0:03

Welcome to My IELTS Classroom,

0:06

the podcast where two English experts

0:08

talk all things IELTS. I'm

0:10

Shelley Cornick. And I'm Nick Long. And

0:13

today, well actually, today

0:16

Nick is going to drive the episode. So

0:18

Nick, why don't you tell us what's happening today?

0:20

Today we're going to be talking about phrasal

0:23

verbs. What is a phrasal

0:25

verb? Why are they more

0:27

powerful than idioms? And

0:30

Shelley and I will see if we can use

0:32

some phrasal verbs in action.

0:40

Very good Nick, that was

0:42

almost a perfect

0:45

impression of the way I do.

0:47

Well come on, I've heard it 150 times. Well 300 if you include editing

0:49

as well. Oh

0:52

my goodness. I've got it down to a T now.

0:55

I basically don't need to be here, you

0:57

could just be me. That's

1:00

funny, how are you?

1:01

Good, not so bad. Have

1:03

you had a nice week? I'm still enjoying

1:05

the good weather. I was very, very busy last week. I

1:07

had a lot of stuff to do. A lot

1:10

of teaching, a lot of work, but

1:13

the weekend's been nice. The weather's still warm. So yeah,

1:16

it's all good. What about you?

1:19

I'm good. I've had a good time actually. Yeah,

1:21

I've been down to London. I went

1:24

swimming at Hampstead Heath with my friends,

1:26

which is sort of like the place to

1:28

go swimming in London and I've ordered some

1:30

new glasses Nick. Very nice. Exactly.

1:33

Do you ever do this? I tend to,

1:35

if I buy something and I like it, I tend

1:38

to buy the same version in

1:40

like different colours. I don't do that

1:42

now. You don't do that?

1:45

I was going to buy some, because since I've been wearing

1:47

my glasses and I realised

1:49

I was essentially

1:50

blind before the sunglasses, I

1:52

realised that now that summer's coming, I can't

1:55

just wear, you know, if I take off my prescription

1:57

sunglasses when I'm driving, glasses when I'm

1:59

driving. and put on sunglasses, I

2:02

can now see because I don't have the sun

2:04

coming in my eyes, but I can't actually see because

2:06

I'm blind. So I

2:09

thought I was going to buy a pair of

2:11

prescription sunglasses.

2:13

But when I went there, they sold these

2:15

clever clip things, you can make your normal

2:17

glasses sunglasses. And

2:20

so and they were really cheap. So I thought I would

2:23

treat myself to

2:25

a new pair of normal glasses and then two clip

2:27

ons. So I actually got four

2:29

pairs of glasses now. Excellent. Crikey,

2:32

that's a bit boring, isn't it? Anyway, we're not

2:34

here to talk about glasses, Nick. What

2:36

are we talking about today?

2:38

We're talking about phrasal

2:40

verbs. We're continuing the theme from last week

2:42

about idiomatic language. Yes.

2:45

Aren't we? Exactly. And

2:48

why don't we start then? So I guess a phrasal

2:51

verb is definitely a type of idiomatic language,

2:53

right? I would say the

2:56

students will probably know more

2:59

phrasal verbs than

3:01

they think. Yes. I mean, if you're an

3:03

intermediate, and definitely

3:05

if you're an upper intermediate student, you already

3:07

know quite a lot of phrasal verbs, I would say. So

3:10

for example, when I'm teaching Pass simple, pass

3:12

continuous and pass perfect, how they all sort of marry

3:15

together to make nice sentences,

3:18

I always give an example of my morning

3:21

using just the pass simple, first

3:24

of all. Okay. Well, let me ask you

3:26

then. So what's

3:29

the first thing you did this morning? I

3:32

woke up. There you go. Phrasal verb.

3:34

Oh, very

3:37

good. Phrasal verb. Yeah. And what

3:40

did you do next after you woke up? I

3:43

got up immediately. Phrasal

3:47

verb. Because my hip

3:49

was painful and I did some stretches. And

3:52

then I put on the kettle.

3:54

Another phrasal verb? Yeah.

3:57

To make a cup of tea. You could have even, you

3:59

know, maybe you had a bad day. about five or six

4:01

minutes just to lie in bed and

4:04

look at what's going on on social media before you got

4:06

up.

4:07

Ah, do you know what? I took my

4:09

cup of tea back to bed and

4:11

then I scrolled through social media,

4:14

that would be a phrasal verb. And

4:18

then I think I probably got up properly.

4:20

I love that we say in English,

4:22

but I got up properly about

4:25

half an hour after I woke up.

4:28

And then I brushed my teeth, I

4:33

had a shower. Did you

4:36

go out, have you gone out or have you been out today?

4:38

Yeah, I have been out today. Where did

4:41

you go? Then I went to the shops. And

4:43

what did you do before you went to the shop? I

4:49

checked that I had my glasses so I could see

4:51

when I was driving. Did you go

4:54

to the shops in your pyjamas? Oh

4:56

no, I got dressed. There we go, there's another one. I

4:59

put on my clothes. Put on your clothes. What about shoes? And

5:01

put on my shoes. Yep, there you go. Yes.

