An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'lay 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. Have you ever heard of the phrasal verb 'lay off' before? Did you know that there are at least three different ways to use it in English? In this post, I will explain each of these different ways for you, from terminating someone's employment to passing a ball in a football game. I will also provide you with lots of examples of each usage, so that you can start using it in your English conversations and show how skilled you are with English phrasal verbs 😊 So, let's get started and see what the phrasal verb 'lay off' is all about.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Lay Off - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'lay' and 'off' Lay Off - Meaning 1: To terminate someone's employment Lay Off - Meaning 2: To stop doing or consuming something Lay Off - Meaning 3: To pass a ball to a teammate 🇬🇧 Lay Off - Bonus: The noun 'lay-off' 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 LAY OFF: KEY INFORMATION Usage Medium Number of meanings 3 Past tense forms Laid off / Laid off Separable? Sometimes I know that you are here to learn more about the phrasal verb 'lay off' but before we get started with that, let's first take a moment to familiarise ourselves with the individual words 'lay' and 'off'. Lay - The verb 'to lay' is a confusing one because it is easy to mix it up with the verb 'to lie', especially when used in the past tense. We use this verb to mean 'to put something or someone in a horizontal position or on its side' and both of its past tense forms are 'laid'. The verb 'to lie', on the other hand, is used to mean to put yourself in a horizontal position and, to make things more complicated, it's simple past form is 'lay' 🤦 . If you ever mix these up when speaking English, do not worry as you are not alone; I hear native speakers making this mistake all the time! I need to lay the table for dinner. We need to lay the baby down to sleep. My colleague laid all of her documents over my desk while I was in a meeting. Susan laid a blanket on the floor for the dog to sleep on. Off - The prepositional particle 'off' is a word that is used a lot in everyday English for a variety of different purposes. It functions as the natural opposite of the particle 'on' and it can therefore be used to describe things that are not operational, not working or not in contact with a specific surface, to name a few. When used in phrasal verbs, 'off' can add various ideas, which include separation ( break off ), removal ( take off ), deactivation (turn off) and reaction ( go off ), among others. So, now that we have looked at the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'lay off'.... MEANING 1: To terminate someone's employment Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To sack, to fire, to make redundant Separable? Yes The first of the applications of the phrasal verb 'lay off' that we will look at is arguably the most common and means 'to terminate someone's employment'. If you know anything about economics, you will be well aware that the economies of individual countries (and the world) go up and down over time. When economies are strong, there are usually lots of jobs for people and unemployment levels are low but when economies are not doing well, it can result in many companies terminating a lot of their worker's employment; when they do this, we can say " the companies lay the workers off ". We typically use 'lay off' in this way to talk about any time that a company is no longer able to employ a worker. This isn't always because the economy is bad; it can also be caused by changes in the industry or sector that a company is involved in, structural changes to the business or just a lack of work for an employee to do. 'Lay off' is normally used for these reasons and not for when an employee behaves in an improper or unacceptable way. This action of laying someone off can be done on either a permanent or temporary basis. On a grammatical level, this application of 'lay off' is separable. You should note however that if you are using a pronoun (him, her), it must go between 'lay' and 'off'. The company had to lay off 200 employees after profits dropped. Monica was laid off when the factory where she worked closed last year. Due to budget cuts, several teachers were laid off at the end of the last school term. Paul was laid off, but luckily he quickly found another job. The airline temporarily laid off hundreds of workers during the Covid pandemic. After the merger, many employees were laid off. Debbie worries that she might be laid off next year. The company announced it would lay off 10% of its workforce in a bid to cut costs. Being laid off was stressful, but it gave Timothy time to rethink his career. MEANING 2: To stop doing or consuming something Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To stop, to pack in, to give up Separable? No Let's now move on to our second meaning of the phrasal verb 'lay off', which is used almost as much as the first one and this is 'to stop doing or consuming something'. Nouns commonly used with application.... Alcohol / booze Cigarettes Chips / Fries Gym / Exercise Broadly speaking, we can use this second application of 'lay off' in several ways; with a noun to talk about a particular thing that we need to stop, with a verb to talk about an action and with a pronoun to talk about a person or people. First of all, let's consider when we use it with a noun. Typically, 'lay off' is used for nouns for things that we eat, drink, consume or use on a regular basis and which we may need to stop every so often, either temporarily or permanently. These include things that are bad for our health e.g. fatty food or cigarettes or things that we may need to stop for a period of time due to illness or injury e.g. exercise. This is typically heard when someone has been consuming too much of the thing that they are laying off and is often used in the sense of giving someone advice or employing self control. When we use 'lay off' with a noun in this way, the convention is that we add the definite pronoun 'the' before the noun that we are laying off, e.g. the alcohol. Note that when we say this, we are not speaking about a specific alcoholic drink or packet of cigarettes but rather alcohol and cigarettes in general, expressed as an uncountable noun. My doctor told me to lay off the salt. You should really lay off the caffeine before bed if you want to sleep better. I’m trying to lay off junk food this month. Sandra decided to lay off social media for a while. John needs to lay off the alcohol for the sake of his health. I’m going to lay off sugar starting from Monday. Maybe you should lay off the energy drinks for a while. As I mentioned earlier, we can also use 'lay off' with actions that we want to stop. If you know your English grammar, you'll know that a gerund is a form of a verb that functions as a noun and always ends in the 'ing' form. When you want to talk about stopping an action or not doing something again, you need to use 'lay off' plus a gerund to achieve this. Note that we use this application of 'lay off' less frequently with a gerund than with a noun. You need to lay off complaining all the time. Ben should lay off criticising everyone for a bit. I’m trying to lay off staying up so late as I struggle to get up for work. Maybe you should lay off checking your phone every five minutes. Caroline decided to lay off spending so much money. The police told Adrian to lay off drinking and driving. Lastly, this second application of 'lay off' can also extend to 'laying off someone / people'. When used this way, it means to leave someone alone, to stop criticising them or being aggressive towards them. As such, using this application can sound quite defensive or protective and therefore it often appears in arguments and disagreements. On a grammatical note, we cannot use this application separately, even with a pronoun like 'him' or 'her'; doing this will sound like the first application of terminating someone's employment. Lay off him; he hasn't done anything wrong. You need to lay off her; she’s already stressed as it is. Lay off me, okay? I’m trying my best here. The manager told the coach to lay off the players. Lay off my brother; this isn’t his fault. Why don’t you lay off them for a while? You're acting like a bully! I wish my parents would lay off me about my grades; I'm trying my best. MEANING 3: To pass a ball to a teammate Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? British English Potential synonyms To pass, to kick Separable? Yes We have now come to our third and final application of 'lay off', which is one for those of you who play or watch football (soccer) and means 'to pass the ball to a teammate'. I have to admit that I am not a football fan and therefore I had never heard of this application before researching this blog post but it appears that it is used fairly commonly when talking about football games. To give you some more context with this one, 'lay off' is used specifically for when a football player kicks the ball to another player who is in a better position on the pitch, potentially then enabling the receiving player to try and score a goal. It could also be used for instances in which one football player kicks the ball into an open space on the pitch so that another player on the same team can move into the space to intercept the ball and then try to score a goal. Grammatically, this usage is separable with the word 'ball' going either between 'lay' and 'off' or after them. You could also use the pronoun 'it' here to refer to the ball, but when doing so, the phrasal verb must be separable. Moreover, it is also possible to 'lay the ball off to a teammate' or 'lay the ball off for a teammate'. Bobby laid the ball off to his teammate at the edge of the box. Kate controlled the ball and laid it off to the striker. Instead of shooting, Martin laid off a pass to the winger. The forward laid the ball off for an easy finish. George received the cross and laid it off to a teammate behind him. Ellie smartly laid the ball off rather than trying to dribble. The midfielder laid it off into space. Photo: Pexels BONUS: The noun 'lay-off' Now that you are up to speed with the different ways to use the phrasal verb 'lay off', you should also note that we also have a noun that is derived from it: 'lay-off'. For an explanation of this noun, we need to think back to the first application in the post for when people lose their jobs because a 'lay off' is simply the name for a termination of employment. As with the phrasal verb, this is normally due to economic or business reasons rather than misconduct. The company announced a lay-off of 300 workers. After the merger, several departments faced lay-offs. Antonia received notice of her lay-off last week. 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 'lay 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 'lay 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 'move in' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native. This article is all about the English phrasal verb 'move in', which is one that is used regularly by speakers to talk about different things including new homes, attacks and police operations. In this post, I will explain the three different meanings that it has in English and for each one, I will provide you with lots of example sentences to show when and where you should use them. So, let's get started and see what the phrasal verb 'move in' is all about.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Move In - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'move' and 'in' Move In - Meaning 1: To begin living in a new home Move In - Meaning 2: To go towards something Move In - Meaning 3: To involve oneself in a situation Move In - Bonus: A common mistake to avoid Move In - Bonus: The idiom 'to move in circles' 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 MOVE IN: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 3 Past tense forms Moved in / moved in Separable? Sometimes The phrasal verb 'move in' is formed of the individual words 'move' and 'in' and so to begin our exploration of it, let's first consider what these two little words mean on their own. Move - To move is a common and regular English verb whose main meaning is to change position or to cause something to change position. In addition to this, 'to move' can also signify progress or travel in a specific direction and in these cases it is often combined with a prepositional particle, forming a phrasal verb, to indicate the direction. One key meaning of the verb 'to move' in English is to go to a different house, city or country to start living there. When I woke up this morning I could not move my arm. We need to move this traffic cone as it is blocking the road. The hairdresser asked the child to stop moving so she could cut his hair properly. Hopefully, the talks this week will move the project forward. My parents have retired and have decided to move to France. In - The word 'in' is one that you should know extremely well as it is one of the most common words in the English language and is used primarily to signify being inside or moving towards the inside of something. When used in phrasal verbs, 'in' can add different meanings to the main verb such as entry (let in), participation (join in), completion (fill in) and restriction (shut in). So, now that we have looked at the basics, let's get started with the meanings of the phrasal verb 'move in'.... MEANING 1: To begin living in a new home Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To inhabit, to settle, to take up residence Separable? Sometimes We will start our analysis of the meanings of the phrasal verb 'move in' with the most common one, which is 'to begin living in a new home'. This usage is really a literal usage of the combination of the two words 'move' and 'in' when we take the idea of living in a new house that we get from the verb 'to move' and combine it with the idea from 'in' of a movement towards an interior space. As I'm sure you can imagine, we use this application to talk about when a person physically enters their new home with all of their possessions and starts living there. Note that it is not used for when people get the key for a new home unless they get the key and then begin living in the property on the same day. For this application, you should know that we use 'move in' when the location of the new home is implied or has already been mentioned in the conversation. However, when you want to specify the location (e.g. new home), the particle needs to change from 'in' to 'into'. I will explain more about