An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'cut 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. In this blog article, I will be explaining the wonderful English phrasal verb 'cut off' and the different ways that we use it. First, we will cover the basics and then move onto the more well known meanings, like to remove something and to block something, before finally looking at some of the lesser known and regional meanings and idioms that it is found in. Furthermore, there are lots of example sentences to show you the contexts in which each application is used. So, without further ado, let's make a start.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Cut Off - The Basics: Key information and the basics Cut Off - Meaning 1: To remove something Cut Off - Meaning 2: To separate or block a connection Cut Off - Meaning 3: To stop the supply of something Cut Off - Meaning 4: To be disconnected (telephone) Cut Off - Meaning 5: To intercept someone Cut Off - Meaning 6: To interrupt someone Cut Off - Meaning 7: To disinherit someone Cut Off - Meaning 8: To move into another driver's lane 🇺🇸 Cut Off - Bonus: The noun 'cut-off' Cut Off - Bonus: Idiom - 'to cut off your nose to spite your face' I love writing this blog and helping learners but I get very little feedback as to how useful it is and 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 would be most grateful. Thank you! 😊 James Photo: Pexels THE BASICS CUT OFF: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 8 Past tense forms Cut off / Cut off Separable? Yes In this post, we will explore 8 different ways to use the phrasal verb 'cut off' but before we do that, let's first consider the individual words 'cut' and 'off' and their meanings. I am sure that you will all be very familiar with the verb 'to cut' already. Its main usage in English is to break the surface of something or to separate one thing from another by using a sharp tool like a knife or pair of scissors. Additionally, its other common meanings include to reduce something and to block the supply of something. Like most frequently used verbs in English, 'to cut' is irregular. Jessica cut the string with some scissors. Can you cut my hair this weekend? I need to cut the grass today before it rains. Debbie cut herself with a knife whilst cooking dinner. The married couple cut the cake. The government is cutting funding to the charity next year. They want to cut the power for an hour to perform some electrical work. The prepositional particle 'off' is one that you will often see in phrasal verb constructions to add a meaning of separation or removal as we will see later in this post. In addition to this, 'off' can be used in phrasal verbs to convey ideas like departure ( set off ) and ending ( call off ) among others. Now that we have covered the basics, let's dive into the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'cut off'.... MEANING 1: To remove something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level A2 - Elementary Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To remove, to separate, to chop off Separable? Yes As I explained earlier, the verb 'to cut' can mean to remove something by using a sharp tool and this first meaning of 'cut off' means the same thing...it's just a bit more precise. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Hair Finger / Toe / Arm / Leg / Head End / Tip Branch Often when we use a verb like 'to cut', we need to provide extra information to people, telling them the result of the cutting action. When we want we to say that we have cut something in order to separate it from what it was attached to, we use 'cut off'. We are simply just adding more precise information to our description of the cutting action. Note that the natural opposite of the word 'off' in English is 'on' and so we only use this for items that are considered to be 'on' something else or that form an integral part of something. For example, we say that our hair is on our head and so if we have a drastic haircut at the hairdressers, we might say that we have had our hair cut off. Likewise, Marie Antoinette and many other people in the past were unfortunate enough to lose their head (and their lives) as a form of punishment and in such cases we can say that somebody cut their heads of...horrible but true! This usage is not just limited to body parts though and it can be used with anything that is attached to or forms part of another (usually larger) thing. Ben accidentally cut off the end of his finger while chopping vegetables. The tailor cut off the excess fabric before sewing the hem. The gardeners cut off the dead branches from the tree to make it healthier. Luke cut off a slice of bread and handed it to his daughter. The farmer cut off the chicken’s head quickly and cleanly. Emma cut off a lock of her hair to keep as a memory. John cut off the tags from his new shirt before wearing it. Lucy cut off the crusts from the sandwiches for her kids. The plumbers cut off part of the pipe to fix the leak. The mechanic cut off the rusty bolt in order to replace it. For reference, if you want to remove something that is an internal place and is not an integral part of the whole object, you would need to use the phrasal verb 'cut out' link here . MEANING 2: To separate or block a connection Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To separate, to block Separable? Yes This second application of 'cut off' is used to talk about both people and objects and means to separate or block a connection to something. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Village / Town / City Person Access Road / Street As you will have noticed, for this meaning we are continuing with the theme of separating something that was once connected to something else, however this time we are not using a sharp tool to perform a cutting action. Instead, we are talking about much larger objects and places that are normally easy to access but are temporarily inaccessible due to an obstruction of some kind. This 'cutting off' may be caused by natural phenomena or disasters such as a fallen tree, a landslide or an earthquake. Alternatively, something may be cut off intentionally by people who do not want other people to access somewhere. The village was completely cut off by the floodwaters. The rebels cut the town off from outside help. A fallen tree cut off access to the main road. The soldier's route was cut off by enemy forces. The island was cut off from the mainland after the bridge collapsed. DID YOU KNOW THAT CUT-OFF EXISTS AS AN ADJECTIVE? As a consequence of this, we can also use the adjective form 'cut-off to describe places that are difficult to access or are very far from other people and places. This may be temporarily, due to a blockage, or permanent if the place is situated somewhere that is hard to reach like up a mountain etc. They live in a cut-off village deep in the mountains. The research station is in a cut-off area that can only be reached by helicopter. It was a cut-off region with no cell service or internet connection. During winter, the town becomes completely cut-off due to heavy snowfall. LET'S NOT FORGET PEOPLE! Back to the phrasal verb again and in addition to places that are difficult to access, we can also use this application of 'cut off' to describe people who are isolated from others in their lives and often feel lonely as a result. The reason that we use 'cut off' for this is because we are talking about how people's connections to others have been blocked. We can use this in an active way, where other people choose to isolate the lonely person (cut them off) or in a passive way to describe the lonely person's experience or feelings. Sarah felt cut off from her friends after moving to a new city. José's strict parents cut him off from the outside world. Depression made Alan feel cut off from everyone around him. The friendship group cut Michelle off socially because she didn’t agree with their views. The cult leader cut his followers off from their families. MEANING 3: To stop the supply of something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To disconnect Separable? Yes For our next application of 'cut off', we have another variation on the ongoing theme of separation and that is to stop the supply of something. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Gas Electricity Water Finances / Money Aid Supplies / Services If you ever stop paying for your home utilities like electricity or gas, it is a certainty that after a period of time your supplier will disconnect the service to your house until you pay...or in other words, they will cut you off. Thankfully, this has never happened to me as I am (most of the time) very punctual with paying my bills but I have heard of this happening to other people. You will hear this application most commonly in reference to these utility services, often being used as a threat to make people pay. Alternatively, you may also hear about people being cut off financially when someone who normally gives them money stops giving it to them. I should stress that this is not in the sense of work and more like rich parents or husbands. They cut off the water supply due to unpaid bills. Beatrice's parents cut her off financially when she dropped out of college. The landlord threatened to cut off the electricity if the rent wasn't paid. The gas company cut off service to several homes during the maintenance work. Our internet was cut off because we forgot to renew the subscription. The rebels cut off food and medical supplies to the city. In addition to this, we can use 'cut off' in this way on a larger scale when talking about governmental funding and supplies of products etc. as these are all things whose supply can be stopped or cut off at any time if a government so wishes (which we are famously seeing in certain countries right now). The government has decided to cut off all aid to the World Health Organisation. If an agreement cannot be reached, it is likely that the supply of food to the area will be cut off. MEANING 4: To be disconnected (telephone) Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common (mainly passive) Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To cut out Separable? Sometimes We are now on to our fourth meaning of 'cut off' and we are again sticking with the disconnection theme as this one means to be disconnected on the telephone. In this modern day and age, the vast majority of us have a mobile phone (cellphone for those familiar with US English) and many of you may even be reading this post on yours at this very moment! As a result, one thing that we are all very familiar with is when we are in the middle of a phone call and the signal goes, meaning that the call is disconnected. When this happens, we usually say " the call got cut off ". You should note that this is mainly used in the passive sense with the helper verbs 'to get', and less commonly with 'to be'. We were talking and suddenly got cut off. I think the call got cut off; can you hear me now? Sue was in the middle of explaining something when the line cut off. Sorry, I didn’t hang up; I got cut off. We keep getting cut off; the signal must be bad out here. The phone cut off just as I was about to say goodbye. You cut off for a second there; can you repeat that? MEANING 5: To intercept someone Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To intercept Separable? Yes Another way that we can use 'cut off' to talk about people is in relation to intercepting them when they are moving or travelling to a place. Usually, this would be when you want to stop someone reaching a destination and so you attempt to obstruct their route somehow and stop them from arriving there. Typical contexts in which this application is used are police and law enforcement chasing criminals, military action and just those everyday moments when you want to stop someone from going somewhere before it is too late...something that that is often portrayed in romantic Hollywood movies. The rebels tried to escape, but government forces cut them off at the mountain pass. The army cut off the enemy’s escape route by blocking the bridge. The police cut off the suspect before he could reach the city limits. The bank robbers tried to run but the officers cut them off at the intersection. A police patrol car sped ahead to cut off the getaway vehicle. Rachel was about to get on the airplane when Ross cut her off and told her that he loved her. MEANING 6: To interrupt someone Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To cut in, to interrupt, to interject Separable? Yes Our next meaning of 'cut off' is one that is regularly heard in social situations and means to interrupt someone and stop them from speaking. When we use this application, it is normally to describe when a person suddenly or unexpectedly starts talking while another person is talking, making the other person stop. Typically, this is considered quite a rude thing to do, however perhaps it is more forgivable when the people involved are in an argument and are too angry to care. Grammatically speaking, when we use this application in an active sentence, it is always separable with the person (name or pronoun) who was interrupted going between 'cut' and 'off'. In a passive sentence, it cannot be used separably (see the examples below).... Helen tried to explain, but Roger rudely cut her off. I was in the middle of a sentence when my colleague cut me off. Don’t cut me off; let me finish what I’m saying. The politician was cut off by someone shouting from the audience. Andrew cut Julie off before she could finish her sentence. Ashley and Mark were having a deep conversation, but the waiter cut them off to take their order. Alison kept cutting Joe off during the debate, which annoyed the audience. MEANING 7: To disinherit someone Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To cut out, to disinherit Separable? Yes From looking at the picture above, you may think that this next application of 'cut off' is all about funerals and burying people, but it is not quite that as it is in fact to disinherit someone. Firstly, if the verb 'to disinherit' is new to you, it means to prevent someone from receiving or inheriting your money and possessions after you die. Now that I have explained that, it should come as no surprise to you that this application tends to be used a lot in reference to family members, particularly the black sheep of the family (those family members that have been cut off like in meaning 2). In this sense, if a person is cut off, then he or she is not able to receive any of a deceased person's wealth or possessions. It sounds harsh but families are often very complicated and it does happen from time to time. After years of disagreements, Peter's father finally cut him off from the family fortune. Linda was cut off in the will and didn’t receive a single penny after her mother's death. His parents warned Steve that if he kept misbehaving, he'd be cut off financially. Adrian cut off his daughter after she refused to join the family business. Their wealthy grandfather cut them off for squandering their inheritance. Lucy feared that marrying against her parents’ wishes would get her cut off. Anthony was shocked to learn he had been completely cut off from the estate. Being cut off by his parents forced Jim to become financially independent. MEANING 8: To move into another driver's lane Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used American English Potential synonyms To cut up Separable? Yes Our final application for the phrasal verb 'cut off' is an American usage that means to move into another road user's lane while driving. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Car / truck Driver We use this application in North American English to describe when another car suddenly turns into the lane of the freeway that you are driving in very close in front of you, meaning that you need to apply your brakes and slow down to avoid a collision. 