3 Reasons You Don't Understand Phrasal Verbs

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Now is the time to get passionate about

Phrasal verbs hey, what's up? How's it going? I'm Gabby Wallace

American English teacher and founder of go natural English here to help you with your fluency in

English one key part of achieving the fluency that you want is to

understand phrasal verbs oh my goodness phrasal verbs they are so

Frustrating overwhelming so annoying don't you just wish they would go away

I know phrasal verbs are a huge part of being able to

understand and speak English like a native speaker

But I know that you and so many of my English students have trouble with them

So three reasons why you don't understand phrasal verbs

I want to share these reasons with you

You know not to make you feel bad, but because when you understand the problem

Then we can find the solution and we can improve together

So if that sounds good then keep watching to the end because I'm going to suggest exactly

How you can improve this problem, so?

Reason number one why you don't understand

Phrasal verbs and wait hang on timeout just a second if you don't know what a phrasal verb is

Let me tell you quickly it's a verb with a preposition

that together

Form something new it's like when a verb and a preposition have a baby and the baby

Just means something different in English right okay, so for example

Let's use get because get is a very common verb used to

create phrasal verbs so if I say

usually just get I

Get it. I'm saying I understand it or

We can actually use get in a lot of different ways so maybe this wasn't the easiest example

but when we add a

preposition to the verb get it creates a new meaning like I get to

Teach you English means now that I have the

Opportunity to teach you English so it's different than just get right

I get two means I have the opportunity which is a

more

Advanced way of saying I don't want to say advanced. I don't like talking about different levels. That's just a different way more

academic way to talk about

Having the opportunity

anyway, okay back to

Phrasal verbs why don't we understand phrasal verbs number one because you keep avoiding?

Phrasal verbs because they're hard because you just don't want them to bother you anymore

So you don't really pay attention to them you just hope they'll go away

You know how like you have an itch sometimes? You're like. Oh should I go to the doctor?

I don't know. Maybe it'll just go away if I just don't pay attention to it well

That's kind of like phrasal verbs phrasal verbs are like the rash of

English

They're everywhere

But they're everywhere, it's so gross this example is so gross um and you can't ignore it

Because that rash is not gonna go away after a few days because phrasal verbs are used

even more often than more academic verbs it's more likely that you'll hear a native English speakers say I

get to

Do this cool thing?

Instead of saying I have the opportunity to do this cool thing

So we have to stop avoiding phrasal verbs

But that's a big reason why you don't understand them because you're just hoping that they'll go away

So you don't focus on them you don't listen for them, and it's not your fault

because in traditional English classes your textbook

Maybe your teacher probably didn't have time to focus on the phrasal verbs so they just skipped over them they focused on the academic

Words because a lot of people think that using bigger Longer

Academic vocabulary is better

well

Native speakers don't use academic

Vocabulary as often in everyday conversations, so if you actually want to understand

What people are saying and you want to sound like you fit in?

You have to learn phrasal verbs you have to focus on them number two the biggest

Second biggest reason why you're not understanding phrasal verbs is that when you are listening to English or you are in a conversation?

Where you want to understand?

What people are saying is when you hear a phrasal verb?

You're just giving up if you don't understand it right away. You're not considering the context you're not trying to

Guess from the context you can probably make a really

Intelligent informed guess when you consider what the person is probably trying to

Express for example if I say I'm gonna pick up my friend from the gym at 6 p.m.

In my car you can probably guess because I said

Friend it's a person gym a location in my car

6 p.m.

Maybe I'm actually going to give a ride to

My friend which is a I guess more academic way of saying that and the third biggest?

Reason why you're not understanding phrasal verbs is that you're assuming that you

Understand the phrasal verb, but you're not checking to make sure that you are correct

You're pretending

Maybe that you understand, but you don't check to make sure you're correct so when you hear someone use a phrasal verb you could actually

Stop and ask to confirm. Oh do you mean you're giving a ride to your friend? Oh, okay? Got it?

I'm learning English. Thanks for your patience so confirm. You can ask questions

It's okay most people want to help you if you're shy if you don't want to ask in the middle of a conversation

Maybe you don't want to slow things down. Maybe Barriss. That's okay

Just make a mental note or maybe a note in your smartphone to check that

Phrasal verb when you have a moment to yourself

So let's talk about

solutions if you've been avoiding phrasal verbs now is the time to get passionate about

Phrasal verbs and really focus on them if you convince yourself if you brainwash yourself a little bit and say oh

I'm so passionate about phrasal verbs they just light my life on fire yes

I want more phrasal verbs in my life

that's the best way for you to actually learn more about them because you're fooling yourself into thinking that they're enjoyable I do this when

I run when I see a big hill look. I don't like running especially

I don't like running up hill, but I trick myself, and I think oh I love running up hills hills are great

I love hills so much and Hills love me when I run up then I

Know I'm a weirdo

But it works so get passionate and get focused about

Phrasal verbs because I want you to know they're gonna help you a lot

So there's a big benefit for you to this relationship between you and phrasal verbs

next when you're listening to English

Conversations or other materials really listen for the phrasal verb and try guessing what it means and then you can confirm

What it means so the third solution is don't just assume

But double check ask the question check the phrasal verb maybe online

You can ask a friend when you have some time

But make sure that you're understanding

and then a bonus solution to start keeping a notebook keep a journal of phrasal verbs and then

start to use them on your own because you're going to remember them when you listen to them a lot when you

Repeat and review them a lot, and then especially when you start using them in your own

Sentences that's when you're really going to get it all right so got it good

I'm glad that we had this time together for this lesson. I hope you enjoyed it leave me a comment

Let me know your thoughts on phrasal verbs or if you want to ask about a specific

phrasal verb I would to hear from you and

Come to gonaturalenglish.com

To see this full lesson on the blog if you're watching this on YouTube or Facebook or somewhere else

Can't wait to see you there. Thanks so much what bye for now bye