this and why this is important at the end of the post. I can’t believe we finally move in tomorrow! We move in on Saturday after the keys are handed over. He asked when I was going to move in permanently. We’re going to move into a new house next month. She moved into an apartment near her office. They moved into their first home after getting married. We can also use this application to talk about starting to live with someone, often when the location is not important. This is typical for friends or couples who decide to live together in the same property and for this we simply need the extra prepositional particle 'with'.... Emma and Alex moved in with each other after dating for only 2 months! I left home at 16 and moved in with some friends. Ben has asked me to move in with him. I am not sure if it is too soon! You should also note that this application is not just used for individuals, but also extends to companies and businesses when they move to new premises or headquarters. The company has purchased a new office and is moving in early next year. The startup is moving into larger premises to support its growing team. After the merger, the firm moved into a shared headquarters. Lastly, you will note that all of the examples so far have been inseparable with no direct object. There are some instances when you can use this application of 'move in' separably however and this is when you want to talk about 'moving a person into a house or home'. This usage is rarer than the others and is used for times when one person moves in to a house with someone who already lives there. The idea here is that the person who already lives in the house invites the other person to live with them and possibly even arranges it. This can sometimes carry a negative or judgemental nuance, especially if the speaker does not agree with the co-habitation of the two people for some reason. Once my Mum was too old and frail to look after herself properly, we moved her into our house, so I could care for her. Michael had only been seeing Jenny for a couple of week before her moved her into his house. I think it was far too soon MEANING 2: To go towards something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To close in on, to advance on, to stalk Separable? No Our second meaning of 'move in' is not as common as the previous one but is one that you can still hear fairly often in everyday English and means 'to go towards something'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Police Army Authorities Attackers To clarify this meaning, we do not use this application of 'move in' to talk about a general movement e.g. walking to the shop or driving to work. Rather, it is used specifically to describe when you move towards something with the intention of attacking it, stopping it or taking control of it in some way. As you can probably guess, it carries a more aggressive or authoritative tone than just 'go towards' on its own, which is very neutral. You should note that for this example, similar to the previous one, we use 'move in' on its own when the direct object (receiving the action) is already known or implied. When you want to specify the object about to be attacked or captured, we need the extra preposition 'on', giving us 'to move in on something'. For example, if you imagine a cat that is creeping closer to a mouse that it wants to catch, you can say that " the cat is moving in on the mouse ". Another common example that you may hear is in reference to the police; when a police operation takes place and multiple police officers are simultaneously moving towards a target or criminal that they want to arrest, we can say that " they are moving in (on the criminal) ". The police moved in to arrest the suspect. Security forces moved in as the crowd became violent. The army moved in at dawn to secure the area. Firefighters moved in once the building was declared stable. The cheetah quietly moved in on the gazelle. Police officers have been ordered to move in on the suspect quietly. We can also use this application in reference to romance and dating, although this is not necessarily a positive usage. In some contexts, if someone moves in on someone, it means that they try to flirt with someone or ask them out on a date when there is an opportunity to do so. This is considered quite pushy or predatory behaviour however, so caution should be applied when describing flirting this way. Stan moved in on the girl at the bar when he saw his chance. After Sarah and Mark broke up, John saw his chance and moved in on Sarah, who was no impressed! MEANING 3: To involve oneself in a situation Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To take advantage, to get involved Separable? No Let's now move on to the third and final application of 'move in', which I would say is the rarest of the three and means 'to involve oneself in a situation'. This application is all about opportunities and taking them when they arise. A bit like with the romantic example that I explained in the previous section, we use this application to talk about when a person, organisation or business sees an opportunity to become involved in an activity and does so. Typically, the person 'moving in' was never involved in this activity before as it was something that was done by a specific group of people. Similar to the previous application, they see their target and move straight towards it in order to participate in the activity for the first time. This may be a company who sees a gap in a market that they want to fill or a government intervening in an industry to regulate or improve it. Note that we would not use 'on' here as this would imply the idea of a target or objective that we had in the previous application. This application is often used in a much more neutral way. I appreciate that this is one is not an easy one to grasp, so here are some example sentences to show you how to use it.... Several international firms moved in when the market opened up. Tech companies are moving in to renewable energy. Smaller investors moved in after the initial risks were reduced. The government moved in to regulate the new industry. Non-profits moved in to support local communities. Independent artists moved in as the genre gained popularity. Photo: Pexels BONUS: One final note on usage - avoid this common mistake! There is one other time that you may see 'move in' being used in English that I have not yet covered in this post, which is not strictly a phrasal verb usage but I want to include it all the same as it links to an error that I often hear my students make. If something is physically moving inside an interior space, we can say that it is " moving in the space ". For example, if a mouse creeps into your shopping bag and you can see the bag moving as a result, you might say " there is something moving in the bag ". In other words, something inside the bag is moving and all of the movement is taking place inside the bag. Let's now think back to the first meaning of 'move in', i.e. to start living in a new home. The reason why you should always remember to use 'into' when specifying the location of your new home is because if you don't, it will sound like this last usage to a native speaker's ears (although they will likely understand what you mean from the context). Photo: Pexels BONUS: The idiom 'to move in circles' Whilst we are talking about this final literal usage, I should let you know about the expression 'to move in circles'. We use this to talk about how a person lives or spends their time, for example what type of people they spend their time with or in what types of environment. Harriet moves in artistic circles. He moves in political circles in Washington. I don’t really move in those circles anymore, to be honest, so I wouldn't know. Photo: Pexels We have now reached the end of this post and I just want to say thank you for clicking on my post and reading it. I hope that you've enjoyed it and have been able to learn something new about the phrasal verb 'move 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 'move 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 back' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them. In this instalment of Phrasal Verbs Explained, we are focussing on the much overlooked phrasal verb 'set back'. In the post, I will explain three different applications that it has in English and provide you with lots of examples of each one in context. So, sit back (not set back 😉), relax and let's get started! TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Set Back - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'set' and 'back' Set Back - Meaning 1: To put something a distance away from something else Set Back - Meaning 2: To delay the progress of something Set Back - Bonus: The noun 'setback' Set Back - Meaning 3: To cost someone an amount of money 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 SET BACK: KEY INFORMATION Usage Medium Number of meanings 3 Past tense forms Set back / Set back Separable? Yes The phrasal verb 'set back' is formed by combining the verb 'to set' with the prepositional particle 'back' and before we look at the different meanings that it has as a phrasal verb, let's first consider the meanings of these individual words. The word 'set' is distinguished in English as having the most meanings and uses in the entire language. To give you an example, when 'set' is used as a verb, it has more than 30 different uses and meanings! This may seem like a lot but many of them are very specific and I can guarantee that most native speakers do not use all of them. The definition of the verb 'to set' that you should be aware of for this post is 'to put something in a specific place or position'. John set the vase carefully on the table. The teacher set the books in a neat pile on her desk. We set the chairs around the dining table ready for dinner. The jeweller set the diamond into the engagement ring. Roger set his suitcase by the door, ready for his trip. Next, we have the prepositional particle 'back', which is primarily used to describe the notions of reversing or returning and both of these ideas are carried across into the phrasal verbs that it appears in (e.g. give back and turn back). Additionally, it can also add the ideas of delay ( hold back ) and resistance (fight back) to phrasal verbs. You should also note that when 'back' functions as an adverb, it can mean 'at a distance away from something' and this meaning will be key to understanding the first meaning of 'set back' that we will cover. So, now that we have covered the basics, let's take a look at the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'set back'.... MEANING 1: To put something a distance away from something else Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To tuck away, to put back, to place at a distance Separable? Yes The first application of 'set back' that we will cover in the post is the literal meaning that we get when we combine the two words 'set' and 'back', which is 'to put something a distance away from something else'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... House / Building Fence Table / Chair Road / Street Wall We use this first application when we are talking about two different things and their spatial relation to one another. To put it another way, let's use an example and imagine that we have an object (X) and we want to talk about where it is situated compared to a second object (Y). If we take the meanings of the individual words that we looked at earlier, we arrive at the idea of placing or putting something (object X) at a distance away from something else (object Y). I should add here that the "distanced" object (X) is often considered to be in the background somewhere. Most commonly, you will will come across this literal application in reference to houses, buildings and man-made structures and their distance from a road or another place of interest such as a river or another building. It is important to note that the additional preposition 'from' is normally required to specify place Y. However, if the context is clear enough, specifying it may not be needed as it might have already been mentioned or is understood. The architects set the new library back from the street in order to create a spacious front garden. The builders set back the fence a few feet to comply with zoning regulations. We set the dining table back from the fireplace to make room for more seating. The developers set the apartment complex back a few more metres than originally planned to reduce noise from the busy road. Helen set back the chairs from the edge of the balcony for safety reasons. One other very common way that this application is used is in a passive sense when we talk about one place being situated a distance away from another. In some cases, 'set back' can function as an adjective here. The house is set back from the main road, providing a quiet and private environment. The new shopping centre is set back from the street to allow space for a large car park. The mansion was set back behind tall trees, making it barely visible from the entrance. The restaurant is set back from the beach, giving diners a peaceful view without the noise of the waves. The office building is set back a few metres from the pavement to create a welcoming entrance space. MEANING 2: To delay the progress of something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To hinder, to impede, to delay, to obstruct, to hamper, to hold up Separable? Yes The second application of 'set back' is definitely the most commonly used of its three meanings and is simply 'to delay the progress of something'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Project Plans Negotiations Efforts Progress We are all very busy people with busy lives and many of us have plans and projects that are in progress, whether that be projects at work, wedding plans or efforts to lose weight and improve our fitness. As you will be aware though, life isn't always fair or on our side and oftentimes our plans and projects get delayed for reasons that are usually outside of our control. When these delays occur, we can use the phrasal verb 'set back' to describe them. This is often a time delay, used when the expected readiness or finish date of something is postponed. The project has been set back several times due to financial issues. The company’s expansion plans were set back due to financial difficulties. The loss of the crucial funding has set the development of the new vaccine back and we are now not sure when it will be ready. In addition, it can also be used for when plans do not go smoothly and we need to make changes and amendments to deal with unexpected situations that arise. Adam's ankle injury during training set him back just before the big match. The train strikes have set the government’s efforts to improve public transport back. Many people say that the new government's legislation has set back the rights of many minority groups. Moreover, when we use this application of 'set back', we want to let people know how late something is going to be as a consequence and it is common to use this with the preposition 'by' + the length of the delay. The unexpected storm set back the construction project by several weeks. We are very sorry to announce that a technical glitch has set back the product launch by at least a month. I had a bad cold, which set me back by a day or two, but my thesis is now ready to be submitted. Note that this application is a separable one and I would say that native speakers use it both separably and inseparably in roughly equal measure. Photo: Pexels BONUS: The noun 'setback' At this point in the post, it is a really good idea to mention to you that the noun 'setback' also exists and is used just as much, if not even more commonly, than this second phrasal verb meaning. A setback is quite simply a hurdle or obstruction that delays or prevents a procedure or process. It can also be used to describe something bad that happens in your life and stops you from living the way that you wish to or doing something that you want to do. Her knee injury was a major setback for the athlete just before the championship. The project faced a serious setback when the funding was unexpectedly cut. Despite the early setback, the team managed to recover and win the match. The economic downturn was a significant setback for small businesses. Losing the court case was a major setback for our campaign. EXERCISE : Change the example sentences above from the noun 'setback' to the phrasal verb 'set back'. Some of these may need some re-arranging. For example, the first example sentence above could be "The athlete's knee injury just before the championship set her back".  