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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

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'crack 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 'crack up', which is a very informal phrasal verb with a surprising number of meanings. In the article, I will explain the different meanings that it has in English, including some American uses that British speakers do not tend to say. For each different application, I will provide you with lots of example sentences in context to show you how to use it and impress all of your English-speaking friends and colleagues. So, without further ado, let's make a start.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Crack Up - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'crack' and 'up' Crack Up - Meaning 1: To break something into pieces Crack Up - Meaning 2: To laugh a lot Crack Up - Meaning 3: To have a mental breakdown Crack Up - Meaning 4: To be reputed to be Crack Up - Bonus: The noun 'crack-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 CRACK UP: KEY INFORMATION Usage Medium Number of meanings Past tense forms Cracked up / Cracked up Separable? Sometimes In this post, we will explore five different ways to use the phrasal verb 'crack up' with a bonus section at the end explaining how you can use it as a noun. First of all however, let's take a moment to consider the two lexical stars of the show, 'to crack' and 'up', and what they mean on their own. To crack - The verb 'to crack' is relatively uncommon in English and has a couple of meanings. The most common of these, and the one that has the most pertinence for the phrasal verb 'crack up' is 'to break without separating into separate parts', often caused by weakness or an impact. If something cracks in this way, a jagged line on its surface is normally visible and these are most commonly seen on windows, phone screens and walls. We can also use the noun 'crack' to refer to this line. In addition, 'to crack' can also mean 'to make a short, loud sound' and 'to hit a part of your body e.g. your head', among other rarer meanings. Elaine accidentally cracked the glass while washing the dishes. The ice on the lake began to crack under the weight of the ice skaters. I cracked my phone screen when I dropped it on the floor. The whip cracked loudly in the air. Dave almost cracked his head getting out of the car. Up - The super common prepositional particle 'up' is undoubtedly the one that is found most often in phrasal verbs and can be used to add various ideas to them, ranging from an upwards movement ( stand up ), to notions including preparation ( set up ), increase ( go up ), improvement ( look up ) and separation ( break up ). So, now that we have considered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'crack up'.... MEANING 1: To damage or break something into pieces Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? American English Potential synonyms To crack, to break up Separable? Yes Perhaps rather unexpectedly, we are going to start our exploration of the meanings of the phrasal verb 'crack up' with a rarer meaning, which is 'to damage something or to be broken into pieces'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Wall Surface Window / Screen Car / Airplane / Boat The reason for starting with this one is that it is perhaps the closest to the literal meaning of the combination of the two words, with the pairing of the idea of something cracking with the meaning of separation that we get from the word 'up'. Usually, we reserve the use of this application to talk about surfaces and physical objects that develop cracks and often (but not always) break into separate pieces as a result. On a grammatical level, you should note that this is typically used in an intransitive way (without a direct object) to talk about when damage occurs as the result of something like an accident or impact, without stating the agent or person who caused the damage. The ice started to crack up under the weight of the lorry. My grandmother's old vase cracked up when it fell off the shelf. John's windshield cracked up after being hit by a stone whilst he was driving along the main road. The wall outside our house cracked up badly during the earthquake. The frozen ground will crack up when the temperature rises. Personally, 'crack up' would not be my first choice in some of the example sentences above, as I would usually just use 'crack' on its own or in other cases 'break up' or 'smash'. Another way that 'crack up' is used in this way in American English is to describe damage that occurs to vehicles like cars, airplanes and trains occurs when they have been involved in an accident or collision. The boat cracked up on the rocks during the tsunami. . The plane cracked up on landing, but luckily nobody was seriously hurt It can also be used in some cases informally to mean 'to crash' or 'to collide' with something and here it implies a serious accident. I must admit that as a British English speaker, this is a completely new meaning for me but from what I understand from my research, this usage is one that you will still see in American newspapers and media, however it is becoming a bit dated, with verbs like 'to smash up' and 'to wreck' now replacing it. Note that when used to talk about an accident, it can be used both transitively (with a direct object) and intransitively (without a direct object), as I will show you in the sentences below.... The car cracked up on the highway and was found on the grass verge. The helicopter cracked up shortly after it took off. The old car has finally cracked up after years of rough driving. Billy cracked up his father’s truck trying to drive it in the snow. MEANING 2: To laugh a lot Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To burst out laughing, to be in hysterics, to fall about Separable? Yes We will move now from a usage of 'crack up' that I am not so familiar with to our second application, which I am VERY familiar with, and which means 'to laugh a lot'. To clarify, when I say 'to laugh a lot', I do not mean to laugh many times over a period of time but rather to laugh very hard or in an uncontrollable or enthusiastic way. When we use 'crack up' like this, we are talking about the kind of laughter that makes you want to pee yourself or that stops you breathing normally, i.e. when something is extremely funny. Furthermore, it is often when the laughter is sudden or spontaneous. Grammatically speaking, you should note that with this application, we can use it both transitively (to talk about moments when we start laughing) and intransitively (to talk about something that causes us to start laughing). For example, you can say that you always crack up when you watch a specific movie or that a scene in that particular movie always cracks you up. Moreover, it is a fairly informal usage that is mainly found in spoken English and casual writing. I always crack up when I watch that stand-up comedian. My teenage children crack up at the silliest things. The whole class cracked up when the teacher slipped on the loose mat. Kelly was cracking me up with her impressions of our boss. Margaret had cracked me up so much with her holiday stories that I couldn’t breathe. That joke cracked me up so much that I nearly cried. He's so funny, he really cracks me up! MEANING 3: To have a mental breakdown Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To go mad Separable? No We've just looked at the positive application of 'crack up' and now I'm sorry that I have to bring down the mood as this next application is a very negative one and means 'to have a mental breakdown'. First of all, to clarify what I mean by the term 'mental breakdown', it is when a person becomes mentally or emotionally unwell due to having a lot of pressure and strain in their lives. This could often be work stress, worries about finances, coping with the strain of family, or often a combination of two or more of these. It is a form of