A detailed explanation of how to use the phrasal verb 'get off' correctly like a native speaker. Hello and welcome to this instalment of Phrasal Verbs Explained; a blog which aims to help you understand English phrasal verbs in a clear and coherent way, so that you can use them to improve your language level and sound more like a native speaker. This post is all about the phrasal verb 'to get off'. It is my first post to focus on a phrasal verb with the verb 'to get', which is a verb with a large number of meanings and usages. My original plan was to try and fit all of the different meanings of 'get off' into one post, but there are just too many and therefore I thought it would be better to give you the information in two separate parts. So, without further ado, let's take a look at the phrasal verb 'to get off'.... KEY INFORMATION For more explanation of the terms in the table above, click here MEANING 1: Literal As learners of English, I am sure that you will be aware that the verb 'to get' is used extensively by native speakers and it probably seems that it can be used to express almost anything in English, especially in spoken language. It is true that we love the verb 'to get' and we use it all the time because it is so versatile and has such a large number of meanings. This also means that there are also many phrasal derived from the verb 'get', which often have several meanings or more. The meaning of 'get' that is relevant for this first section means to arrive at or reach a particular place. Examples of usage.... I want to get home before 7pm this evening. My flight got to Paris on time. When we combine this meaning of 'get' with the prepositional particle 'off', the literal meaning that it gives us is to reach, or arrive at, a particular place that is no longer on something. To put this another way, this means to no longer be physically on something that holds or supports us. As I imagine you will already know, this form is very commonly used to talk about leaving or exiting public transport, (hopefully) when you reach your destination. Examples of usage.... When we got off the airplane in London, we were shocked at how cold it was. Get ready, we have to get off the train at the next station. Please be reminded that you can only use 'get off' for public transport that you can be on. See the list on the 'carry on' post for more information on this. Apart from forms of transport, the phrasal verb 'get off' is used very commonly with any nouns that we use 'on' with. This would either be things that support or hold us e.g. a sofa or a stage, or surfaces with which something has physical contact e.g. a blanket. Examples of usage.... My Dad has hurt his back and he finds it difficult to get off the sofa. I felt sick when I got off the roller coaster! My cat was sitting on my pink towel and refused to get off! MEANING 2: Literal (with a direct object) The second meaning that we are looking at of 'get off' is not a different meaning to the first one, but rather the same meaning with the addition of a direct object. In other words, in this meaning we are talking about removing something (direct object) that is on an object or surface. We do not want the thing to be on the object or surface and the end result is that it no longer is. This can either be physically removing it or making it move somehow (asking, shouting, threatening etc). As there is a direct object in this case, this form of 'get off' is separable and the direct object needs to go between get and off. Examples of usage.... I have been trying to get the cat off my pink towel for 10 minutes and he is refusing to move! Get your dirty hands off the clean sheets! Since the use of 'on' is so widespread in English, 'get off' can be used in many different situations and with many different potential nouns in this way. Common examples of this usage would be telling cats or children to get off an item of furniture, getting the top off a bottle or someone getting the snow off their car in the morning so that they can drive it. Examples of usage.... Get everything off the table please, it is time for dinner! I've broken my arm, can someone please help me get my coat off? The theatre security guards got the imposter off the stage very quickly! It is also very common to use "get off!" in an imperative form, when asking or telling a person to take their hands off you or to stop physically touching something. EXTRA TIPS TO SOUND LIKE A NATIVE SPEAKER In many cases this literal meaning of 'get off' is very similar to the phrasal verb 'to take off', however there is a difference in how they are used which you should be aware of. We tend to use 'take off' in positive statements or when there is no difficulty or problem removing the item. In contrast, we use 'get off' with questions and negative statements or when there is a perceived difficulty or problem removing the item. Consider the following examples.... I normally take my shoes off before I enter my house, but today my laces were so tight that I could not get them off! Helen spent 10 minutes trying to get the petrol cap on her car off, which was strange as she can normally take it off in a few seconds. IDIOM ALERT So, before we continue on to look at the idiomatic meanings, I want to make you aware of some commonly used expressions and idioms with 'get off' and parts of the body.... To get something off your chest = To say something to someone that you have wanted to say for a long time. This is usually something that you have been reluctant to say in the past as it may be controversial or cause an argument. Example of usage.... I need to talk to you and get a few things off my chest To get your mind off something = In English if something is on our mind, it means it is worrying us and we can't stop thinking about it. It is normally a good idea to do something entertaining or interesting to stop us thinking about it. This is what we call getting your mind off something. Example of usage.... I had a long walk by the river earlier which really helped me to get my mind off things. To get off someone's back = To leave someone alone if you have been criticising or pressuring them to do something. This is often used by the person to tell the person criticising or pressuring them to stop. An alternative to this is to get off someone's case. Examples of usage.... I just wish my parents would get off my back and stop telling me to get a job. My boss is driving me mad, I wish he would get off my case! MEANING 3: To leave (idiomatic) The first idiomatic meaning of 'to get off' that we are going to look at is the usage meaning to leave a place to start a journey. This is something that native speakers will often use in informal spoken English, often when they are talking about leaving somewhere to go home. It is sometimes used in a continuous form with 'had better be' to indicate that it is time to leave a place or that the person has stayed somewhere later than they had planned. Examples of usage.... I think I will get off now as I want to avoid rush hour. INTENDED MEANING: I think I will leave now so that I don't get stuck in traffic during rush hour. Look at the time! I didn't realise it was so late, we had better be getting off! INTENDED MEANING: It is later than I realised so we should leave. MEANING 4: To finish work (idiomatic) Our next meaning of 'get off' is to leave work, normally at the end of the day at your agreed finishing time. You could also use it to say that you are finishing at an earlier time than usual, however we do not use it to say that we are leaving a job or stopping working for a company. It is common to use the word 'work' here, but it is not absolutely necessary as people understand from the context that we are talking about work. Examples of usage.... I get off work at 4 o'clock today, so I could meet you after that. INTENDED MEANING: I finish work at 4 o'clock so I will be available to meet you after that time. What time do you get off today? INTENDED MEANING: What time do you finish work today? MEANING 5: To have time off from work (idiomatic) Staying on the theme of work, we can also use 'get off' when talking about taking annual leave or holiday from our job. This is often when we are not yet sure if we can take the time off and we need to check with our manager to see if it is possible. When we use it this way we need a direct object such as 'a day' or 'time'. Examples of usage.... I need to get the day off tomorrow as I have to take my wife to the hospital. INTENDED MEANING: I need to take a holiday day tomorrow in order to take my wife to the hospital (but I do not know yet if it will be possible). Helen asked her boss if she could get some time off but her request was denied. INTENDED MEANING: Helen's request to have annual leave from work was not accepted. MEANING 6: To receive a less severe or no punishment (idiomatic) The next usage of 'get off' is one that we use specifically for criminals and it relates to the punishment that they receive for their crimes. If we want to say that a criminal avoids punishment completely or receives a punishment that is less severe than expected, we can use the phrasal verb 'get off' to express this. Here, the additional preposition 'with' is required to say what the lesser punishment is that the criminal receives. Example of usage.... The murderer was found guilty in court but somehow got off with a sentence of 15 years instead of the recommended 25 years. INTENDED MEANING: The court found the murderer to be guilty but gave him a lesser punishment than people suggested he should have received. EXTRA INFORMATION TO SOUND LIKE A NATIVE It is also to use this form of 'get off' with the criminal as the direct object and normally a lawyer as the subject. We use this when we want to say that a criminal received a lesser punishment or no punishment at all due to the intervention of the lawyer. Example of usage.... Roger is such a good lawyer; yesterday at the trial he managed to get the entire criminal gang off. INTENDED MEANING: At yesterday's court case, Roger's work ensured that all of the criminal gang avoided a court sentence. Finally, I just want to make you aware of the expression 'to get off lightly', which means to receive a punishment that is less severe than expected or deserved. SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE: TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF HOW 'TO GET OFF' IS USED BY NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS Get off the [noun] and give me a hand! Please get your hands off [noun]. Get off me! We need to get off the [public transport] here. I should be getting off now, it's late. I can't get my [item of clothing] off. I've got the day off today. Did you manage to get the week off for our holiday? He got off very lightly, in my opinion. EXERCISE Re-write the following sentences using 'to get off': We have to alight the train at London King's Cross station. The lid on the beer bottle is stuck fast, I can't remove it! I am not going to finish work until 6.30pm today and it looks like I am not going to be able to have annual leave tomorrow either! It's 4.45pm, so I think I should leave now to avoid the rush hour traffic. When Lisa listens to classical music it makes her forget all about the stress of her job. The fraudster was sentenced to 3 months in prison; a punishment that was much less severe than everybody had predicted. THE EXERCISE ANSWERS WILL BE AVAILABLE IN PART 2 COMING NEXT WEEK So, that brings us to the end of 'get off' part 1. I hope that all of this information has not been too overwhelming. Thank you so much for taking the time to read the post and I sincerely hope that it has helped you a little bit further on your English learning journey. If you found the post useful, please like and share it, so together we can help as many English learners as possible to understand and master these tricky phrasal verbs. Also, please leave any comments, questions, suggestions or examples of 'get off' below. I really love reading them. See you next time!