5:04

And what time did you go out? Oh,

5:07

I know what this is. I left

5:10

at, I guess, 9.15. Oh,

5:13

very early. Oh, you were filming. Very nice.

5:15

I set off. You set off it.

5:17

Yeah. At 9.15. Mm-hmm.

5:20

And I got in my car. Mm-hmm. And

5:23

then I got out of my car and back to the house. I

5:25

got back at... I

5:28

don't know, 9.14 maybe? Very

5:31

quick then, yeah. Yeah, just down the road to

5:33

shop. Mm-hmm. Right. So

5:35

as you can see... I see what you've done there. We're

5:37

just talking about our day. Nothing difficult. Yeah.

5:40

No complex, you

5:43

know, adjectives to describe personality or anything

5:45

like that. Mm-hmm. But how many phrasal verbs

5:47

did we use in that short little

5:49

story?

5:50

I mean, if we wanted to, probably, honestly,

5:52

about 10. Yeah, exactly. A

5:55

lot. Mm-hmm. Exactly. Right.

5:58

So I think, Nick, that's a really good way to... illustrate how

6:02

common phrasal verbs are, I guess. And

6:05

also probably how many students

6:07

are using phrasal verbs

6:09

without realizing. Yes. And

6:11

I do think that is a lot of, where

6:13

a lot of problems come from with vocabulary. And I've

6:15

said it a million times on this podcast, but

6:18

I'll say it again. I think sometimes

6:20

students don't actually realize what high

6:22

level or what band seven Lexus

6:24

actually

6:24

looks like. Yeah. Right.

6:27

So do you want me to do, should we do a little

6:29

technical thing? Let's do some techniques. About what

6:32

is a phrasal verb. So what is a phrasal verb

6:34

in general, Nick? We've just sort of said, get

6:37

up, put on, set

6:40

off. What makes those things

6:41

phrasal verbs? Because it's a regular verb

6:43

and a preposition. Yes. And

6:46

they are, so we're taking a verb like get,

6:48

which has its own meaning. But

6:50

when we put that verb together with

6:53

a

6:54

preposition or a particle, it

6:56

creates a verb which has got a whole new meaning,

6:58

doesn't it? So get is

7:00

very different to get up. And

7:02

take is very different to take off. And

7:05

often we can have the same verb

7:08

like take, and we can have lots

7:10

and lots of different

7:12

prepositions. Take on, take out. Yeah,

7:16

exactly. Take away.

7:19

To make totally different verbs.

7:21

And that's why you've got to be a little bit careful when

7:23

you're using prepositions that you know exactly

7:25

which, when you're using phrasal verbs,

7:28

sorry, that you know exactly which preposition

7:30

you are using. There's also the funny

7:32

thing about phrasal verbs. Well, I suppose it's the same

7:34

actually with many English words, because lots of

7:36

English words have got more than one meaning. But

7:39

you often have phrasal verbs that have got multiple

7:42

meanings. So the one that I use when

7:44

I'm teaching phrasal verbs is the verb makeup.

7:48

So

7:49

if I said makeup, how many

7:51

meanings could you think about for

7:54

that phrasal verb, Nick? Well, makeup, the first

7:56

one that came into my head was to

7:59

sort of... I

8:05

wanted to say it in Russian then for some reason,

8:08

but to like when you've had a fight with

8:10

somebody and you want to put everything

8:12

behind you and make up, make

8:15

peace let's

8:15

say. You make peace, you make up if you have

8:18

an argument with your friend and you reconcile

8:20

the formal verb would be, you

8:23

can make up with your friend afterwards. Yes,

8:25

so that would be make up with maybe. So

8:27

it's got two participles there, that's one.

8:29

If I said, Nick,

8:32

quickly give me a story, invent

8:34

it, you could say,

8:35

make it up. Yes, I

8:38

made up a story about an

8:40

elephant and

8:44

a buttercup flower or something, right?

8:46

So you invented it. So

8:48

completely different meanings saying phrasal verb,

8:51

right? You can also talk about, you know, when most

8:53

people hear make up, they think about what

8:55

women put on, which is the stuff,

8:58

although that's not a phrasal verb, that's a noun. So

9:01

there are phrasal verbs, lots

9:04

of phrasal verbs have got multiple

9:06

meanings, right? And there are loads of ways you can

9:08

learn phrasal verbs. Some people like to learn phrasal

9:11

verbs by the verb, so they might take a

9:13

verb like make, and then they might

9:15

learn make

9:15

up. Make do make out. Make

9:18

out. That can mean kiss.

9:21

A

9:22

verb like take has got hundreds, hasn't

9:24

it? Right? Take off, take on, take

9:26

up. That's a good way of doing

9:28

it. You can learn phrasal verbs by category.