mental illness and is characterised by different symptoms such as extreme anxiety, paranoia, insomnia (not being able to sleep) and neglecting your physical health and hygiene. If you say that a person 'cracks up', it is a very informal way of saying that they have developed some, or all, of these symptoms as a result of stress in their lives. Note that unlike the previous application, we do not tend to use this one in a transitive, separable way, so you would not typically say that something cracks a person up. If you did, it would be understood as it made him or her laugh (as in the previous application). Some people crack up under constant work stress. Deborah cracks up every time things get out of control at work. My sister’s cracking up trying to manage a stressful job, school, and family. Some of the contestants are cracking up under the pressure of the competition. After the scandal, the politician completely cracked up and was forced to go away to a retreat for several weeks to recover. Josie cracked up when her marriage ended. Pete cracked up from exhaustion after working nonstop for months. She’ll crack up if she doesn’t take a break soon. MEANING 4: To be reputed to be Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To be reputed to be Separable? No We have now arrived at our fourth and final meaning of the phrasal verb 'crack up', which is 'to be reputed to be'. For this one, let me first explain what I mean by 'to be reputed to be' as it may not seem clear to you at the moment. If you're not familiar with the verb 'to repute', you may at least know its noun 'reputation', which is definitely more widespread in English. In short, 'to repute' means 'to be thought of in a certain way by a lot of people'. It is quite an interesting verb as it is only really ever used in its passive form 'to be reputed to be...', which means 'to have a reputation as / for something'. For example, if a restaurant has a reputation for being very good, you could also say that "the restaurant is reputed to be very good". So, what about 'crack up'? Well, 'to be cracked up to be' is just a synonym of saying 'to be reputed to be' and means that people hold certain shared beliefs or opinions about something. Therefore, it can be used when you want to say if your own personal experience of something corresponded with its reputation or not. That new bar on George Street is cracked up to be really good. The new phone model is every bit as impressive as it’s cracked up to be. This book is exactly what it’s cracked up to be; a modern classic! I loved it! In the example sentences above, I have shown how this application of 'crack up' is used in a positive sense, but the majority of the time it is in fact used in a negative sense. When used negatively, it implies that something is not worthy or deserving of its good reputation...see the examples below.... The movie wasn’t all it was cracked up to be; it was actually pretty boring. Life in the city isn’t as wonderful as it’s cracked up to be. It's noisy, dirty and expensive. The restaurant wasn’t everything it was cracked up to be. We waited a long time for our food and my wife's main course was not cooked enough. Working from home isn’t as easy as it’s cracked up to be. It can get very lonely. The job sounded amazing, but it wasn't what it was cracked up to be and I left soon after starting. Photo: Pexels BONUS: The noun 'crack-up' So, now that you are familiar with the different ways that you can use 'crack up' as a phrasal verb, let me just briefly explain how we can use it as a noun. There are in fact two different meanings of its noun form and both of these are connected to the phrasal verbs meanings that we have already looked at.... Meaning 1 = a mental or emotional breakdown. This is quite a rare usage but I think you would understand it very well based on the phrasal verb meaning.... Neil's crack-up came after months of trying to hide his anxiety. Everyone thought Sue was fine until her sudden crack-up last year. Meaning 2 = A physical accident, crash or collision. As with the phrasal verb meaning, this is a very American usage. The pilot sadly died in the plane crack-up. Our car was badly damaged in the crack-up on the freeway. 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 'crack 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 'crack 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 'draw out' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native. In this post, I will be explaining the English phrasal verb 'draw out'. This may be a phrasal verb that you are already familiar with or it may be the first time that you have ever come across it. Either way, my aim in this post is to explain its different meanings for you, so that you know how to understand and use it effectively in your English conversations. I will also give you lots of example sentences to for each one. So, let's make a start.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Draw Out - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'draw' and 'out' Draw Out - Meaning 1: To draw something by hand Draw Out - Meaning 2: To prolong something Draw Out - Meaning 3: To withdraw money from a bank Draw Out - Meaning 4: To tempt someone or something from their hiding place Draw Out - Meaning 5: To encourage someone to talk Draw Out - Meaning 6: To become longer (days) 🇬🇧 Draw Out - Meaning 7: To depart from a train station Draw Out - Bonus: The adjective 'drawn-out' 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 DRAW OUT: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 7 Past tense forms Drew out / Drawn out Separable? Sometimes As you know, in this post, I will be explaining the phrasal verb 'draw out', but how well do you know its individual component words 'draw' and 'out' on their own? Let's briefly look at them before we move on to the phrasal verb meanings.... To draw - 'To draw' is an interesting verb in English as it has several different meanings that all come from the same original idea. Perhaps the most well-known of all of these is 'to create a picture of something using a pen or a pencil'. This idea comes from the original meaning of 'to draw' of 'to drag' or 'to pull' as when you draw a picture, you are dragging the pen over the paper to create the line. In addition to this main meaning, 'to draw' can also mean 'to pull something in a specific direction' and 'to move a part of your body' in a particular way, among other meanings. 'To draw', like many other common English verbs, is irregular. I like drawing pictures. The artist drew the mountains with a pencil. The horse will draw the carriage along the street. I drew my legs up out of the way of the vacuum cleaner. Out - The prepositional particle 'out' is an extremely common word in the English language and features in many phrasal verbs. Arguably it's most common function in phrasal verbs is to give an idea of completion or exhaustion ( run out , tire out), however it can also add ideas like appearance ( come out ), elimination ( cut out ), expansion (spread out) and rejection (leave out). So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'draw out'.... MEANING 1: To draw something by hand Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To draw, to sketch Separable? Yes As per usual on Phrasal Verbs Explained, let's start the meanings with the one that is closest to the literal meaning of the two words combined and that is 'to draw something by hand'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Design Idea Diagram Picture Map This may seem like a strange question but are you already familiar with the phrasal verb 'write out'? If not, it means to put all of the details of something into written form or to reproduce them in writing. Well, the same idea also applies with 'draw out', except that this time it is pictorial or illustrated form. If you draw something out, you simply draw a picture of something on a piece of paper (or other suitable surface). For example, maybe you have an idea of an outfit that you