Write your example sentences in the comments section at the end of the post. MEANING 3: To cost someone an amount of money Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To cost, to fetch, to come to, to knock back, to be worth Separable? Always The third and final meaning of 'set back' is all about cold hard cash and means 'to cost someone an amount of money'. This application is an informal one that is always used in a separable way with the structure 'to set someone back + an amount of money'. As you will note, the name of the person who is to pay the cost or a pronoun needs to go between the words 'set' and 'back'. While this application can be used to talk about the cost of anything, it is common to use it when the amount of money that someone has to pay for something is high or surprisingly high or perhaps just when you want to complain about the high cost of something that you have bought. The luxury cruise around the Caribbean set me back nearly £5,000! If you want to upgrade to the latest smartphone, it will set you back at least £1,200. The repairs to Luke's car set him back a small fortune. Buying a house in London can easily set you back half a million pounds. That designer handbag set Simone back a few hundred quid. A meal at that fancy restaurant will set you back at least £100 per person. 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 back'. 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 back'. 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 'shut up' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native. In this post I will explaining the phrasal verb 'shut up'. I imagine that many of you will be very familiar with 'shut up' as it used a lot as a command to ask someone to be quiet, however you may be surprised to learn that it has 3 separate meanings in English! As we go through the post, I will explain each of these, including the extremely common 'shut up!' that I am sure many of you will have heard before. Additionally, I will provide you with lots of example sentences for each usage to show you how native speakers use them in every day English! So, let get started and see what 'shut up' is all about.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Shut Up - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'shut' and 'up' Shut Up - Meaning 1: To stop talking Shut Up - Bonus: Shut Up! How to use it as a command Shut Up - Meaning 2: To close a business Shut Up - Meaning 3: To lock in an enclosed space Shut Up - Bonus: Some extra information about 'shut up' - The idiom 'to shut up shop' - STFU ! - The variation 'shaddap' 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 SHUT UP: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 3 Past tense forms Shut up / Shut up Separable? Yes Before we look at the different ways to use 'shut up' in English, let's first consider its component words 'shut' and 'up' and what they mean on their own.... Shut - The verb 'to shut' is a moderately common verb in English, whose primary meaning is similar to that of the verb 'to close', i.e. to block or cover the opening to something so that it cannot be entered or accessed from outside. In addition to this, 'to shut' can also be used to mean to stop something operating, typically a business. To shut is an irregular verb and its past tense forms confusingly do not change or add '-ed' at the end. John shut his eyes during the scary parts of the movie. Please shut the door when you leave. Make sure you shut the all of the windows before you go out. The shopkeeper shut the shop early on Christmas Eve. Up - For those of you who are regular visitors to my website and have good knowledge of phrasal verbs, you will know that 'up' is used a LOT in phrasal verb constructions. In fact, I would say that it is the most common of all prepositional particles that feature in them. It is often included to add the literal sense of a movement upwards or increase (go up, walk up) to the base verb. In addition to this, 'up' can be used in phrasal verbs to add more abstract ideas like completion (fill up), preparation ( set up ), appearance ( turn up ) and ending (wrap up), among others. So, now that we have looked at the basics, let's now move on to the meanings of the phrasal verb 'shut up'.... MEANING 1: To stop talking CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To hush, to be quiet Separable? Sometimes We'll begin our journey through the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'shut up' with the one that many of you are sure to know, which is 'to stop talking or making a noise'. We can use this first application in a number of different ways, so I will go through each one separately, starting with talking about yourself. If you are ever in a situation in which you are talking a lot or you feel like the other person or people around you want you to be quiet, you can use 'shut up' to express the idea that you will be quiet. As with all of this first application, this is a fairly informal usage but since we are talking about ourselves, it isn't considered to be offensive in any way. You look tired; if you want me to shut up, please tell me and I will! I realised that I had already said too much, so I quickly shut up before I could say anything else! Don't you dare tell me to shut up! If you don't shut up soon, I am going to get very angry. Let's imagine that the positions have swapped and you are now in a situation in which another person is talking too much. When this happens, we can use 'shut up' to refer to stopping the other person talking or making noise. In such cases, the phrasal verb becomes transitive (and separable), with the direct object being the person who is talking, singing, whistling etc. You should note that we do not just use this application for loud or talkative people but also for animals (barking dogs etc), objects and sounds (music, washing machines etc.) that make a lot of noise. Often, we can use this application to talk about simply telling someone to be quiet (more about this later), however it also serves to describe doing something to ensure that the talking or the noise stops. For example, this might be giving a child something that they keep asking for so that they stop, or signalling to someone in a conversation that they need to be quiet as they are saying things that the other people are not supposed to know. Sally tried to shut the kids up during the movie by giving them sweets. The mayor raised his hand to shut the crowd up. I ended up telling him something shocking just to shut him up. They played music to shut the protesters outside up. My neighbour yelled at my dog to shut him up; I am not happy! He slammed the door to shut up the noise from the hallway. Turning off the engine shut the rattling sound up. Give him a biscuit; it’ll shut him up for five minutes. I didn’t agree with the protestor, but I just nodded to shut her up. Photo: Pexels BONUS: Shut up! - How to use it as a command As I mentioned earlier, we can use 'shut up' to tell someone to be quiet and it is frequently used to do this. First of all though, please note that this is very informal and impolite. You can really offend someone if you tell them to 'shut up!', especially if you don't know them very well. It is often used in a less offensive way between people who do know each other well and have a good relationship; often the tone and delivery is very important here. Shut up! You have no idea what you're talking about! Can you shut up a minute while I do this! Can you all please just shut up! I am sick and tired of your moaning! Lastly, there is another way to use 'shut up' as a command but in a much less offensive way. Namely, this is when one person tells another something shocking or surprising and the person receiving the news then says "shut up!" as a way of expressing their disbelief. Typically, when used this way, the word 'up' is lengthened by the speaker to sound like 'uuuuuup', or sometimes both even words are extended: "shuuuuut uuuuup!". John and Marie are in a relationship?! Shut up! No way! Shut up! You're not moving to New York?! MEANING 2: To close (business) Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To close, to shut Separable? Yes Our second application of the phrasal verb 'shut up' is one that is mainly used to refer to businesses and shops and means 'to close'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Shop / store Business Organisation Factory To clarify, with this usage we can talk about when a business or shop closes both temporarily (e.g. at the end of the day) and permanently. It is much more common to hear it being used with the former, i.e. to close temporarily and when it is used this way, it can either be to mean that the business is closed to customers or that the building is closed and locked, so that no one can enter it. Most commonly, we use it in reference to shops and business that close overnight and therefore need to be locked and secured while no employees are on site. On a grammatical note, this is a separable usage with the direct object (the thing that is shut) able to go between 'shut' and 'up' or after them. I need to shut up the shop at six. Let’s shut up for the night and go home. George shut the café up early because it was so quiet. We shut up the office over the holidays. Can you shut the store up while I run to the bank? The bartenders shut the pub up after last orders. I’ll shut the place up while you lock the back gate. Patty stayed late to shut up and set the alarm. As I mentioned, we can also use this application of 'shut up' to talk about when a business or organisation closes permanently. You should note though that this is quite an old-fashioned usage and one that was heard more in British English in years gone by. Nowadays, it is more common to use the phrasal verb 'shut down' or 'close' when talking about a permanent closure. They were forced to shut up the factory during the strike. The owners decided to shut up the shop at the end of the year. The war shut many small businesses in the region up. Rising rent levels finally shut the bookstore up. MEANING 3: To lock in an enclosed space Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To coop up, to lock up, to shut in Separable? Yes We have now come to our third and final meaning of the phrasal verb 'shut up', which again is another one that involves the idea of closure and means 'to lock in an enclosed space'. With this application, if someone or something is 'shut up', they are put and kept in an internal space like a room, cage or a container. Furthermore, the person or thing that is 'shut up' is usually prevented from being able to leave or escape the confinement. Of course, this does sound like quite a negative and unpleasant situation for the people or things involved and that is true most of the time. However, you should note that we can also use it to describe less unfortunate situations. For example, if someone has been working in an office all day and has not left, you may hear them say that they have been " shut up in the office all day ". Of course, they were able to leave it if they wanted but it conveys the idea that they were so busy that they did not have a chance to leave. On a grammatical note, this usage is often used in a passive sense. When used in an active way, it is also separable. Claire was shut up in her room for over a week when she got Covid-19. The police shut the criminal up in a safe house until the trial. The children were shut up indoors all day because of the bad storm. Terry felt shut up and isolated in his small apartment. The farmer shut up the livestock for the night. The files were shut up in a locked cabinet and forgotten about. Mary lived shut up from the world, rarely seeing visitors. Photo: Pexels BONUS: Some extra information about 'shut up' As a final note in our exploration of the phrasal verb 'shut up', I just want to make you aware of some additional uses of it that you may come across in your English reading and conversations.... The idiom 'to shut up shop' This informal idiomatic expression is one that is found mainly in British English and links directly back to the second application that we looked at in the post as it means 'to close a business or to stop working'. This can either be at the end of a working day or permanently and the context is key here to determine this. After years of declining sales, the family decided to shut up shop and retire. The café shuts up shop at 6pm during the winter months. STFU! Acronyms are a very common form of expressing certain words and expressions in a quick way on the internet and via messaging apps and 'shut up' has its very own! You may have seen 'STFU' in online comments or chats before and it simply means shut up with some rude words in the middle (this is a respectable website, so I will leave it to your imagination). Nevertheless, this acronym is very rude and offensive, so I would avoid using it if I were you! The variation 'shaddap!' Lastly, you may at some point or another come across the rather strange looking word 'shaddap'. It is actually just a very informal and casual form of the command 'shut up!' for when you want someone to stop talking and it is often used humorously. It originates from the way that some speakers pronounce 'shut up' in certain accents. It was brought into mainstream focus in the early 1980s by a song called "Shaddap You Face" which was inspired by the way that the singer's Italian grandparents spoke. 