A detailed explanation of how to use the phrasal verb 'let up' correctly like a native speaker. Hello and welcome to this instalment of Phrasal Verbs Explained; a blog which aims to help you understand English phrasal verbs in a clear and coherent way, so that you can use them to improve your language level and sound more like a native speaker. If you want to receive new blog posts directly email every week, please sign up on the form at the end of the post. The phrasal verb 'let up' is a lesser known phrasal verb but is nevertheless a great one to have in your vocabulary as it can be used in many different situations. In the post we'll look at its three different meanings and how they are used by native speakers along with some additional tips for you. Read on to find out more.... LET UP: KEY INFORMATION For more explanation of the terms in the table above, click here BASICS To begin, let's take a look at the individual components of 'let up' and what they mean individually as this can often help with the phrasal verb meanings. Our main verb is the irregular verb 'to let', which you will probably know as it is a very common English verb with various meanings, however perhaps the main meaning, and the meaning that is relevant for the phrasal verb 'let up', is to permit or to allow something. We then have the prepositional particle up, meaning to move from a lower point to a higher point or away from the ground ⬆️ ⬆️ ⬆️. So, now we have that in mind, the first of the meanings of 'let up' should be nice and easy for you... MEANING 1: Literal Imagine that you want to go for dinner in an exclusive restaurant, which is on the second floor of a building. You arrive at the door of the building (downstairs) and ask if there is availability for a table to have a meal. The staff then check the bookings and how busy they are in order to make a decision about whether or not to let you up to the restaurant. The above example is exactly how we use 'let up' in a literal sense in English, i.e. to allow someone to come or go up to a place (normally a room). When used literally, 'let up' is separable and the direct object, normally a person, goes between the two words. Please note that it does not go afterwards. As you can imagine, this usage is limited to very specific situations and often an alternative such as 'let in' can be used. 'Let up' is a little bit more specific than 'let in' though, as it includes extra spatial information, so if you can ever use it, it will help your English to sound a little more like a native speaker. Examples of usage.... We tried to get into the club upstairs but they were only letting people up who they knew. The police officers refused to let him up the stairs. EXTRA INFORMATION For those of you who are interested in combat sports such as martial arts or karate, it is possible to 'let someone up' if your opponent is on the floor and you are in a dominant position and you allow them to stand up again. MEANING 2: To become less intense or to stop (Idiomatic) So, now we come to the second and most common meaning of the phrasal verb 'to let up', which means to become less intense, to slow down or to stop completely. When native speakers use 'let up' in this way, we are talking about something which we have no control over to make stop or less intense. This is normally (but not always) something negative, most commonly perhaps bad weather such as rain, a storm or snow, which can cause problems or prevent us from doing things. Aside from weather, other nouns that are commonly used with 'let up' are pressure, attacks, work, emails, Covid etc. From a grammatical perspective, 'let up' used in this way has no direct object (intransitive) and so cannot be separated. Moreover, it often appears at the end of a sentence. Examples of usage.... It has been snowing for 24 hours and there is no sign of it letting up. INTENDED MEANING: The snow has been falling for a day and does not appear to be getting less intense or stopping. The pressure I am under at work never seems to let up. INTENDED MEANING: The person is always under pressure at work and it never eases. The football match will start as soon as the rain lets up. INTENDED MEANING Once the rain starts to ease or stops, the football match will start. EXTRA INFORMATION As you may be aware, English native speakers really love creating nouns from verbs and verbs from nouns (a practice called nouning and verbing) and the English language is full of these linguistic creations. 'Let up' is no exception to this and can also be used as a noun. The meaning is exactly the same, however we need to add the word "in" when we want to talk about the thing that we want to stop or reduce in intensity. Examples of usage.... There has been no let-up in the rain today! INTENDED MEANING: It has been raining heavily all day. As soon as there is a let-up in the storm, we will go to the shop. INTENDED MEANING: Once the storm starts to ease, we will go to the shop. MEANING 3: To stop doing something (idiomatic) The third and final usage of 'let up' that we will consider in this post is linked to the second meaning that we have just looked at and primarily means to stop or reduce doing something you are doing. This is specifically when the action that you are doing has been intense or done with determination. The difference with this second meaning is that in this case the person can choose to stop or reduce the intensity of the action. Think of a high profile police investigation where the police actively seek to solve a crime over a long period of time but due to a lack of evidence and results, they decide to reduce their efforts. In such a situation we might say "that after a long period of time the police have let up on the investigation". We could also say the opposite of this i.e. "that the police have not let up on their investigation". If we let up on someone rather than something, it means that we treat them in a more lenient or less severe way than we were treating them before. It could also be used to say that you are being nicer to someone than you were in the past. As you can see from the above police example, the additional preposition 'on' is required here before the indirect object noun. Examples of usage.... The company has let up on its standards since the new management took over. INTENDED MEANING: Since their takeover the company is not enforcing its standards like it was beforehand. The teacher never let up on the students and made sure that they always worked hard. INTENDED MEANING: The teacher always applied pressure on the students to work hard. Bayern Munich didn't let up on their opponents for the whole game. INTENDED MEANING: Bayern Munich played well and applied pressure on the opponents for the whole match. USE IT LIKE A NATIVE SPEAKER! TYPICAL WAYS 'TO LET UP' IS USED IN ENGLISH Memorise and use the sentences below in conversations to help your English come across as more natural and fluent.... As soon as the [noun] lets up, we will..... [Person] just won't let up! There has been no let-up in the [noun]. I think you should let up on [person]. I will never let up until I [verb]. With a bit of luck the [weather] will let up later today. EXERCISE (Answers at the end of the post) Re-write the following sentences using 'to let up'. The security guard isn't allowing anyone else into the bar upstairs now. This hot weather is showing no signs of going away anytime soon. The emails have not stopped coming in all day. MI5 have said that they will not stop their investigation until they catch the perpetrator. My manager has finally started to be a bit more lenient with me. I am not going to stop badgering* you until you finish the work. *To badger is a verb that means to repeatedly ask someone to do something. QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER PRACTICE Has there ever been a time when you have had to cancel plans because the bad weather would not let up? Were your parents lenient with you when you were growing up? If not, do you wish they had let up on you a bit more? Why? Have you ever said that you will never let up on a project or future plan? Did you ever let up on it or did you see it through? EXERCISE ANSWERS (Other variations may be possible) The security guard isn't letting anyone else up to the bar upstairs now. This hot weather is showing no signs of letting up anytime soon. The emails have not let up all day. MI5 have said that they will not let up on their investigation until they catch the perpetrator. My manager has finally started to let up on me a bit. I am not going to let up on you until you finish the work. That is the end of today's post. Thank you so much for taking the time to read it and I sincerely hope that it has helped you a little bit further on your English learning journey. If you found the post useful, please go ahead and share it, so together we can help as many English learners as possible to understand and master these tricky phrasal verbs. Also, please leave any comments, questions, suggestions or examples of 'let up' below. I really love reading them. Don't forget to sign up below if you want to receive posts by email first. See you next time!