9:32

There are lots of different ways that we can do it. What

9:34

I would say is,

9:36

they are much easier, I think, phrasal

9:38

verbs, to understand the meaning

9:40

and the context of than idioms,

9:43

because they are actually just

9:46

a verb. There's often actually a sort

9:48

of more formal version of the

9:50

verb. Well, like you said, we reconcile. Yes,

9:53

exactly. So take off your shoes

9:55

means remove your shoes, right? Some

9:58

people might say, can we use

9:59

Nick this informal language

10:02

in our speaking exam? I would

10:04

say in part one and part two you should be using

10:07

this language. Yeah I

10:09

completely agree 100% I'd

10:12

also say that many many

10:15

phrasal verbs can also be used in

10:17

in writing you know task

10:20

one if instead of saying increase of

10:22

course you can say prices went up do you

10:24

know I mean like this is just I

10:26

think there's a real negativity around phrasal

10:28

verbs obviously we're not looking for slang

10:32

but phrasal verbs aren't slang. These are

10:35

verbs which have been used and accepted

10:38

by everybody so I think they're great so

10:40

they're much easier to learn but just like

10:43

any sort of language it's important that you know how

10:45

to use them correctly I think

10:48

with phrasal verbs they are generally relatively

10:50

easy the only thing you need to know really

10:53

is when you can separate a phrasal

10:55

verb so that means

10:57

when you can use a word between the

11:00

verb and the preposition and

11:03

when you cannot separate a

11:05

phrasal verb so

11:07

very basically some verbs can't

11:09

be separated with an object because

11:12

those phrasal verbs are never

11:14

used with an object right so if

11:16

I said to you hurry up yeah

11:18

you can't add hurry

11:22

up it for example because there's no object

11:25

right to that so I don't know like hurry

11:27

up or watch out to mean be careful

11:30

there's no object

11:30

look out the same mm-hmm exactly

11:33

lots of verbs lots of phrasal verbs

11:36

can be used with an object if

11:39

you've got a phrasal verb which has got

11:41

two

11:43

prepositions or two you know a preposition

11:45

in a particle what was the one

11:47

that I just said then ah make

11:49

up with we just gave there so you've

11:51

got make that's your verb and then

11:54

up with if you've got two

11:56

prepositions there you couldn't add

11:59

an object

11:59

between those words. So you couldn't

12:02

say for example, oh

12:06

I made up

12:07

Jane with. That

12:10

doesn't make sense. You have to say I made up with

12:12

Jane. So if your phrasal

12:14

verb has got no object or if it's got two

12:16

prepositions, you can't separate

12:19

those with another word. However,

12:23

sometimes we have got

12:25

a phrasal verb which has got one preposition

12:28

and it does have an object but

12:32

they still can't be separated. So you have to

12:34

learn when phrasal verbs can be

12:36

pulled apart and separated and

12:38

when they can't. So for example, the

12:40

phrasal verb nick pick up. So

12:43

let's imagine on the floor is,

12:45

I don't know, some rubbish.

12:48

I can say pick up the rubbish but

12:51

can I separate them and say pick the

12:53

rubbish

12:53

up? Yes, you can. You can.

12:55

So pick up can be separated. If

12:58

I spoke about look

13:01

after. So if I said, Nick, I'm going

13:03

on holiday, please look after my

13:06

plants.

13:06

Could I say please

13:09

look my plants after?

13:11

No.

13:12

No. I think

13:15

for most language learners, this

13:17

is not something you really need to learn. It just

13:20

sounds wrong, doesn't it? When

13:23

you separate these things, right? So I

13:25

think it sounds very strange but let's just

13:27

do a little practice, okay? So

13:29

I will read two sentences.

13:32

One where

13:34

the preposition and the phrasal verb are together

13:36

and then the object

13:38

appears and one where

13:40

we've separated the verb and the

13:43

object and you tell me if they are

13:45

both correct so it can be separated

13:47

or if one is just crazy town and

13:50

it can't be separated, okay? So

13:53

we have been looking forward to

13:55

the party for weeks or we have been looking the party

13:57

for weeks.

13:59

forward to for weeks. Well the first

14:02

one of course only looking forward to the party.

14:04

We can't say looking the party forward to. Exactly

14:07

because forward to is two prepositions isn't

14:09

it?

14:10

Also if you're... notice what I said

14:12

there, I've been looking forward to...

14:14

oh I

14:15

didn't say it there but if you wanted

14:17

to follow look forward to with a verb

14:20

it will need to be a gerund. I've been looking forward

14:22

to seeing you. Yes. Yeah

14:25

be careful of that. That's a mistake students make.

14:27

Okay, everybody tells

14:30

me that I take after

14:32

my mother. What does that mean

14:34

Nick if I take after my mother? It's

14:36

like you've got a similar personality. Yes.

14:39

So that's when they're together. Can we

14:41

separate take after? Everybody tells me

14:44

that I take my mother after. After

14:46

what?

14:47

It

14:50

doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense.

14:52

It sounds funny to an English person. Take my

14:54

mother after I've had dinner, take my

14:56

mother. Where are you taking her? Right?

14:59

No, take after must stay together.

