Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. In this lesson, I'm going to talk about some phrasal verbs that we use to express movement. I've broken down the phrasal verbs here into groups according to the preposition we use with the verb. In this lesson, I've included some phrasal verbs that are very common and that might be confusing the first time you see them. Let's get started.
Okay. Let's begin with this group of phrasal verbs here. The first one is the group "up," up. Now, I've chosen a few here to include in today's lesson, but this is not all of the phrasal verbs. There are many more. I want to focus on these because they may be a little bit hard to understand. So, first, let's look at these two, "get up" and "wake up, get up and wake up. To "get up" means to move from bed. So, you have your eyes open and you get up. You move your body from your bed, the place where you're sleeping. We use "get up" to describe that action, moving your body from bed. "Wake up," on the other hand, we sometimes use in the same way as "get up." However, "wake up" means to open your eyes. So, after you sleep, the first thing you do, probably, is open your eyes. We can use "wake up" to describe that. So, for example, "I woke up and I got out of bed." Okay. "I woke up and I got up." I just used "got out of bed," as well. We can use that, too. But, "I woke up and then I got up," would be another way to say that.
Okay. Next is "sit up," sit up. To "sit up" means to sit straight in a chair. So, imagine, as many of us do, we relax into this position, so our back makes a curve. When we "sit up," we sit straight in a chair. So, if you tend to sit like this, a lot someone might say to you, "Hey! Sit up! It's better for your back." So, "sit up" means to sit straight in a chair. Next is "pick up," pick up. There are two uses of "pick up" we can use. "Pick up," to mean to collect. Like, "to pick someone up at the airport." Like, "Oh, I have to pick up my boss at the airport today." We can also say, "I need to pick my boss up at the airport today." We can use either form of that phrasal verb. "Pick up" can also mean clean. Like, "Pick up your room," or "Pick up the bathroom. It's so messy!" So, usually, the feeling with this "pick up" for clean, means there are many things on the floor or many things not in their place. So, "Please pick them up and put them away." So, "pick up" has these two meanings. It's pretty easy to understand which is which, depending on the conversation.
Okay. Let's talk now about this "up to," up to. So, yes, we have many phrasal verbs which use "up," but I want to talk about "up to" with motion, with movement. You might hear a verb like this walk, run, jog, or drive. Some kind of bodily motion or transportation used with "up to." This means to do an action until you reach a point. So, you do something, like walk, to a specific location and stop. For example, "Walk up to the camera," or "Drive up to the forest," for example. That means you do that action and continue it until you reach a certain point. We do not really use "down to" as much as "up to." You might hear someone use "walk down to" or "drive down to," if it's a hill. If they're talking about a hill or talking about moving south, you might hear that. But, generally, we tend to use "up to" when we're talking about everyday life situations. And, if you hear "down to" used, it's probably because the person is talking about going literally down a hill, down a slope, down something sloped in this way, or because they're talking about moving south, specifically. So, that's "up to."
Okay. Now, let's talk about "down." So, some phrasal verbs we use with "down" are "take down," "put down," and "knock down." Take down, put down, and knock down. "Take down," there are a couple of uses of "take down." But, for motion, for movement, I want to focus on this one. To "take something down" means to remove something, to remove something. So, if I have a picture on the wall, I could say, "I need to take this down," which means I need to remove this. We use this phrasal verb a lot for decorations. Decorations, signs, pictures, something we put on a wall, or something we put on a billboard, some kind of like advertisement maybe. We use "take down" to refer to removing that.
Okay. Next is "put down," put down. "Put down" has another meaning that I'm not going to talk about so much in this lesson, which means to make someone feel bad. But, I want to focus instead on "put down" to mean place something down, to place something down. So, imagine you have a cup of coffee or tea, and you need to do something else quickly. You need to use your hands. You need to "put down" your coffee or tea, and do the other thing. So, when you move something from a high position and place it in a lower position, like on a table or on a desk, you can use "put down" to describe that. "I need to put down this coffee." You might also hear people say, "Put down your phone. We need to do this." It means stop looking at your phone. Put it down on a table, or put it down maybe in your bag. So, "put down" means to place something down lower than its original position.
Okay. Next one is "knock down," knock down. To "knock something down" means to cause something to fall, to cause something to fall. So, if you have an object on a shelf and you walk past, you walk past the object on the shelf and you touch it with your shoulder, you might cause the object to fall down. We use "knock down" to describe that. To "knock something down" means to cause something to fall. I also just said "fall down," fall down. For something to "fall down" means it does it on its own. Like, maybe I'm walking, I trip, I fall down. I cannot say "knock down" because nothing caused me to fall. "Fall down" is for something that happens independently. I caused it. To "knock something down" means you caused that thing to fall down.