99% of the time this is just bad driving and is extremely dangerous for everyone involved, however people seem to do it all the time! If you said this in British or Australian English, it may be understood in the context, however the correct phrasal verb to use in this case would be 'cut up'. That car just cut me off on the highway! Lisa had to slam on the brakes because someone cut her off. I hate it when drivers cut you off without using a turn signal. A truck cut him off and nearly caused an accident. Hank got angry after being cut off by a speeding car. You shouldn’t cut people off in traffic — it’s reckless. Another driver cut me off and then slowed down — so frustrating! Mary-Sue was cut off while trying to merge onto the freeway. Photo: Pexels BONUS: The noun 'cut-off' As with many phrasal verbs that describe physical actions, there is also a noun that has developed from the phrasal verb usage and this is simply 'cut-off' (cutoff in US English). This noun actually has a couple of different meanings..... The first one is more closely linked to our third phrasal verb meaning and is a noun for the action of preventing or stopping the supply of something. The government announced a cut-off of electricity to non-essential areas during the energy crisis. After the payment deadline passed, there was an immediate cut-off of services to accounts that had defaulted. The other meaning of 'cut-off' is more commonly used and is used to refer to a fixed point where something stops or finishes. This is most commonly heard in relation to time when we have cut-off dates, which are the dates on which something closes or ends such as applications for university and competition entries. The cutoff for submitting applications is Friday at 5 p.m. Your application won’t be considered if you submit it after the cutoff date. We missed the cutoff for early registration and had to pay the full fee. The cutoff point for eligibility is age 35. Photo: Pexels BONUS IDIOM: To cut off your nose to spite your face Let's finish things of with a common idiom featuring the phrasal verb 'cut off' that is in popular usage in everyday English.... To cut off your nose to spite your face This idiom is not as horrible as it may seem although it is still rather negative in nature. If you cut off your nose to spite your face, you do something in anger that will punish or hurt another person, but will also cause you problems as a consequence. Liam quit his job without having another one lined up, just to prove a point to his boss; talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face! I know you are too angry to apologise to your boyfriend right now but don’t cut off your nose to spite your face; you’re only hurting your relationship. 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 'cut 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 'cut 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 'put 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. When you think of phrasal verbs, 'put in' probably isn't one of the first ones that you think of, but it may surprise you to learn that it has at least 7 different uses in everyday English. In this post, I will explain all of these different uses to you and provide you with lots of example sentences to show you the typical contexts in which each one is used. So, without further ado, let's make a start.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Put In - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'put' and 'in' Put In - Meaning 1: Literal Put In - Meaning 2: To install something Put In - Meaning 3: To include something Put In - Meaning 4: To spend time doing something Put In - Meaning 5: To request or apply for something Put In - Meaning 6: To add to a conversation Put In - Meaning 7: To call at a port Put In - Bonus: Common idioms and expressions featuring 'put in' 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 PUT IN: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 7 Past tense forms Put in / Put in Separable? Yes Before we jump in to the different meanings and uses of 'put in', let's first briefly consider the words 'put' and 'in' as individual lexical units. The verb 'to put' is an extremely versatile irregular verb in English that we use in a wide variety of different ways. In its most commonly used application, it means 'to place an object in a position or place' and can be used both physically and metaphorically. In addition to this, it's other meanings include 'to cause someone to be in a situation', 'to write', 'to categorise' and 'to travel in a boat' (more of this to come later). Where did you put my bag? John put his hand on his wife's shoulder. That news has put me in a bad mood. Can you put all of that into an email and send it to me? I was put in a group with my friends at school today. The prepositional particle 'in' features in many different phrasal verbs and in its most obvious sense is used to convey the idea of a movement from the outside of something to the inside (go in, walk in). Moreover, we also use it in phrasal verb constructions to add ideas like fulfilment (hand in), arrival (check in), collection (bring in) and inclusion (join in) to phrasal verbs. So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'put in'. MEANING 1: Literal Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level A1 - Beginner Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To place in, to put inside, to fill Separable? Always We will start the meanings of 'put in' with the literal meaning of the words 'put' and 'in' combined, which is simply 'to place something into an interior space'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Key Book Clothes Money / Payment Bag Phone Many more!! In very basic terms, this first application is just the basic action of placing an object into an enclosed space. Therefore, as you can probably imagine, this can be used in an enormous number of different situations and with an almost infinite number of nouns. For instance, you can put your keys in your bag, put your clothes in the wardrobe or in the washing machine, put your milk in the fridge, put your bicycle in the garage, put your horse in the stable etc......the list is endless! Note that when we use this application, it is almost always separable, with the noun or pronoun going after the word 'put' and the internal space after the word 'in'. Sally put the groceries in the fridge as soon as she got home. Martin put his phone in his pocket and walked away. The kids forgot to put their toys in the toy box after playing. I put the letter in the envelope, sealed it and put it in the postbox. We put the dishes in the dishwasher after dinner. Jeremy put his hand in the bag to grab a snack. I put the key in the lock and turned it but the door wouldn't open. Andrew put the book in his backpack before leaving for school. Photo: Wix Media One noun that I want to mention specifically with this first application of 'put in' is 'money' (or its various synonyms like cash, savings etc.). When we have money and we want it to deposit it in our bank account, we say that we "put it in the bank". This does not just apply to physical money, which we seem to have less and less in today's world, but also to any electronic transfers of money and investments. It is equally possible to use 'into' when stating the financial institution or investment type. Furthermore, when we are talking specifically talking about investing or paying money, we often do not state what we are paying or investing into as it is often known from the context. Carrie put in £1,000 into a new mutual fund last month. Louise and Matt put in a lot of money to renovate the old house. My brother is planning to put in some cash to help start my business. We’ve already put in thousands of dollars, but the project still isn’t finished. I put in a small deposit to reserve the apartment. Investors were eager to put in their money once they saw the potential. Yuki put in all his savings to buy a stake in the company. MEANING 2: To install something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To install, to fit, to fix Separable? Yes Another common way to use the phrasal verb 'put in' is in reference to things like equipment, systems and furniture as it means 'to install something'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Equipment Machine System Furniture Shelves Heating For this application, we are focussing on items or systems that must be installed, secured and prepared for people to use or operate. These are normally large and complex things that require an amount of skill or labour to install safely and securely. For example, you may be renovating your kitchen and need to put in a new oven and dishwasher, you may want to put in a pond in your garden or the company that you work for may want to put in a new IT system to replace the existing one. We want to put in a new air conditioning system before summer. The family put in a security camera at the front door following the burglary. My landlord put in a new dishwasher last week; no more hand washing up for me! We're thinking of putting in hardwood floors throughout the house. The company put in new computers for all the employees. I want to put in some shelves in the living room for all my books. My parents put in a skylight to bring more natural light into the kitchen. An electrician came to put in extra outlets in the office. Unless you have the required skills (I do not), then it is quite normal to hire a professional to come in and do the 'putting in' or installation work for you. It is therefore common to use this application with the causative verbs 'have' or 'get' in a passive construction to specify that we did not perform the action ourselves and somebody else did it for us. Susie had a walk-in shower put in during her bathroom renovation. We're getting a new heating system put in next month. MEANING 3: To include something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To include, to write Separable? Yes This third application of 'put in' is one that I have to use on a weekly basis when writing this blog as it is specifically used to talk about words and language and means 'to include'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Word Paragraph Sentence Statement Section Password If you have read the Basics section earlier on in the post, you may remember that one of the meanings of the verb 'to put' is to write something and it is from this meaning that we get this next usage of 'put in'. When we use 'put in' to refer to writing and words, it means to include them in something that is being written. This may be something that you are creating yourself e.g. a story, letter, speech or report or it may be something where you have to complete the information in a field or box e.g. a form. For example, if you are preparing a report for your boss, you may have to decide which information you need to put in and which you need to leave out. Alternatively, if you are writing a story, you may write something but decide not to put it in. Likewise, if you are completing a form, there may be a section that you don't understand and therefore you may not know what to put in. Alfred put in a reference to the research study in his article. The editor asked Michelle to put more detail in about the main character’s background. Don’t forget to put a thank-you note in at the end of the email. They decided to put in a clause to cover unexpected delays in the contract. I put in a request for clarification in the margin. Can you put a line in about our new product launch? The writer put in some dialogue to make the scene more realistic. We can also use this application in reference to spoken language such as speeches and stand-up comedy routines but these are only things that will have been written and prepared beforehand. Toni put in a few jokes to make her speech more entertaining. Sam put in a subtle hint about the surprise ending that he knew the audience would appreciate. Photo: Pexels FORGOTTEN YOUR PASSWORD? I don't know about you, but I have so many different passwords and usernames for online accounts that I just cannot remember them all. If my devices didn't remember them for me, I would spend most of my day requesting new passwords for the ones that I had forgotten. The reason that I am telling you this is because we frequently say 'put in' as a synonym of 'enter' when talking about usernames and passwords for online accounts. Put in your username and password and click continue. I put in my old password three times and I've blocked my account! MEANING 4: To spend time doing something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To do, to spend, to make an effort Separable? Yes If you ever work hard on a particular task or project and you spend a lot of time on it, then you will definitely be able to use this next application of 'put in' as it means 'to spend time doing something'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Time Effort Energy Hours Work To give you a personal reference of this application, I can talk about writing this blog. First of all, I have to make notes on a specific phrasal verb and all of the different ways that it is used and then I have to decide which details to put in and which to leave out. Once that has been done, I create it, write it, proofread it, edit it, proofread it again, optimise it for SEO, publish it and promote it. Consequently, I can say that I put a lot of time in to create this blog! As you will have hopefully understood, if you put in time doing something, you spend time doing it and we tend to use this in this way when the person spends a lot of time on the activity. Since we are talking about time, typical nouns that are used with this application are hours, days, months and even years. Beth put in a lot of hours preparing for the exam. They put in years of hard work to build their business. I’ve already put in so much time on this project; I can’t quit now. We do not use this application just to talk about time however and it can also be used for any activity where people work hard. Therefore, it is often used with nouns like effort, work and energy. I could therefore equally say that I put a lot of time, effort and energy in when writing the blog. It is also even possible to put in shifts at work to mean to work shifts. We need to put in more practice if we want to win the championship. The sales team put in an incredible amount of energy to meet the deadline. Lucy is willing to put in whatever it takes to succeed. Ben put in extra shifts to save money for his trip. You can tell how much work Elaine put in by the quality of the final product. They put in the effort, and it really paid off in the end. Franco really put in the effort to make the presentation perfect. MEANING 5: To request or apply for something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere with some uses British Potential synonyms To request, to apply, to submit, to present Separable? Yes Our next application of 'put in' is one that is often used in more formal and business situations and means 'to request or apply for something'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Request Transfer Promotion Application Bid / Offer Order Most commonly, we use this application of 'put in' to talk about things that we want to do or have but in order to get them, we must follow a process, which normally has a decision at the end of it. There is no guarantee that the application will be successful, however. For example, you can put in (submit) an application for a job or a promotion that you want to get, you can put in a request for some kind of change in your work organisation or you can put in a bid (an offer) at an auction for something that you want to buy. Moreover, there are some other nouns that we use this application with that do not require a decision to be made such as complaint and order. These will still require an element of processing though. I put in an application for the marketing position last week. Jonny put in a request for time off next month. They put in a bid for the new construction project. Sam has put in an offer on a house that she wants to buy and she is waiting for a response. We’ve decided to put in a formal complaint about the noise. I put in an order for that new book you recommended. Put in your orders before midday today as that is the cut-off point. In addition, it is also possible to use the construction ' to put in for + noun ' to specify the thing that you want to get, such as a place at university, a promotion or a pay increase. You can even go one step further and use this construction separably by stating the direct object in between 'put' and 'in'. Keisha is planning to put in for a transfer to the New York office. Have you put in for a promotion yet? My daughter has put in for a place at Harvard University but we don't know if she has got it yet. We have put an application in for an extension to our house. MEANING 6: To add to a conversation Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere, more British Potential synonyms To interrupt, to interpose, to interject, to chime in, to butt in, to add Separable? No I think that one of the rudest things that people can do in conversations is to interrupt others when they are speaking and this next application of 'put in' is one that we can use to describe this very action. When someone puts in during a conversation, it means that they say something, interrupting the person who is already speaking and making them stop. It is not always used to mean to interrupt someone though as it can also mean to add extra information to something that somebody else has said. For example, if someone says something interesting about a political situation in a conversation that you are having and you then say something to add some extra information to what the speaker said, we can use 'put in' to describe this. This usage is quite formal and can be found in books and literature but it is not something that I hear very often in spoken everyday English. Nick suddenly put in with a comment