15:02

Okay, you really need to switch

15:04

off the light

15:06

or you really need to switch the

15:08

light off. Both can work here. Both

15:11

can work there, yeah. Alright, let's

15:13

try this one. It's getting late so

15:15

we'd better set off home.

15:18

Now we used set off a minute ago but what does

15:20

set off mean

15:21

Nick? Start a journey. It is

15:23

start a journey isn't it? So like when you leave

15:26

somebody's house and you start going

15:28

home you are setting off. Okay,

15:31

so what about can we separate that? It's

15:34

getting late so we'd better set home

15:36

off. No, it doesn't make sense. No,

15:39

it just sounds wrong.

15:41

You just have to learn it. Inseparable,

15:43

definitely. Okay, good. What

15:46

about this one? I had to cross out the mistake.

15:48

What are

15:49

you doing when you cross out? It's like

15:52

striking a line through something. Yes.

15:55

I had to cross the mistake

15:57

out before my teachers saw it. of

16:00

those work. Both are fine aren't they?

16:02

Okay, the plane took off. What

16:06

does it mean when a plane takes off?

16:07

Left the runway. Yes.

16:10

Went into the air. Went in the air.

16:12

Took the plane off at 5pm. No. No,

16:16

because the plane took off. The object

16:19

is the plane which is the subject. There's no object

16:21

to that is there. And then can

16:23

you please take off your jacket?

16:25

Remove. Can you

16:27

please take your jacket off? Both

16:30

work here. Okay, both do

16:32

work here. Very good. So the only

16:34

other thing I would say is once you know that something

16:37

can be separated or not, just be a little bit

16:39

careful because when we often use phrasal

16:42

verbs,

16:43

we separate them with pronouns. So

16:46

usually an it or

16:48

a you or something like that. Kishi, things like that.

16:50

Yeah, so if for example you're using

16:53

it. So can you please take

16:55

off your jacket? You could

16:57

say, can you please take

17:00

it off? If you're

17:02

going to use it, can I still use

17:04

jacket after the phrasal verb thing? Can I

17:06

say, can you please take off

17:07

it? No, doesn't make sense. No.

17:10

So when you're using that pronoun, if

17:13

you're using jacket, it can go after, it

17:15

can go in the middle. Both are good. But

17:17

if you're going to replace the jacket with a pronoun,

17:20

make sure you put that pronoun in the middle.

17:23

Yeah.

17:24

So let's just

17:27

do a little bit of a practice of this. I don't know if

17:29

you're going to be able to do it because usually I give

17:31

students a box with the possible

17:33

answers, but I still think we can do it. So

17:36

I'm going to say

17:38

a sentence. You're going to imagine

17:40

what the next sentence

17:41

should be. Okay. Right. But

17:43

you're going to put, if there's a pronoun, you're going to put

17:45

it in the middle. So you're going to use it or something like

17:48

that. So if I said, hey,

17:50

you shouldn't drop rubbish like that.

17:53

Pick it up. Pick it

17:56

up. Exactly. Or if I said, if

17:58

as a teacher, come on class. this information

18:01

is important. Write

18:04

it down. Yes. If

18:07

you entered my house with dirty shoes, Nick,

18:10

I might say, Nick, your shoes are dirty.

18:12

Take them off. Take them

18:14

off. Good. Or, I

18:18

don't know, I come to your house and there's

18:20

rubbish everywhere and I said, Nick, you

18:22

don't need these magazines anymore.

18:25

Throw them away.

18:27

Yeah. Or, mate,

18:30

this music is amazing. It's too quiet.

18:32

Turn it up. Exactly. All

18:35

right. So, when you've got those it's or

18:37

the, usually the them, make sure

18:39

it goes the middle. That is a mistake. You can't

18:41

say, you know, turn up it.

18:44

No. Turn it up.

18:48

Good. But in general, they are

18:50

really the only rules you need to know with

18:52

phrasal verbs. Once you know what the verb means,

18:56

you can just start

18:57

using it. Exactly. And unlike

18:59

idioms, it will never sound

19:01

unnatural in an IELTS speaking test.

19:04

No. Exactly. So, if

19:07

we think about why, you know,

19:09

I would say if you want to spend time working

19:12

on your vocabulary, rather

19:14

than slaving on learning

19:16

all of the different idioms

19:19

and what context they can be used

19:21

and hoping and praying that

19:24

one of those contexts will appear in

19:27

the IELTS exam, I

19:29

think it's better to learn phrasal verbs.

19:31

Absolutely. 100%. Yeah.

19:33

And I would say, you know, that is

19:36

why I think Nick and I would say phrasal

19:38

verbs are much more powerful than idioms

19:41

because, well, if

19:43

you think about it, most IELTS topics,

19:45

you might be able to find one idiom

19:48

that fits. But

19:51

I reckon for most topics, you're going to be able to find

19:53

in loads of phrasal verbs. Yeah. All right.