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 'shut 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 'shut 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 'live up' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native. This article is all about the phrasal verb 'live up' and its different meanings. This is not one of the most commonly used phrasal verbs in English, however it is definitely one that will help to elevate your English and make it sound more natural, so if you can master these, you will definitely impress people! In the post, I will explain its two distinct meanings and, as per usual, I will give you lots of example sentences in context. So, without further ado, let's make a start and see what the phrasal verb 'live up' has to offer.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Live Up - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'live' and 'up' Live Up - Meaning 1: To meet expectations Live Up - Meaning 2: To have a partying lifestyle Live Up - Bonus: An additional note on usage 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 LIVE UP: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 2 Past tense forms Lived up / Lived up Separable? Sometimes The phrasal verb 'live up' is formed of two very common words in English: the verb 'to live' and the prepositional particle 'on'. As a first step in our exploration of the phrasal verb 'live up', let's first familiarise ourselves with these two words and what they mean on their own. Live - The verb 'to live' is verb that you will all know as it is one of the first verbs that English students learn to describe the place where their home is. In addition to the meaning of where someone calls home, we can also use the verb 'to live' to talk about the state of being alive (and not being dead). Note that the word 'live' also exists as an adjective (music, tv, etc) and for this that the pronunciation changes to a long 'i' sound, like with the pronoun 'I'. I live in the countryside but I want to live in the city. John has lived in Edinburgh for over 20 years. Where do you live? William Shakespeare lived from 1582 to 1616. I will never forget this experience as long as I live! Up - The prepositional particle 'up' is one that is regularly found in phrasal verb constructions and can add different ideas and elements to the main verb. These include a literal upward movement or increase (climb up, go up ), completion (eat up), preparation ( set up ), connection (hook up) and collection (save up), among others. So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'live up'.... MEANING 1: To meet expectations Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To meet expectations Separable? No We are going to start off the meanings of the phrasal verb 'live up' with the most common of the two, which is 'to meet expectations'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Expectations Hype Reputation Standard Promise It may surprise you to know that for this first application of 'live up', we need the additional preposition 'to' in order to make it make sense, giving us the structure ' to live up to something '. Note that this word order is fixed and this is therefore not a separable usage. One of the most natural things about being human is that we all want and desire things. Another aspect of our nature is that we also expect things, or in other words, we believe or think that something will happen or will be a certain way in the future, e.g. I expect that in the summer, the weather will be hot. When we combine these two elements, we arrive at the idea of wanting to have or do something and expecting it to be good and it is in these situations that we can use 'live up to'. To clarify further, if there is something that you were looking forward to, such as going out to a nice restaurant for a meal or watching a new movie and the experience ended up being as good as you thought it would be, you could say that " it lived up to your expectations ". We can use this application for almost anything that we expect to be good in the future. This may be because people have recommended it, you have heard good things about it or maybe because you liked something similar in the past like a movie or a book in a series and you therefore think that the next one will be good. Of course there are times that we set our expectations of something too high and things are not as good as we expect them to be. In these situations, native speakers frequently use this application of 'live up to' in the negative to express this. The new Iphone has lived up to my expectations so far. The hotel lived up to the reviews we read online; it was fantastic! Our cleaner promised us excellent service, and he really lived up to it. The house is spotless! The movie lived up to the hype surrounding it; I really enjoyed it! The new vacuum cleaner didn’t live up to my expectations. Unfortunately, this course has not lived up to what was advertised. The restaurant was expensive and it definitely didn’t live up to its reputation. The live music event never really lived up to the excitement that people were expecting. In addition to expecting something to be enjoyable, we can also use 'live up to' to describe when someone or something achieves the high standards that people expect. This is most commonly found in a work scenario when an employer expects its employees to perform or to work to a high standard. Sandra consistently lives up to the high standards expected of a senior manager. The quality of Martin's work has lived up to the company’s strict standards. Katy's performance lived up to the high standards of the company. Michelle felt like she hadn’t lived up to the standards she set for herself. MEANING 2: To have a partying lifestyle Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To party, to enjoy yourself Separable? Always The second and final of the two applications of the phrasal verb 'live up' is the least common of the two and means 'to have a partying lifestyle'. Like with the previous application, we cannot simply use 'live up' on its own, however this time instead of adding a second preposition, we add the word 'it', giving us the expression ' to live it up '. Again, note that the word order in this expression is fixed and does not change. If someone 'lives it up' or 'is living it up', it means that he or she is leading a lifestyle of partying, socialising and generally having fun in a carefree way. Typically, this application is used to describe young people who move to big cities and enjoy all of the lifestyle opportunities that are available to them there. I don't know about you, but I certainly miss those days! We can also use it to talk about having fun just for a short period of time like a night or a vacation, although it is rarer to do this. In his twenties, Peter lived it up, going to clubs every night and worrying about nothing but fun. The two friends moved to the city to live it up, partying hard and avoiding any long-term commitments. After making quick money, Emma lived it up, spending her nights at exclusive parties and festivals. Roger was known for living it up; late nights, loud music, and zero concern for tomorrow. We’re only in Paris for three days, so let’s live it up while we can. After finishing her exams, Rachel went out with friends to live it up all weekend. Photo: Pexels BONUS: ONE LAST NOTE ON USAGE Lastly, there is one more time that you may see 'live up' being used, which is not technically a phrasal verb usage but I want to make you aware of it in case you come across it. You may sometimes hear a native speaker saying someone "lives up the road" or "lives up the street". What they actually mean when they say this is that someone lives along the street or in a place close by that can be reached quickly. My best friend has recently moved up the road, so we see a lot more of each other now. 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 'live 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 'live 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 'break 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. This post is all about the wonderfully diverse phrasal verb 'break off'. Is it one that you are familiar with and do you know the different ways to use it? In this post, I will explain all of its different applications, from physically separating something to playing snooker, and I will give you lots of example sentences in context to show you how we use each one. So, without further ado, let's make a start..... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Break Off - The Basics: Key information & the individual words 'break' and 'off' Break Off - Meaning 1: To separate something by force Break Off - Meaning 2: To end a relationship Break Off - Meaning 3: To stop speaking Break Off - Meaning 4: To begin a game of snooker 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 BREAK OFF: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 4 Past tense forms Broke off / Broken off Separable? Yes The phrasal verb 'break off' is formed of the verb 'to break' and the prepositional particle 'off' and so before we look at the different meanings of 'break off', let's first take a moment to consider the individual meanings of 'break' and 'off' on their own. Break - The verb 'to break' is a common verb whose primary meaning is 'to stop something from working or functioning as normal'. This could be damaging part of it or also to separate a part of it using force. In addition to this, 'to break' has many other meanings in English, which include 'to interrupt something', 'to become public' (news) and 'to disobey a law or rule'. As with many common verbs in English, 'to break' is an irregular verb. The thieves broke a window to enter the shop. Photo: Wix Media Be careful with this; I don't want you to break it! Susan has broken her leg in a skiing accident. People who break the law will be punished. The news broke about the birth of the new princess this morning. Off - The prepositional particle 'off' is a word with many different meanings and uses in English and functions as the natural opposite of the particle 'on'. When used in phrasal verbs it can add various ideas to the main verb like separation or disconnection ( cut off ), stopping (turn off), departure ( set off ) and decrease ( fall off ), among others. So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the wonderful phrasal verb 'break off'.... MEANING 1: To separate something by force Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To tear off, to rip off, to separate, to divide, to sever, to detach Separable? Yes I will begin my explanation of the phrasal verb 'break off' with the easiest and most common of its different applications, which is 'to separate something by force'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Piece / Bit Bread Chocolate Handle When this first meaning of 'break off' is used in English, it is to describe when a piece of something becomes physically removed or detached from its larger, main part. This is typically done by a force of some kind. We arrive at this meaning by combining the literal meanings of the two words: using force to separate something from 'to break' with the idea of separation that we get from the particle 'off', underlining this idea. This application of 'break off' can be used in two different ways: when the breaking action is intentional and we state what caused the breaking off action and intransitively and when the action is unintentional and we talk about how something is separated from the whole by force but we don't say who or what did it. Let's first consider when we break something off intentionally, which is the most common of the two varieties. This is typically used when you use your hands to separate something such as piece of bread from a loaf or a square or two of chocolate from a bar. On a grammatical note, this is a transitive usage with a direct object (the thing that is separated) and is therefore separable, however most people tend to use it in the inseparable way: break off + object + from whole .... Josh broke off a branch from the tree. My sister broke off a piece of chocolate and handed it to me. The angry little boy broke off part of the toy by pulling too hard. Workers started to break off chunks of ice from the frozen pipe. Libby, please can you break off some bread and pass the loaf on to your friends. The intruders broke the handle off while trying to force the door. Here are some examples of 'break off' used without a direct object when we do not say who or what caused the 'breaking off' action or it is not the focus of what we are saying.... A large branch broke off from the tree during the storm. Pieces of rock broke off and fell into the water below. One of the wheels broke off while the car was driving on the highway. Several tiles have broken off from the roof as a result of the high winds. Ice broke off the edge of the glacier and fell into the valley below. A button broke off Millie's coat. Part of the statue broke off after many years of erosion. MEANING 2: To end a relationship Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To break up, to split up, to separate, to end Separable? Yes Our second application of the phrasal verb 'break off' is another fairly common one that means 'to end a relationship'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Relationship Friendship Engagement Romance Contact You may be familiar with the phrasal verb 'break up' to mean 'to end a romantic relationship' but did you know that we can also use 'break off' to mean the same thing? You should note however that whilst these two phrasal verbs have similar meanings, they are used slightly differently by speakers. Firstly, we can use 'break off' to mean to end any relationship, whether that be a romantic one, a friendship, a business arrangement or even stopping contact with another person. It is mainly used to talk about romance though. 