that changed the direction of the discussion. Can I just put in here and say that I completely agree? While we were arguing, Jack put in his opinion without being asked. I was telling my story when Julie put in with a joke and threw me off. Just as I was explaining, Adam put in, “That’s not how it happened!” "I don't want to go either", John put in. MEANING 7: To call at a port Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To call at, to dock in, to stop in Separable? No You may remember from all the way back at the beginning of this post that I mentioned that one of the rarer meanings of the verb 'to put' is 'to travel in a boat'. This seventh and final application is derived directly from this meaning as it means 'to call at a port' and is used specifically for boats, ships and other waterborne vessels. For this usage we often require the additional preposition 'at' to specify the name of the town, city or port where the dock is situated. This application is not separable however and should always be used in a non-separable way. When a boat or ship puts in at a port, it enters the harbour area and stops at a berth where people or goods can be loaded or unloaded before it puts out to sea again (leaves the port). The ship put in at the harbour just before the storm hit. We put in at a small fishing village along the coast. The vessel put in for repairs after days at sea. They put in at Naples to refuel and restock supplies. After a long journey, the yacht finally put in at the marina. The captain decided to put in at the nearest port due to engine trouble. We were supposed to sail straight through, but we had to put in at the nearest port unexpectedly. Photo: Pexels BONUS: Common idioms and expressions featuring 'put in' Let's finish the post with some well known idioms and expressions featuring the phrasal verb 'put in'. If you can use some of these in your English conversations, it will sound very impressive! To put something in(to) perspective - To understand or view something more accurately, often by comparing it to something else, or by considering the bigger picture. This is often when you have a problem or issue and you want to understand if it is really very bad or if the problem is just in your head or not as bad as you think. Sarah's calm advice helped me put my problems in perspective. After hearing about Mike's struggles, my own issues seemed small in comparison; it really put things in perspective for me. To put yourself in someone's place - This expression is used to talk about when you imagine how a situation feels from another person's point of view and how they would feel in a specific situation. Try putting yourself in her place; how would you feel if that happened to you? Before you judge me, put yourself in my place and consider what I've been through. To put in a performance - This one is simply used as a synonym of giving a performance and can be used with theatre and singing shows, sports or even a business presentation. It is frequently used with qualitative adjectives like good, bad, wonderful etc. Chelsea put in a fantastic performance and won the match 3–0. Wendy put in a strong performance during the audition and impressed the judges. To put in a good word for someone - Lastly, this is a great expression for when somebody intentionally praises or says positive things about you to another person to help you in some way. For example, if you want to ask someone out on a date, you could ask the person's friend to put in a good word for you beforehand so that he or she is more likely to say yes. Alternatively, if you put in for a job at a company where you already know someone who works there, you may ask that person to put in a good word for you with the hiring team to increase your chances of getting the job. I’ll put in a good word for you with the manager; she trusts my opinion. Could you put in a good word for me when you talk to the hiring team? 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 'put 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 'put 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 'set forth' 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 is an article about the phrasal verb 'set forth' and its different meanings and uses in English. You may not be very familiar with this phrasal verb as it is quite rare, however we do use it and so there is a good chance that you will come across it at some point. Plus, it's always good to have new vocabulary to learn 😊 In the post, I will explain the two main ways that 'set forth' is used in English and provide you with lots of example sentences. So, without further ado, let's get started.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Set Forth - The Basics: Key information and the words 'set' and 'forth' Set Forth - Meaning 1: To give the details of something Set Forth - Meaning 2: To start a journey I love writing this blog and helping learners but I get very little feedback as to how useful it is and 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 would be most grateful. Thank you! 😊 James Photo: Pexels THE BASICS SET FORTH: KEY INFORMATION Usage Medium Number of meanings 2 Past tense forms Set forth / Set forth Separable? Sometimes As usual, let's begin by breaking down the phrasal verb into it's individual words, which in this case are 'set' and 'forth'. If you've read any of my other articles featuring the verb 'to set', you will know that this word is the champion of all English words as it is has more meanings than any of the others in the entire language. When used as verb, it therefore has many different applications, some of which are quite specific and obscure so we do not need to worry about those. The meanings that are the most relevant for this article however are 'to start doing something' and 'to cause something to be in a specific condition or situation'.... Jane set the project in motion with a detailed proposal. The announcement set the negotiations into action. The council set the wheels turning for the new community centre. The team immediately set to work on the new software upgrade. Becci's decision set a chain of events into motion. The new CEO set the company on a path to success. The prepositional particle in our chosen phrasal verb is 'forth', which is one that many of you may not know as it is not one that appears very often in English. Firstly, you should note 'forth' is pronounced in exactly the same way as the ordinal number fourth / 4th. The meaning is very different though as it is used either to indicate movement away from a place or the passing of time after a specific point. The river flowed forth into the valley below. From that day forth, John never drank alcohol again. MEANING 1: To give clear and detailed information Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To state, to write, to specify, to list Separable? No The first of the two applications of 'set forth' that we will cover in this article is the most common one and means 'to give clear and detailed information about something'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Ideas Arguments / Beliefs Opinions Reasons Facts Vision Findings / Results We use this first application of 'set forth' to talk about presenting information, facts, figures, arguments etc. to others in a clear, comprehensive and well-structured way so that they can interpret and understand it. While it can be used to talk about giving information orally, it tends to be used mainly for when it is given in writing. 'Set forth' can be used in this way for many reasons including to present arguments or facts, to state terms and conditions in business, to publish the results of studies and experiments or to give the reasons for a criminal's actions in court. This is quite a formal application and therefore you are much more likely to find it in intellectual and serious articles, legal documents and scientific papers than you are to find it on a social media post, in a gossip magazine or a conversation amongst friends in the pub. On a grammatical note, this usage is separable and the direct object e.g. argument or information can go between 'set' and 'forth' or after. If the information is the subject of the sentence, it cannot be separated. In his speech, the president set forth his vision for the country's future. The terms and conditions are clearly set forth in the contract. She set her arguments forth in a well-organised essay. The report sets forth the main findings of the investigation. He set his ideas about education reform forth during the meeting. The guidelines are set forth in the company handbook. In her memoir, she sets forth the events that shaped her career. The scientists set forth their theory with supporting evidence. MEANING 2: To start a journey Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Literary English Potential synonyms To set out, to set off, to begin, to start, to depart, to leave, to head off, to head out Separable? No Our second and final application of 'set forth' is a rarer one that is not so common in modern English and means to start a journey. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Journey Trip Expedition Voyage Adventure Mission Quest This usage is not one that you are likely to hear in everyday conversation and so if you use it to casually talk about leaving your house to go to work or to go to the shop, it would sound a bit strange and unnatural. It does have its place though and if you like to read English novels, particularly older and classic ones, then you are probably more likely to see 'set forth' being used in this way. The reason for this is that it is now mainly used in literary works, which is sad because I think it sounds quite dramatic and would love to use it in my everyday conversations! The climbers set forth from the village, determined to reach the mountain summit. The pilgrims set forth in search of a new home in a different land. We set forth with high hopes and a sense of adventure. The knights set forth to rescue the captured prince. After weeks of preparation, the team of scientists finally set forth into the desert. Elizabeth set forth alone, guided only by the stars. When we want to specify a noun like a journey or expedition that we are starting, we need to add the additional preposition 'on'. The team set forth on their long journey across the mountains. Early in the morning, we set forth on our adventure. The crew set forth on a mission to explore uncharted waters. The nun set forth on a pilgrimage to the sacred site. The army set forth on a campaign to reclaim lost territory. King Alfred set forth on a quest to find his missing brother. As you will note from the example sentences given above, this application of 'set forth' is not separable. 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 'set forth'. 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 'set forth'. 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 'follow 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. The phrasal verb that we are looking at in this post is 'follow up', which is one that is used frequently by people in business English and by people in their daily working lives. In the post, I will explain the two main ways that it is used by English speakers and provide you with lots of example sentences to show you the kinds of contexts in which we use it. So, without further ado, let's get started.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Follow Up - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'follow' and 'up' Follow Up - Meaning 1: To learn more about something Follow Up - Meaning 2: To do something additional Follow Up - Bonus: 'Follow-up' as a noun and an adjective 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 FOLLOW UP: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 2 Past tense forms Followed up / Followed up Separable? Yes In order to get the best understanding of the ways that we use 'follow up' in English, let's first consider the individual words 'follow' and 'up' and what they mean on their own. I am sure that you are all familiar with 'to follow' but if you need a reminder, it is a verb that means 'to move or travel behind someone / something, taking the same path or route'. We can also use it in a temporal sense to mean 'to come next after something at a future point in time'. It has some less frequently used meanings too, which include 'to obey orders and instructions' and 'to watch something closely over a period of time'. In fact, I'm sure many of you follow people and accounts on social media in this way. Unlike many of the base verbs in phrasal verbs, 'to follow' is regular. Please follow me to the interview room. The jealous husband followed his wife in his car to see where she was going. My cat follows me every time I leave the house. King Charles III followed Queen Elizabeth II as the monarch of the United Kingdom. Which book follows this one in the series? Soldiers in the army are trained to follow orders. I've been following this story on the news for the past few days. Next, we have the prepositional particle 'up', which is perhaps the most commonly used particle in phrasal verb constructions and in its purest sense is used to add ideas of an upward movement or increase to the base verb. Additionally, 'up' can be used to add less obvious ideas to phrasal verbs, which include completion (eat up), creation ( set up ), unexpected events ( turn up ) and improvement (cheer up). So, now that we have covered the basics, let's take a look at the two ways that we use 'follow up' in English.... MEANING 1: To learn more about something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To find out Separable? Rarely The first of the applications of 'follow up' that we are going to consider in the post is 'to take action in order to learn more about something'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Report Story Lead Enquiry At it's core, this application of 'follow up' is one that is just the simple act of seeking more information about something. This is typically when you receive some news or information about a subject or situation and you then contact the people involved in order to obtain more information about it. Most of the time however, we use follow up when we need to take further action in order to gather extra information on a subject or matter, as outlined below. Some typical situations in which this can be demonstrated include the following.... When the police contact people from whom they have received tips and information about crimes that have been committed. When companies collect sales leads at trade shows and exhibitions and contact the potential new customers afterwards. When journalists receive information about news stories and need to contact the people involved in order to gain more information for their articles. Often, with this application we add the extra preposition 'on' to specify the thing that we are learning more about. It is also possible to use the additional preposition 'with' to state the person who you need to contact to ask questions and get information from. I'll follow up on that sales lead and see what more information I can find out. We need to follow up on this report with some deeper research. Don't pay that bill, you should follow it up with the company first and question why it is so high. He promised to follow up with the client to clarify their requirements. The team followed up on the complaint to ensure it was properly resolved. With this first application, although it can be used separably, I would say that 9 times out of 10 we use it in an inseparable way. As I mentioned before, this application is one that is used a lot in the world of work and tends not to be used so much in informal everyday English apart from perhaps to talk about issues or problems that people are experiencing with companies, businesses or services that they pay for. Christine called the customer to follow up on the service request. We need to follow up on that missed deadline and find out what went wrong. The doctor scheduled an appointment to follow up on the patient’s test results. Please follow up on that issue and let me know what happens. MEANING 2: To do something additional Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To add Separable? Yes The second of our two meanings of 'follow up' has some overlap with the first and means 'to do something additional to what we have already done'. To clarify this usage, instead of trying to learn more information, in this application our main objective is rather to continue something that has already started by doing something else that will increase the first action's effect or help it succeed in some way. For example, if you work in an office and you speak to customers on the phone, you may sometimes need to follow up a phone call by sending an email to confirm the details that were discussed during the call. In this example, the communication was started with the phone call and now you add to it by sending an email to clarify, confirm or