want to wear to a party, so you draw it out to see what it looks like on paper. Or, if you are trying to explain the directions to somewhere, you might find it easier to draw out a map instead. This application is separable and you can put the thing being drawn either between the words 'draw' and 'out' or after them without affecting the meaning. I would say that it is used more frequently in a non-separable way. The architect drew out the plans for the new building on a large sheet of paper. Michelle quickly drew a rough map out to show us how to get there. Carol drew out a sketch of the invention that she had in mind. The artist drew out the figure before adding any colour. I drew a simple diagram out to explain how the machine works. The teacher drew out a chart on the board to illustrate the process. Verity drew out the layout of the garden to show where each plant would go. Mike drew out the design carefully, ensuring that every line was precise. MEANING 2: To prolong something Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To extend, to lengthen, to prolong, to protract, to drag out, to elongate Separable? Yes Our next meaning of 'draw out' is one that means 'to prolong something' or, in other words, to make something longer. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Meeting Conversation Negotiation Word With this application, we are not talking about making something longer in a physical sense, but rather in a temporal sense, so that it lasts for a longer time. It is normally used when something continues for longer than it normally does or than is expected or, in some cases, necessary. As you can see from the list of commonly used nouns above, it is often used in the world of business to talk about processes and meetings that go on for an extended period of time. The meeting was due to end at three, but the manager’s long explanations drew it out for another hour. Becky tried to draw out the conversation so she wouldn’t have to say goodbye. The negotiations were drawn out over several months before they reached an agreement. The politician tends to draw out his speeches, making them much longer than necessary. The director decided to draw out the suspense in the final scene to add impact. They’re only drawing out the inevitable by refusing to make a decision. Ben's slow responses drew out the interview far longer than expected. The lawyer’s questioning seemed designed to draw out the murder trial. One other way that 'draw out' can be used in this way is with words. If someone draaaaaaws ouuuuuuuut a word, they make it last for much longer than is normal. This may often be for a specific reason, such as for persuasion or emphasis. Imogen drew out the word "soooo" to show her disbelief. Luca always draws out her vowels when she's tired, making every sentence sound lazy. “Pleeeease,” Sally drew out the word, hoping to persuade her Dad. The teacher drew out the student’s name for emphasis: “Maaaark!” BONUS: THE ADJECTIVE 'DRAWN-OUT' Before we finish this section, I just want to make you aware that. we can also use the past participle form 'drawn-out' as an adjective to talk about something that lasts longer that usual or necessary. The management meeting was long and drawn-out. It was a drawn-out process but thankfully we reached an agreement in the end. MEANING 3: To withdraw money from a bank Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To withdraw, to take out Separable? Yes In many countries in the world, people are using paper money less and less in favour of electronic payments and this change directly affects our third meaning of 'draw out', which is 'to withdraw money from a bank'. Simply put, if you draw money out of a bank, building society, business or any other place where it can be stored, you take it out in order to spend it. If you remember in the Basics section, I explained how 'to draw' can mean 'to pull' and here you are literally pulling the money out of your bank, especially if you use an ATM. As I mentioned, in the UK and the USA less and less people (including me) carry physical money with them and tend to pay for everything on card or electronically, so there is a chance that this particular usage will become archaic soon. What is the situation in your country? Do people still mainly draw out money from banks and carry it in their wallets or is electronic payment now becoming the status quo? Let me know in the comments as I'd be interested to know! Lois went to the bank to draw out some cash for her weekend plans. Vincent drew out all his savings to pay for the new car. I need to draw a few hundred dollars out before the trip. They drew enough money out to cover the deposit. Sian drew out £200 from her account yesterday, leaving her balance at zero. Joe decided to draw out some cash rather than use his card. The company drew out funds from its reserve account to deal with the emergency. I’ll draw out a bit of money so we have some just in case. MEANING 4: To tempt someone or something from their hiding place Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To tempt out, to entice, to coax, to extract Separable? Yes The next way that we can use the phrasal verb 'draw out' is to talk about when a person or an animal is hiding somewhere as it means 'to tempt someone or something from their hiding place'. Henry, my cat I may have mentioned before on this website that I have two cats and when we adopted our second cat, Henry, he was an extremely shy little kitten (that's him in the picture on the right). The first thing that he did when he arrived in his new home was run away and hide behind the washing machine. I think he must have stayed there for 2 days. During this time, we tried desperately to draw him out from his hiding place by putting food and toys out and leaving him alone but none of these drew him out. It was in fact, Arthur, my other cat, who drew him out in the end! That story about Henry is a great example of when this application of 'draw out' can be used as we were trying to persuade him to leave his hiding spot by tempting him with things that he would enjoy and of course this is also something that can be used for hidden people. As a general rule, it normally involves doing something to encourage or tempt the hiding person or animal to leave the place that they are inside and to come out into the open. The park ranger left some food in the forest to draw out the shy fox from its den. Maggie tried to draw out the kitten that was hiding under her bed with a piece of string. The police used a negotiator to draw the suspect out from the building. The caterers hoped the smell of cooking would draw the campers out from their tents. A squeaky toy helped draw out the frightened dog from the corner. The exorcist used a clever trick to draw out the spirit, according to legend. One other rarer way that this application of 'draw out' can be used is to talk about non-living things and extracting or pulling them from the places in which they are situated. This may be as simple as drawing something out of your pocket or removing a fluid such as blood or oil. The nurse will draw out some blood with a syringe. Vernon drew out a hidden knife from his belt. Luke carefully drew out a splinter from his finger. The scientist tried to draw out the essential oils from the plant. The mechanic drew out the old fluid before refilling the tank. The dentist drew out the damaged tooth. Meditation can help draw out negative emotions. George drew out a folded letter from his pocket and handed it to Mildred. MEANING 5: To encourage someone to talk Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To elicit, to put at ease, to get someone to talk Separable? Yes Let's now move on to meaning number five of the phrasal verb 'draw out', which is a bit similar to the previous one and it means 'to encourage someone to talk'. For this application, we are mainly concerned with people who are shy or nervous and therefore do not want to talk to others and express their thoughts and feelings. If you