19:58

Well, let's, let's see how that works. because

20:00

I've got here three different topics and

20:04

I've got four phrases in each

20:06

topic, common expressions that

20:08

are phrasal verbs that would fit really well for

20:10

this particular topic. So I'm gonna

20:12

read the four

20:14

phrases and I want

20:17

you to guess what the topic is basically.

20:19

So are these like speaking

20:21

part one topics? Speaking part one topics yeah.

20:24

Okay brilliant do it. So really easy

20:26

good to use language in part one. So the first

20:28

topic if I said any of

20:30

these things what is the topic that you

20:32

think me and the examiner are discussing? So

20:37

talk down to someone,

20:39

cheer someone up.

20:43

He can go on a bit sometimes

20:47

and I can't get a word in. I think

20:52

that's something about talking. Yeah it's conversations.

20:55

Conversations okay

20:57

so what was the first one again? Talk

21:00

down to someone. God that's a

21:02

high level. It's a high level one that's true. Yeah

21:04

so if you

21:07

talk down to someone how would I explain

21:09

that? That's when you the more

21:12

formal word I would use that was be you're sort of patronizing

21:15

someone I guess when you're

21:17

sort of talking to someone as if

21:19

they are less intelligent than

21:22

they are. Yeah like met someone's making

21:24

you feel a bit like an idiot. Do you know that I mean

21:26

what I'm thinking of I don't know if it's quite a common expression

21:29

now it tends to be that men

21:31

talk down to women right and there's

21:33

that word that phrase mansplaining.

21:36

Mansplaining. Do you know that one?

21:38

Yeah. Where a man explains to a woman

21:40

something that she already knows and

21:42

it's usually on Twitter you've got a man

21:44

like a woman tweets something and then a man

21:47

says oh you should read this book and

21:49

then it's actually the person who tweeted

21:51

it was the woman who

21:52

wrote the book. Okay

21:54

so talk down to someone is to sort of talk to them

21:57

like they're... A child. A child

21:59

right. Cheer someone up, make

22:02

them feel happy. Yeah. Cool.

22:05

He can go on a bit. Oh, just

22:08

talk and talk and talk and talk, right?

22:11

Yeah. It's kind of boring to listen to. Yes,

22:14

exactly. So he goes on a bit, uses more words,

22:16

bit like me, more words than you need, can

22:18

get a bit boring, yeah. And therefore

22:20

can't get a word in.

22:24

You can't, like

22:26

someone's talking so much, it's impossible

22:29

for you to be able

22:31

to say something. I don't know

22:33

if that's always because... Well, see,

22:36

this is the thing, he can go on a bit. I mean,

22:38

they could give you plenty of opportunity to speak,

22:41

but they're just sort of

22:43

drooling on boring about something. It's

22:45

boring, isn't it? Whereas if you can't get a word in, it might be

22:48

interesting to listen to them, but

22:50

they just don't give you the chance to speak. So

22:52

even though they're quite similar, there is a bit of a difference

22:54

between these two.

22:55

Yeah, they can't get a word in, it could be like a group

22:57

of friends, couldn't it? And everyone's chatting because they've

22:59

been on holiday and catching up, another

23:02

phrasal verb. So you can't

23:04

get a word in. Okay, brilliant, all fantastic.

23:06

Okay, let's do the next

23:07

one. The next one is to

23:09

blow out some candles, to

23:11

meet up with friends, to

23:14

go out for the day

23:15

and to get a present, which

23:18

is not a phrasal verb, but we'll talk about that in a second.

23:20

Okay,

23:21

I think based on the first one and the last one, it's

23:24

something to do with like,

23:26

well in England, blow out candles for me is all about

23:29

birthdays. It's birthdays. Maybe it's another,

23:31

it is birthdays, okay. So when

23:33

you go through them, blow out candles.

23:35

This one's funny because, like

23:39

when I'm doing this in the class, I usually have the

23:41

phrase like the preposition removed and

23:43

they have to guess what it is. And

23:45

I've had so many people say blow

23:48

up candles.

23:48

Which

23:52

means explode. Which means explode, we're not doing

23:54

that, we're blowing them out, you know? So

23:56

yeah, it's what we do, isn't it? We light the candles, make

23:58

a wish and...

23:59

Yeah. Blow them out. Blow them

24:01

out. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

24:04

Meet up with friends. Yes. And

24:06

that's what we do sometimes. Well,

24:08

with family. Yeah. But

24:10

what's the difference, do you think, between meet and

24:13

meet up?

24:15

Is there a difference, really, between them? I

24:17

think meet up with friends is

24:19

like a phrase which you don't need to explain

24:21

anymore. It means not just that you met

24:23

your friends. Like, you know, if you just said, I

24:25

met my friend, that normally sounds like the

24:27

start of a description. Yes. And

24:30

then we did something. But if you say, I met up with

24:32

friends, you understand you probably went

24:34

to a restaurant, you had a drink, you spent

24:36

time with them. Hang out. It's got

24:39

the feeling like hang out, really, hasn't it? Yeah,

24:41

you don't need to explain anymore. But if you said, I

24:43

met my friend, you would think, okay, well, what happened

24:45

next?