A detailed explanation of how to use the phrasal verb 'sort out' correctly like a native speaker. Hello and welcome everyone to this instalment of Phrasal Verbs Explained; a blog which aims to help you understand English phrasal verbs in a clear and coherent way, so that you can use them to improve your language level and sound more like a native speaker. The featured phrasal verb in this post is 'to sort out', which is a relatively informal phrasal with a number of different meanings and usages. Across these different meanings there is a general theme though, which will hopefully help to help you understand and make sense of them. So, without further ado, let's take a look at them.... KEY INFORMATION: For more explanation of the terms in the table above, click here CAN WE USE 'SORT OUT' IN A LITERAL SENSE? Unlike the other phrasal verbs that we have looked at in this blog so far, 'to sort out' is only really used idiomatically and does not really have a literal meaning. Before we look at the idiomatic usages of 'sort out', it is perhaps worth noting that it can be used as a variation of the verb 'to sort', which means either to arrange something into categories (think of a hat in a famous literary school for magicians) or to resolve a problem or difficulty. Examples in context.... John sorted the playing cards into different suits. I have managed to sort the problem with the computer. So, following that short introduction, let's take a look at the idiomatic usages of 'sort out' and how us native speakers use it.... MEANING 1: To arrange into categories (idiomatic) As we have just seen, one of the main meanings of the verb 'to sort' is to arrange something into categories or types and you'll be pleased to know that the phrasal verb 'to sort out' can also be used to mean the exact same thing 😀. Examples of usage.... I sorted the playing cards out into different suits. John helped Helen sort out the clothes into colour groups. You will see from the above examples that it is perfectly fine to separate 'sort' and 'out' (like in the first example) with no difference in meaning. Moreover, don't forget that the preposition 'into' is also required to name the end category or group. IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TO SORT OUT AND TO SORT? So, you may be wondering why native speakers add the extra word 'out' when 'to sort' alone means the same thing? While it is true that these two variations can be interchangeable with no difference in meaning, sometimes native speakers will add 'out' for extra emphasis. In other instances however, 'sort out' does have a different meaning to 'sort', which you should be aware of. In a situation where we want to separate or remove one type of item from the others, we would use 'sort out' rather than 'sort'. Imagine that you have some old clothes that you want to check through in order to decide which items you want to keep and which you want to throw away. In this instance you would say that you are sorting out the clothes that you no longer want. Using 'to sort' for this sounds incomplete as the particle 'out' adds the extra element or idea of separation. Examples of usage.... I need to sort out the clothes that I am taking on holiday with me. INTENDED MEANING: I need to check through my clothes and decide which ones I will take on vacation Lisa has finally sorted out which books she will donate to the charity shop. INTENDED MEANING: Lisa has finally decided which of her books she is donating to the charity shop MEANING 2: To resolve a problem (idiomatic) As I mentioned before, 'to sort' has two main meanings in English: the first is to arrange something and the second is to resolve a problem. Luckily for you English learners, the second meaning of 'to sort out' is also the same meaning as the second meaning of 'sort', i.e. to resolve a problem or issue. IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 'TO SORT OUT' AND 'TO SORT'? The short answer here is no. Both variations can be used interchangeably without any change in meaning, however like with the previous meaning, native speakers will often add the word 'out' for emphasis. From my own perspective, I think that 'sort out' is often used by native speakers when the problem or issue is a complicated or difficult one and we tend to use 'sort' more for issues that are easier or quicker to resolve. WHAT A MESS! We often use 'sort out' with the word 'mess', which can either mean an untidy physical space like a typical teenager's bedroom or a complex situation with lots or problems. We can therefore use 'sort out' to talk about tidying the messy, untidy space as well as to resolve a complicated issue. LOVE PROBLEMS! For the romantics among you, if us native speakers want to talk about resolving problems in a relationship, we will often say that we need to 'sort things out'. From a formality perspective, I would say that this meaning of 'sort out' is relatively informal. We do use it in business English, however in more formal situations and on formal documentation it should be avoided and an alternative like 'to resolve' should be used instead. Examples of usage.... Did you manage to sort out the customer's problem? INTENDED MEANING: Were you able to resolve the customer's problem? Helen, your bedroom is a terrible mess! Sort it out! INTENDED MEANING: Helen's bedroom is very untidy and she needs to tidy it up. John and Roger have sorted out their differences and they are now best friends again. INTENDED MEANING: John and Roger have resolved their argument and are now friends again. Lisa and her husband are trying to sort things out. INTENDED MEANING: Lisa and her husband are trying to resolve the problems in their relationship. MEANING 3: To organise or arrange something (idiomatic) Out third meaning of 'sort out' is to organise or arrange something, such as an event or a party. The focus here is on doing what is necessary in order for the event to happen. Imagine that you arranging a surprise birthday party for a family member and you need to book a DJ for the music, book a suitable venue for the party, organise the decoration of the venue and invite the guests. For all of these you could say that you need to sort them out.... Examples of usage.... We have managed to sort out a great venue for my daughter's party next week. I haven't sorted out a DJ or the decorations yet. I need to sort both of those out this weekend! This meaning is a definite variation of the previous idiomatic meaning of resolving a problem as here we are resolving the specific problem of something not yet being organised. MEANING 4: To provide something for someone (idiomatic) In informal British English, it is also possible to use 'sort out' to mean to provide someone with something that they need. This is normally something that in not easy to obtain or could possibly even be something illegal. Since it is informal, I would not recommend using this in business English, where an alternative such as 'provide' or 'supply' would be much more appropriate. This is often followed by with to talk about the item that is to be provided. Examples of usage.... I couldn't find any gym equipment anywhere but luckily my personal trainer was able to sort me out with some. The IT department were able to sort my manager out with a new printer. The mechanic sorted out a new car for my brother after he crashed his old one. MEANING 5: To punish someone (idiomatic) The final meaning that we are looking at in this post is to 'sort someone out', meaning to punish someone or stop someone who is causing you a problem. This is normally by using physical force but sometimes can be by shouting at them. Again, the underlying idea of this meaning is to resolve a problem but this time it is a problem that another person has caused or is causing you. This usage is also very informal and like with the previous meanings, it should be avoided when in formal situations or in business English. Example of usage.... His parents will sort him out when he gets home. INTENDED MEANING: His parents will punish him when he arrives home. EXTRA INFORMATION TO SOUND LIKE A NATIVE In British English it is also possible to use 'sort out' as a noun, in which case it is spelt sort-out, with a hyphen. We normally 'have a sort-out' when we are looking through our possessions in order to decide what to keep and what to throw away. It is an alternative way to say "to have a spring clean" if you are familiar with that expression. Example of usage.... I have too much stuff in my bedroom. I really must have a sort-out! SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE: TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF HOW 'TO SORT OUT' IS USED BY NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS If you can memorise some of the sentences below and use them in a conversation, it will help your English to come across as more natural: I need to sort out which [noun] I am taking on holiday with me. [Pronoun] is sorting out the issue. Do you think you can sort it out by [time] We are trying to sort things / it out. That cupboard is so full. It really needs sorting out. We've managed to sort out the problem. When I have a headache, paracetamol and fresh air really sort me out. Can you do this while I sort this customer out. I am going to have a sort-out at home this weekend. EXERCISE Re-write the following sentences using 'to sort out'.... Can you look through these clothes and see which ones don't fit you anymore. We are in the process of resolving the issue. I need to arrange a babysitter for Saturday evening. Do you think you could get hold of some Covid test kits for me as I can't find any anywhere. The headteacher will punish the school bully and make sure that he never bullies any other pupils again. We went through our kitchen cupboards last week and threw out all of the outdated items. ONE FINAL NOTE Make sure you that do not confuse 'sort out' with 'sought out', which is the past form of the phrasal verb 'to seek out'. The pronunciation of 'sought out' is exactly the same as 'sort out', so it is good to be aware that both of these exist. It is worth remembering that both past forms of sort out are sorted out, so if you do hear 'sought out' in a past context, you can be fairly sure it is the past of 'seek out'. EXERCISE ANSWERS (other variations may be possible) Can you look through clothes and sort out which ones don't fit you anymore. We are in the process of sorting the issue out. I need to sort out a babysitter for Saturday evening. Do you think you sort me out some Covid test kits as I can't find any anywhere. The headteacher will sort the school bully out and make sure that he never bullies any other pupils again. We had a sort-out of our kitchen cupboards last week and threw out all of the outdated items. That brings us to the end of today's post. As you have hopefully seen, there is a general theme of organising things and resolving problems across all of the meanings of 'to sort out'. Thank you so much for taking the time to read the post. I hope it has helped you a little bit further on your English learning journey. If you have found the post useful, please go ahead and share it, so together we can help as many English learners as possible to understand and master these tricky phrasal verbs. Also, please leave your comments, questions, suggestions or your own examples of 'to sort out' below. I absolutely love reading them. See you next time!

