adverb and referring to the rear part of something, most commonly the part of the human body between the buttocks and the neck, as a noun. It may surprise you to learn that the verb 'to back' also exists in English and means to give support to something, such as an idea, a project, a plan, a cause or a political candidate or party. As well as that, it has a second, less common, meaning, which is 'to reverse or go backwards'. Regular visitors to my website will be well aware of the usage of the prepositional particle 'up', which is used in phrasal verb constructions to add the idea of an increase or a movement towards a higher place, as well as the ideas of preparation, improvement and readiness, among others. Ok, so now we have looked at the basics, let's take a look at the various meanings of the phrasal verb 'back up'.... MEANING 1: To support someone Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To support, to help, to back Separable? Yes As we have just established, the main meaning of the verb 'to back' is to give support to something and this first meaning of 'back up' is very much linked to it as it also means to support, however it tends to be used slightly differently. When we 'back' something, we are saying that we agree with it and therefore support it in a passive way. However, with 'back up' we tend to take it one step further and give our support in a more active way, even being willing to take over from the person that we are backing up if necessary. An example of this to illustrate it would be if a person wants to confront their boss at work but they don't feel comfortable doing it on their own, so they ask some colleagues to go with them to give them support in case they need it. In other words, to back them up. Here, we would not tend to use the verb 'to back' as we want the supporting person to be actively involved if possible. From this meaning, we also get the noun 'backup' (or back-up), which refers to extra resources, equipment or people that can be called on for support when we need it. For example, the police always request backup in American TV shows and movies when they have a serious crime to deal with. Going back to the phrasal verb 'back up', in addition to people, it can also be used for giving support to proposals and ideas. To clarify, if a proposal or an idea is put forward, it often requires some sort of action to confirm or support the idea and for this we can also use 'back up'. I knew that the teacher was going to shout at me, so I made my friend come into the office with me to back me up. The employee was backed up by his company during the court trial. Don't worry Sergeant Smith, backup has been requested and will be with you shortly. I took an extra pen into the exam for backup in case the ink ran out on the first one. Your ideas are very promising, but they will need to be backed up by some positive actions before we can provide you with finance. MEANING 2: To confirm that something is true Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To corroborate, to confirm, to support, to substantiate Separable Yes Let's continue with the theme of support for the next meaning of 'back up', which is 'to confirm that something is true'. To give you an example, when I was younger, I was falsely blamed for taking my sister's chocolate bar from the fridge and eating it (shocking, I know!). She thought it was me and was very angry with me, despite my assurances to her that I hadn't taken it. Thankfully, my Dad backed me up by telling her that it wasn't me. He knew that it was my brother who had taken it and therefore was able to confirm the truth. Of course, the example that I have just given you is a typical one that occurs in everyday life, however this application is also regularly used in the fields of science, research and criminal investigations. In all of these areas, in which hypotheses, theories and suspicions are routinely checked and tested, evidence is often required to confirm that they are true and the phrasal verb 'back up' is always used in these situations. Grammatically, you may often see this application being used in the passive form (backed up by...), especially in the fields of science, research and statistics. John, please can you back me up and tell Lisa that what I am saying is true. When the teacher accused me of bullying another student, my best friend backed me up and said that I had not. The witness' statement backs up what the victim said. The team of scientists were overjoyed when the results of their recent experiment backed up the theory that they have been working on for several months. These things do not exist and this has been backed up by science many times over the years. MEANING 3: To make a copy of a computer file Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To save, to make a copy Separable? Yes Along with receiving telephone calls from call centres trying to sell you something and siblings blaming you for stealing chocolate bars, one of the most annoying things that can happen to you is when you work very hard on something for a long time on your computer and then you lose all your work because you DIDN'T SAVE IT 🤬. This annoying occurrence brings us to the next meaning of the phrasal verb 'back up', which is 'to make a copy of a computer file'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Data Files Work Apps Device Computer As you can probably guess, this usage of 'back up' is a relatively new one due to its link to computers, however it is quite widespread in modern English as IT is now an integral part of daily life, whether that be in our personal or working lives. It is common to hear this application