are able to draw someone out, it means that you help them to speak more freely and be more open. This might be by making them feel relaxed and less nervous, gently or subtly asking them the correct sorts of questions or even giving them an alcoholic drink or two. The method is not relevant and does not dictate the use of the phrasal verb however, it is just used to express that we are able to make a shy or reserved person more talkative. The interviewer’s gentle questions helped to draw out the shy guest. Amelia tried to draw out her best friend, who usually kept her feelings to herself. The therapist slowly drew out the child, encouraging him to share his feelings. Steven's calm manner drew even the most reserved members of the group out. The teacher managed to draw the quiet student out during a class discussion. A good listener can often draw out people who are reluctant to speak. The journalist’s patience was the key to drawing out a powerful story from the witness. Diane used humour to draw her nervous interviewee out. MEANING 6: To become longer (days) Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? British English Potential synonyms To get lighter, to lengthen Separable? No The next application of the phrasal verb 'draw out' is one that it most commonly heard in British English to talk about days and it means 'to become longer'. You may be thinking that this is a strange usage as days are always 24 hours long, so I should point out here that we are thinking about daytime and nighttime and the hours of light and darkness. Wherever you are on Earth, unless you live near the Equator, you will experience 6-month periods from the middle of winter to the middle of summer when the days get longer and the nights get shorter, with the opposite happening in the six months from summer to winter. In this period when we head from winter to spring and the days are getting longer, we can say that " the days are drawing out ". This is particularly noticeable if you are far from the Equator, which is perhaps why we say it a lot in British English. Likewise, if you have read my post about the phrasal verb 'draw in' (link here ), you should know that we use this to talk about when the days get shorter. Note that this usage does not take a direct object and is therefore not separable. The days are starting to draw out now that the seasons are changing. You can tell winter is finally ending; the evenings are drawing out. As summer approaches, the days draw out and it stays light much later. The evenings have drawn out noticeably since last month. The days draw out so gradually that you hardly notice at first. By March, the days have really drawn out compared to January. It’s nice to see the evenings drawing out after those long dark winter nights. As the year progresses, the days draw out and the temperature begins to rise. MEANING 7: To depart from a train station Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To depart, to pull out, to pull off Separable? No We have now arrived at our final meaning of the phrasal verb 'draw out' and that is 'to depart from a station'. For this application, we are not talking about when passengers leave the station after arriving at their destination but rather when the trains leave the station. Quite simply, when a train draws out from a train station, it starts moving and heads away from it towards its next destination. Note that we can also use 'draw in' to talk about when a train arrives at a station. I would say that both 'draw in' and 'draw out' are both quite formal uses and can often come across as a bit old-fashioned but it's of course possible that you may hear them being used by native speakers still today in some situations and circumstances. On a grammatical level, like with the previous application, this one is also not separable and does not take a direct object. The train drew out of the station exactly on time. We waved as the train drew out, disappearing around the bend. The express drew out slowly, gathering speed as it left the platform. A whistle blew, and the locomotive drew out from the station amid clouds of steam. Passengers leaned from the windows as the train drew out into the night. The old engine drew out with a deep rumble that echoed down the tracks 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 'draw out'. If you enjoyed this post, please go ahead and check out some of my other posts. Now it is YOUR turn. Can you think of a sentence yourself using 'draw out'. Write it in the comments section below if you can, or alternatively any comments, suggestions or feedback that you may have....don't be shy!!! Sign up on the form below if you want to receive new blog posts directly by email every week as soon as they are published. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. See you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'turn over' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native. In this post, I will be explaining the phrasal verb 'turn over' and the various different uses and applications that it has in English. It may surprise you to learn that there are at least 8 different ways to use it, from simply turning something so that it faces the opposite direction to making money. Read on to learn what they all are, with detailed explanations of each one plus lots of example sentences.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Turn Over - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'turn' & 'over' Turn Over - Meaning 1: To change from one side to the other Turn Over - Bonus: The idiom 'to turn over a new leaf' Turn Over - Meaning 2: To change the television channel 🇬🇧 Turn Over - Meaning 3: To think carefully about something Turn Over - Meaning 4: To have a particular throughput Turn Over - Meaning 5: To make money Turn Over - Meaning 6: To give someone ownership of something Turn Over - Meaning 7: To make an engine run Turn Over - Meaning 8: To burgle 🇬🇧 Turn Over - Bonus: The noun 'turnover' 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 OVER: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 8 Past tense forms Turned over / Turned over Separable? Yes The words 'turn' and 'over' are two common words in English and before we look at the different meanings of 'turn over' as a phrasal verb, let's quickly consider what these two words mean as single lexical units.... To turn - This is a frequently used verb in English that has several different meanings, all of which indicate a change of some sort. It can mean to rotate or spin in a circular movement (like a carousel or the Earth), or alternatively it can be used to describe the movement of a person or object to face a different direction. Another key meaning of the verb 'to turn' is to change from one thing to another or to become another age when it is your birthday. The Earth turns on its axis. The record player was turning but no sound was coming from it. I turned to face the sun. Jack turned the car around the bend. The weather is turning and winter is on the way. My Dad is turning 60 tomorrow. Over - The prepositional particle 'over' is one that has multiple different meanings in English. These include to express being above something, moving above or across something and exceeding something, as well as being synonyms of the words 'during', 'finished' and 'about'...it's a confusing word! When used in phrasal verbs, the idea of a movement above or across something can often be found ( come over , run over ). Other ideas that 'over' can add to phrasal verb constructions include review ( go over ), change ( take over ) and falling (fall over). Now that we have looked at the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'turn over'..... MEANING 1: To change from one side to the other Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level A2 - Elementary Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To turn, to switch over Separable? Sometimes Let's begin our exploration of the meanings of the phrasal verb 'turn over' with a nice and