'Break up', on the other hand, tends to be used only in the context of a romantic relationship. Moreover, we typically use 'break off' in this sense to talk about when someone decides to end a relationship in a deliberate or abrupt manner. Sometimes, it is both people in the relationship who make the decision together but most of the time it is used for when one person alone decides. Grammatically, this usage is technically separable, however we tend to use it more in the unseparated way with the construction: break off + relationship / friendship etc. The only exception to this would be when we are using the pronoun 'it', which always needs to go between 'break' and 'off'. One final distinction to make between the two here is that 'break up' does not take a direct object, whereas 'break off' does. For example, if a couple decides to separate, you would say that "they broke up". However, it would be incorrect to say "they broke off" because you need a direct object and therefore need to say "they broke off their relationship" or "they broke it off". Leanne broke off the relationship after months of arguing. Adam decided to break off his engagement to Emma as he didn't love her anymore. Lesley and Alex broke off their romance when they realised they wanted different things. Sandra broke it off as soon as she found out the truth. Joseph was afraid to break off things completely. My parents agreed to break off their relationship amicably. The model broke off the affair with the politician before it became public. Jonathan finally broke off contact with his former partner. MEANING 3: To stop speaking Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To cut off, to pause Separable? No Is it just me or do you also find it really annoying when someone is speaking to you and saying something interesting and then they suddenly stop, leaving you waiting in suspense? It is in these frustrating situations that you can use our third meaning of 'break off', which is 'to stop speaking'. Firstly, let me clarify that 'break off' does not mean to stop speaking completely like you have lost the ability to talk but rather when you are in the middle of a conversation with someone and then stop speaking, often in a sudden or unexpected way. When we use this application of 'break off' it is usually when there is some sort of interruption, hesitation or emotional impact on the speaker. It might be that the person speaking is talking about something that makes them sad, so they stop speaking to prevent them from crying, or it may be that the person is talking to you and they see something more interested on their cellphone during the conversation that steals their attention. Carl broke off in mid-sentence when he realised what he’d said. Michelle broke off abruptly as someone entered the room. The speaker broke off, clearly unsure how to continue. My Dad started talking about his deceased brother, then broke off and looked away. Jenny broke off to answer the phone, leaving me in suspense about what had happened at her birthday party. Tim broke off suddenly, leaving an awkward silence. You should note that we can also use this application of 'break off' to talk about when we stop doing something in an abrupt or sudden way, however this is much less common. Regardless of the action, the action that is 'broken off' is always known in the context as it will have been mentioned or implied before. The factory workers broke off when the alarm sounded. Mike broke off what he was doing to answer the door. Jessica broke off halfway through the task when she felt unwell. MEANING 4: To begin a game of snooker Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To break, to start Separable? No We have now come to our fourth and final meaning of the phrasal verb 'break off', which is one for those of you who enjoy playing cue sports like snooker or pool and means 'to begin a game'. If you are familiar with playing snooker, pool or billiards then you will know that at the beginning of each game, the balls are all placed in a triangular formation. To start the game, one of the two players then hits the white ball into the triangle to scatter the balls. This action is known as 'breaking off'. From my own personal experience, I have never known this action described as 'breaking off' but rather just 'breaking' on its own, so you if you do enjoy playing these sports, you should know that both of these terms can be used 😃 One other thing to note is that the noun 'break-off' also exists to refer to the first shot that starts the game. The defending champion broke off with a cautious safety shot. Peter won the toss and broke off first. The referee asked the players who would break off the frame. Margaret prefers to let her opponent break off. Higgins broke off aggressively in the deciding frame. After a short delay, the match resumed and Allen broke off. Whoever breaks off sets the tone for the game. If you are interested in snooker, here is a video that shows you the best way to break off: Photo: Pexels We have now reached the end of this post and I just want to say thank you for clicking on my post and reading it. I hope that you've enjoyed it and have been able to learn something new about the phrasal verb 'break 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 'break 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 'come back' 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. Do you know all of the different ways to use the phrasal verb 'come back'? Did you know that there are at least 5 different ways to use it in English? Don't worry if you didn't because in this post, I will give you clear and details explanations of these meanings and applications and provide you with lots of example sentences in context to show you how they are used naturally by native speakers. In addition, we will also look at the noun 'comeback' and some well-known expressions that the phrasal verb 'come back' appears in. So, without further ado, let's dive into the wonderful world of the phrasal verb 'come back'.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Come Back - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'come' & 'back' Come Back - Meaning 1: To return Come Back - Meaning 2: To remember something again Come Back - Meaning 3: To become fashionable again Come Back - Meaning 4: To reply to someone Come Back - Meaning 5: To recover Come Back - Bonus: The noun 'comeback' Come Back - Bonus: Common idioms featuring 'come back' I love writing this blog & helping learners but I receive very little feedback as to how useful it is or if people enjoy & learn from it. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like & share it or leave a comment at the end. I'd be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS COME BACK: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 5 Past tense forms Came back / Come back Separable? No If you're new to Phrasal Verbs Explained, I should explain that I like to start each phrasal verb post by looking at the individual words that form the phrasal verb that we will be looking at, which in this case are 'come' and 'back'. Come - The verb 'to come' is an extremely common irregular verb in English, so I imagine that you are already very familiar with it. It has a lot of different uses and meanings in English, but the main one is to talk about a movement towards where the speaker is, was or will be; in this sense it is the opposite of the verb 'to go'. Other notable meanings of 'to come' in certain contexts are 'to arrive' and 'to happen', among others. Due to how common it is, you can find 'to come' in a large number of phrasal verbs and expressions in English. Winter is coming, so I had better buy some warm clothes! How many people are coming to your party? My Dad came home late last night. What time do you plan to come tomorrow? The night had not yet come. Back - The prepositional particle 'back' is not one that we see often in phrasal verbs and its functions are fairly consistent when it does appear in them. One of the main ideas that it carries, which is key for this phrasal verb, is 'to return to a previous place or state' (go back). Moreover, other ideas that it can add are reversal (take back), remembering (look back) and delay ( hold back ). So, now that we have covered the basics, let's now move onto the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'come back'.... MEANING 1: To return Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level A2 - Elementary Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To return, to recur, to get back Separable? No We will make a start in a nice and easy way with the most common and logical of all of the applications of the phrasal verb 'come back: 'to return'. This application is just a combination of the literal meanings of the verb 'to come' i.e. to move towards a place where the speaker is and 'back' to refer to a place that you have already been to. Note that as this is with the verb 'to come', we will only use it to talk about a return to the place where the person is speaking. If we are talking about returning to a different place, we would use 'go back' instead. We use 'come back' in this way to mean to return to a place all the time; in fact we say it more often than 'return', particularly in spoken and informal English. I’ll come back and see you after work Jeanette came back to the office to pick up her keys. When do you think you will come back from your trip? Pete came back late last night. Please come back and finish the form as soon as you can. They came back to the restaurant because they had forgotten to pay! We love it here and we are definitely going to come back next year. My cat came back safely after the storm. Don’t worry; I’ll come back soon and check on you. We've come back to the city where we grew up for Christmas. In addition to people and animals coming back to a place, there are other less obvious ways that we can use 'come back' to mean 'to return' that we will look at later in the post. One way that I want to make you aware of now is in reference to pain and discomfort. If you have a pain or illness that you suffer, which goes away and then happens again, you can say it 'comes back'. An example of this would be if you have a headache and take a tablet to make it go away. When the tablet stops working, the headache is likely to come back again. Caroline's knee pain came back when she started running again. Hugh's cough came back during the winter. The infection came back a few days after treatment ended. My allergy symptoms always come back in the spring. MEANING 2: To remember something again Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To remember, to recall, to remind Separable? No Another way that we can use the phrasal verb 'come back' in a sense of returning is our second application, which is 'to remember something again'. If something comes back to you in this sense, it means that you previously knew or were able to remember something but had forgotten it until the memory returned to your brain again. We can use this to talk about things from many years ago or just a few hours ago; the time span is not important here, just the fact that you are able to remember something again after a period of forgetting it. The resurfaced memory could be anything from a forgotten fact, a name, a memory of a childhood holiday or how to do something like change a lightbulb or make a cake. Sometimes, we add the additional word 'flooding' between 'come' and 'back' to add emphasis and describe when lots of memories of something come back to you at once, often triggered by something, a bit like water in a flood. The shopkeeper's name suddenly came back to me as I left the shop. Some of the details of that day are starting to come back now. Don't tell me; it'll come back to me in a minute. The memories came flooding back to me when I was listening to the song. I couldn’t remember the answer at first, but it came back to me later. Everything came flooding back once I saw the old photos. Annoyingly, the right words came back to me once I had finished the exam. The story slowly came back to him. After a couple of days in Paris, my high-school French started to come back. MEANING 3: To become fashionable again Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To come back in, to resurge, to revive, Separable? No We will now move on to our third meaning of the phrasal verb 'come back', which is one for you if you like to keep up with the latest trends and means 'to become fashionable again'. There is a well-known saying in English that "fashion goes in circles" and the older you get, the more you realise that this is indeed true. What this expression means is that everything that is fashionable at one time stops being trendy for a period and then becomes fashionable again in some form or another at a future time. When this happens, we can say that the trendy thing has "come back", or "come back into fashion". When using this application, it can be in reference to anything from clothes, hairstyles, interior design, music styles and even colours. It just has to be something that used to be popular with people, stopped being popular for a time and then became popular again. Note that when talking about when something stops being trendy, we use the phrasal verb 'go out (of fashion)'. Baggy jeans have come back into fashion in a big way. Vinyl records are coming back among younger music fans. That weird hairstyle from the ’90s has come back. Retro sneakers came back in a big way last year but people are losing interest again now. Polaroid cameras are set to come back as a popular trend in the next few months. Vintage furniture has come back in modern interior design again. Minimalist design is finally coming back after years of bold styles. Thrift shopping has come back as a mainstream trend once more. MEANING 4: To reply to someone Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To reply, to respond, to retort Separable? No Next, we have our fourth application of 'come back', which is one that means 'to reply to someone' and can be used in both a neutral and a negative sense. We mainly hear this application of 'come back' being used in a neutral sense in the world of business and professional English. We often use it instead of verbs like 'to reply' or 'to respond' to talk about receiving answers to questions and requests, particularly in email form. Of course, it isn't just in business English that we use this, however that is overwhelmingly where you hear it the most in this way. I emailed the Account Manager this morning, but she hasn’t come back to me yet. Please come back to me once you’ve checked the details on this. The MD said he’d come back with an answer by Friday. They promised to come back to