Okay. Alright. Let's go to the next group on this part. In this middle part, we have "in" and "out," in and out. So, let's cover these first two, "go in" and "get in." To "go in" and to "get in" both mean enter. To enter something. But, we use "go in" for buildings. Like, "go in the bank." You might also hear "go into," that's fine as well. Like, "go into the bank," or "go in the supermarket," or "I went in the hair salon for," or something. So, "go in" refers to a building, we are entering a building. To "get in" means to enter a vehicle. Like, "get in the car," or "get in the bus," or "get in the canoe," something like that. To "get in." We use that for vehicles. Usually, cars and trucks. For bigger vehicles, we tend to use "get on." Like, the plane. We would say, "Get on the plane," or maybe "Get on the train." So, we tend to use "get in" for smaller vehicles or for smaller objects we can ride. Like, "get in the raft," or I used a water sport example earlier, "get in the canoe." So, these are kind of smaller more personal vehicles, "get in the car," and so on.
Okay. Next, I want to talk about this pair, "pull in" and "drive in." To "pull in" and to "drive in." We use these when we're talking about driving a car, yeah. So, to "pull in" usually means to enter a parking space, to "pull in" to a parking space. This is usually when we use this. Sometimes, you might hear it just to pull into a place to stop as well. Maybe it's not a space, a parking space, but it might be a place to stop. We might say, "Pull in over there. We can stop and rest," or something like that. So, to "pull in" generally means to drive your car to a stopping place. Then "drive in," drive in. To "drive in" means to enter a place with a car. For example, "You drive in to a carwash." So, that means you enter a location with your car. You might also see a "drive-in" movie theater. In the drive-in movie theater, customers bring their car to the movie. They "drive in" to the movie-watching space. Usually, a large parking lot. So, this is "drive in," to enter a place with a car.
Okay. Next is "walk in," walk in. This means to enter by walking. So, you can say, "I walked into the bank," or "I walked into my house." If you want to be specific about how you entered. Of course, you could say, "I ran into my house," or "I jogged into a place," as well. You can be specific with that.
Finally, we have "come in," come in. To "come in" means to enter a building, yes. But, "come in" is used as an invitation. If I am inside the building, and I want to invite you to join me inside the building, I say, "Come in! Come in!" And, you could say, "Oh! Is it okay? Cool." You might also say, in that case, "Can I come in?" "Can I come in?" We tend to use "come in" in this kind of invitation request situation. So, if you are outside someone's house, you might say to someone else outside the house, "Let's go into the house." You wouldn't say, "Let's come into the house." You're speaking from your perspective. Usually, "come in" comes from the person inside the house. "Please come in. Come in."
Alright. Finally, in this column, let's talk about "out," out. Next is "come out." To "come out." So, this is very different from "come in," actually. To "come out" means to reveal, to reveal something. So, you might hear "come out" used when people talk about a secret that they kept for a long time. To "come out" with a secret of some kind. We also use this when we have been hiding for a long time, like in kids' games. And, a kid suddenly reveals themselves, they came out of their hiding place. To "come out" means to reveal something.
Okay. Next, I want to talk about these two together, to "go out" and to "get out." To "go out" and to "get out." Very similar, but the feeling is different. With "go out," it means to leave home, to leave home. "I'm going out." I'm going to go out. "I'm going to leave home." "Where?" Maybe it's not important, I don't tell you. "I'm going to go out." "Get out," however, while it does mean to leave a place, it means to leave quickly, to escape someplace. Maybe it's dangerous or something is really boring. Like, "Oh, my gosh! You need to get out fast. There's something dangerous happening there." So, it has that feeling of leaving something very quickly. Escaping from a location you do not want to be in. That's "get out." So, it's quite different from "go out," which just means to leave your home.
Okay. Next. We have "take out," to take out. To "take out" means to remove something. A very common example of this is the expression "take out the trash." So, it means to remove the garbage or the trash in your home, and take it to the place for pick up, wherever that is for you. So, to "take out" means to take something outside of its original location. In this case, the trash. "Please take out the trash." So, "take out" means to remove something. Next is "pull out," to "pull out." To "pull out" means to remove something by pulling it. So, a great example of this is an electrical cord. When you want to unplug your computer, you can "pull out" the computer's electrical cord from the wall. So, we use "pull out" to refer to removing something by pulling it.