prompt the other person to act in some way. Another example is when you are applying for a job. Firstly, you send the job application to the company and then you may follow it up with an email to the hiring manager to say thank you or to give additional information about your application. You should note that this application is frequently used in a separable way. The direct object of the 'following up' action is the original first action, which typically goes between 'follow' and 'up'. In order to state the second action, we use the additional preposition 'with'. I sent the customer an email last week and I plan to follow it up with a phone call tomorrow. The manager asked us to follow our initial report up with a more detailed analysis. The company launched a successful campaign last year and are now following up with a nationwide rollout. George followed up his presentation by sending a summary document to all attendees. We should follow our conversation up with a formal proposal. Lucy followed her application up with a thank-you email to the hiring manager. To ensure nothing was missed, I followed up the meeting with a checklist. This application of 'follow up' is not just heard in the business world however and you may often hear it in reference to your favourite singers and authors or to anyone who publishes things for people. If a writer publishes a book and then sometime later puts out a sequel, it is possible to say that they followed the first book up with the second. It is often used in this way when the first published item is famous, renowned or notable in some way. In 1987, Michael Jackson followed his album Thriller up with the album Bad. In a shock move, the romance author followed up her last book with a horror novel about vampires. Lastly, we can use 'follow up' in this way to talk about a situation when you perform one action directly after another or in a series of actions, usually to maximise its impact. When used this way, it can often be heard in reference to sport and competitions. The boxer followed up his sidestep with a series of undercuts. The chef followed up the starter of chicken and lentil kebabs with a main course of satay chicken. Photo: Pexels BONUS: 'Follow up' as an adjective and a noun If you have ever heard 'follow up' being used in either of the applications that we have already discussed, it is possible that it was as either an adjective or a noun as both of these are used equally as much as their phrasal verb cousin. AS AN ADJECTIVE.... When we use the adjective 'follow-up', it is usually placed before a noun such as 'phone call' or 'meeting' to describe a further action that is connected to a previous one. For example, you might make a follow-up phone call to a customer after you send them an email, or perhaps you have a follow-up meeting with a customer to discuss if all of the actions in your first meeting have been completed and the customer is satisfied. The doctor scheduled a follow-up appointment for the next week. Jill sent a follow-up email to clarify her earlier message. We conducted a follow-up survey to assess customer satisfaction. The follow-up interview provided more detailed information. AS A NOUN.... We tend to use the noun 'follow-up' for a further action that we take linked to a previous action, much like the phrasal verb usages that we have already considered. We typically use this in the same way as the adjective form but as we already know the context, we drop the noun and the word 'follow-up' becomes the noun instead. The manager called me in for a follow-up after our initial meeting. Did you receive a follow-up to the application you submitted? The doctor said I’ll need a follow-up in three months. Jo's presentation was impressive, and the follow-up was even better. 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 'follow 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 'follow 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 'make out' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Wix Media 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. Did you know that the phrasal verb 'make out' has at least 7 different meanings and uses in the English language? Were you aware that, for example, it can be used in American English to refer to sex, while in British English you are more likely to hear it in reference to making payments? Don't worry if you didn't know because in this post, I will explain all of these applications to you and provide you with a lot of example sentences to show you how each one is used and in which contexts. So, without further ado, let's get started.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Make Out - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'make' and 'out' Make Out - Meaning 1: To discern Make Out - Meaning 2: To falsely claim to be true Make Out - Meaning 3: To complete an official document Make Out - Meaning 4: To be sexually intimate with someone Make Out - Meaning 5: To understand someone's character Make Out - Meaning 6: To succeed in a situation 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 MAKE OUT: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 6 Past tense forms Made out / Made out Separable? Sometimes The phrasal verb ‘make out’ is formed by combining the individual words ‘make’ and ‘out’ and so before we look at its meanings, let’s first briefly consider what these words mean on their own. Our base verb, ‘to make’, is one of the most common verbs in the English language, appearing in a wide variety of applications and expressions. Its main meanings include 'to produce', 'to create' and 'to cause', although it has many others that are too numerous to include here. Don't forget that 'to make' is an irregular verb and both of its past forms are 'made'. The company makes cars and sells them all over the world. My baby makes a lot of noise when he cries. Why have you made such a mess?! My parents made me go to university although I didn't want to. Working hard makes me tired. MAKE OR DO? There is often some confusion with English learners about when to use 'to make' and when to use 'to do'. A simple tip for this is that we use 'to make' when we talk about creating or producing something that did not exist before, while 'to do' is used more to talk about performing processes or actions. This is English however and there are of course many exceptions to this. Next, we have the prepositional particle 'out', which you should all know as a word that functions as the opposite of 'in' and is primarily used to refer to being situated on or moving towards an external space. When used in phrasal verb constructions, 'out' can often add this external meaning ( go out , get out ) but it can also add ideas such as revelation ( come out ), distribution ( give out ), removal ( cut out ) and trying ( check out ), among others. So, now that we have covered the basics, let's now consider the different ways that we can use the phrasal verb 'make out'.... MEANING 1: To discern Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To discern, to tell, to determine, to figure out, to identify Separable? Sometimes Let's begin the meanings with the one that I probably hear more than any of the others and that is 'to discern'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Words Letters Picture Face Voice In case you are not sure, the verb 'to discern' means 'to see, understand or recognise something when it is not very clear'. In other words, you need to make an effort to process the information and this is exactly how we use this first application of 'make out'. Typically, we use 'make out' with our senses of sight and hearing when we can see or hear something but it is not clear and so we have to focus on it. Once we are able to identify what it is with the appropriate sense, we can say that we can "make it out". Often, we add different adverbs like 'just', 'barely' and 'hardly' before 'make out' to emphasise that something was very difficult to identify and we were almost not able to do it. The lady had a very strong accent but I was just able to make out what she was saying. From this distance, it's hard to make out the writing on the whiteboard. I could barely make out the road signs through the thick fog. Walter tried to make out the figure moving in the shadows. Over the noise of the crowd, I could just make out my brother's voice calling my name. Through the static on the phone, I could hardly make out a word. As this application is used when something is not clear or easy for us to understand, it is often used in questions and negative statements too. Marianne spoke so quietly that I couldn't make out everything that she said. Can you make out what that label says? My eyesight isn’t as good as it used to be. Were you able to make out what Astrid was trying to tell us? How could the suspect make out the license plate in the dark? Could you make out the words in the background of the recording? We weren’t able to make out the instructions because of the poor handwriting. Louise couldn’t make out the number on the caller ID. On a grammatical note, although it is possible to use this application separably, we tend to use it in a separable way far more often than an inseparable one. The main exception is when the direct object has already been specified and we can use the pronoun 'it', which always goes between 'make' and 'out'. What was John whispering to us? I couldn't make it out! My 3 year old daughter drew a picture but I couldn't make it out, so I just smiled and said "very good". MEANING 2: To falsely claim to be true Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To claim, to pretend, to let on Separable? Yes We will move on to our second meaning of 'make out' now, which is also heard a lot in everyday conversation and means 'to falsely claim to be true'. To clarify, in its purest form, we use this particular application of 'make out' to say or to pretend that something is true when it is not. Sometimes, it can also be used to exaggerate something and make it seem bigger, more important or better than it really is. On a grammatical note, there are different structures that we use with this application, so I will explain each one and provide you with some examples.... To make out that.... Perhaps the most common way to use 'make out' in this way is with a 'that' subordinate clause. This is particularly when we want to paraphrase (express in different words) what somebody has said. Donna made out that she was an expert, but in fact she had no real experience. The company made out that their product was environmentally friendly, but it wasn't. Why did Tim make out that he owned the place? It was obvious that he didn't. Alex wasn’t trying to make out that he was innocent; he admitted everything. To make out to be... An alternative way to express this would be the construction 'to make out to be', which is commonly followed by a noun, an adjective or a combination of both. It is also possible to use a reflexive '-self' pronoun here to talk about how a person lies or exaggerates about themselves or their abilities in some way. They were making it out to be a serious problem, but it was a minor one at most. Who made it out to be such a big deal? Lucy made herself out to be the victim, even though she was the one who started the argument. Did Emily make herself out to be more qualified than she really is? To make out as if / as though / like.... We can use the phrases 'as though' and 'as if' as well as 'like' after 'make out' to describe false claims and fictional situations that people try to say are true. The managers made out as though they had solved the issue, but nothing had changed. Steve made out like he knew the manager personally, but it was all a lie. Sophie made out as if she had been seriously hurt, but it was just a small scratch. Bill’s making out as though he single-handedly saved the project, which simply isn’t true. To be made out to be.... Lastly, it is quite common to use the passive voice with this application of 'make out'. This is often when you are discussing the reputation that a person or a place has which is not true, exaggerated or undeserved. The passer-by was made out to be the villain, even though he tried to help. Carol was made out to be some kind of genius, but her work was average. The incident was made out to be more serious than it actually was. Los Angeles is made out to be this big, glamorous city but it didn't feel like that when I visited there. MEANING 3: To complete an official document Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To fill out, to fill in, to complete Separable? Yes Moving on to our third meaning of 'make out' now, which is one that is not as common as the first two but one that you may still hear nevertheless and means 'to complete an official document'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Cheque Form Document Application Receipt Card We can use this application of 'make out' for any paperwork on which we need to provide details in written or in text form. This mostly includes official forms and documents but can also be used with things like receipts and invoices. I would say that generally in British English, we are far more likely to use the synonym phrasal verbs 'fill out' and 'fill in' but in American English 'make out' is still fairly common. The cashier made out a receipt for my purchase. Sue made out the invoice and sent it to her customer. They made out the application in less than ten minutes. Poppy hasn't made out the form yet — it's still blank. Can you make out the order form before we leave? Who made out the invoice last time? GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY! In addition to those nouns already mentioned, when I think of this application of 'make out', one noun comes to mind immediately, which is 'cheque' (US check). When talking about cheques, we use 'make out' with the additional preposition 'to' in order to specify the person who will receive the money. Of course, the use of cheques is becoming less and less common as technology advances and banking is more and more electronic but just in case you do still use them, this may prove to be useful! Chuck made out a check for $500 to the contractor. Please make the cheque out to me. I made the cheque out to Mary Smith but she has changed her name to Mary Jones. Lastly, one unofficial document that we sometimes use 'make out' with is a card, such as a birthday or Christmas card. As with cheques, we use 'make out + to' to specify the person to whom we send the card. Who am I making the thank you card out to? I didn't make the card out to anyone in particular, just the team. MEANING 4: To be sexually intimate with someone Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Common Where is it used? American English Potential synonyms To kiss, to have sex Separable? No This next application of 'make out' is an American one that means 'to be sexually intimate with someone' and this may be one that you have heard if you watch a lot of English-language entertainment from the USA. As a native speaker of British English, I have known 'make out' in this sense for most of my life as American TV shows and movies are incredibly popular here, however I have to admit that I'd never been 100% sure exactly what it meant until I was researching this blog post. In some situations, it seemed to mean 'to kiss someone' and in others it seemed to mean 'to have sex with someone' and I was never certain. It turns out that it is both of these things and so I think to keep it simple, let's just say that it means 'to be sexually intimate with another person in any way'. Therefore, it can be used to describe anything ranging from kissing someone amorously (French kissing) to having sex, although it is used much more to describe kissing and foreplay. The central idea here is that there is sexual intent behind the action and so it would not be used to talk about kisses between family members or friends etc. As you can imagine, this one is heard a lot in the conversations of teenagers and young people. They were making out on the couch when their roommates walked in. Victoria caught her ex making out with someone new at the party. We spent most of the night just talking and making out. He bragged to his friends about making out with his crush after the party. The couple was making out in the back row of the movie theatre. Jack has never made out with a woman before. MEANING 5: To understand someone's character Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To work out, to understand Separable? Yes In the first application of 'make out' that we covered in this post, I explained how we use it to refer to something that is difficult for us to identify or understand and for this next application we are returning to that same idea. This time however we are talking about people and this is because this application means 'to understand someone's character'. The majority of the time, we use 'make out' in this way when we want to say that we do not understand why a person acts or behaves the way that they do. Alternatively, he or she may be quite mysterious or enigmatic and we may not know much about them or what their motives are. In these sorts of situations, it is possible to say that " we cannot make the person out ". This is in fact a less common synonym of the phrasal verb 'work out' (link here ), which we use to mean the same thing. On a grammatical note, we tend to use this application mainly in negative sentences and questions. I just can't make him out — he's so unpredictable. He's a bit strange sometimes, so it may take some time to make him out. She’s been here for weeks, and I still haven’t made her out. We couldn’t make him out at all; his actions didn’t match his words. Can you make him out? I can’t tell if he’s serious or just joking. Did you manage to make him out during the meeting? MEANING 6: To succeed in a situation Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? American English Potential synonyms To get on, to cope, to succeed Separable? No We will finish this post about the phrasal verb 'make out' with another American application that means 'to succeed in a situation'. To clarify, we can use 'make out' to talk about a person's progress with something such as a new job or a competition. Alternatively, we can use it to talk about how well someone is coping or dealing with the situation, which often tends to be something new in their lives. As people are often curious to learn how others are doing, this application is frequently heard in question form. Like I said before, this is an American usage not one that I would ever use in British English, so make sure you know your audience before using it! How are you making out in your new job? Despite the tough competition, she made out pretty well in the tournament. I heard your business is struggling. How are you making out these days? He didn't have much experience, but he made out better than expected. With all the chaos last year, we still made out okay in the end. 