us shortly after the meeting. Please could you come back to me later on that? In contrast, the negative way of using this application of 'come back' is usually heard more in spoken English. Typically, it is used to express when one person responds to what another has said in an angry, irritable or unkind way. This is something that you may hear in an argument between people or when one person is annoyed or frustrated with the other. Alternatively, you may also hear this when someone responds to what someone else has said very quickly or in a witty and humorous way. Again, this would be in the form of an argument or in a playful exchange of teasing comments and remarks (known as banter). He insulted Kelly, and she came back with an even sharper remark. Juli came back angrily, telling him to mind his own business and leave her alone. Billy came back with a sarcastic comment that silenced the room. The student came back with an irritated response. Ryan came back snapping that it wasn’t his fault. I expected an apology from Morgan, but she came back with attitude instead. Furthermore, when used in this negative, aggressive way, we sometimes add the additional preposition 'at', to specify the person who the negative response is aimed towards. Bella came back at her husband for questioning her honesty. Derek criticised Fi's work, and she understandably came back at him. I made a joke about Tom, and he immediately came back at me defensively. MEANING 5: To recover Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To recover, to rally, to revive, to rebound Separable? No We have now come to our fifth and final application of 'come back', which is 'to recover' and brings us full circle (a bit like fashion) back to the first application of 'to return' again 😊 To give you a bit more detail and be more specific, what I mean by 'to recover' here is to return to a normal, functional or desirable state or situation and it can be used to talk about people, things or situations. Of course, if something has to return to a good or positive state, we can infer that something has to go wrong or not go well with it before it gets better again and it is with this improving action that we use this application of 'come back'. There are several different situations in which this final usage of 'come back' can be applied, so I will outline them separately for you.... Perhaps one of the most frequent situations in which this application of 'come back' can be heard is when talking about games, competitions and sport. If a player or a team is losing a game or competition but is able to recover, take the lead and win, you can say that the player or team came back from a deficit. Birmingham City team came back from a two-goal deficit. The LA Lakers came back and won in overtime. Real Madrid is slowly coming back after a difficult season. The athlete is determined to come back better than before next year. Another situation where you can hear 'come back' in this sense is to do with health. I know that earlier in the post I explained that we can use 'come back' to talk about a recurring medical problem or symptom, however we can also use it in the exact opposite way to state that your good health has come back following a period of illness or injury. In addition, we can also use it in this way to talk about the condition of a financial economy or of a business. After the treatment ended, my health gradually started to come back. Seb's voice came back after a few days of rest. After the shock, Neil's confidence gradually came back. The economy is starting to come back following a bumpy year last year. The business came back after nearly closing down six months ago. Lastly, one that you are likely to hear a lot in English language popular music is when people sing about their lovers coming back to them, which is simply just a desire for their ex-partner, who they are no longer in a relationship with, to come back and get back together with them. Of course, it is not only famous singers who use this application and indeed anyone uses it, however I would say that due to its associations with pop songs, it can often sound a bit dramatic when used by us "normal" people. Juliet begged Romeo to come back to her. Terry left, but he eventually came back saying that he would never leaver her again. I don’t think I can trust you if you come back again. Don’t come back unless you’re serious this time! Photo: Pexels BONUS: The noun 'comeback' Now you know all of the different ways to use the phrasal verb 'come back', but did you know that there is also a noun 'comeback', which is derived from it. Moreover, there are in fact two separate meanings of this noun, both of which come from different applications that we have looked at in the post.... The first of these links back to our fourth application about replying to someone, whereby a 'comeback' is used to mean a quick, witty or critical verbal response to what someone else has said.... Photo: Wix Media The comedian always has the perfect comeback when someone in the audience makes a rude comment That was a clever comeback; everyone laughed a lot. I wish I’d thought of a better comeback at the time. The other meaning that 'comeback' has as a noun links back to the fifth phrasal verb application and means a recovery and is used specifically to talk about sports performances and the careers of famous people, particularly pop music artists. You should also note that we often use the expression 'to make a comeback' here. The team made an incredible comeback in the final minutes of the match. That has to be one of the greatest comebacks in football history. After a decade away from the spotlight, the singer made a stunning comeback. Critics praised the band's comeback performance at the award show. Photo: Pexels BONUS: Idioms and expressions featuring 'come back' Before you click off the post and go about your daily lives, I just want to make you aware of a couple of useful expressions that exist featuring the phrasal verb 'come back' that you can use to really impress all of your friends and colleagues.... To come back to bite someone - We use this expression to talk about when you do something now that will have an unexpected negative repercussion or consequence for you in the future. In other words, a decision or action that you take now will cause unknown problems at some point for you later. He thinks he made a good choice but it will come back to bite him when he's older. I lied on my resume about knowing French, and it came back to bite me when I was assigned to the Paris office. To come back down to Earth - This idiom is used to talk about when people have to face reality after a period of great excitement or happiness or when someone is forced to see things as they really are, particularly if they are rude or arrogant. It didn't take us long to come back down to Earth after we got back from our holiday. Alan thought his startup would be worth millions in a month, but he soon came back down to Earth when the first three investors turned him down. Photo: Pexels We have now reached the end of this post and I just want to say thank you for clicking on my post and reading it. I hope that you've enjoyed it and have been able to learn something new about the phrasal verb 'come back'. If you enjoyed this post, please go ahead and check out some of my other posts. Now it is YOUR turn. Can you think of a sentence yourself using 'come back'. 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 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. How well do you think you know the phrasal verb 'turn in'? Would you be surprised to learn that it has at least 6 different meanings in English, including 3 that are mainly used in American English? My aim in this post is to explain these different uses and applications to enable you to understand them well and know when to use them. I will also provide you with lots of example sentences to help with this. So, without further ado, let's make a start.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Turn In - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'turn' and 'in' Turn In - Meaning 1: To point inwards Turn in - Meaning 2: To go to bed Turn In - Meaning 3: To deliver someone to the police Turn In - Meaning 4: To submit something 🇺🇸 Turn In - Meaning 5: To return something 🇺🇸 Turn In - Meaning 6: To produce good results 🇺🇸 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 TURN IN: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 6 Past tense forms Turned in / Turned in Separable? Sometimes To begin our exploration on the phrasal verb 'turn in', lets first familiarise ourselves with its component words 'turn' and 'in' and what they mean on their own.... Turn - As a learner of English, I am sure that you will already be familiar with the verb 'to turn' as it is a very common verb in English and has various different meanings. Generally speaking, it is mainly used to talk about a change of some sort, which can be anything from the direction of a movement or a change in the direction that something faces, to changes in seasons and in people's moods. Unlike many common verbs in English, 'to turn' is regular and takes the standard '-ed' ending in both past tense forms. I turn my head to look at what was happening. The car turned right at the traffic lights. The roast chicken was turning on the grill. I am turning 21 next year. The atmosphere at the party turned ugly when an argument began. In - The prepositional particle 'in' is another word that you will be very familiar if your English is good enough to understand this blog post. 'In' appears in many different phrasal verbs and often (logically) adds the idea of a movement from the exterior to the interior of something (go in, throw in). Additionally, 'in' can also add others ideas to phrasal verbs like completion (fill in), interruption (cut in) and inclusion (join in). So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'turn in'.... MEANING 1: To point inwards CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To point inwards Separable? Yes For our first application of the phrasal verb 'turn in', we have the literal meaning of the combination of these two words, which is 'to point inwards'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Feet Toes Knees Legs Hips To arrive at this first meaning, we are simply integrating the idea of a change in the direction that something faces that we get from the verb 'to turn', with the idea of a movement towards an interior or central space that we get from the particle 'in'. This is not a hugely common application in English and tends mainly to be used with feet, toes and other body parts. For example, if someone turns their feet in, they point the front ends of each foot towards the centre of their body, while leaving the back ends of the feet in the same place (like in the photo above). As such, this usage can often be heard in a medical context, particularly with children who can suffer from this kind of problem. Other times that you may come across this application would be when doing physical exercise like yoga and stretching or when having physical therapy. The doctor explained that it is common for a child's feet to turn in slightly when they first start walking. Since Ellie's right foot tends to turn in, she sometimes trips over her own toes while running. To target the muscles on the outside of your leg, stand upright and turn in your toes before leaning forward. Make sure you don't let your knees turn in during the squat and keep them aligned over your ankles. Adrian made a big effort to keep his feet straight, as they naturally wanted to turn in whenever he relaxed. Whenever a person's body parts are in this position, you can use the adjectival form 'turned-in' to describe this. Note that we only tend to use the hyphenated (turned-in) form when it comes before the noun and the hyphen (-) is not required if the noun comes after it. Despite his turned-in feet, Malcolm was surprisingly agile on the football pitch. Unlike the open posture of ballet, this contemporary routine requires a closed, turned-in leg position. The first thing that I noticed as I watched myself run was how my feet were slightly turned in. MEANING 2: To go to bed Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To go to bed, to retire, to hit the sack, to hit the hay, to bed down Separable? No Next on our journey through the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'turn in', we are going to be transported to the end of the day as the second meaning that we will look at is 'to go to bed'. This one is quite a nice and simple usage as it is really just a synonym of 'to go to bed' and tends to be used at the end of the day rather than when you go for an afternoon nap or snooze. It's almost like it is used by people as a way of declaring an official end to the day. This usage is quite an informal one and according to some sources is a little old-fashioned. Personally, I don't use this one often but I do hear it from time to time. On a grammatical note, this usage is not separable and we do not use it with reflexive ('self') pronouns as this might lead to confusion with another application that we will look at shortly. I’m exhausted; I think I am going to turn in! The couple usually turn in around 10 pm on weekdays. After the long hike, we were all ready to turn in. Rosie turned in right after dinner because she wasn’t feeling well. It was getting late, so Matt decided to turn in for the night as had to be up early for work the next day. I think we should turn in soon; we have an early flight tomorrow. The children were told to turn in once the movie ended. I turned in earlier than usual and still somehow woke up tired. MEANING 3: To deliver someone to the police Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To deliver, to surrender, to give up, to inform on, to denounce, to grass up Separable? Yes Our third meaning of 'turn in' that we will look at is perhaps the most commonly used of all of its different applications and means 'to deliver someone to the police'. I imagine that most of you reading this are good law-abiding citizens and therefore have never been involved in any criminal activities or know any criminals. However, if you did know any criminals or learned that someone you knew was accused of a crime, you may, as a responsible citizen, want to report them to the police. By doing so, you would be 'turning that person in' because you would be informing the police about who committed the crime and possibly even where they could find the criminal. You can use 'turn in' to talk about physically taking the offender to the police and handing them over or simply giving the police or the authorities the