A detailed explanation of how to use the phrasal verb 'grow up' correctly like a native speaker. Hello and welcome everyone to this instalment of Phrasal Verbs Explained; a blog which aims to help you understand English phrasal verbs in a clear and coherent way, so that you can improve your language level and sound more like a native speaker. This week's post is all about the well known phrasal verb 'to grow up', which many of you will be very familiar with, however are you familiar with the other less well known meanings? Read on to find out more.... KEY INFORMATION: For more explanation of the terms in the table above, click here MEANING 1: Literal To begin with, let's look at the individual components of the phrasal verb 'to grow up', as this will help us understand the rarer literal meaning. Firstly, we have the verb 'to grow', meaning to increase in size or height and then we have the particle 'up', meaning in the direction away from the ground or towards the sky ↑. The literal meaning of 'grow up' is simply a variation of the verb 'to grow', just with additional emphasis on the upwards direction. As the idea of 'up' is already implicit in the idea of the verb 'to grow', the use of 'grow up' to describe something growing in size is not normally necessary in English. As a result, this literal usage is very rare. If we do use it, it is mainly for describing the growth of plants and, more rarely, hair or nails and is used to emphasise that something is growing in an up ↑ direction, rather than down ↓ or out ←→(across). We do not use 'grow up' to describe people getting taller. To do this we only use 'grow'. It is also possible to use the construction 'to grow up + noun' to talk about when a plant grows up the surface of another object. Examples of usage.... Plants grow up and not down or out because they need sunlight. The ivy has been growing up the wall for many years. Another form that we can use and that you should be aware of is 'to grow upwards'. The prefix -wards in English is always used to identify a direction of movement, so 'to grow upwards' is a nice alternative way to say that something is growing in an up direction. This is also a very natural way of saying it. Furthermore, if growth is happening towards something e.g. the sky, we can use the construction 'to grow up towards + noun'.... Examples of usage.... The sunflower that we planted last year is growing up towards the roof of the house. Plants naturally grow upwards in search of sunlight. MEANING 2 - To grow from a child to an adult (Idiomatic) In English, the main usage of 'to grow up' by far is the one which you probably already know, which is to grow from a child to an adult. This is usually used to describe the PROCESS of growing from an adult to a child over time. This can be in a physical sense and also in a mental or spiritual sense. To grow up is only used to describe people and is not generally used to talk about animals or businesses. In usage, it is often used by adults to refer to their past or the period of time when they were a child..... Examples of usage.... I grew up in Birmingham, close to a really big park, which we played in every summer. When I was growing up I hated school but now that I am an adult, I wish I could go back! Also, children often use it to talk about what job they want to do when they become an adult.... When I grow up I want to be a doctor and have an enormous house with a swimming pool. WHAT IF WE WANT TO USE IT AS AN IMPERATIVE? 'Grow up' is often used by native speakers as an imperative ("Grow up!") to show annoyance when someone is acting in a silly way or like a child. Example of usage.... Oh grow up, John! It's really not funny! You may already be familiar with the noun 'grown up', which is a synonym for 'adult', meaning a person who has finished the growing up process or has grown up. Examples of usage.... My daughter wants to be a police officer when she grows up. INTENDED MEANING: My daughter wants to be a police officer when she is an adult. He was born in Edinburgh but he grew up in Glasgow. INTENDED MEANING: He lived in Glasgow as a child and continued to live there until he became a young adult. I had blond hair when I was growing up. INTENDED MEANING: In the period of time when I was a child / teenager I had blond hair. Whoever is playing these jokes on me needs to grow up! It's not funny! INTENDED MEANING: The person responsible for the jokes is not a child and should stop acting like one as it is annoying me. EXTRA POINT TO SOUND LIKE A NATIVE #1 If we want to talk about who or what a person will be at the end of the growing up process, it is necessary to add the extra preposition 'into'..... Examples of usage.... I see that you have grown up into a fine young man! INTENDED MEANING: The person has recently reached adulthood and the speaker thinks that he either is very handsome or attractive. There are many child actors who grow up into Hollywood film stars. INTENDED MEANING: A lot of child actors become Hollywood film stars when they become adults. EXTRA POINT TO SOUND LIKE A NATIVE #2 One way to talk about something that we did often or regularly when we were children is to use the simple past form of the verb (grew up), followed by the verb or action in the continuous ('ing) form. This is often (but not always) with verbs related to the senses e.g. to watch, to listen to etc. Examples of usage.... I grew up listening to Michael Jackson and Madonna music and so I still love their songs today. My mother is Polish, my father is German and I live in the USA, so I grew up speaking three languages. IDIOMATIC MEANING 2 - To start to develop A second, much rarer and advanced idiomatic meaning of 'to grow up' means to begin to exist. This is not used to talk about people, but rather abstract items such as ideas as well as towns and cities. As it is used to talk about the origin of things, it is often used in historical contexts. Examples of usage.... The idea grew up in the 17th century during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. INTENDED MEANING: The idea was first conceived and started to become popular during the time when Elizabeth I was the Queen of England. The river made trading possible and as a result many towns grew up alongside it. INTENDED MEANING: Many towns developed along the side of the river because it enabled trading to take place. SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE: TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF HOW “TO GROW UP' IS USED BY NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS If you can memorise some of the sentences below and use them in a conversation, it will help your English to come across as more natural and like that of a native speaker. You'll need to use your imagination to complete some of them. When I grow up I want to....... When I was growing up I...... He / she is growing up so fast! It's about time you grew up and got.... I want my children and grandchildren to grow up in a world where..... [Person] and I grew up together. [Gerund] is a natural part of growing up. It is very close to the city where I grew up. EXERCISE Re-write the sentences below using 'grow up': When I am an adult I want to have a house close to my parents. Sometimes I wish you would stop acting so childishly! She spent her childhood in New York The concept of trick or treating at Halloween developed in the USA after a lot of people emigrated there from Ireland King Henry VIII became a very talented huntsman as an adult During my childhood and teenage years, I listened to a lot of reggae music (Answers at the end of the post) POTENTIAL IELTS QUESTIONS Should children grow up in the city or in the countryside? Where did you grow up? Describe it. Is it better to grow up with or without siblings? OTHER OPEN QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER PRACTICE What is your favourite memory of when you were growing up? Did you have a skill or talent when you were growing up that you no longer have? What was it? If you could have grown up in a different place, where would you have chosen to live? Has your taste in music changed since you were growing up? How has the village, town or city where you grew up changed since that time? EXERCISE ANSWERS (other variations may be possible) When I grow up I want to have a house close to my parents. Sometimes I wish you would grow up! She grew up in New York. The concept of trick or treating at Halloween grew up in the USA after a lot of people emigrated there from Ireland. King Henry VIII grew up into a very talented huntsman as an adult. Growing up, I listened to a lot of reggae music. That is the end of today's post. Thank you so much for taking the time to read it and I sincerely hope that it has helped you a little bit further on your English learning journey. If you found the post useful, please go ahead and share it, so together we can help as many English learners as possible to understand and master these tricky phrasal verbs. Also, please leave any comments, questions, suggestions or examples of 'grow up' below. I really love reading them. See you next time!