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 'make out'. 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 'make out'. 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 'let 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. In this article, I will be explaining all about the phrasal verb 'let in'. How well do you know it? Did you know that it has at least 4 different meanings and uses in English? Don't worry if you didn't because in this post I will explain each individual meaning, telling you when we use it and giving you lots of example sentences in context. So, without further ado, let's make a start.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Let In - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'let' and 'in' Let In - Meaning 1: To allow entry Let In - Meaning 2: To share secret information with someone Let In - Meaning 3: To embed something Let In - Meaning 4: To become involved in something difficult 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 LET IN: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 4 Past tense forms Let in / Let in Separable? Yes As many of you will know, all phrasal verbs are formed by combining a base verb with one or sometimes two prepositional particles. This combination becomes a new lexical unit with a distinct meaning or set of meanings to the component words, which is often confusing for English learners. As a first step in our exploration of the phrasal verb 'let in', let's therefore begin by examining the meanings of the base verb 'to let' and the particle 'in'. This will hopefully help you later in the post with some of the phrasal verb meanings that we look at. I imagine that many of you will already be very familiar with 'to let' as it is a common irregular verb in English. It has several meanings and uses but the most common one is the one that is very relevant for the phrasal verb 'let in', which is 'to allow something to happen'. My boss let me work from home yesterday. I don't let my cats in the bedroom. Just let it happen naturally. Do you let your children have a smartphone? I would do the work if my manager let me. The prepositional particle 'in' is one that we see very frequently in phrasal verb constructions and can often be used to add the idea of entry or movement towards the inside of something. Moreover, 'in' is used in phrasal verbs to add different ideas like involvement (join in), becoming popular ( come in ) and absorption ( take in ). So, now that we have covered the basics, let's now move onto the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'let in'.... MEANING 1: To allow entry Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To allow entry, to grant access, to admit, to welcome, to take in Separable? Yes We'll begin our exploration of the phrasal verb 'let in' with the literal meaning of the two words combined, which is also the most commonly used: 'to allow someone or something to enter somewhere'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Person Animals / Cat / Dog Light Air Water Heat / Cold Let's first think about letting people in. When I was a child, I clearly remember watching a horror movie (that I was forbidden to watch) and being terrified by a ghostly man begging the owners of a house to "let him in ", or in other words, 'to allow him entry into their house'. Thankfully, the homeowners did not let him in and I'm sharing this with you because when we use 'let someone in' in this way, it is often with people and buildings or rooms, with the action of letting someone typically involving opening a door to allow entry. Of course, the action of 'letting someone in' does not always involve door opening and can also be applied to public places and spaces like nightclubs, museums and theme parks in which people are authorised to enter by designated employees. We can also use it with websites and online accounts, for example if you enter the wrong password on a website, it will not let you in. We can also use it with animals. For example, I always let my cats in from the garden for dinner every evening after I have finished teaching. On a grammatical note, this usage is separable and it is possible to place a noun or pronoun between 'let' and 'in'. Emma opened the door to let the delivery man in. Can you let me in? I've forgotten my keys! They wouldn’t let us in to the concert without tickets. The guard let the students in after checking their IDs. Don't let the cat in; he has muddy paws! Arthur let his friend in through the back door. Pippa knocked loudly on the front door until someone let her in. You may have noticed in the list at the top of this application that we can also 'let in' other things besides living beings. Typically, these would be things like air, water and light that can pass into internal spaces through holes, gaps windows or even doors. For example, if you cut down a tree in your garden, it may let in more light into your house. Moreover, if you leave a window open on a cold day, it will let the cold in, which nobody wants. Opening the window will let in some fresh air. The curtains were drawn back to let in the morning sunlight. Don’t open the door; you’ll let in the cold. The cracks in the wall let a lot of noise in from outside. This skylight lets in plenty of natural light. The boat is letting in water due to a hole in the hull. She let the smell of flowers in by opening the patio door. MEANING 2: To share secret information with someone Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To share, to open up Separable? Yes Next up, we have our second meaning of 'let in', which is another one that takes the idea of permission from the verb 'to let' and means 'to share secret information with someone'. For this application, it is possible to use the additional preposition 'on' but this is not always necessary and there is in fact a very small difference in meaning when 'on' is used. I'll start with 'let in' is used without the word 'on'. This is typically in situations when a person who is usually shy or emotionally closed shares their personal thoughts and feelings with someone else, often making them feel vulnerable. The idea here is that they allow the other person in to their mind and thoughts, so that the other person knows what is going on with them when normally this is personal or secret information. It took me a long time to trust him enough to let Mark in. Louise never lets anyone in; she's afraid of getting hurt. You have to let people in if you want real connection. Ben tried to let her in, but he didn’t know how to express his feelings. As I mentioned, the other way to use this application of 'let in' is by adding the additional preposition 'on', giving us the construction 'to let someone in on something'. If you let someone in on something, you give them secret information that was previously unknown to them. The usual scenario for this is when some information is known by a small group of people and when someone lets another person in on it, they allow them to become part of this exclusive (and knowledgeable) group. I would say that this application is one that you are likely to hear in social groups and in casual everyday English conversations but its usually too informal to be used in business English or in the workplace. Specific scenarios in which you may hear it being said would be when organising something secret like a surprise birthday party, gossiping about something scandalous that has happened to a mutual friend or acquaintance and playing practical jokes which involve an element of secrecy. If you want to use this one, don't forget to only do it when sharing information that is secret or only known by a few people, typically in a social group. My parents finally let me in on the surprise party they’re planning for my sister. Can I trust you? I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Sue let him in on the details of the new project before it was announced. We let Victoria in on the joke after she looked confused for a while. Don’t let anyone in on this until we have a solid plan. The travel agents let us in on the deal early, so we got the best price. MEANING 3: To embed something Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To embed, to insert, to inset Separable? Yes Our third meaning of 'let in' is a rarer British meaning of the phrasal verb, which means 'to embed' or 'to insert something'. This particular application is a specialised one that is used mainly in the trades of construction, carpentry, engineering and other forms of manual labour. As such, this is one that I am not very familiar with as I am terrible at things like that. To clarify, if you let something in, you insert or embed it onto a surface, normally so that it sits level with the rest of the surface. The carpenter let in a metal plate to reinforce the joint. The electrician let in the wiring behind the wall to keep it hidden. He let in a brass strip along the edge of the table for decoration. A small glass panel was let into the wooden door to allow light through. MEANING 4: To become involved in something difficult Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To get involved in Separable? Always We've made it to our fourth and final meaning of the phrasal verb 'let in', which means 'to become involved with something difficult or unpleasant'. Although this is one of the more common meanings of 'let in', I've left it to last as it is more of a fixed expression that we use with the additional particle 'for' and the reflexive 'self' pronoun, typically taking the following construction.... 'to let oneself in for something' We use this particular expression when we decide to get involved in something or take a course of action but do not realise how difficult, challenging or unpleasant it will be. In other words, you take a course of action without realising the negative effects or consequences. As such, we can often use this particular application when there is an element of regret or surprise to something. Furthermore, you may hear people using it to talk about someone else who has chosen to do something that they may regret or find tough. I didn’t realise how much work the project would be; I’ve really let myself in for a challenging few months. Monica let herself in for a lot of stress by agreeing to organise the entire wedding. Jan didn’t know what he was letting himself in for when he volunteered to coach the team. I thought babysitting would be easy, but it turns out that I had let myself in for a weekend of chaos and stress. Jo and Pete had no idea what they were letting themselves in for when they adopted three puppies. You’ve let yourself in for a difficult semester by choosing all advanced courses. 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 'let 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 'let 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 'rip 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. 'Rip off' is an informal and relatively modern phrasal verb, whose roots ultimately go back to American prisons at the beginning of the twentieth century. Aside from its literal meaning, it has several idiomatic meanings that all derive from one central idea, which we will examine in this post. So, without further ado, let's get started.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Rip Off - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'rip' and 'off' Rip Off - Meaning 1: To remove by violently tearing Rip Off - Bonus: The idiom 'to rip off the band aid' Rip Off - Meaning 2: To steal something 🇺🇸 Rip Off - Meaning 3: To overcharge someone Rip Off - Meaning 4: To copy someone's work 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 RIP OFF: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 4 Past tense forms Ripped off / Ripped off Separable? Yes Before we look at the individual phrasal verb meanings of 'rip off', let's first take a quick look at the meanings of the individual words 'rip' and 'off'. Photo: Pexels 'To rip' is a verb with several meanings, but the main meaning that most of you are likely to be familiar with already is 'to pull something apart by using force, often in a quick and careless manner' and is similar in meaning to the verb 'to tear'. It is used primarily when referring to thin materials that can be split or pulled apart, such as paper, clothes and plastic bags and is usually a form of damage. Furthermore, 'to rip' also started being used in American prisons at the beginning of the twentieth century to mean 'to steal' and this usage is one that features heavily in the phrasal verb meanings of 'rip off'. We then have the prepositional particle 'off', which functions as the opposite of the preposition 'on' and has many different applications in English. When used as an adverb, 'off' can refer to something that is no longer contacting or touching a surface, or is no longer attached to something. So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'rip off'.... MEANING 1: To remove by violently tearing Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To tear off Separable? Yes The first meaning of 'rip off' is the literal meaning of the combination of the words 'rip' and 'off' that we have just looked at and is therefore 'to remove something in a violent manner, so that it is no longer attached'. As with the main meaning of the verb 'to rip', the action of 'ripping off' is usually done in a quick and violent manner. However, in contrast to the meaning of the verb 'to rip', the action of 'ripping off' is often done in an intentional way, with the sole desire of removing or detaching something and it does not always mean that the item is damaged as a result. That being said, it can also be used to describe when something has been damaged and the result is that a part of an item has been ripped off. Another way that 'rip off' is used in this way is in relation to a person's clothes. We can use 'rip off' with clothes when an item of clothing is pulled so much that it rips and is no longer able to be worn (think of the Incredible Hulk or Hulk Hogan). Alternatively, we can also use 'rip off' to describe when a person removes their clothes (or someone else's) in a quick and hasty way, normally without damaging the clothes. John ripped off a bit of paper towel to use to soak up the coffee that he had spilled. My new sweater doesn't fit me and I can't return it to the shop as I have ripped off the label! Roger and Helen ripped off each others' clothes in a moment of passion. BONUS: To rip off the band aid As you can probably imagine, this first meaning of 'rip off' can be used with band aids (plasters in UK) for when we need to remove one from our skin as quickly as possible so as not to prolong the pain and unpleasant feeling that removing a band aid can cause. However, 'ripping off the band aid' has also developed to become an idiomatic expression to describe when we carry out a horrible but necessary action in a quick way, so that the pain and fear surrounding it is as short as possible. In other words, we do something necessary, yet unpleasant, as