Okay. Great. Let's go to the last part for this lesson. "Over" is the next one I want to look at, "over." We have "roll over," "pull over," "move over," "come over." Okay. The theme with all of these words, generally, actually with these first three, in particular, is movement to a side. Movement to a side. So, to "roll over" means to roll your body to a side. So, we use this in bed. "I rolled over in my sleep," or "She rolled over many times last night." This refers to your body rolling to a side. "Pull over" refers to driving a car to the side. So, when you're driving down the road, you need to stop somewhere for a moment. We usually use "pull over" to describe that. Or, maybe the police catch you and you say, "Oh, no! The police. I should pull over." That means to drive your car to the side. And, generally, stop. To "pull over." "Move over" means to move to the side. So, any side motion, we can describe that as moving over. Like, "I just moved over in this video." I moved to the side. We often use "move over" as a command. Like, there are too many people on the couch, I want to sit. I can say, "Hey! Move over. Let me in." So, that means, "Please move to the side," move to the side.
Okay. The last one is different, "come over." "Come over" is different. "Come over" means to go to someone's house, to go to someone's house. Like we talked about with "come in," it's used a lot in invitation and request patterns. Like, I might say, "Hey! Why don't you come over for dinner?" "Come over for dinner," that means please come to my place for dinner. "Would you like to come to my place for dinner?" "Why don't you come over for dinner?" And, to accept the request, the person could say, "Oh, sure. Yeah. I'll come over about 7:00." That means to go to someone's house. You might hear it used in requests, too. Like, "Hey, can I come over later? I need your help with something." So, to "come over" means to go to someone's house. Okay, great. So, that's "come over."
Alright. Let's move on to the last couple of groups here. Next is "fall off" and "knock off," fall off and knock off. I talked about these earlier here a little bit when I talked about "knock down," yeah. To "knock down" is used in the same way as "knock off," right? So, you cause something to fall from a high place, you "knock it off the shelf." "I knocked the marker off my hand." So, again, when you use "knock off," it refers to falling from something, causing something to fall. You did something. "Fall off," on the other hand, means I did not do anything. Something just fell down. I did it independently. So, to "fall off" means to be moved from a high place. To "knock off" means to cause something to fall. We can also use "knock off" to mean to quit. This is used as a command, generally. We say, "Knock it off!" That means, "Please stop," or just "Stop," It sounds very aggressive and very direct, but you might hear it used in this way. Especially, among kids or when parents are talking to children. "Knock it off! That's annoying." So, "fall off," no outside force. Something just moves independently, or "knock off," as well. Also, yeah, quick point. "Fall down" is different from "fall off." So, to "fall off" means it's on top of something, "fall down" can be used when for example, a person is standing and they suddenly drop. That's "fall down." I could not say, "I fell off." That would be incorrect. We use "fall off" and "knock off" to talk about something moving or falling from a surface.
Okay. Let's go to the last group here, "by," by. We have "pass by," "stop by," and "drive by." Okay. "Pass by," pass by. "Pass by" means to move past a location. So, "to pass by," imagine you're driving a car means you get close to something, but you don't contact it, and then you continue moving. So, we describe this as "pass by." For example, I might text my friend, "Hey! I passed by your house today. How are you? I was thinking of you." So, to "pass by" means to move close to something on a course, and then continue on. "Stop by" means to stop somewhere briefly. So, we can use the same example. "I need to stop by the store for some milk," and then you continue on. The feeling with "stop by" is it's a very, very brief stop. So, "I stopped by the store," or "I stopped by my friend's house to say hello, and then I went home." So, it's a very quick short stop.
Finally, to "drive by." "Drive by" is used specifically when you are in a car. So, "I drove past my friend's house," is also okay to use. To "drive by" or to "drive past" as well is the one I just use. "I drove by my friend's house." The difference here, "pass by" and "drive by," you can use "pass by" in the same way as "drive by." If you are driving a car, you can say, "I passed by my friend's house," that's fine. If you want to be specific, and mention you're in a car, you can say, "I drove by my friend's house," yeah. So, "pass by" can be used for any kind of motion. Maybe you're walking, or jogging, or riding a bicycle, whatever. You can use "pass by" for all of them. You can use "drive by," or "cycle by," or "jog by," whatever to be specific about the manner in which you passed a location.
Okay, cool. Alright. So, that's a bunch of verbs, a bunch of phrasal verbs, that you can use to express movement. I hope that this lesson was helpful for you. Thanks very much for watching this lesson, and I will see you again soon. Bye.

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