A detailed explanation of how to use the phrasal verb 'run out' correctly like a native speaker. Hello and welcome everyone to this instalment of Phrasal Verbs Explained; a blog which aims to help you understand English phrasal verbs in a clear and coherent way, so that you can use them to improve your language level and sound more like a native speaker. In this post, we are looking at the phrasal verb 'to run out', which can be used to talk about many things including shops, words and steam. Read on to learn more.... KEY INFORMATION: For more explanation of the terms in the table above, click here MEANING 1: Literal As a starting point, let's look at the individual components of the phrasal verb 'to run out' in order to understand how it is used literally. Firstly, we have the verb 'to run', meaning to move faster than walking (like Usain Bolt) and secondly, we have the particle 'out', meaning to move from an interior or enclosed place to an exterior place. So, logically if we combine these two words together, it gives us the literal sense of an action of running from and leaving an interior space, either to enter another interior space or to an exterior space (outside). Native speakers only really use this literal form to describe something sudden, dramatic or exciting, such as en escape from somewhere (because otherwise people simply walk out of buildings 😜).... Examples in context.... Every day when I get home from work, my dog runs out of the house to greet me. The schoolchildren ran out of the classroom as soon as the lesson finished. People started running out of the sea when someone shouted "Shark!". IDIOM ALERT! Ok so now we have looked at the literal meaning, let's consider the next expression where we have a direct object between run and out.... John ran Roger out of the city. What do you think the meaning of the above could be? In American English (and less so in British English), if we run someone out of a town or city, it means that we chase or force a person to leave a place, normally by threatening them. I guess in the past it was normal for people to chase after someone in order to make them leave their town or city, but nowadays (thankfully) it is not so common and therefore the usage of this is also much rarer. You may still hear this in American television shows and movies however, so it is always useful to know. EXTRA INFORMATION TO SOUND LIKE A NATIVE #1 It is possible to use 'run out to somewhere' to express when we need to go somewhere and back quickly. For example, imagine that you are preparing a dinner party for 5 guests and you realise that you have forgotten to buy dessert. You may then need to run out to the shop to buy a dessert. This does not mean that you are physically running to the shop, but rather that you are going there and back quickly (normally in a car). It is also common for people to drop the "out" so that they simply 'run to somewhere', however the meaning is the same with or without 'out'. This usage is perhaps more common in American English, with 'to pop to' or 'to nip to' being more common alternatives in British English. Examples in context.... He has just run out to the post office to post a letter, he will be back shortly. I've forgotten to buy potatoes. I'm going to quickly run to the store to get some. MEANING 2: To have no more left of something If you have heard 'to run out' in an English conversation, it is probable that you heard this idiomatic version as it is commonly used by native speakers. Used idiomatically, 'to run out' means to have nothing left or remaining of something, usually because it has been used or sold. In order to specify the thing that we do not have anymore or that has run out, we add the additional preposition 'of', followed by a noun e.g to run out of something. Examples in context... We have run out of bread and milk. Many supermarkets ran out of toilet paper at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since we use many different things in our lives, the list of possible nouns that can be used with this phrasal verb is very long, but common examples are money, food, energy, space, ideas, stock and options. Another very common noun that we use with this phrasal verb is 'time', normally when we have a deadline or future point in time before which something must be completed. Based on this idea of time and deadlines, we can also use 'run out' as a synonym for the verb "to expire", i.e. to express when the validity of something ends. Typical situations for this would be with a passport or a drivers license, which expire or run out on set dates. This phrasal verb can certainly be used in formal situations, however in very formal situations a different verb such as 'to exhaust' is definitely more suitable. Examples in context.... I need to find a petrol station before I run out of petrol*! INTENDED MEANING: The person does not have much petrol left and so needs to find a petrol station before all the petrol is used. There are only 5 minutes left in the match; the England football team is running out of time to score another goal and win. INTENDED MEANING: There is not much time left in the game in which England can score a goal and win the match. Roger is running out of money fast, so he needs to find a job quickly! INTENDED MEANING: Soon Roger will have no money left, so he needs a job in order to earn some more. I've booked a holiday to Spain in April and I've just realised that my passport runs out in March! I hope I can renew it in time. INTENDED MEANING: The person's passport expires in March and it will no longer be valid, so they will not be able to travel to Spain if they do not renew it in time. * Petrol in British English is Gas in American English EXTRA INFORMATION TO SOUND LIKE A NATIVE #2 When the item or thing is no longer available, it is normal to use the present perfect tense to express this.... We need to stop, we have run out of time! In informal conversations, it is also extremely common to simply drop the word 'run' and use the informal construction 'to be out of something' as a synonym. Examples in context.... We need to stop, we are out of time. SHOP CUSTOMER: Excuse me, I can't find any bread anywhere. Whereabouts is it? SHOP ASSISTANT: I'm afraid we are out of bread. The next delivery will be tomorrow. INTENDED MEANING: There is no more bread in the shop for the customer to buy until tomorrow. A variation of this informal usage is 'to be all out of something'. Again, this is something that should only be used in informal conversations and situations: Oh no, we are all out of coffee! I will run out to shop to get some. MEANING 3: To Abandon In this second idiomatic meaning we are replacing the extra preposition OF with ON, to give a new and completely different meaning. To run out on someone or something means to abandon a person, a family or a responsibility and leave, normally suddenly. This is definitely more of an informal usage and I would say that it is mainly used to talk about someone suddenly leaving a relationship or a family. Examples of usage.... My ex-husband ran out on me and our 6-month old baby. INTENDED MEANING: The person's ex husband left them suddenly when their baby was 6 months old. Helen was so stressed that she ran out on her job and never went back. INTENDED MEANING: Due to Helen's high stress, she quit her job suddenly (and possibly unexpectedly) and never went back. SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE: TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF HOW “TO COME ACROSS" IS USED BY NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS If you can memorise the sentences below and use them in your conversations, it will help you to come across like a native speaker..... We have run out of [noun] but apart from that we have everything else on the menu. [Person] is running out of options. We are running out of time to [verb] I've run out of ideas for what to make for dinner. Unfortunately we have run out of time today, so we will continue with this next time. I'm afraid we have run out of that. Would you like something else? Go and get some more before you run out! I am running out of patience! [Pronoun] ran out on [possessive pronoun] family. EXERCISE: Re-write the sentences below using to run out: John's wife hurriedly left the room after their argument. My wife has just gone to the airport to collect our son and bring him home. We had to apply to the bank for a loan when our business had no more money left. The author had no more creative ideas in his head so he decided to take a break. I originally wanted to order the roast chicken at the restaurant but it was all gone! The amount of time left for me to finish my assignment before the deadline was getting less and less so I was starting to panic. (Answers at the end of the post) IDIOM ALERT! The idiom 'to run out of steam' is a common expression that we use to express when the progress of something slows down or stops because we lose energy or interest in something. Example in usage.... The Scotland football team played brilliantly in the first half of the game but they ran out of steam in the second half. QUESTIONS FOR WRITING & SPEAKING PRACTICE Have you ever run out of things to say when answering a job interview question? Did you get the job? Would you rather run out of gas for your heating on a cold day or electricity for your air conditioning on a hot day? Why? When was the last time that you ran out of patience (became angry) with someone? What happened? Do you think that we are running out of time to save the planet from climate change? How can we change the situation? EXERCISE ANSWERS (other variations may be possible) John's wife watched as Helen hurriedly ran out of the room after their argument. My wife has just run out to the airport to collect our son and bring him home. We had to apply to the bank for a loan when our business ran out of money. The author ran out of creative ideas in his head so he decided to take a break. I originally wanted to order the roast chicken at the restaurant but it had run out! The amount of time left for me to finish my assignment before the deadline was running out so I was starting to panic. That is the end of today's post. Thank you so much for taking the time to read it and I sincerely hope that it has helped you a little bit further on your English learning journey. If you found the post useful, please go ahead and share it, so together we can help as many English learners as possible to understand and master these tricky phrasal verbs. Also, please leave any comments, questions, suggestions or examples of 'run out' below. I really love reading them. See you next time!