straightforward one, which is 'to change from one side to the other'. I think that this application is more or less the literal meaning of the two component words as it means to turn something so that it faces the opposite side. Note that this is often when the item is facing upwards or downwards, rather than sideways, in which case the phrasal verb ' turn around ' would more likely be used. For example, if you have a mattress on your bed, it is a good idea to turn it over every few months so that a different side of it is facing upwards. Alternatively, if you are playing a game of cards, you may need to turn over a card to reveal what it is and to do this you simply turn it, so that the side with the number or person is now facing upwards and visible. Note that on a grammatical level, this application can be used both transitively (with a direct object ) and intransitively (without one). In other words, you can turn something over or something can turn over by itself. Susan turned over the pancake, so it could cook on the other side. I turned over the pillow to rest on the cooler side. The wind turned over the leaf, showing its lighter underside. The mechanic turned over the car part so that he could weld the bottom. Please turn the card over to see the instructions. The cat turned over and lay on its back in the sun. We are not just limited to objects with this application however, as it is also possible for a person to turn over, or more rarely unless you are a paramedic, to turn a person over. One way that this is used particularly commonly in an intransitive way when referring to people is to talk about when we turn over in bed. What this actually means is when you are asleep and facing one way and you move your body so that you are facing the other way. This could be from side to side or could be from your back or front to your side or any combination of these. I made my husband turn over in bed last night as his snoring was so loud. The nurse asked the patient to turn over onto his other side. As I was turning over in bed last night, I accidentally knocked the cat off the bed. One other common way that you may come across this first application of 'turn over' is in reference to books and pages. When you turn over a page, you simply move the page of a book that you have finished reading to the other side so that the writing on the reverse is visible instead. This usage is more common in British English than in American English. PTO A frequently used acronym for this usage exists, which is PTO, meaning "Please Turn Over" and you will often find this at the bottom of a document to advise the reader that the document continues on the reverse side. Billy turned over the page to continue reading the story. If you turn over to the next page, you will see a diagram explaining this model. Photo: Pexels BONUS: The Idiom 'To Turn Over A New Leaf' This is a good point in the post to introduce you to a common idiom featuring this application, which is 'to turn over a new leaf'. If someone turns over a new leaf, it means that they make a positive change in their life and start to behave in a better way by stopping their bad habits and activities. The reason that the word 'leaf' is included here and not 'page' is because 'leaf' is actually an old word meaning 'page'. It is not really used much nowadays apart from in this expression and in words like 'overleaf' (on the next page) and the phrasal verb 'leaf through' (to quickly look through the pages of a book or magazine). John has turned over a new leaf and has stopped all his criminal ways. She is very sorry for what she has done and promises to turn over a new leaf. Let's see whether or not she sticks to her promise! MEANING 2: To change the TV channel Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? British English Potential synonyms To change channel Separable? Yes Our second application of the phrasal verb 'turn over' is another simple one that is used primarily in British English and that is 'to change a television channel'. Quite simply, if you are watching a programme on TV, you may want to turn over to see what is on the other channels when it has finished. For this application, we are talking about watching terrestrial television with a live schedule of programmes and advertisements etc and not on-demand TV or streaming services. As a consequence of the changing nature of how we consume television these days, this usage is becoming rarer but can still be heard, especially among older people. Can you turn over? I want to see what else is on. I turned over to Channel 2 just in time for the movie to start. Don’t turn over just yet; I’m still watching this! Sam kept turning over the channels because nothing interesting was on. Turn over to the news; I think it’s about to begin. Paula turned over quickly when the adverts came on. If you don’t enjoy this show, just turn over and find something better. MEANING 3: To think carefully about something Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To consider, to think, to mull over, to deliberate, to contemplate, to ponder Separable? Yes The first two applications of 'turn over' that we have looked at so far in this post have both been somewhat literal, however this third application is a bit more idiomatic in nature as it means 'to think carefully about something'. This time, if you turn something over, you think about it carefully or for a long period in your mind. In fact, this application is perhaps most commonly heard in the expression 'to turn something over in your mind'. Most of the time, this is used when someone has a difficult decision to make and needs a lot of time to think about it. Alternatively, we do also say this when something stressful or unpleasant has happened and you need time to think about it and process it afterwards. I think you can picture this a bit like a chicken that repeatedly turns over and over in an oven and which needs a certain amount of time to turn over before it is cooked and ready to eat. I’ve been turning the idea over in my mind all weekend and I'm still unsure. Ben lay in bed turning over everything that had happened that day. Kelly spends hours turning things over in her head before making a decision. After the meeting, I kept turning the discussion over in my mind. He often turns over the consequences before he acts. Madeline lay awake all night turning over what her boss had said. I’ve been turning your words over in my mind since yesterday. MEANING 4: To have a particular throughput Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To go through Separable? Yes The next couple of applications of 'turn over' are ones that are used in business English, with this first one being heard in the retail (shopping) sector in particular as it means 'to have a particular throughput'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Stock Goods Products Staff / Employees Merchandise Firstly, if you are not sure about the word 'throughput', it means the amount of work, materials or people that pass through a system or organisation over a period of time. Essentially, it can be used for anything that can be processed by a business, whether that be stock that a business buys and sells or the number of people that it employs. If you want to talk about how high or low the throughput of a specific company, shop or organisation is, we can use this application of 'turn over' to do so. For example, if a shop buys and then sells a lot of stock over a weekly period, we can say that it turns over a lot of stock in a week. Likewise, in organisations which regularly have a high number of employees who leave and then need to be replaced, we can say that it turns over staff at a fast rate. This shop turns over stock so quickly that new products have to be put on display daily. We turn over seasonal items fast, especially around the Christmas holidays. Our clearance section turns over merchandise faster than any other department. High street stores have to turn over inventory rapidly in order to stay