quickly as possible so it is out of the way. It will be horrible confessing to your wife that you have lost your wedding ring but you just need to rip off the bandaid and get it over with! MEANING 2: To steal something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? American English Potential synonyms To steal, to pinch, to nick, to knock off Separable? Yes The second meaning of 'rip off' is to steal something. This is perhaps the rarest of the meanings of this phrasal verb that we will cover, however it provides the basis for the others that will follow and so logically it works better here. As you may recall from earlier in the post, the verb 'to rip' has been used in American prison slang to mean 'to steal' since the early twentieth century. The phrasal verb form 'rip off' then developed and evolved from this during the 1960s in African American vernacular to mean to steal from, or also to swindle or cheat, someone. For this usage, we use 'rip off' with a direct object, which is the item that is stolen, and this can go either between 'rip' and 'off' or after them without changing the meaning. John has just ripped off a couple of cans of lager from the local store. The seasoned criminals casually went into the boutique and ripped a pair of designer shoes off without the staff noticing. MEANING 3: To overcharge someone Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To overcharge Separable? Yes The third meaning of the phrasal verb 'rip off' is an informal usage that means 'to charge someone too much money for a product or service'. The idea behind this meaning links back to the previous one of theft that we have just looked at, however it develops this idea further to encapsulate the concepts of 'cheating' or 'swindling' someone by fraudulent methods. In modern English, when we say that someone has been 'ripped off', we mean that the person has paid too much money for a product or service and therefore they have been cheated or exploited by the vendor. Another way that this can be used is not when a person has been charged too much money for a product, but rather when the product that has been sold is broken or damaged in some way, thus continuing this central idea of cheating the buyer. Grammatically, when we use 'rip off' in this way, the victim of the cheating activity is the direct object and can go between or after 'rip' and 'off' as a proper noun or between them only as a pronoun. How much did you pay?! You've been well and truly ripped off! If you pay more than $5 for a loaf of bread, then you are being ripped off. The taxi driver rips tourists off all the time as they do not know their way around the city. I bought a new car last week but I think I have been ripped off as it has a lot of problems and faults that the seller did not tell me about. MEANING 4: To copy someone's work Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To plagiarise, to copy Separable? Yes Our fourth and final usage of 'rip off' is to 'copy someone's work', generally with the intention of presenting it as your own work. This can be in the form of written words, ideas, concepts or designs, however regardless of the form that it takes, the general concept is that one person's work has been imitated or copied, normally without their permission. Again, this takes us back to the root concept of 'theft', as this is essentially one person or company stealing the ideas and work from somebody else. As soon as I heard this new song, I could tell that the artist had ripped off an older song and didn't think that anyone would notice! Hey! Stop ripping off my work and think for yourself for a change! 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 'rip 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 'rip 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 'keep up' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Wix Media 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. 'Keep up' is a phrasal verb that I have wanted to write about on here for a long time as it is a really commonly used one in everyday English. Therefore, if you can learn to use it, you will definitely impress your English-speaking friends and colleagues. In this post, I will explain the different meanings that 'keep up' has and you give you lots of example sentences for each one to show you the kinds of contexts in which to use it. So, without further ado, let's make a start.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Keep Up - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'keep' and 'up' Keep Up - Meaning 1: To stop something from falling Keep Up - Meaning 2: To continue or maintain something Keep Up - Meaning 3: To move at the same speed Keep Up - Meaning 4: To stay updated about something Keep Up - Meaning 5: To make regular payments Keep Up - Meaning 6: To stop someone from going to bed Keep Up - Bonus: Common expressions featuring 'keep up' 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 KEEP UP: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 6 Past tense forms Kept up / Kept up Separable? Sometimes If you have visited my website before, you will know that to begin each post I always look at the individual words that form a phrasal verb, so let's now take a look at the words 'keep' and 'up' and what they mean on their own. 'To keep' is a common irregular English verb which has two main meanings. The first of its meanings is 'to have possession of something' and can be used for anything that we receive and choose not to give or sell to other people. The other main meaning of 'to keep' is 'to continue something' and is often combined with other verbs in the continuous ('ing) form to specify the action being continued. Aside from these two meanings, the verb 'to keep' can also mean 'to own animals', 'to delay someone' and 'to stay fresh'. I don't want the book back; you can keep it. I promise to keep this safe until you come back. Why do you keep lying to me? My cat keeps bringing me mice from the garden. We keep pigs and sheep on the farm. What is keeping John? Why is he so late? This food won't keep if it is left outside the fridge. Next, we have the prepositional particle 'up', whose function in phrasal verbs can often be to add the idea of an upwards direction or increase to the base verb ( go up , get up ). In addition to that, 'up' can also introduce different ideas to phrasal verbs like completion (use up), appearance ( show up ) and resistance ( stand up ), among others. So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'keep up'.... MEANING 1: To stop something from falling Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To prop up, to hold up, to uphold, to buttress, to support Separable? Yes Let's start the meanings of 'keep up' with the one that is closest to the literal meaning of the two words 'keep' and 'up' combined and that is 'to stop something from falling'. For this application, we are taking the idea of continuation that we get from the verb 'to keep' and combining it with the idea of a high position that we get from the word 'up', creating the idea of not letting something fall or drop from the high position that it is in. Ben used a stick to keep up the collapsing tent. Lorraine held the ladder steady to keep Mike up while he fixed the gutter. The old shelf is barely kept up by a single rusty bracket. Cyril tried to keep up the sagging ceiling with a makeshift support beam. We stacked books underneath the bed frame to keep it up after one of the legs broke. Paul had to put on a belt in order to keep his loose trousers up. One particular use of this application that is worth mentioning here is to do with football (soccer) and is something that many players of the sport do as a practice exercise. When they bounce the ball continuously on their knees, head or other body part without letting the ball drop to the ground, we say that they are keeping the ball up. This particular activity even has its own (unimaginative) name, which is keepie uppie....look it up if you don't believe me! During one of his training sessions, Kevin managed to keep the ball up for three minutes without dropping it. MEANING 2: To continue or maintain something Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To continue, to maintain, to sustain, to uphold, to perpetuate Separable? Yes The second application of 'keep up' that we will cover in the post is a continuation of the first one that we just covered and coincidentally means 'to continue or maintain something'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Quality Spirits Strength Effort Morale Weather Traditions In the previous section, we looked at how we can use 'keep up' to refer to making physical objects stay in a high position. Now, we turn our focus to more abstract or non-physical nouns like levels, numbers or figures and keeping these high These levels may be something measurable, like prices or numerical values, or they may be something like 'effort' or 'quality', which are based on judgment rather than values (when high means good). By ensuring that a level of something remains high, we arrive at this idea of continuation. Please note that we only tend to use 'keep up' in this way with nouns and not verbs. If you want to express a continuing verb action, then the phrasal verb 'keep on' (link here ) would possibly be used instead. Sue worked overtime to keep up her income after losing a client. They raised interest rates to keep up the value of the currency. We launched a new campaign to keep sales up during the off-season. Keep up the good work! Some common nouns that are used with this particular application are 'strength', 'morale' and 'spirits'. For example, if you are running a marathon, you may take an energy drink with you to keep up your strength over the 26-mile course. Likewise, if you are in a good mood on a Sunday evening, you may listen to some music to keep your spirits up and not allow your mood to drop as Monday morning gets closer (we all know that feeling!). Lastly, it is essential that soldiers fighting in a war keep their morale (mood) up as a group. The government introduced new policies to keep up public morale during the crisis. Despite the bad reviews, the company tried to keep up its reputation. You need to keep your strength up, so drink this. He struggled to keep up his enthusiasm after so many setbacks. We spent the evening with Kath to keep her spirits up. Moreover, this application of 'keep up' can also simply be used to mean 'to continue something that has already been started', not always with a specific emphasis on a continuation of a high level or quality. Many green-fingered people also enjoy keeping up their gardens. I started learning Portuguese but I didn't keep it up as I found it difficult. Lisa is sure to keep her diet up as she wants to lose weight before her holiday in August. Gladys and Beryl have kept up their gardens ever since their husbands died last year. It is hard to keep up the maintenance of the building when you have a full time job and children to look after. Lastly, we can also use 'keep up' in this way to talk about things continuing which are outside of our control, such as the weather and other people's behaviour. If the snow keeps up, we will have to leave soon to make sure we get home. The neighbour's dog kept up it's barking last night and I couldn't sleep. MEANING 3: To move at the same speed Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To match, to compete, to contend, to vie with, to equal, to keep pace with Separable? No We now move on to our third meaning of 'keep up', which is probably the most common of all of its meanings: 'to move at the same speed as someone or something'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Car Person Conversation Emails Workload Progress This application of 'keep up' is, at its core, all about two or more people or things which are moving in the same direction or following the same path. One of them is the leader or the one in control of the movement in some way; the other are the people or things trying to maintain the same speed and it is from their perspective that we use 'keep up' here. Note that for this application that we require the additional preposition 'with' to specify the name of the person or thing in the lead or in control of the movement. If you keep up with someone or something, you stay at the same level as them or equal to them. As you can imagine, this application is often used to refer to walking, driving, running and races of all types. Rebecca walks so fast that I find it difficult to keep up with her. The younger soccer players struggled to keep up with the pace of the game. You’ll have to walk faster if you want to keep up; I'm not going to slow down. My old car couldn’t keep up with the others on the highway. Pete trains every day to keep up with the rest of the team. I was running as fast as I could, but I couldn’t keep up with Tony. Even on his bike, Wayne couldn’t keep up with the speeding truck. We do not just use 'keep up' in this way to talk about physical movement however. You can also hear it in reference to nouns for things that we need to follow and respond to in order to always be up to date or have all of the latest information, like 'workload', 'emails' and 'conversations'. For these things, the emails, workload or conversation are the things that are progressing and so we use 'keep up' in the exact same way to talk about staying at the same pace as them and not falling behind. It's hard to keep up with all the emails I get every day. Elisabeta couldn't keep up with the English conversation because they were talking too fast. The office had to hire more staff to help keep up with the increasing workload. Suzanne struggled to keep up with the demands of her new job. It’s difficult to keep up with everything when you’re juggling work and family. KEEP UP! Lastly, if you are not following a conversation closely and you miss important information, your fellow interlocutors may tell you to 'keep up!' once they realise that you have not been following what they have been saying. MEANING 4: To stay updated about something Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To stay up to date, to compete Separable? No One thing that is certain in life is that things are constantly changing and nothing ever stays the same; whether that be on a worldwide scale or in the small details of our daily lives. In order to talk about staying ahead of these changes, we need a verb. This is where our fourth meaning of 'keep up' comes in as it means 'to stay updated about something'. Just as we talked about using 'keep up' to refer to moving at the same pace as things like emails and conversations, we can also use it for anything that changes or develops over time, which we are not always directly involved in. On a large scale, if we keep up with the news, we are always aware of the latest developments on a national or international level. Likewise, someone who keeps up with technology will always have the most modern equipment and will understand how it works. You can use this for anything that changes over time though, for example older people often find it difficult to keep up with changes in language, social trends and fashion, whilst many people are not able to keep up with changes in law and legislation in their countries. I always try to keep up with the latest tech trends by reading industry blogs. It's hard to keep up with all the new features they add every month. Liz keeps up with current events by watching the news every morning. To keep up with your studies, you should review your notes daily. Joe subscribes to newsletters to keep up with developments in artificial intelligence. We've launched a podcast to help professionals keep up with changes in their field. Are you keeping up with the latest updates on the trial? I find it challenging to keep up with social media these days. I can't keep up with all the new slang my kids are using. When considering things on a smaller scale, we can often use this application of 'keep up' to talk about staying updated on all of the changes that happen in the lives of our friends and family members. I can't keep up with Sandy and all her boyfriends; she seems to have a new one every week! I've been keeping up with what they have been doing on holiday on social media. Alternatively, if you work for a business in a specific field of industry, you will undoubtedly have competitors in the market and it is a key objective of all businesses to at least keep up with their competitors (or hopefully get ahead of them) and ensure that the are ahead of the pack. Keeping up with the competition requires constant innovation. If you don't keep up with your competitors, you will immediately be at a disadvantage. MEANING 5: To make regular payments Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To maintain Separable? Yes Our next meaning of 'keep up' is a more specific one and means 'to make regular payments'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Credit card Mortgage Rent Loan Debt For this one, we are primarily concerned with situations in which we commit to a payment agreement such as credit and must therefore make regular payments over a period of time to pay this credit amount off. If you keep up with the payments, it means that you make your regular payments at the required time and do make late payments or miss them completely. On a grammatical level, we require the additional preposition 'with' again here to specify the financial agreement or debt. This is a separable usage, however it is used more commonly in an inseparable way. Note that if you do use it separably, the word 'payment' (or similar) should be included along with the finance type e.g. 