A detailed explanation of how to use the phrasal verb 'carry on' correctly like a native speaker. Hello and welcome everyone to this instalment of Phrasal Verbs Explained; a blog which aims to help you understand English phrasal verbs in a clear and coherent way, so that you can use them to improve your language level and sound more like a native speaker. Today's post focuses on the phrasal verb 'to carry on', which has a surprising number of meanings, so read on to find out more.... KEY INFORMATION: For more explanation of the terms in the table above, click here MEANING 1: Literal So let's make a start by considering the individual components of 'to carry on' and what the literal meaning is of this phrasal verb. Firstly, we have the verb 'to carry', meaning to hold or support something and move or bring it from one place to another, and secondly we have the preposition 'on'. When we combine these two components, it literally means to move or transport something with you whilst getting or moving on to something. From my perspective as a native speaker, I would say that the use of this literal version in English is mainly limited to when we take or carry items with us on to public transport. If you have ever travelled on an airplane, you may be familiar with the term 'carry-on luggage', to describe the bags or luggage that you are permitted to take with you to your seat or into the cabin. NOTE - This only applies to public transport that we travel on. As learners of English, you will know that English prepositions are rarely logical 😵‍💫, and public transport is a good example of this. In many other languages, the preposition 'in' is (logically) used to talk about most forms of public transport, however English is different and we tend to use on for many of these (although we are physically inside!). To help you with this, I have included the table below, which shows which preposition we use for common types of transport: As a general rule, if you can stand up and walk around on a mode of transport, we use on. If we are not able to stand up and walk around, we say in. It is also very common to use the variation 'to carry onto', which adds additional emphasis to the movement from the start and end points. Examples in usage.... From June 2024 all aeroplane passengers will be able to carry two-litre bottles of liquids on planes in their hand luggage. John's leg was broken, so his friends had to carry him onto the airplane. (the use of onto emphasises that his friends carried him from the ground up the steps and onto the plane). MEANING 2 : To Continue (Idiomatic) This first idiomatic meaning of 'carry on' that we are looking at means to continue doing something. If you ever have heard 'to carry on' used in English before, it is probable that you have heard this idiomatic version as it is used extremely commonly in spoken English. Used this way, it is normally followed by a verb action and this needs to be in the 'ing' progressive form. Examples in context.... The President carried on answering the diplomat's questions until the end of the meeting. The team have to carry on playing even if it rains or snows. From my perspective as a native speaker, carry on is slightly less formal than continue and carry on should be avoided in formal writing and in formal documents. In spoken English however, 'carry on' is perfectly acceptable to use in a business or work environment and is very common in both British and American English. John, can you please carry on working on the project this week because we need to present it to the board of directors next week. WHAT IF WE WANT TO USE IT AS AN IMPERATIVE? If you want to tell someone to continue what they are doing in the form of a command, "carry on!" is the more natural way to do this. Native speakers will often say this rather than "continue!", which sounds a bit colder and more formal. Alternatively, 'keep going!' is another natural sounding synonym to 'carry on' that you could use to sound like a native. IS THE IDIOMATIC VERSION SEPARABLE? 'Carry on' is a separable phrasal verb, however English speakers tend not to separate it very often. If the object of the verb is a pronoun, then the pronoun always goes between carry and on. In this case a verb in the continuous 'ing' form is not required. Example in context.... I have temporarily stopped doing yoga but I intend to carry it on after my holiday The most common pronoun with 'carry on' tends to be it, but others may be possible depending on the context. Apart from this, there is no difference in meaning if you use it separably or not; this is just at the speaker's discretion. Examples in context.... I want to carry on learning English until I can speak like a native speaker. INTENDED MEANING: I want to continue learning English until I speak like someone whose mother tongue is English. Do you want me to carry on writing this report? INTENDED MEANING: Do you want me to continue writing the report? We will carry this conversation on later this evening. INTENDED MEANING: We will continue this conversation this evening. She first started taking acting lessons when she moved to Los Angeles but she hated it and had no intention of carrying it on. INTENDED MEANING: She did not like acting lessons when she moved to Los Angeles and did not want to continue taking them. MEANING 3 : To Misbehave (Idiomatic) For those learners who want to go the extra mile* to learn as much English as humanly possible, there are another three, rarer meanings of carry on that I want to make you aware of. The first of these means to behave (or to misbehave) in a way that other people disapprove of or find irritating. Example in context.... She drank too much wine and started carrying on in front of my family. I was so embarrassed! INTENDED MEANING: The lady was drunk and was acting in an inappropriate or socially unacceptable manner in front of the speaker's family, who were likely to disapprove. * To go the extra mile is an idiom meaning to make an extra effort in order to do or achieve a goal MEANING 4 : To behave like nothing has happened (Idiomatic) So we have just looked at how 'to carry on' can mean to misbehave or act in a way that people may disapprove of, however in some contexts it can also be used as a synonym for the verb 'to behave'. More specifically, we use it to describe when a major change occurs in someone's life but they ignore it and continue behaving in the same way as they did before, often not acknowledging the change. Typical examples of when native speakers would use this would be after receiving bad news about an illness or perhaps the death of a close relative or friend. We could also use it for good news, such as winning the lottery. When used this way carry on is normally followed by 'like', 'as if' or 'as though'. Examples in context.... Every time my husband and I have an argument, he carries on the next day as if nothing has ever happened, even if we haven't resolved the problem. INTENDED MEANING: The day after the argument the speaker's husband always acts like everything is normal and no argument ever happened, regardless of the outcome. Helen has recently been given some very bad news, however she carries on as if nothing ever changed. INTENDED MEANING: Helen's behaviour has not changed since receiving the bad news, so she is possibly refusing to acknowledge it or accepting it very well. MEANING 5: To have an illicit sexual relationship (Idiomatic) The fifth and final meaning of carry on that I want to make you aware of is to have a sexual relationship with someone, normally when it is forbidden or secretive. This is especially true if one or both of the people involved are already in a relationship with someone else. When using carry on this way it is normal to use progressive or continuous (ing) tenses. Example in usage.... Roger has been carrying on with Helen for several years now and they don't realise that everyone in the village knows about it, including Roger's wife and Helen's husband! INTENDED MEANING: Roger and Helen have been having an illicit relationship for several years, which everyone where they live knows about. SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE: TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF HOW 'TO CARRY ON' IS USED BY NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS If you can memorise some of the sentences below and use them in a conversation, it will help your English to come across as more natural and like that of a native speaker: Carry on [-ing verb]! If you carry on behaving like that, you will be in trouble (parent to child). Carry on regardless! We didn't like the look of the restaurant so we carried on down the road to the next one. If I'd carried on learning [language] and not stopped, I would be fluent by now. At one point it was so hard and I thought I couldn't carry on but somehow I found the strength. We want to carry on the the traditions of our parents and grandparents. To get there, carry on down this road for [distance] and then turn left / right.... EXERCISE Re-write the sentences below using 'carry on'.... It is illegal to take large amounts of liquid on to an airplane. Although the Covid pandemic has finished, many people have continued to work from home. Despite finding English grammar difficult, Lisa kept studying until she was able to fully understand it. Keep calm and continue what you were doing! I found out yesterday that my friend, who is married, has been having an affair with her doctor for several months. Despite being hugely unpopular with the public, the politician acts as though everybody loves him. (Answers at the end of the post) QUESTIONS FOR WRITING & SPEAKING PRACTICE: If you have a conversation with a shy person, what is the best way to carry it on when the other person stops speaking? Do you regret not