competitive. That distribution centre turns over more stock than any other facility in the region. Fast-food chains tend to turn over employees at a high rate. MEANING 5: To make money Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To make, to earn Separable? No Another way that you may hear 'turn over' in the world of business and commerce is this fifth application, which is 'to make money'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Money Profit Amount It is a cold hard fact that the sole aim of any business is to make money from its commercial activities. Any money that a company makes is known as revenue and when we talk about how much revenue a company makes, we can use this application of 'turn over'. As we use 'turn over' to talk about how much money a company makes, it is usually expressed either with an amount of money or with a description of the amount e.g. "a lot" or "twice as much". Furthermore, if the company is lucky enough to make a profit, i.e. it makes money after all of its expenses have been paid, we can also say that it "turns over a profit". Note that unlike the previous applications of 'turn over' that we have looked at, this one is not normally used in a separable way. The company turns over nearly $5 million USD a year. That small bakery turns over more money than you'd expect. Our online store now turns over twice as much as it did last year. They turned over a record amount in sales during the holiday season. The firm turns over huge profits thanks to its international exports. Last quarter, the business turned over £750,000 in revenue. Their new product line helped them turn over significant profit. Despite the recession, the retailer still turned over a healthy amount., The company expects to turn over even more next fiscal year. They’ve been turning over steady revenue since they expanded overseas. MEANING 6: To give someone ownership of something Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To hand over, to relinquish Separable? Yes Our next application of 'turn over' is one that can be used in many different areas of life, from work to personal matters, and means 'to give someone ownership of something'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Ownership Company / Business Land / Estate Keys Control Criminal To describe this meaning in another way, it is to transfer the control or possession of something to another person. This is often when the person receiving it has a legal right to it, either because they are entitled to it somehow or because they now own it. In addition, it is also possible to turn over the responsibility for something to someone else. Examples of when you may come across this application are when information or records are required to be turned over to the police for legal purposes, when a business owner retires and has to transfer ownership of it to someone else and when someone hands over the keys to a property when it has been sold. You may have noted that I included 'hand over' in the last example above as it functions as a synonym of 'turn over', however there are some differences in nuance between the two. Firstly, 'turn over' sounds a bit more formal and serious than 'hand over' and secondly, it often implies that the person turning over the item is only doing so because they have been ordered to do so or are legally required to and are not doing it voluntarily. 'Hand over', on the other errr hand, can often imply that something is given more willingly. Sir David turned the business over to his daughter when he retired. The land was turned over to the government after the dispute has been settled. The company will be turned over to new management next year. Under the court order, Fred was required to turn over all financial records. They turned over ownership of the property to the charity last month. The estate was turned over to the Duke's heirs following the reading of the will. The suspect refused to turn over the stolen items to the police. Poppy plans to turn over control of the company to a successor at some point next year. One other way that this application of 'turn over' is used in (almost) the same way is in relation to people. If you turn someone over, you are talking specifically about criminals and when someone delivers a person who is suspected of having committed a crime to the police or the authorities. For example, a criminal in custody may turn his fellow gang members over to the police, an illegal immigrant may be turned over to the immigration authorities by a member of the public or you may even turn yourself over if you feel guilty about a crime that you committed and feel like you should be punished for it. After hours of interrogation, the gang finally agreed to turn their leader over to the police. The group of neighbours caught the burglar and turned him over to the authorities. Rather than turning himself over to the police, Jeff tried to escape the country. The rebels refused to turn over the captured soldiers to the government forces when they were asked to do so. MEANING 7: To make an engine run Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To run Separable? No Next up, we have an application for all the petrolheads (car fanatics) among you as another meaning of the phrasal verb 'turn over' is 'to make an engine run'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Engine Motor Generator In basic terms, if an engine runs, it means that it is operating correctly and producing power, regardless of if the vehicle or machine that it powers is moving or stationary. We use 'turn over' to describe when we talk about making an engine start to run. When you insert a car key into the ignition and turn it, the starter motor physically rotates, typically causing the engine to start running. This process of activating the starter motor with the key is referred to as 'turning over'. This is not normally something that people need to think about until there is a problem and the engine fails to start. Usually, when this problem occurs, you hear a sound as you turn the key, indicating the engine is turning over, but the engine doesn't start. As a consequence, this application mainly tends to be used when there is a problem. The engine refused to turn over this morning as it was so cold. Victor tried to start the truck, but the engine wouldn’t turn over. After a few attempts, the motor finally turned over and started. Amy turned the key, but the engine didn’t even turn over. Once the fuel started flowing, the engine turned over smoothly. The boat’s engine turned over nicely after being repaired. Keep cranking it; the engine should turn over in a minute! It took a while, but eventually the generator turned over and began humming. MEANING 8: To burgle Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? British English Potential synonyms To burgle, to rob, to do over Separable? Yes We are going to end the phrasal verb meanings on a negative application (sorry), which is another British English usage, meaning 'to burgle'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... House / Apartment / Flat Home Building Shop Company For those of you who are not sure, the verb 'to burgle' means to illegally enter a house or property with the intention of stealing things or committing a crime. If someone turns over your home, it means that they burgle it, often searching through it, stealing things and making it very untidy in the process. Often, when talking about someone who has been the victim of this crime, it is common to refer to it in the passive sense with the verb 'to get', especially as we do not normally know who the criminals were. The thieves turned the whole house over whilst the family was away on holiday. We got home to find the place had been turned over by burglars. The shop was turned over during the night and the cash register was emptied. Burglars broke in and turned the office over, searching for valuables and cash. They turned over every drawer and cupboard in the place looking for jewellery. We