24:45

Mm-hmm. No, that's true, actually. I

24:48

never thought of it like that. To go out for the day. Go

24:51

out is a very basic phrase

24:53

of a... Yeah. But again, I

24:55

mean, that sounds basic. But if you go out for the day, it's

24:57

not just that you leave your house. Is it? You

25:00

probably... Go somewhere nice. Went somewhere

25:02

nice and interesting. Yeah. And then

25:04

why have you put get a present here? I think I

25:07

can guess.

25:07

Go on, go guess. What do you think? Is

25:09

it? Well, it's because almost always students

25:12

never say get a present.

25:14

It's the verbs not. They often use... What

25:16

do they use? Presented, gifted.

25:18

That's it.

25:20

Yeah. My mother presented me

25:22

a present. You don't

25:23

present presents in English. You just give

25:25

them, don't you? So give or get,

25:28

yeah. My mum gave me 100 euros.

25:33

For example, that

25:35

didn't happen to me, unfortunately. But

25:38

yeah, I've heard so many times in my groups.

25:42

It must be an Eastern European thing.

25:44

Yeah, I think it is. I've heard my

25:48

mum presented me with... Which you know, presented

25:51

with, phrasal but it's not really

25:53

in this context. You present mezzles, don't you? It's

25:56

like in a very formal context.

25:58

Forgifted me. a new bike.

26:01

We don't use gift in that context

26:04

as a verb in English. So we get a present

26:06

or

26:07

we got given, someone gives

26:09

us a present. Yeah, yeah, good.

26:12

So yeah, birthdays, loads of ones there. And

26:14

again, I'm sure listeners are thinking, well, they're not difficult, but actually

26:18

that is stuff which scores highly. It is.

26:20

It's not the length of the word or sometimes

26:23

informal short phrases like phrasal verbs

26:25

score really well. All right, let's do the last

26:27

one.

26:27

So the next one,

26:29

try on something new, pick

26:32

up an order, check out

26:34

a new line of products and

26:36

look for something new.

26:39

It's got to be like, pick

26:42

up an order. So it's not online shopping, is it just shopping?

26:44

Yeah. Yes. Right.

26:47

And some classic ones here. So try on

26:49

something when you go

26:51

to that little room in a shop

26:54

and feel depressed because you don't look like you

26:56

imagine you're doing the new clothes. So

26:58

before you buy something, you try

27:01

it on. Yeah, you can pick

27:03

up an order. So that's, I guess, is like, yeah.

27:05

And then collect, collect,

27:08

you pick up, check out a

27:10

new line of products. I like that. If you check it out,

27:13

what are you doing? I suppose it's not just, you're not just looking

27:15

at it, are you? You're kind of

27:18

seeing if it's good

27:20

or seeing if you want to buy it or

27:22

it's a bit

27:24

more rich. It's kind of window shopping,

27:26

but it is also deciding whether you're

27:29

going to buy it or not, I guess, isn't it?

27:30

Yeah. And look for classic,

27:34

simple, but actually really good. I went,

27:36

you know, I was looking for a

27:38

new pair of trainers or I was looking for a

27:41

15th pair of glasses in a different color.

27:45

Right. So great examples, Nick,

27:48

I think, of just how

27:50

for most topics without even

27:52

trying effortlessly, there

27:55

are loads of phrasal verbs available

27:57

to us. So I thought what we could

27:59

could do to finish today's episode is

28:03

provide

28:05

the students with some phrasal verbs

28:07

in action. I think it's really important to say that we haven't

28:09

prepared

28:09

this, right? In terms

28:12

of the fact that we are just

28:14

going to

28:16

take it in turns. We've just taken one

28:19

reported part one topic, so

28:21

a topic which we think is currently being

28:23

used in the exam. We've got four

28:25

questions which we think are probably similar

28:27

to the questions which are being used. We're

28:30

going to take it in turns to be the examiner and the

28:32

student. We're going to

28:35

answer these questions without really trying

28:37

to use phrasal verbs, I think.

28:38

Let's just see if they happen naturally. Just

28:40

see when they come up like

28:43

that. Naturally, that means to appear.

28:45

Shall we? Let's say when we

28:51

are the examiner, we will make

28:53

notes of any phrasal verbs that

28:55

come up. Then as the listener,

28:58

you could also make note of any phrasal

29:00

verbs and then we'll go through the meaning of them

29:03

quickly at the end. Does that sound good?

29:05

That sounds great. Okay.

29:08

So, Nick, do you

29:11

want to be the examiner

29:13

first or the examiner second?

29:15

I'll be the examiner first. Okay.

29:18

So, I am ready. Yes,

29:20

you can make a note of my phrasal verbs. All right. Because

29:23

I'm going to try not to focus

29:25

on them. I'm just going to try to actually

29:27

answer the questions as I would for part

29:29

one. So, I'm going to be as

29:31

short or as long as I need to be to ask the

29:33

questions. All right. Let's talk about fixing

29:36

things then. Have you ever tried

29:38

to fix things when they are broken?