carrying on learning something when you were younger e.g. a language or a musical instrument? Is there something that you started learning or doing when you were younger and had no intention of carrying on with it but which you are still learning or doing today? CULTURE REFERENCE POINT : CARRY ON MOVIES The Carry On movies were a series of 31 British comedy movies that were made between 1958 and 1992. Each movie had a different theme e.g. Carry on Doctor and Carry on Camping, with a separate storyline to the others, but many of the same actors starred in the films. Much of the comedy in the films was tongue-in-cheek* and involved sexual innuendo, word play and mocking traditional British institutions and customs. Some of the humour in the films is now a little outdated but despite this, they continue to be loved and laughed at by many people to this day. * Tongue-in-cheek means to come across as serious whilst making a joke EXERCISE ANSWERS (Other variations may be possible) It is illegal to carry large amounts of liquid on to an airplane. Although the Covid pandemic has finished, many people have carried on working from home. Despite finding English grammar difficult, Lisa carried on studying until she was able to fully understand it. Keep calm and carry on what you were doing! I found out yesterday that my friend, who is married, has been carrying on with her doctor for several months. Despite being hugely unpopular with the public, the politician carries on as though everybody loves him That is the end of today's post. Thank you so much for taking the time to read it and I sincerely hope that it has helped you a little bit further on your English learning journey. If you found the post useful, please go ahead and share it, so together we can help as many English learners as possible to understand and master these tricky phrasal verbs. Also, please leave any comments, questions, suggestions or examples of 'carry on' below. I really love reading them. See you next time!

A detailed explanation of how to use the phrasal verb 'look into' correctly like a native speaker. Hello and welcome everyone to this instalment of Phrasal Verbs Explained; a blog which aims to help you understand English phrasal verbs in a clear and coherent way, so that you can use them to improve your language level and sound more like a native speaker. Today's post is all about 'to look into', which is a nice and easy phrasal verb as it only has a relatively small number of meanings. So, without further ado let's take a look at them.... KEY INFORMATION For more explanation of the terms in the table above, click here MEANING 1 : LITERAL As a starting point for this post, let's take a look at the basics and consider individual components of 'to look into'. Firstly, we have the super common verb 'to look', in the sense of directing our eyes in a direction in order to see something. Secondly, we have the prepositional particle 'into', which I know from my experience with English learners is not the easiest preposition to understand. All you need to remember is that is describes a movement to an end point which is inside something. So, when we use 'to look into' literally, it means to look with our eyes towards the interior or inside of something. The speaker is normally (but not always) on the outside or exterior. We can look into anything that has a physical inside space, such as a house, a hole or a box. Examples in context.... A robin was sitting on a tree and looking into my house. The curious cat looked into the box as he knew a mouse was hiding inside it. In addition to anything with an inside space, we can also use 'to look into' with all nouns with which we use 'in'. This includes anything that does not have a physical interior space, but with which we still use 'in', such as light, dark and the future. When I looked into her eyes, I knew she was telling the truth. Looking into the future, the outlook for treatment of the disease is very good. EXTRA INFORMATION TO SOUND LIKE A NATIVE #1 It is common to combine 'to look into' with an additional preposition such as down, up or back, in order to add extra spatial information to what you are saying. The additional particle needs to go between look and into, e.g. 'to look up into' or 'to look down into'. Examples in context.... The cat is looking down into the drain. She looked up into the night sky and was amazed by the amount of stars that she could see. The scientist was looking down into the volcano. I stood on my doorstep and looked back into my house one more time. EXTRA INFORMATION TO SOUND LIKE A NATIVE #2 !!! Do not confuse 'look into' with 'look in' !!! Due to their similarity and closeness in meaning it can be very easy to confuse these two phrasal verbs. In some situations this is not a problem because 'look in' can mean the same as 'look into' but 'look in' is used more commonly by native speakers to say that they are searching for something in a place or inside an interior space e.g. in a bag or a in a room. Example in context.... LOOK IN: I can't find my keys! I've looked in my bag and in my room and they are definitely not there! INTENDED MEANING: I have searched for my keys in my bag and in my room and I am certain that they are not there. In the above example, it would be incorrect to say "I've looked into my bag and my room" because this would only mean that you looked with your eyes and but did not search inside the room for the keys. MEANING 2: To investigate (idiomatic) So now we come to the most common meaning of 'to look into', which means to investigate or to examine information about a particular situation or problem, in order to establish what caused it or what needs to be done to resolve it. This is very common in business English when a problem has occurred and is also something that you may hear the police or other authority figures say when dealing with a problem. Examples in context.... We promised the unhappy customer that we would look into the issue that they raised. INTENDED MEANING: We promised the customer that we would find out what caused the issue so that we can prevent it from happening again. The school is looking into reports of bullying. INTENDED MEANING: The school has been informed that some students are bullying others and it is trying to establish if this is true and the details of the bullying. The team of top scientists has been looking into the effects of climate change on biodiversity in the region and will publish their findings next week. INTENDED MEANING: The scientists have been working to understand what effects climate change has had on biodiversity in the region. In terms of formality, I would say that 'look into' is less formal than 'investigate', however 'look into' is frequently used in business English for things such as establishing what has caused a particular issue to arise. 'Investigate' tends to be used by the police when or in large scale formal investigations, however it is normally possibly to use these words interchangeably without causing any problems. SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE! TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF HOW TO 'LOOK INTO' IS USED BY NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS BUSINESS: I don't have an answer right now. Can I look into it and come back to you? The [noun] is being looked into. The company is looking into the possibility of [verb + ing]....... I need you to urgently look into the matter and give me your feedback. PERSONAL: When I looked into his eyes, I knew he...... When I looked into the mirror*, I..... When his mother looked into the room, she..... The police are looking into the matter. After looking into it, we decided..... *With a mirror, it is also possible and common to say "look in a mirror". EXERCISE 1 Re-write the sentences below using the phrasal verb 'to look into': Arthur the cat's eyes were fixed on the inside of the box. The noise was coming from the cellar below, but when they opened the door and peered down the stairs they could not see anything. The matter is currently being investigated by company management. I do not have an answer for you at present, so let me ask the question and find out and I will come back to you. We are not sure if we are going to France in the summer yet. My wife is making some enquiries about it, to see if it will be possible. The company are researching possible marketing strategies for next year. EXERCISE 2: COMPLETE THE SENTENCES WITH POSSIBLE ANSWERS Politicians are currently looking into __________________ The more I looked into it, the more __________________ Looking into the future, I want ________________ I am looking into the possibility of ______________________ When I looked into the car, I saw __________________ EXERCISE 1 ANSWERS (other variations may be possible) Arthur the cat was looking into the box. The noise was coming from the cellar below, but when they opened the door and looked into it they could not see anything. The matter is currently being looked into by company management. I do not have an answer for you at present but let me look into it and find out and I will come back to you. We are not sure if we are going to France in the summer yet. My wife is looking into it to see if it will be possible. The company are looking into possible marketing strategies for next year. That is the end of today's post. Thank you so much for taking the time to read it and I sincerely hope that it has helped you a little bit further on your English learning journey. If you found the post useful, please go ahead and share it, so together we can help as many English learners as possible to understand and master these tricky phrasal verbs. Also, please leave any comments, questions, suggestions or examples of 'look into' below. I really love reading them. See you next time!