got our house turned over last night but luckily nothing valuable was stolen. Someone turned our garage over and stole all my Dad's tools. They got their flat turned over whilst they were sleeping in bed. Photo: Pexels BONUS: The noun turnover Lastly, before we wrap up this post, let's just take a look at the noun 'turnover', which has a couple of different meanings.... Turnover as revenue : You will hopefully remember that earlier in the post I explained how we can use 'turn over' to talk about how much revenue a business makes over a period of time. We can also use the noun 'turnover' as a direct synonym of revenue here. Simply put, a company's turnover is how much money it makes from its activities during a specific period. The company reported an annual turnover of £5 million last year. We managed to double our turnover after we launched the new product line. It can also be used to mean the throughput of something, especially when talking about the number of employees that start working for and leave an organisation in a period of time. High employee turnover is causing major recruitment challenges for the company. Turnover as a food : Last but not definitely not least, it is also possible to eat a turnover. These are pastry snacks on which some fruit (most commonly apple) is placed on the pastry and one end is then turned over, enclosing it in its own little tasty pocket. Delicious! My Gran makes the best apple turnovers! They're so good! If you want to try and make an apple turnover, you can find the recipe here.... https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/apple_turnovers_21653 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 over'. 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 over'. 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 'hold down' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native. This article is all about the phrasal verb 'hold down' and in it I will explain 5 different ways that you can use it in English. We will start by looking at the literal and more common uses, before moving on to some rarer ones at a more advanced level. For each application, I will also provide you with a lot of example sentences in context to show you how it can be used and therefore help you to know when you can use it when speaking English. So, without further ado, let's make a start.... TABLE OF CONTENTS   (Click to jump to each one) Hold Down - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'hold' & 'down' Hold Down - Meaning 1: To forcefully stop someone or something from moving Hold Down - Meaning 2: To keep the level of something low Hold Down - Meaning 3: To keep a job or relationship Hold Down - Meaning 4: To repress people Hold Down - Meaning 5: To eat something and not vomit afterwards 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 HOLD DOWN: KEY INFORMATION Usage Medium Number of meanings 5 Past tense forms Held down / Held down Separable? Yes As you know, we will be looking at the phrasal verb 'hold down' in this article, but how much do you know about the individual words 'hold' and 'down'? I assume the answer to that question is quite a lot as these are common words in English but let's just quickly review them before we continue with the phrasal verb meanings.... Like most of the commonest verbs in English, 'to hold' is irregular and has several different meanings. The most frequently used of these is 'to retain something in your hand or in your possession for a period of time'. In addition to this, it can also mean 'to support something' and 'to keep something in place, so that it cannot move or leave' and this link with the verb 'to keep' is one that we will see again later as we look at the meanings of 'hold down'. I was holding a glass of water in my hand. Laura held the safety rail tightly as she walked up the stairs. Don't worry, you won't fall; I will hold you. The suspected thief was held in a police cell overnight. You will undoubtedly be familiar with the prepositional particle 'down' and will therefore know already that it's main meaning is to talk about a downward movement or decrease of some sort. This idea is also one that you will find in some 'down' phrasal verbs (fall down, get down ). In addition to this, when 'down' appears in a phrasal verb it can be to add other ideas such as dismantling or collapsing (tear down), recording (write down) or stopping (shut down), among others. Now that we have covered the basics, let's proceed to see the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'hold down'..... MEANING 1: To forcefully stop someone or something from moving Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To restrain, to pin down, to depress Separable? Yes We will start the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'hold down' with the one that is a literal meaning of the two words combined and that is 'to forcefully stop someone or something from moving'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Person Criminal / Suspect / Prisoner Dog / Cat Paper Button I would say that we can divide this first application into two distinct categories: living things (people and animals) and objects. Let's first consider the idea of holding a person or an animal down. This is where we need to use force to stop them from moving from the low position that they are in. Normally, this is when the individual is on a horizontal surface such as the ground or an operating table and we need them to stay where they are and not get up and move. In order to do this, we must physically hold them in position by continually pushing them down onto the surface. Of course, don't forget that whoever is being held down will not want to be and is therefore likely to put up some resistance to this. Typical example situations of where you might come across this is when the police have arrested a criminal and need to hold them down on the ground or when an animal is at the vets and tries to escape and hide (as pet owners will know they almost always do). The nurse had to hold the patient down while the doctor gave the injection. Several people tried to hold the dog down, so the vet could examine it. We had to hold her down to stop her from thrashing during the seizure. Two guards managed to hold down the suspect until the police arrived. He was so strong; it took three of us to hold him down! Now, let's think about holding down non-living or inanimate objects. The idea here is essentially the same as with living things, i.e. that we are applying pressure to an object to stop it moving in an upwards or sideways direction (or both). Of course, as we are dealing with objects and not living beings, there is no desire to move, however there is still resistance from forces trying to move the object e.g. the wind. Typical scenarios of this would be holding down a button for a period of time to reset a device and using a heavy weight to hold down papers or documents that may get moved by the wind or a draught. Solomon had to use his hands to hold down the lid as the wind kept trying to lift it. Sandra put a rock on the stack of papers to hold them down and stop them from being blown away. Three firefighters had to hold down the hose when the water pressure surged. Hold down the reset button for 5 seconds until the display screen flashes. MEANING 2: To keep the level of something low Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere with some American English sub-usage Potential synonyms To keep down, to limit Separable? Yes Our second meaning of 'hold down' is another one that could be considered as a literal meaning of the two words and that is 'to keep the level of something low'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Price Costs / Expenses Level Usage Amount / Quantity / Number Noise One way that the word 'down' can be used is as a synonym of the adjective 'low', particularly when talking about things that are measured numerically in levels. This is important for understanding the second application of 'hold down', which is