29:40

Wow. I'm sure that I probably

29:43

have in the past. I'm

29:45

just struggling to think off

29:47

the top of my head what exactly they were. I

29:50

think growing up I used to play a lot of sports. So, I used

29:52

to try and fix different bits of sports

29:55

equipment that I had. So, I remember

29:58

I used to

29:58

regroup. rip my

30:00

tennis rackets and my hockey sticks. If

30:04

I've had something that's broken and could be glued back

30:06

together again, I might do that.

30:09

But in terms of sort of mechanics, like I can't

30:11

really repair a car. We don't know much

30:13

about that kind of thing. So yeah.

30:15

Did anybody teach you how

30:17

to fix things when you were a child? My

30:20

dad's an engineer, so I'm sure he must have sat

30:23

me down at some point and tried

30:25

to

30:26

teach me some things. I remember once he showed me

30:28

how to change

30:30

the fuse in a plug,

30:31

if that's fixing. And

30:33

he also showed me how

30:35

to change a tyre. But

30:40

apart from my dad, I can't really remember anybody

30:42

else. Yeah, maybe just my dad. Do

30:45

you think it's necessary for people to learn

30:47

to fix things? That's

30:50

a really good question because on the

30:52

one hand, I think it definitely is necessary.

30:54

I think

30:56

a lot of things, if you just spent

30:58

five or ten minutes trying to understand what the

31:00

problem is, whether it's with,

31:03

particularly with computers and things like that,

31:05

I think they can.

31:07

But

31:08

also, I think today, so much of the

31:11

things that we have can be thrown away. When

31:16

I was a kid, we used to repair shoes and things

31:18

like that. But people don't bother with that now. So

31:21

I guess, sadly, the need to repair things

31:23

is probably getting less

31:25

and less every year.

31:27

And what do you do when something

31:29

breaks and it can't be repaired?

31:34

If it definitely can't be repaired, I

31:37

guess I'd have to throw it away. So I'd probably drive

31:39

it down to there's

31:42

a place near me. I mean, if it was a big item,

31:44

like a household appliance, I'd probably

31:46

take it to the recycling center. If

31:49

I thought that maybe it had some parts

31:52

that could be reused, like

31:54

if it was a car, I might see

31:56

if I could give it to someone.

32:00

But yeah, I guess most of the time I just throw it away.

32:03

Okay. Thank you. Thank

32:06

you. Don't you think I used that many phrasal

32:08

verbs there, did I? You used... I've

32:10

got six written down here. Did

32:13

I? Well, one of them you used three

32:15

times. Is that throw away? Throw away,

32:17

of course, yeah. So glued back together.

32:20

Ah, glued back together, yeah. You

32:23

said in the second question, my dad sat me down.

32:26

Right, yeah. So what is the difference between

32:28

I sat down and my dad sat me down? Your dad

32:31

made you sit down with him. Yeah,

32:33

normally when someone's going to give you some advice

32:35

or make you think about doing something

32:38

good. Or if you're in trouble. Yeah,

32:40

well, that happened a lot. And you're going to get shouted at. I

32:44

often got sat down, yeah. Good. Throw

32:47

away, so use that three times. Throw

32:49

it away, throw it away, throw it away. And

32:53

then

32:54

when you were talking about... I

32:57

think it was the last question,

32:59

you said you would drive it down. Yeah,

33:04

I don't know. Is that... Yeah,

33:06

it's a drive it down to... Well,

33:08

I guess, yeah, because I suppose it's not. Well,

33:10

drive down. Let's drive down to the shops. Yeah,

33:14

that's funny. I mean, that

33:15

is almost an idiom. It's more of a preposition actually,

33:17

isn't it, really? Yeah, I think it is more

33:19

of a preposition because you're still driving.

33:22

But still, I mean, I guess the thing, when anything

33:24

is broken, would be throw

33:27

away.

33:29

The only other thing I may... Get rid of. Get

33:31

rid of would be good. Maybe

33:34

put something back together, someone

33:36

might be able to say. So I think I said I

33:38

glued

33:38

it back together. But maybe

33:40

put it back together. But

33:43

yeah, get rid of would be a good one for that one.

33:46

Okay, good. So again, we're not trying,

33:48

we're not forcing. These are just particularly

33:50

throw away things which come

33:52

up. All right, Nick, so it's your turn now. Are you

33:54

ready? Watch my topic. Okay, so your

33:57

topic is going to be

33:58

friends. Mm-hmm. Okay. So,

34:02

do you often go out with friends?

34:06

Not really, to be honest. Why

34:08

not? Just because it's quite difficult

34:12

to arrange everything. To

34:15

arrange a place, to meet up.

34:19

Because we don't live in the same parts of the city,

34:21

so everyone has to go to the centre and it's

34:23

not always easy. Other people have kids,

34:25

so they need somewhere to drop them off

34:27

to leave them with grandparents or something like that. So

34:30

it's just difficult to arrange it. So

34:33

it happens very rarely,

34:35

I would say, two or three

34:37

times a year, to be honest. Wow.