A detailed explanation of how to use the phrasal verb 'come across' correctly like a native speaker, with lots of examples in context. Hello and welcome to my website all about English phrasal verbs! Read on to learn more about the phrasal verb 'come across'.... 'Come across' is a really common English phrasal verb and is a great one for you to master and have in your active English vocabulary. You may have come across this website online and I sincerely hope it comes across well! So without further ado, let's go....don't forget to leave a comment! COME ACROSS: KEY INFORMATION MEANINGS Literal To find something unexpectedly To seem For more explanation of the terms in the table above, click here MEANING 1: Literal Before we look at the different ways that 'come across' can be used idiomatically, let's look at the basics and consider its individual components to understand its literal meaning. Firstly, we have the verb 'to come', meaning to move from a place in the direction of where the speaker is. As you will know, 'to come' is an extremely common English verb that most you be very familiar with, so let's move on. The second part of the construction is the prepositional particle 'across', meaning from one side of something to the other. So, the literal meaning of 'to come across' is therefore to move from one side of something to the other side (where the speaker is). This could be a road, a field, a city, a room, a bridge a building, or anything else that a person or an object can move across from one side to the other. Examples in usage.... She came across the room to tell me something. I've come across the city especially to see you. The horse is coming across the field towards me. Although the literal meaning of 'come across' is used relatively often by native speakers, we often use the synonym 'come over' instead. So now we have looked at the basic components of 'come across', what it means in a literal sense and how we use it, it's time to look at how we use it idiomatically.... MEANING 2 : To find something unexpectedly Perhaps the most common usage of 'to come across' in English is with the meaning to find something by chance or by accident, i.e. without wanting, trying or meaning to find it. In other words, we use it when we want to express that we had no intention of finding what we found. There is neither a positive nor a negative feeling attached to this; it is simply used to talk about an experience. It is also common to come across someone, rather than something and in this case it usually means that we meet them by chance (not find them, although this could also be possible!). It can be used in this way in both business and general English and also in both formal and informal situations. In a negative sense, we use it to express that we have not seen or heard of something before, for example when you find a new word in a language for the first time or find a blog online when you were searching for something else (like this one 😉). Examples of usage.... I've lost my wallet somewhere in the office today. If you come across it, please can you let me know. I was going through my emails today and I came across an important one from my boss that I had missed from last week. After my father died, my mother and I were clearing out his things and we came across some old photos of him from when he was a young man. I have not come across this word before; I will make sure that I memorise it! In my entire career, I have never come across anyone whose behaviour is as bad as yours! MEANING 3 : To seem The next idiomatic meaning of 'to come across' that we are going to look at in this post has a very similar meaning to the verb 'to seem' and is used to express how someone or something is perceived by another person. When used this way, the conjunction 'as' should be used before the noun or adjective. You can also use a verb in this construction, however it must be in the gerund form. Examples of usage.... He comes across as a good guy but in reality he is not at all! The solicitor came across as professional. I John comes across as being highly motivated. It is common for native speakers to use 'come across' when expressing their first impressions of another person, especially if the first impression is a little controversial. Alternatively, it is also used to talk about how someone was perceived in a particular situation, such as giving a presentation. Examples of usage.... I haven't spoken to my new manager much yet but to be honest he comes across as a bit arrogant! Well done, you have got the job. I have had some really good feedback from the interviewers who said that you came across really well in the interview! I had a date with a guy last night and he came across as a bit strange, so I don't think I want to see him again. EXTRA INFORMATION TO SOUND LIKE A NATIVE If you really want to use 'come across' in an advanced way, then you should know that we also use it to express how emotions or ideas that are expressed in speech, music or films are felt or perceived by people. Used in this way, there is no direct object and so for this we neither require the conjunction 'as' nor a noun or adjective to follow afterwards. Examples of usage.... When the King was talking about the death of his mother, his sadness came across in his voice. He is a passionate teacher and that comes across when he is in the classroom. SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE: TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF HOW 'TO COME ACROSS' IS USED BY NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS If you can memorise some of the sentences below and use them in a conversation, it will help your English to come across as more natural and like that of a native speaker: I've never come across [noun] before. I came across your [noun] online He / she comes across as [adjective] / a [noun]. If you go to [place], you're sure to come across....... This is the best [noun] I have ever come across. This is the worst [noun] I have ever come across. EXERCISE Re-write the following sentences using 'to come across'.... I was scrolling through my social media feed when I saw a post from my friend announcing the birth if their baby. I can't believe he was so rude to you. He seemed like a lovely guy when I met him! She's heading over here to this office later for a meeting. What does the word "punctilious" mean in English? This is the first time that I have ever seen it! * Helen was walking to work one morning when she noticed an injured bird by the side of the road. It is clear that he cares a lot about his country as you can hear clearly it when he speaks. * Punctilious means to show great attention to detail or to procedure POTENTIAL IELTS QUESTIONS Describe the most polite person you have come across in your life What type of noise do you come across in your daily life? Discuss some of the most interesting people you have come across in your life EXERCISE ANSWERS (other variations may be possible) I was scrolling through my social media feed when I came across a post from my friend announcing the birth if their baby. I can't believe he was so rude to you. He came across as a lovely guy when I met him! She's coming across to this office later for a meeting. What does the word "punctilious" mean in English? This is the first time that I have ever come across it! Helen was walking to work one morning when she came across an injured bird by the side of the road. It is clear that he cares a lot about his country as it comes across clearly when he speaks. This brings us to the end of the post, so thanks for reading. Now it is YOUR turn. Leave a comment on the blog post with your own sentence using 'come across'....don't be shy! Sign up below to receive weekly phrasal verb emails and be the first to access each blog post as soon as it is published! If you found the post useful, please share it on social media, so together we can help as many English learners as possible to understand and master these tricky phrasal verbs. See you next time! James 😀