essentially just a continuation of the previous one. However, instead of talking about physically holding something in place, so that it does not move, we are now thinking about levels of things that can be measured with numbers that we do not want to increase or rise. Most frequently, this application is heard in reference to prices and costs, which are things that none of us want to increase. Additionally, this may be used to talk about things like employee turnover in a business, economic inflation and levels of pollution, all of which can be me measured in numbers. As you can see, these are often things whose levels naturally go up and dow and which sometimes require some intervention in order to keep the levels low and it is this intervention that we call 'holding down'. If you have read my post about the phrasal verb 'keep down' (link here ), you might recognise that this is in fact a synonym of this phrasal verb, however you should not that 'hold down' is not used as commonly. The government is trying to hold inflation down by cutting interest rates. We need to hold down our costs if we want the project to stay within budget. The team managed to hold down prices despite rising production expenses. Good management helped the company to hold down staff turnover. Eating healthily and exercising can help you hold your cholesterol levels down. The store is offering discounts to hold the number of unsold items in stock down. New technology is helping farmers to hold down water usage during dry seasons. In addition, there is also a usage of this application in American English, which means to limit something and is often used in reference to noise and sound. The idea here is that if you hold the noise down, it stays at an acceptable or quiet level and does not become too loud. Note that this would not be used in British English and 'keep down' would be used as the alternative here. We need to hold down the noise so we don’t wake the baby. Could you hold it down, please? I’m trying to concentrate. MEANING 3: To keep a job or relationship Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To keep, to retain, to hang onto Separable? Yes For many of us, having a good job that we enjoy or a successful relationship are two of the most important objectives in our lives and this third application of 'hold down' can be used to talk about both of these things as it means 'to keep a job or relationship'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Job Position Relationship Marriage Let's first consider the idea of holding down a job. If you are able to hold down a job, it means that you can find a job and then keep it for a long time, with the idea being that you do not get fired or quit after a short period of time. Equally, it can be used in the negative sense for people who cannot hold down a job, meaning that they are unable to find permanent work and always seem to be looking for one. Bill has finally managing to hold down a steady job after years of unemployment. Despite his health issues, Phillip was able to hold down a full-time position. It's hard to hold down a job and study at the same time. Ele’s been holding down that job for over ten years now. Even while raising three kids, Gemma managed to hold down two part-time jobs. Likewise, with relationships if you are able to find a romantic partner with whom you enter into a long-lasting relationship, you can say that you "held down a relationship". Again, when talking about those people who are unlucky in the romance department, we can use the negative and say that he or she cannot hold down a relationship. Less commonly, you may hear this being used with other words for relationships like 'marriage'. Olivia can’t seem to hold down a relationship for more than a few months. Holding down a relationship when you're suffering from mental health problems can be extremely challenging. If you can hold down a job, you can hold down a marriage. Lastly, for both jobs and relationships, you should note that we typically use this when there is something remarkable or surprising about the fact that someone can or cannot hold one down. This may be that the person has not had much luck finding work or a partner in the past or it may be that they are extremely good at doing so. MEANING 4: To repress someone Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To keep down, to suppress, to limit, to restrict, to repress, to oppress Separable? Yes We are now on to the final two meanings of 'hold down', which are both rarer synonyms of the phrasal verb 'keep down'. The first of these is 'to repress someone'. Firstly, if you are not sure about the meaning of the verb 'to repress', it means to keep something under control and limit it in some way. When we apply this to people, it simply means to control them and restrict their freedom, which is sadly something that has happened in all parts of the world since human societies have existed. When people are held down in this way, it is almost always directly or indirectly caused by a government or the rulers of a regime or country who want to maximise their own power by restricting everybody else's. You may also, much more rarely, find this application being used to talk about companies and businesses, which also have their own leadership and power hierarchies and can hold certain employees down, stopping them from advancing in their careers within the organisation. The regime used force and propaganda to hold people's opposition down. For decades, discriminatory laws were used in the country to hold down minority communities. The company’s unfair policies were put in place to hold down workers who spoke out for better conditions. The activists accused the government of trying to hold the voices of protestors down. Education restrictions were a way of holding down certain groups and limit their opportunities within society Corrupt leaders used fear tactics to hold down anyone who questioned their authority. Heavy taxes were imposed on the poorer classes to hold them down and keep them dependent. MEANING 5: To eat something and not vomit afterwards Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To keep down Separable? Yes Lastly, we come to the fifth application of the phrasal verb 'hold down' that I will explain for you in this post and as I mentioned previously, this is another rarer usage and it means 'to eat something and not vomit'. Nouns & pronouns commonly used with this application.... Food Drink Meal Anything Liquid This might sound a bit of a strange definition and you may be wondering why we need it as the vast majority of times that people eat, they do not vomit. If that were the case, then we would probably not survive for very long. Of course, there are times when we become ill, in particular with food poisoning or viruses and we are not able to eat or drink anything without vomiting afterwards and it is on these rare occasions that we use this application of 'hold down'. When these unfortunate illnesses occur, we will use 'hold down' to talk about our ability to keep food or drink in our stomachs after we consume it. It is literally the idea of holding it in a lower position since the stomach is below the mouth. As I also mentioned earlier in the post, the synonym phrasal verb 'keep down' is probably used more commonly than 'hold down' here. Lois was so sick that she couldn’t even hold a sip of water down. After the surgery, Mike struggled to hold down any solid food. I was so hungover that I barely managed to hold down breakfast before heading to work. The medication helped Edwards hold down his meals for the first time in days. Try to hold it down for a few hours so that your stomach can settle. Barry hasn’t been able to hold down anything since last night. They gave Penelope some ginger tea to help her hold her food down during the flight. 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 'hold down'. 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 'hold down'. 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