34:39

So where do you usually

34:41

meet your friends when you do meet them? Well,

34:44

if we meet them on

34:46

a public holiday, which is a bit different,

34:48

then we'll go to their summer house,

34:51

usually, and have

34:54

a barbecue, cook some meat, have

34:57

something to do with the food, get a drink,

35:01

get a little bit rowdy, the kids

35:03

get a little bit naughty. And

35:06

if it's a weekend and a

35:09

regular working week, then we usually meet

35:12

up in the old town in the

35:14

centre and go out

35:16

for a meal, have

35:18

a few drinks somewhere. Maybe

35:20

if everyone's in a good mood, we might take

35:22

a little trip down to Karaoke in the end

35:25

of the evening.

35:26

Lovely. So do you have

35:29

a friend that you've known for a very long time?

35:33

I, here, I've got

35:35

a couple of friends that I've known for more than 10 years

35:37

that I met both

35:40

of them in England when I was working at Pizza

35:42

Express. And

35:45

they came over just to earn a bit

35:47

of money after the economic crisis

35:49

happened here. So they

35:51

came over together and stayed for

35:54

about a year and a half, two years, and I worked

35:56

with one of them, met the other guy through him.

35:59

And then, yes, ever since then, since 2010,

36:03

I think it was, we've been friends ever since then.

36:07

So

36:08

I used to visit them here a

36:10

lot,

36:11

and I would sometimes stay with them

36:13

in their parents'

36:15

house. It was back then. Then I

36:17

lived with one of them for a little while when

36:20

he got his own place way back

36:22

in And then in 2019, when

36:25

I moved here full time, we

36:28

started meeting up and seeing each other quite

36:30

regularly.

36:32

So what's more

36:34

important for you, friends or family? Family

36:38

actually is more important for me. Like

36:40

if I had to choose between the two of them,

36:43

then I would probably choose family. I

36:46

don't

36:46

spend a lot of time

36:48

with my family. I don't see them very often because,

36:51

you know, they live in England. I live here. And

36:53

I haven't been home for almost

36:55

four years now, but

36:58

I would like to spend

37:00

a lot more time with them. And I

37:03

always have the most fun,

37:06

I would say, when I'm with everyone in

37:08

my family, especially from my mum's side, if we include

37:11

people like aunties and uncles and sort of

37:13

distant family and stuff like that, it's always a good

37:15

time. Very good.

37:17

All right. Well done, Nick. So

37:19

again, I reckon like

37:21

the practice you gave four,

37:24

I reckon you gave four really good phrasal

37:26

verbs there. There's loads of other good language,

37:28

right? Good vocabulary. But we use,

37:31

well, we use meet up. So

37:33

meet up with somebody a couple of times. Really

37:36

good when you're talking about the kids, you would say drop them

37:38

off with their grandparents. And

37:41

then you would say, and my friends would come over,

37:44

meaning like come over to the house. Yeah.

37:47

In fact,

37:47

actually that was it because meet up

37:49

was twice. But still. Did

37:51

they sound forced? No, they didn't. Right.

37:55

Did it sound like raining cats and dogs? No,

37:58

not my cup of tea.

37:59

sounded much, much

38:02

more natural. So I honestly

38:05

think phrasal verbs are

38:07

the way forward for most students,

38:09

right? Again, if you are learning

38:11

in a school, if you are learning,

38:13

you know, general English classes, you will be

38:15

learning all of this vocabulary, including

38:18

idioms, including phrasal verbs as you

38:21

go. But I do think phrasal

38:23

verbs are much easier

38:26

to learn specifically

38:28

for an exam than idioms. Idioms for me

38:30

are a lifelong project. Yes. Whereas

38:34

I think phrasal verbs are quite good. If

38:36

you want a bit of practice for phrasal verbs, I'll put

38:38

some basic phrasal verbs on

38:41

the webpage that goes with this. So go to

38:43

blog.myIELTSclassroom.com. That'll

38:46

be a little starter kit of phrasal verbs

38:48

for you. But I would definitely

38:50

say it's

38:51

the way forward, isn't it? Yeah.

38:55

So, have we got anything else we want to say about phrasal verbs?

38:58

I don't think so. No,

39:00

I think that is it. The lesson

39:03

is over. That is a phrasal verb, be

39:05

over. Okay, so,

39:08

have a lovely week. Nick and I will see you

39:10

at the same time next time. Take care until

39:12

then. Bye-bye.

39:18

My IELTS Classroom podcast is production

39:21

of My IELTS Classroom Limited. Nick

39:24

and I do not represent IELTS

39:27

and everything you heard in this episode

39:30

is our own personal

39:31

opinion. You can

39:33

find the show notes and transcript

39:35

for this episode on our blog. That's

39:38

blog.myIELTSclassroom.com.

39:42

And if you're looking for our video courses,

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39:52

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39:57

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40:12

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