of 'back up' used with nouns such as 'work' and 'files' as well as 'computers' and 'devices'. Grammatically, this application of 'back up' is separable and you can 'back up your files' or 'back your files up' without any change in meaning. My computer battery has just died, but luckily I had just backed up my work when it did, so hopefully I haven't lost anything. Don't forget to back up your work before you log out. She wasn't able to back up her files, so she lost them all when she shut her computer down. It is important to back up your computer on a regular basis. MEANING 4: To move backwards Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere, more common in American English Potential synonyms To reverse, to go back Separable? Yes You may remember from earlier on in the post that I mentioned that another, less common, meaning of the verb 'to back' is 'to move backwards' or 'to reverse' and this fourth meaning of 'back up' derives directly from that as it means exactly the same, i.e. to move backwards. I would say though that 'back up' is actually used more commonly than just 'back' on its own when talking about reversing. Most commonly, this application of 'back up' is used with cars as another way to say 'reverse' and this in particular sounds quite American to my ears, although you do still hear it used in this way in British English. When used with a vehicle, it is a separable usage with the vehicle either going between 'back' and 'up' or after them. It is also possible to use 'back up' to talk about a person physically moving backwards, however this is normally only by a few footsteps. When used this way, we do not normally separate the phrasal verb as there is no direct object (vehicle). Furthermore, it is often used as an imperative to ask people to move backwards. I backed the car up a few metres in order to let the other cars pass. As Roger was backing the lorry up, he accidentally knocked over the signpost on the side of the road. Backing up a car is one of the things that you will be instructed to do on your driving test to prove that you are a competent driver. I was too close to the fire, so I backed up a few paces to where it was cooler. Back up a bit please! These people need to get past. MEANING 5: To gradually collect or accumulate Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To build up, to accumulate, to collect, to gather Separable? No Our final meaning of 'back up' is one that can be heard being used in a few different areas of life to talk specifically about things that flow and it means 'to gradually collect or accumulate'. The first thing to mention here is that this application of 'back up' is all about a process that takes place over time. It starts when there is a small amount of something and then over time more and more of it collects until there is so much of it that there is a negative consequence. Let's take a look at some commonly used nouns with this usage of 'back up'.... Water - The nature of water and liquids in general is that they flow, whether that be down a river or along a pipe. Whenever there is a situation where the flow of water is blocked or obstructed in some way, it tends to accumulate behind the blockage, leading to problems once the accumulation is too big. This can often be heard when talking about water pipes in a building, sewers or also natural waterways such as rivers and streams. Traffic - We often talk in English about the flow of traffic on our roads and highways. Like with water, whenever there is a blockage on the road, such as a car accident, then the traffic backs up behind it and a traffic jam forms. This is one that I am sure most of you know all too well. Work - Although there isn't a physical flow with work like there is with water and traffic, there is still the idea of a flow of jobs and emails coming into a business and then leaving again once completed. As such, we can also use 'back up' with work to describe when we have too much work to do and cannot do it all straight away, meaning that there will be a delay due to the acculmuation of tasks that have to be done. It is quite common to hear this usage in a passive sense, i.e. to say that you are 'backed up'. Another noun that can be used here is backlog. Hopefully you have got the main idea of this meaning of 'back up' from the examples given! Due to a blockage in the pipe, the sewer was backed up and a specialist company had to come and resolve the issue. Try and avoid the M5 motorway if possible as there has been an accident and the traffic is beginning to back up. We are really backed up at the moment, so it may take a little longer than usual to receive a response from our team. Photo: Pexels This brings us to the end of the post, so let's quickly recap the different meanings of 'back up' to ensure that they stick in your memory... So firstly we had the idea of 'back up' used as a form of support, both by actively supporting someone in a situation and then by confirming that something is true. If you back up your files on a computer, it means that you have a copy of them in case you lose them in the future. 'Back up' can also be used to mean to reverse a vehicle or to move back a few paces and lastly, it can be used to describe something that accumulates so much that it causes a problem! Now it is YOUR turn. Leave a comment on the blog post with your own sentence using 'back up' or any questions or comments that you have....don't be shy! Sign up below to receive weekly phrasal verb emails and be the first to access each blog post as soon as it is published! Lastly, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. See you next time! James 😊 THE END