'mortgage payment' and the preposition 'with' is then not required. It's been tough, but I've managed to keep up with my mortgage payments. If you don’t keep up with your credit card bills, you’ll get charged interest. Fiona is struggling to keep up with her student loan repayments. They warned him that if he couldn't keep up with the rent, he might be evicted. He works two jobs just to keep up with his car payments. You need to keep up with your insurance premiums to stay covered. They were unable to keep the monthly payments up on the loan. We need to budget better if we want to keep up with all our bills. What happens if I can't keep my mortgage repayments up? As long as you keep up with the payments, your account will remain in good standing. MEANING 6: To stop someone from going to bed Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To keep awake Separable? Yes We have now reached our sixth and final meaning of 'keep up' and this one is all about bed and sleep as it means 'to stop someone from going to bed'. The word 'up' has many different uses and meanings in English depending on the context and one quite common usage is when we use it as an adverb to mean 'not in bed'. For example, a friend called me by accident at 7am last week but it was not a problem as I was already up and having breakfast, i.e. I wasn't still in bed sleeping. When we combine this idea with the verb 'to keep' meaning 'to continue', we arrive at the idea of stopping someone from going to bed so that they continue to be 'up'. This may be because you have a small baby who is crying and won't sleep, guests at your house who stay later than you hoped or because your teenage son or daughter is out late and you want to wait for them to get home before going to bed. In addition to preventing someone from going to bed, we can also use 'keep up' in this way to talk about stopping someone from sleeping, especially if it is due to noise, worry or stress. On a grammatical level, this application is almost always used separably with the person who stays up going between 'keep' and 'up' either as a name or a pronoun. Don't forget that this usage is transitive and something always has to keep a person up normally against their wishes. If the person chooses not to go to bed, we would use 'stay up' instead. The noise from the party next door kept me up all night. Sorry if I kept you up with my late-night phone call. The baby’s crying kept the new parents up for hours. I didn’t mean to keep you up; go and get some rest. The thunderstorm kept me up until 3 a.m. That scary movie really kept me up last night. I hate to keep you up, but can we talk for a few more minutes? The excitement of the trip kept the kids up way past bedtime. Paul was kept up by anxiety about his big interview the next day. The bright streetlights outside our window kept us up all night. Photo: Pexels BONUS: Common Expressions Featuring 'Keep Up' We have almost finished our exploration of the phrasal verb 'keep up' and there are just a couple of expressions that I want to make you aware of before the end.... Keeping up with the Joneses - This rather strange sounding expression is one that is used fairly commonly to talk about when people compete with one another to always have the most modern equipment and cars etc in order to be better than the other people in your neighbourhood or group of friends. John and Sandra didn’t really need a new car, but they bought one anyway just to keep up with the Joneses as their neighbours have just bought one. Keeping up with the Joneses has left the Smith family drowning in debt. Keeping up appearances - This expression is used to talk about people who pretend that they are happy in front of other people or that everything is normal when that is not the case. In other words, they do not want to show others how sad they really are or how bad their situation in life really is. Even though they were struggling financially, the Smith family kept up appearances by hosting lavish dinners. Lisa was heartbroken after the divorce, but she kept up appearances at work, smiling and pretending that nothing had happened. Keep your chin up! - If someone tells you to 'keep your chin up", what they actually mean is 'to stay happy or cheerful', typically when the situation is unpleasant or difficult. It is a statement of support of the person, acknowledging that are experiencing a hard time. Keep your chin up; everyone believes in you, and you’re stronger than you think. Marie told me to keep my chin up after I didn’t get the job I really wanted. 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 'keep 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 'keep 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 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. Are you already familiar with the phrasal verb 'give out'? Even if you are, it may surprise you that it can be used in English in no less than 6 different ways! In this post, we will examine the different ways to use it in English, from commonly meanings such as distributing something by hand to the less common and regional meaning of reprimanding someone. So, without further ado, let's get started.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Give Out - The Basics: Key information and the words 'give' and 'out' Give Out - Meaning 1: To distribute by hand Give Out - Bonus Information: Giving out punishment Give Out - Meaning 2: To emit Give Out - Meaning 3: To stop functioning Give Out - Meaning 4: To be completely used up Give Out - Meaning 5: To broadcast Give Out - Meaning 6: To reprimand 🇮🇪 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 OUT: KEY INFORMATION Usage Medium Number of meanings 6 Past tense forms Gave out / Given out Separable? Sometimes Before we look at the different meanings of 'give out', it is a good idea to familiarise ourselves with the constituent words 'give' and 'out', as this can often apply some much needed logic to the phrasal verb's meanings. The verb 'to give' is one that you will definitely know already and primarily means to freely and willingly transfer the possession of something to another person. This is not the only meaning of 'to give' however and another of its meanings is 'to yield under pressure', which was historically used for people who owed money and only paid it back after being pressured (or threatened). Nowadays though it tends to be used more for the physical world around us for things that can bend or break when pressure is applied to them. Furthermore, another much less common meaning of 'to give' that is relevant for 'give out' is 'to produce a sound, especially from your mouth e.g. a cough or a sigh'. We then have the prepositional particle 'out', which is the natural opposite of the preposition 'in' and is used for external spaces and movement towards an external space from an internal one. Moreover, we can also use it to describe movement away from the speaker or the subject of the conversation. Aside from these key meanings, 'out' is a very diverse word and can be used as an adverb, adjective and verb for different purposes. So, now we have looked at the meanings of its component words, let's take a look at the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'give out'... MEANING 1: To distribute by hand Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To distribute, to hand out, to pass out, to pass around, to issue Separable? Yes The first meaning of 'give out' is to distribute something by hand and is normally used when talking about giving items to a group of people rather than to an individual. This first meaning is perhaps the closest to a literal meaning of 'give out' that we have as it describes the action of giving objects away other to people, with the idea that the items in question move away from the speaker as they are passed into the hands of the recipients. It is worth noting that the usage of 'give out' in this sense is more much specific than that of 'to give' as we only use 'give out' when we talk about passing items to people by hand. Also, in contrast to the verb 'to give', 'give out' does not necessarily mean that the recipient will own the new item as it may be just temporary, for example when safety glasses are given out to people on a factory visit. This application of 'give out' is frequently used with identical or similar items that are duplicated or mass produced for many people to use or consume, including paper documents, things to eat or drink or items of clothing. Another time that you will hear 'give out' used in this way in English is around Christmas when people talk about Santa Claus giving out presents to well-behaved children (in this case not by hand). With this meaning, the item that is given out to people is a direct object and can therefore be inserted between 'give' and 'out' or after them. At the beginning of the exam, the teacher gave out the wrong exam papers to the students. John, could you please give the textbooks out to the rest of the class. Free cakes are being given out outside the bakery. You'd best hurry though as they are almost all gone! Photo: Pexels BONUS: To give out punishment Another way that you may hear 'give out' in this sense is when talking about the issuing of punishments, penalties and fines. Although we often do not physically hand objects directly to people in this instance, 'give out' is still used to describe when these punitive sanctions are issued by an authority. The judge gave out a sentence of life imprisonment to the convicted felon. Teachers should only give out punishment when the student really deserves it. MEANING 2: To emit Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate ​Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To emit, to send forth, to discharge, to release Separable? Yes The second meaning of 'give out' that we will look at means 'to emit' and is used primarily with non-physical nouns that are detected by our senses, such as sound, light and smell. As a general rule, I would say that this meaning of 'give out' is used most commonly in everyday language to describe noises that we make with our voices such as screams, sighs and cries. Aside from this, we do also use 'give out' for other noises, smells, lights and gases that are emitted and produced and due to their nature, these can often feature in more conversations about more scientific and technical topics. As with most phrasal verbs though, 'give out' is slightly informal and so for very formal documents and scientific papers you are more likely to come across a synonym such as 'to emit'. On a grammatical note, 'give out' in this sense is separable, however we naturally do not tend to separate it very much. Helen gave out a squeal of joy when she realised that Roger had bought her a puppy for her birthday. The sun gives out an enormous amount of light, heat and energy every second. I bought a cheap pair of earbuds last week and I was really pleasantly surprised to discover that the sound that they give out is brilliant quality. Plants take in carbon dioxide and give out oxygen. MEANING 3: To stop functioning Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To break down, to fail, to collapse Separable? No The third meaning of 'give out' is 'to stop functioning' and can be used for both people and equipment alike. When talking about equipment and devices, we can use 'give out' to mean that something has stopped working and this is often (but not always) used when the malfunction is permanent and the equipment will not work again, for example because it is old or overused. You may hear this being used with such items as an engine, batteries and household devices. As I mentioned above, we can also use 'give out' in this way for people, however it is not used to talk about an entire person, but rather a specific body part such as internal organs or legs. In some cases, such as a heart or a liver, we will say that the internal organ 'gave out' and we infer directly from this that the person died as a result. When talking about other parts of the body e.g. legs, we know that the person probably didn't die as a consequence, but it may nevertheless have had some other negative ramification for them. This form of 'give out' is not separable and does not take a direct object and the device or body part in question is the subject. I had my car for 22 years before the engine finally gave out and I had to replace it. The batteries are about to give out on our remote control and will need changing soon. The doctor says that my grandfather doesn't have much time left until his heart gives out, but he refuses to accept it and carries on like he did before. John's legs gave out just before the finishing line of the 10km race and his friends had to help him finish. MEANING 4: To be completely used up Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To run out, to exhaust, to deplete Separable? No The fourth meaning of 'give out' is used to describe supplies of something and means 'to be completely used up or exhausted'. This sense is very similar to that of the phrasal verb 'run out' and if you want to refresh your memory on that, click here . As I mentioned above, this is used for supplies of something and so therefore is typically reserved for nouns for objects that we store and which can be depleted over time until we have none left such as grain, food, fresh water and gas. This is not the a particularly commonly used meaning of 'give out', however it does still exist in everyday English and therefore you may come across it somewhere. After three days of trekking through the jungle, our food gave out and we had to hunt for our own food for the remainder of the trip. The farmer doesn't expect his grain supplies to give out any time soon, but he always buys extra just in case. MEANING 5: To broadcast Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To broadcast, to make public Separable? Yes For the last two meanings of 'give out', we are going to be focusing on usages that are more specific to the British Isles and this fifth one, meaning 'to broadcast', is one that is primarily used in British English. In addition to this usage being localised to British English, it is also quite old-fashioned, however I want to make you aware of it as there are still some vestiges of it that continue to exist in modern English. So, the construction 'to give out that...' is a slightly archaic construction to mean 'to make something public' but we do not really use it much in that way anymore. We still do use 'give out' with nouns such as 'news' and 'information' though as a way of saying that they were communicated to people and in this sense this meaning still lives on in modern British English. Cheers of joy could be heard from every corner of the city when it was given out that the war had ended. I had to give out the terrible news that jobs were being cut in the business and that there would be redundancies. MEANING 6: To reprimand Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Irish English Potential synonyms To reprimand, to scold, to criticise, to complain Separable? No The sixth and final meaning of 'give out' that we will look at in this post is an informal Irish usage and means to reprimand, scold, criticise or complain to someone. As you can probably work out from the different meanings, it is generally associated with being angry or annoyed with another person and is frequently accompanied by the additional preposition ' to ' when specifying the recipient of the person's anger. My schoolteacher used to give out to me all the time for talking in class. Lisa's teenage daughter got home later last night and so she's been giving out to her about it all day. 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 out'. 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 out'. 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 'turn around' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Wix Media 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. This post is all about the English phrasal verb 'turn around', which is one that you may know as it is used commonly by native speakers in everyday conversations. In the post, I will explain the different meanings that it has, including some useful applications of it to use in business English. Furthermore, I will give you lots of example sentences to show you the types of context in which this practical phrasal verb is used. So, without further ado, let's make a start.