information that they need to catch and punish the criminal. Grammatically speaking, this is a separable usage, with the criminal or wrongdoer going either between 'turn' and 'in' or after, without making any difference to the meaning. Remember that if you are using a pronoun (him, her) to refer to the criminal, this must go between 'turn' and 'in'. Kelly decided to turn in her brother when she learned he was wanted for theft. Bob urged his friend to turn the criminals in before things got worse. The gang member was turned in by an anonymous person. The gangsters threatened to turn him in unless he confessed the truth. A worried neighbour turned the fugitive in after recognising him from a poster. In the previous section where I explained that 'turn in' can mean to go to bed, I mentioned that you cannot use that application with a reflexive ('self) pronoun. This is because if you do, it might confuse a native speaker as we typically use this third application with a 'self' reflexive pronoun to talk about when somebody goes to the police or the authorities to admit a crime or wrongdoing that they have done. In these cases, the '-self' pronoun always goes between 'turn' and 'in'. The suspect turned himself in after seeing his face on the front of every newspaper. After days on the run, Joe finally turned himself in to the local police station. Marco's parents convinced him to turn himself in and cooperate with the investigation. MEANING 4: To submit something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? American English Potential synonyms To hand in, to submit, to give in Separable? Yes The fourth meaning of 'turn in' is one that is common in American English and is one that I think logically follows the third one, which is 'to submit something'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Application Essay Paper Thesis When I say 'submit something' here, what I actually mean is to formally give a document or a request to an authority, teacher or organisation so that it can be evaluated and assessed. This is normally so that a decision can then be made about it or somebody can act upon it. For example, you might turn in your history essay just before the deadline or a team of auditors may turn in their audit report to the CEO of a business when they have finished the audit. As you can see in the list of commonly used nouns above, the type of nouns that are typically used with this application tend to be formal or procedural documents, ranging from job applications to academic essays. You will have noted that this usage is primarily American English, however due to how common American English is around the world and in the media, I am confident that it would be understood by most, if not all, English native speakers. In British English, whilst we do understand and infrequently use this, we would be more inclined to say 'hand in' instead. Don’t forget to turn in your application before the deadline tomorrow. All students must turn in their Biology essays electronically. Alan turned in his resignation letter first thing this morning. The volunteers turned in their time sheets to the charity at the end of the week. We've been asked to turn in our evaluations after the workshop. They turned in the final draft to their supervisor for her approval. Dave turned in his proposal, hoping that it would be accepted. The team turned in the data that they had collected during the experiment. Each contestant must turn in their entry by noon. The interns turned in their weekly reports every Friday afternoon before going to the pub. MEANING 5: To return something Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? American English Potential synonyms To return, to give back Separable? Yes Let's now move on to our fifth meaning of 'turn in', which is another mainly American usage to mean 'to return something'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Keys Equipment Badge Book To clarify, what I mean by returning something is 'to give something back', normally that you have borrowed or caused to have been in possession of for a period of time. A classic example of this would be a library. To clarify, a library in English is a false friend in many languages and is not a place where you buy books but the place where you borrow them and is normally a variation of 'bibliotech' in many languages (for reference, you buy books at a bookshop or bookstore). After you have borrowed a book from a library, you will need to return it or 'turn it in' on or before the due date. In other words, you are simply giving back what belongs to them. Other situations in which you may hear or need to use this application of 'turn in' is in relation to equipment, particularly that which you may need to possess temporarily for your job e.g. keys to a building or a security badge to enable you to enter a department. When you no longer need the item or finish work for the day, you will need to turn it in to the company. Usually, with this application we turn an item in to a company, organisation or some form of authority. It is also possible to use it to talk about scenarios in which you find something that has been lost and you give it to the police or the central point of an organisation who can try and reunite it with its owner. Please make sure you turn in your badges when you leave the building. Kathy turned in the lost wallet to the reception desk. Everyone must turn in their equipment before the trip ends tomorrow. Please turn in your library books today; they’re overdue and will incur fines if left any longer. Becky turned in her badge and keys on her last day in her job. MEANING 6: To produce good results Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? American English Potential synonyms To achieve, to produce, to record Separable? No We are now on our sixth and final application of the phrasal verb 'turn in', which is our third American usage in a row and means 'to get good results'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Result Performance Work Score Profit For this usage, we can talk about producing or getting good results in various different areas of life, which include sport, work, business and artistic performances. Whenever someone does something that is particularly good, remarkable or worthy of applause, we can use 'turn in' to say this. As a result, it is often found in news reports on sport, business news and performance reviews. Normally with this application, we use the construction 'turn in + the good thing' e.g. result, performance or profit. Although it is separable, it is not typically used that way and I would avoid separating it in this case. As I mentioned at the beginning of the section, this is an American usage and not one that I am used to hearing or using as a British English speaker. However, I can understand it perfectly well when I do hear it being used. The pitcher turned in one of his best games of the season. The team managed to turn in a strong performance in the playoffs. Nadia turned in a flawless routine in the gymnastics competition. The sprinter is aiming to turn in an impressive time in the final. The company turned in solid earnings for the third quarter of the year. Tech stocks turned in strong gains across global stock markets today. The actor turned in a remarkable performance in the movie. The pianist attempted to turn in an emotionally compelling recital. 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 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 'turn 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 'stick up' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native. Did you know that there at least 4 different ways to use the phrasal verb 'stick up' in English? In this post, I will be explaining all of these for you, from carelessly putting something somewhere to robbing a bank. For each application, I will give you lots of example sentences to show you in which contexts they are used. I will even give you a couple of bonus uses in noun and adjective form too. So, without further ado, let's make a start.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Stick Up - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'stick' and 'up' Stick Up - Meaning 1: To put something in a high place Stick Up - Meaning 2: To point upwards above a surface Stick Up - Meaning 3: To defend someone or something Stick Up - Meaning 4: To steal at gunpoint 🇺🇸 Stick Up - Bonus: The adjective 'stuck-up' Stick Up - Bonus: The noun 'stick-up' 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 STICK UP: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 4 Past tense forms Stuck up / Stuck up Separable? Yes I know that you are here to learn the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'stick up', but how well do you know the individual words 'stick' and 'up' on their own? Let's take a quick look at them first before we continue on to the meanings of 'stick up'.... To stick - 'To stick' is a verb in English with several different meanings. The main meaning of 'to stick' is 'to attach to something, normally using something like glue or tape and is one that we will revisit later in this post. Another meaning that is directly linked to this is 'to become fixed or jammed in a particular position'. One other informal meaning of 'to stick' that is relevant for this phrasal verb is 'to put or place something somewhere, often in a careless or quick way'. 'To stick' is an irregular verb, with 'stuck' being the word for both past tense forms. I stuck the birthday card to the present. Help! I've accidentally glued my finger to the chair and now it's stuck to it and I can't move it. Are you going to stick with your choice or would you like to select something else? John stuck his keys on the table when got in from work. Up - Regular visitors to this website will know that the prepositional particle 'up' features in a lot of different phrasal verbs and perhaps most obviously, it can be used to add the idea of a physical movement to a higher place when it does (walk up, go up ). In addition, 'up' can add different meanings to a phrasal verb construction, including finishing (drink up), increase (mount up), improvement (brighten up), collection (round up) and preparation ( set up ). So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to look at the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'stick up'.... MEANING 1: To put something in a high place Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To put up Separable? Yes As per usual, let's start with the meaning of our phrasal verb that is closes to the literal meaning of the combination of the two words and in this case it is 'to put something in a high place'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Poster Notice Advertisement Picture For this first application, there are really two different sub-applications of it, which both have slightly different meanings based on the idea that we are taking from the verb 'to stick', but they are ultimately very similar. The first of these ideas goes back to the idea that we get from the verb 'to stick' of attaching or fixing something to a surface using glue or some other adhesive substance. If you stick something up, you are just sticking something to a vertical surface in a high or prominent position where other people can see it. This might be with glue, scotch tape or staples, the manner is not important - the idea is that you fix the thing in place using something in between it and the surface to hold it there. As I just mentioned, we stick things up on surfaces where they can be seen by people and that we want them to notice and see and therefore includes poster and advertisement. Chloe stuck up a poster on the bedroom wall. The students stuck up flyers around campus to advertise the charity event. I'ill stick a reminder note up above my desk so I don't forget. Nigel is going to stick a map up on the door for everyone to see. We've stuck decorations up all over the room in preparation for the party. The teacher proudly stuck up her students’ drawings on the bulletin board. Crystal stuck a sign up in the window announcing the sale. The coach sticks up the new schedule on the notice board every year. The other way in which this first application of 'stick up' can be used requires another meaning of the verb 'to stick', which is 'to put something somewhere in a quick or careless manner'. If you "stick something up", it can simply mean that you put it in a high or prominent place without much thought or care. This could be a physical object like a coat or a box or it could be a person's hand if they raise it quickly (a bit like an excited school child does when they know the answer to a question in class). Note that this second sub-application is used very informally and mainly used in spoken conversations. On a grammatical level, note that this first application of 'stick up' is separable and the direct object often tends to be placed between the words 'stick' and 'up'. Beth’s going to stick the boxes up on the highest shelf later. Jeremy often sticks his jackets up on that tall hook by the door. I’ll stick the spare towels up in the top closet when I put them away. Everything that gets donated to the charity gets stuck up on the high racks until sorting day. I didn't know what to do with the old armchair, so I just stuck it up in the attic until I make a decision. The children eagerly stuck their hands up when the teacher asked them a question. MEANING 2: To point upwards above a surface Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Medium Where is is used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To stick out, to protrude Separable? No Our second application of 'stick up' is another one that could also be considered a literal version of it and it means 'to point upwards above a surface'. Another meaning of the verb 'to stick', especially when used with a particle like 'out' or 'up' is 'to point or extend away from the surface of something'. It is a bit like the idea we have of when sticks and it stays in a position and does not move; we just use a prepositional particle to it to give some extra information. With that in mind, if we say something 'sticks up', it means that it extends or points upwards above the surface of something, which is otherwise flat. A classic example of this would be when people with short hair go to bed and wake up the next morning with a section of their hair pointing upwards where they have slept on it. In this case we would say " you have a bit of hair sticking up ". Likewise, if you are looking at a horizon, it might all be very flat and horizontal apart from a mountain or volcano that sticks up and breaks the horizon's flat line or you may have been unfortunate enough to step on a nail that is sticking up on the floor. Another way that you might sometimes come across this usage is in reference to plants when they start to grow. When they first appear above the ground, you can say that they are 'sticking up' out of the ground. This usage of 'stick up' is not separable since it does not take a direct object. If you want to talk about intentionally causing something to stick up e.g. hair, you might say " to make your hair stick up " instead. Peter's hair sticks up at the back no matter how much he brushes it. A few nails were sticking up from the old wooden floor. The corner of the carpet is sticking up again. Sandra's ears stick up slightly when she’s excited. Can you see that branch sticking up out of the water? The metal rod sticks up above the fence. Some rocks were sticking up through the snow. Your collar is sticking up on one side. Tiny sprouts are already sticking up from the soil. A piece of wire was sticking up from the ground and caught my shoe. MEANING 3: To defend someone or something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To defend, to support Separable? No We are now onto our third meaning of the phrasal verb 'stick up', which is 'to defend someone or something' and for this one, we will need the extra preposition 'for'. Bullying is a horrible thing for anyone to experience, whether that is at school or later on in life. Perhaps one of the reasons that it is so unpleasant is that the victim often feels quite isolated and alone, especially as other people do not want to become involved for fear of becoming a victim too. In these often lonely times, we need someone to 'stick up for us' or in other words, to defend us against the bullies. The reason that I use this example is because we often use 'stick up for' in situations when no other person will defend or support the victim. We do not only use it when someone is being bullied however as it can be used for when someone or something is being criticised or attacked by other people and you want to defend it. Donna always sticks up for her little brother when kids tease him. I really appreciated how you stuck up for me during the meeting, thank you. He’s sticking up for his principles, even though it’s unpopular. The girls stuck up for their friend when the rumours started spreading about her. I’ll stick up for the idea, even if nobody else will. I think it’s worth considering. Bill has always stuck up for his team, even in tough seasons. I believe that we should stick up for the new policy; it’s actually helpful. It meant a lot to me that you stuck up for my decision instead of doubting it. One last thing to mention here is that if someone is brave enough to defend themselves against bullies or criticism, then we can use the construction to stick up for + the reflexive 'self' pronoun. You need to stick up for yourself more often. Nadia tends to stick up for people who can’t stick up for themselves. How on Earth can I stick up for myself against those horrible people! MEANING 4: To steal at gunpoint Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? American English Potential synonyms To rob, to steal, to hold up Separable? No? Our fourth and final usage of the phrasal verb 'stick up' is an American one that means 'to steal at gunpoint'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Bank Store Person Firstly, if you're not sure what 'at gunpoint' means, it means under threat of being shot with a gun (literally when a gun is pointing at you). Essentially, if someone points a gun at you and demands that you give them your money or cellphone, then they are sticking you up. It is not just people who can get 'stuck up' however and this can also be used to describe the places where the money or goods are stolen from e.g. bank, store. You should note that this application is almost always used when thieves use a gun as a way of stealing and we do not typically use it to talk about "normal" stealing where a gun is not involved. On a grammatical level, it is separable and the noun can go either between 'stick' and 'up' or after them. Note that if you are using a pronoun (me, her etc.) then this must always go between 'stick' and 'up'. The thieves tried to stick up the corner store late last night. Philip was arrested after attempting to stick up a gas station. Two masked men stuck up the cashier and took all the money from the cash register. The gang planned to stick up a bank but were caught by the police beforehand. Eve told the police that someone had stuck her up in the parking lot. The gang stuck up the delivery driver and stole the packages. The suspect reportedly stuck a convenience store up with a toy gun. Paul bragged about sticking up three stores before being caught. The pair were charged with sticking up several tourists. A man tried to stick us up, but we managed to get away safely. STICK 'EM UP! One phrase that is often associated with this particular application of 'stick up' is 'stick 'em up!' (short for stick them up). This informal command is reportedly used by robbers to tell their victims to put their hands in the air whilst they point their guns at them. Photo: Pexels BONUS: The adjective 'stuck-up' In addition to the phrasal verb meanings of 'stick up' that we have looked at, we also have an adjective 'stuck-up', which is derived from it. We use the adjective 'stuck-up' to refer to people who are arrogant and snobby and therefore think that they are better than other people. The origin of this adjective comes from the idea that this type of person always has their nose pointed (or stuck) up in the air, almost like they are looking down on others. Tabatha seemed really stuck-up when we first met, but she’s actually quite friendly. Serge won’t talk to anyone outside his clique; he’s so stuck-up! The fashion models acted stuck-up at the party, as if no one else was worth their time. Photo: Pexels BONUS: The noun 'stick-up' Finally, you should know that the noun 'stick-up' also exists and this one goes back to our final phrasal verb meaning as it means a robbery. As with the phrasal verb application, the robbery also always involves a gun being used as a way of threatening the victims into handing over the goods or money. Note that this usage is very similar to the noun 'hold-up' and is very informal. As with this phrasal verb usage, this is primarily an American one. The robber was charged for his role in a stick-up downtown last week. Witnesses said the stick-up lasted less than a minute. 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 'stick 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 'stick 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 'pick on' 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 week on Phrasal Verbs Explained, we are looking at the phrasal verb 'pick on', which will be a nice and short phrasal verb lesson as it only has two meanings. In the post, I will explore both of these meanings and provide you with lots of example sentences for each one to show you in which situations and contexts you may come across it. So, without further ado, let's get started.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Pick On - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'pick' and 'on' Pick On - Meaning 1: To tease someone repeatedly Pick On - Meaning 2: To select someone or something I love writing this blog & helping learners but I receive very little feedback as to how useful it is or if people enjoy & learn from it. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like & share it or leave a comment at the end. I'd be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS PICK ON: KEY INFORMATION Usage Medium Number of meanings 2 Past tense forms Picked on / Picked on Separable? No If you are a regular visitor to this website, then you will know that at the start of each phrasal verb post, I take a short look at the individual words that form the phrasal verb that I am going to be explaining. This post is no different and so let's briefly review the individual words 'pick' and 'on' and what they mean on their own.... To pick - 'To pick' is a relatively common English verb with a couple of main meanings. The first of these is 'to choose or to select something' and the second is 'to remove something or a part of something from what it is attached to, normally with your hands'. This second meaning is perhaps most commonly heard in relation to picking flowers, fruit and berries. You will be pleased to know that, unlike many other common verbs in English, 'to pick' is regular and takes the standard 'ed' ending for both past tense forms 😀 You can pick any book you like from the shelf to read. Nikki picked the blue dress for the party. We spent the day picking apples at the orchard yesterday. Neil picked fresh flowers from the garden to give to his wife for her birthday. On - The prepositional particle 'on' is one that is found in a lot of phrasal verbs. In more literal phrasal verb applications, it is often used to talk about a movement on to something ( get on a bus) but more often than not its use in phrasal verbs is not literal. In these cases, it can add different ideas to the construction, including continuation ( carry on ), persistence ( keep on ), activation (turn on), focus (work on) and motivation (come on). So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'pick on'.... MEANING 1: To tease someone repeatedly Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To bully, to tease, to harass, to victimise, to punish, to criticise, to persecute Separable? No There are only two different meanings of the phrasal verb 'pick on' and so if you have ever heard it being used, then there is a good chance that it will be this first application as it is the most common one and means 'to tease someone repeatedly'. The verb 'to tease' is one that you may already be familiar with. It means to make fun of someone, annoy them or laugh at them and it can be used in both a playful friendly way as well as a cruel and unkind way. In this application of 'pick on' it is the latter of these two that we are talking about, i.e. being cruel and unkind. If you pick on someone, you continually treat someone in an unfair and unpleasant way, which can be anything from criticising or insulting them to being physically violent towards them. Essentially, it is a form of bullying and so therefore this is something that you will hear being used to talk about schoolchildren or adults when they were at school in the past. Although we use it most commonly to talk about children and teenagers picking on one another, it is absolutely possible to use it for adults too as this still happens frequently i adult life as many of you will be aware, I'm sure. On a grammatical note, this usage is not separable and always follows the same set structure. We can also add the additional preposition 'for' to specify the reason that someone picks on someone else e.g. a bad haircut or being overweight. The older kids always pick on Sam because he’s quiet. Stop picking on your sister; you know she hates it! Amy felt like the teacher was picking on her all week for no reason. Tim's colleagues pick on him at work because he’s the newest employee. I was a goth at school and so I was picked on by the other kids for the way that I dressed. The school bully used to pick on me for my ginger hair until I punched him and then he quickly stopped. One other thing to note here is that when talking about being picked on, we do not always know (or care) who the bully in the situation is, especially if someone is picked on by a group of people rather than just one individual. in these cases, we tend to use the passive constructions 'to be picked on' and 'to get picked on' to describe this. Ben is always picked on at school. Amelia gets picked on whenever she speaks up in class. Lucas gets picked on for the way he dresses, but he doesn’t let it bother him. Yolande is getting picked on more than usual this week. PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE! If you've ever been in a situation in which you see a person being picked on by someone who is physically smaller or younger than the bully, you may have felt the urge to intervene as situations like that are particularly unfair. In moments like these, you might be tempted to say to the to bully " pick on someone your own size! ", meaning that you want them to leave the victim alone and to try and bully you instead (this is presuming that you are indeed the same size or bigger than the victim). It is surprising how many of these bullies don't actually have the courage to pick on someone their own size! 😂 Why don't you pick on someone your own size instead of picking on little kids! Try picking on someone your own size, you big coward! MEANING 2: To select something or someone Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Mainly British English Potential synonyms To choose, to select, to focus on Separable? No Our second and final application of the phrasal verb 'pick on' means simply 'to select someone or something'. It is the rarest of the two meanings and is mainly heard in British English. You may be wondering what the difference is here between 'to pick' on its own and this application of 'pick on'. Whilst these two are certainly synonyms of one another, there are some small differences in usage and nuance to make you aware of. When we use 'pick on' in this sense, we are specifically talking about choosing someone or something from a group of options. While we can also use 'to pick' for this, 'pick on' would typically be used when the chosen person or thing receives special attention, treatment or focus as a result. This is often done in such a way that the other unselected options are ignored or forgotten about afterwards. Depending on the context, this can either be neutral or slightly negative in tone. The movie critic picked on one minor flaw and ignored the rest of the film. Marjorie always picks on the smallest details when she edits. The health and safety inspector picked on that one loose wire as a major safety concern. During the meeting, Joe picked on a single statistic to support his argument. The reviewers picked on the costume design rather than the quality of the acting. Alan tends to pick on wording instead of addressing the main issue. 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 'pick on'. If you enjoyed this post, please go ahead and check out some of my other posts. Now it is YOUR turn. Can you think of a sentence yourself using 'pick on'. Write it in the comments section below if you can, or alternatively any comments, suggestions or feedback that you may have....don't be shy!!! 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