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Turn Around - The Basics: Key information and the words turn' and 'around' Turn Around - Bonus: Is it 'turn around' or 'turn round'? Turn Around - Meaning 1: To rotate Turn Around - Meaning 2: To drastically improve something Turn Around - Meaning 3: To change the perspective of something Turn Around - Meaning 4: To supply or produce something Turn Around - Meaning 5: To prepare something for use Turn Around - Meaning 6: To quote what someone said or did Turn Around - Bonus: The noun 'turnaround' 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 TURN AROUND: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 6 Past tense forms Turned around / Turned around Separable? Yes The first step in our exploration of the phrasal verb 'turn around' will be to look at 'turn' and 'around' as individual words and consider they mean on their own. The verb 'to turn' is an extremely versatile word in English that can be used in many different ways and situations. It is perhaps used the most to talk about movement in a direction, either when this movement is circular or if there is a change in direction. Alternatively, we can also use 'to turn' to talk about changing something (often in phrasal verbs) and to flip something from one side to the other, among other things. The Earth turns on its axis at a very high speed. Carrie turned to face her mother. Turn right at the traffic lights. The weather is turning and winter is coming. Christine turned her back on her friends. The prepositional particle 'around' is not one that we see being used in phrasal verbs very often, especially when compared to particles like 'on' and 'up'. The particle 'around' is used as a preposition and adverb to denote different types of movement: in a circle, around the edge of something or moving to face the opposite direction. When used in phrasal verbs, 'around' can add ideas of movement in multiple directions or to different places (run around), wasting time (mess around), reversal (come around) and avoidance ( get around ), among others. So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the rather splendid phrasal verb 'turn around'.... Photo: Pexels BONUS: Is it 'turn around' or 'turn round'? As English learners, many of you may have noticed 'get round' being used as an alternative to 'get around'. It is possible therefore that you are wondering if there is any difference between the two forms and why some people use one and not the other? The simple answer is that there is no difference between them and you can use either of these. 'Get around' is used pretty much everywhere, however 'get round' is mainly used in British English...perhaps we are just too lazy to pronounce the extra 'a' here in the UK 🤷 MEANING 1: To rotate Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To rotate, to spin, to turn Separable? Yes Here we go then, let's start things off by considering the literal meaning of the combination of the words 'turn' and 'around' as outlined above, which is 'to rotate', or in other words 'to move in order to face a different direction'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Planets / Earth Records / Discs Cogs Wheel Furniture Car / Airplane Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about this application of 'turn around' is the Earth (unless you believe that the Earth is flat of course). Our lovely little planet is constantly turning around on its axis in a circular direction, giving us morning, afternoon, evening and night. Examples of other nouns for things that turn around are records and discs, food in microwaves, cogs, wheels and clock hands. My fan turned around slowly as it oscillated. The windmill turned around steadily in the fresh breeze. The clock's second hand turned around smoothly. Isaac's toy top turned around rapidly on the floor. John watched as the food turned around in the microwave as it cooked In addition to physical objects, we can also use 'turn around' to describe when people and animals rotate in a circular direction. Most of the time, we use it to refer to when they turn  in a half turn (180°) to face the opposite direction from the one that they were facing before. Moreover, it is also possible to hear it in reference to complete turns (360°) and anything else in between as long as there is some rotation and you are not facing the same way. as when you started. Beth heard a noise behind her and turned around. When I called Mike's name, he turned around and smiled. Bingo the dog turned around three times before lying down. I told Anthony to turn around and face the wall. As I walked past, Phil suddenly turned around and stared at me. The dancer turned around gracefully on stage. Turn around slowly; I want to see all of your outfit! For those among you who love your grammar, you may have noticed that in all of the example sentences so far, 'turn around' is used intransitively. In other words, the thing or person that is turning around is the subject and we are not stating who or what causes this spinning action. We can of course also use this application to talk about making or causing something to face a different direction. Typically, we do this when referring to household items and furniture that we can physically pick up and move so that they face a different direction. In addition, we use it for vehicles and modes of transport, however we when we do this, a movement in the opposite or return direction is also usually implied. Amanda turned the chair around to face the window. Carly turned the sign around so the message was visible. I turned the picture frame around because it was crooked. Malcolm turned the box around to read the label. At 9am, the shopkeeper turned the door sign around to display the word "open". They turned the table around in order to fit it better into the room. Lydia turned the mirror around to avoid looking into it. The driver turned the car around and went back home. The plane turned around shortly after take-off. If you kids do not stop arguing, I will turn the car around and we will head back home. MEANING 2: To drastically improve something Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To improve, to rectify, to redress, to straighten out Separable? Yes Our second meaning of 'turn around' is 'to drastically improve something' and is one that you may often hear in both business and everyday English. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Business / Organisation Economy Life Game / Match To be able to understand this application a bit better, we need to use our imagination to think about how something progressing over time as a sort of journey. As with vehicles, which move in a direction towards a geographical direction, we can also imagine the progress of something moving over time towards an expected future result or outcome. If we change the direction of this movement so that a different result is expected, we can say that we '"turned it around". You should note that this is typically used when the result of something is completely changed from an expected negative outcome to an expected positive one. Most commonly, you will hear this application when talking about businesses, organisations and financial economies. If someone turns a business around, he or she makes changes to the business to reverse it's fortune, changing it from a company that is losing money or failing into a successful company that makes money. The new CEO turned the company around in just one year. Joe and Kathy hired a consultant to help turn around their declining sales. Charlotte turned the struggling restaurant around and made it profitable. We need a solid strategy to turn this project around. An emergency loan helped them turn the business around. Outside of the business world, this application of 'turn around' can be used for anything that is declining or not going well over a period of time. Perhaps the most frequent scenarios are to talk about sports matches and life in general. If something happens to turn a sports game around, the team that is losing at an early stage of the game will score goals or points to take the lead and therefore completely reverse the outcome of the game. Likewise, if something turns your life around, it completely transforms your life from one that is hard or unhappy into a happy and healthy life. It is of course also possible to turn your own life around, often by hard work and determination. His leadership turned the team around after a losing season. The coach turned the program around and took them to the championships. The introduction of the substitute turned the game around and the team went from being 1-0 down to 2-1 ahead. After years of being stuck in the same job with no prospects, I decided to turn my life around and started a university degree. MEANING 3: To change the perspective of something   Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To change perspective Separable? Yes Let's move on to our third meaning of 'turn around' now, which is rarer than the first two that we have looked at and means 'to change the perspective of something'. This usage is a nice and simple one, which links nicely to the first two and simply just means 'to see something from another person's perspective or from another angle'. In other words, 'to change the way you view something'. Furthermore, we can also use this one to mean to change the way you think about something or approach it, often to give you a different answer to the one you already have. Try to turn around the situation and see it from Claire's point of view. When I turned the issue around, I quickly realised I was partly to blame. If we turn the argument around, his actions might actually start to make sense. Let’s turn it around for a second; what if they were right all along and we were wrong? You have to turn your thinking around if you want to see the full picture. MEANING 4: To supply or produce something Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Common - Business English Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To supply, to produce, to generate Separable? Yes For our fourth meaning of 'turn around', we are heading back to the world of business English again as this one means 'to produce' or 'to supply'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Order Report Proposal Design With this application, we can refer to any output from a business, whether that be a manufactured product or a service. If a business turns something around, then it creates or produces it. The thing to note with this application however is that when we use it, we normally state a time period in which the business must or had to provide the product or service. Therefore, you will find that speakers will mainly use 'turn around' when they want to talk about when a business does this in a very short period of time, which is often viewed as challenging, difficult or impressive. I would say that in other, more normal, circumstances when time is not such an important factor, an alternative verb like 'to produce' would be preferred instead. We can turn around the report by Friday if everyone sticks to the schedule. The design team turned around the mock-ups in just 24 hours in order to win the order. How fast can you turn around the edits on this video? There is just no way that we can turn an order of that size around in a week. Our bakers can turn around large orders of over 500 loaves of bread in less than a day. Thanks for turning that proposal around so quickly; we really needed it. MEANING 5: To prepare something for use Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To prepare, to clean up Separable? Yes The next meaning of 'turn around' that we will look at is 'to prepare something for people to use' and is specifically heard when the thing being prepared has previously been used by other people. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Room Airplane Train Car Have you ever taken a flight before and noticed how quickly the flight crew prepare the airplane after the previous flight so that it is ready for you and your fellow passengers to board? It is normally very quick, particularly with low-cost airlines, however the time is not the important thing here; what is important is that this action of preparing the aircraft for use after previous passengers is known as 'turning around'. We say in this situation that the flight crew and ground staff are turning the plane around ready for the next flight. We are not just limited to airplanes with this usage though and we can use it for any time something is cleaned or tidied up after being used, ready for the next people to use it. You should note however that we only tend to use it to talk about commercial settings, i.e. when someone is paying for a service. The cleaning staff needs at least 30 minutes to turn the hotel room around before the next guest arrives. We have to turn around the conference hall quickly before the next session starts. The flight crew turned around the aircraft in record time so it could depart on schedule. There's only a short window to turn the rental car around before the next customer picks it up. The theatre employees turned the dressing rooms around between shows to accommodate the new cast. MEANING 6: Used to quote what someone said or did Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To say, to tell Separable? No After reading the title of this section, you are likely to be thinking that the next meaning of 'turn around' is 'to quote what someone said or did'. Do not be fooled by that as this is not the case; we actually use 'turn around' as a way of quoting what someone did or said. I imagine that this sounds very strange to you, so let me explain..... Often in informal conversations, English native speakers use the phrasal verb 'turn around' + the word 'and + a verb' to quote what another person has said. This is particularly the case when the person says something unexpected, shocking or without caring about how other people would react to it. It is used as a way of adding extra dramatic emphasis to a story or gossip etc and I hear it in informal conversations ALL THE TIME. I have absolutely no idea why we use it in this way, especially as most of the time nobody is physically turning around in the true sense, but we do. Any ideas, please write them in the comments and enlighten me! Out of nowhere, Sally turned around and said, "Let’s move to Spain!". I made a suggestion and he turned around and snapped, "Nobody asked you". I helped Barry all day and he turned around and said thatI hadn't done anything. I was trying to be nice, and Mary turned around and snapped, "Why are you even here?" Last night, my mum turned around and told me that she and my Dad are getting divorced. George turned around to his boss and said, 'You know what? I quit". Then Eric turned around and yelled, 'Don’t ever talk to me like that again!'. Photo: Pexels BONUS: The noun 'turnaround' I couldn't finish the post without writing about the noun 'turnaround' that was derived from the phrasal verb. When used as a noun, 'turnaround' has several meanings, all of which come directly from the phrasal verb meanings that we have already discussed in the post. The first and most common one links back to the second meaning of the phrasal verb, 'to drastically improve something' and is therefore used to describe a big improvement in something, where the expected outcome changes from a negative one to a positive. After several difficult years, the company's financial turnaround surprised all the investors. Pamela's health showed a dramatic turnaround after the new treatment. After a series of losses, Chelsea FC's sudden turnaround was remarkable. Another fairly common meaning of 'turnaround' is directly linked to the fourth application that we covered and is used to talk about the time that it takes to produce or supply something. Like with the phrasal verb, this one is common in business English to talk about commercial transactions and orders etc. The standard turnaround for printing orders is 72 hours. Please note that due to high demand, the turnaround time for custom furniture has increased to three weeks. The customer was impressed by our quick turnaround on the design revisions. Lastly, you may also hear the noun 'turnaround' in reference to the fifth meaning in the post (to make something ready for use) as it can be used to talk about the period of time spent preparing something for other people to use. This is especially common with airplanes. The plane had a quick turnaround at Heathrow Airport before its next flight. Ship turnarounds at the port have become faster thanks to the new loading system. We need to reduce the turnaround of rental cars to keep up with the increasing demand. 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 'turn around'. 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 'turn around'. 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