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Learn how to use the verb "Cover"
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This is the verb to cover, which can just mean to place something over something else. |
But watch until the end and learn six other ways to use it. |
Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Know Your Verbs. My name is Alisha, |
and in this episode, we're going to talk about the verb cover. Let's get started. |
First, let's start with the basic definition of to cover. To cover means to lay or |
spread something over something else. Here are some examples. |
Cover the pot and cook for 30 minutes. She covered her legs with a blanket. |
Okay, let's take a look at the conjugations for this verb. |
Present tense, cover, covers. Past tense, covered. |
Past participle, covered. Progressive, covering. |
Okay, now let's take a look at some additional meanings for this verb. |
The first additional meaning is to guard, like from an attack or from an opponent. |
Here are some examples. Cover me, I'm going in. |
Our troops will cover your team as you advance. |
Okay, this use of cover is used a lot in like action movies and in war movies and in other |
types of situations where there's fighting that's going on. So maybe if you know somebody or if you |
yourself were a member of the military, you might also have heard this word a lot. So to cover in |
this sense means to guard or to provide some kind of extra protection against an aggressor or some |
kind of dangerous situation. So in the first example sentence here, we see the expression |
cover me, which you might have seen in a lot of action movies before too. So cover me means please |
provide extra protection for me or please do something that will help me be a little more |
guarded. So when somebody in an action movie says cover me, it's usually because they're going to |
run into the action in some way and they want their teammates to maybe try to shoot at the |
enemies or to do something that is going to help them be a little bit more protected. |
So that's what this cover means. It means like please guard me or please protect me, |
provide extra protection in some way. This is also true for the second example sentence. |
Our troops will cover your team as you advance. This means we will guard you or we will provide |
extra protection for you as you move forward. So this use of cover is most commonly used in |
fighting and in action-related situations. Okay, the second additional meaning is to |
spread over something or to be spread over something. Here are some examples. |
Coffee stains covered his shirt. She covered her french fries with a spicy sauce. |
Okay, so this use of cover is a little bit similar to the basic meaning we talked about earlier, |
but this sense of cover sounds like something that's kind of spread around like very quickly or |
without a specific pattern in mind or something that is kind of created by accident. So for |
example, in the first one, coffee stains covered his shirt. It sounds like his shirt has lots and |
lots of different coffee stains on it all over his shirt, but he didn't put them there on purpose. So |
with the basic definition of cover, it sounds like we do something on purpose, right? Like we cover |
a pot with a lid or we cover our legs with a blanket, right? This sense of cover is more |
like the shirt just happens to have lots and lots of coffee stains on it and we use the word |
cover to show that it's completely or almost completely covered, almost completely changed |
with coffee stains. The second example here is similar. She covered her french fries with a |
spicy sauce. Sounds like she just very quickly put the sauce on top of her french fries. She |
spread that very, very quickly over her french fries. So there's no specific pattern, but it's |
more like we want to focus on the spreading of things. We want to focus on just kind of this |
sense of the french fries are just completely gone underneath the spicy sauce. So you might see |
covered used in this way to mean that there's a lot of something or that something is kind of |
spread without a specific pattern in mind on top of something else. Additional meaning number three |
is to deal with or to relate to. Here are some examples. Essential information for new employees |
will be covered in the orientation. We'll cover a new grammar point in the next lecture. |
Okay, this use of the verb to cover is often used in informational situations where we need to teach |
someone something. You might see this used in YouTube videos. You probably see this used in |
school settings, in classrooms, in lectures, in other types of situations where someone needs |
to teach someone else something. In the first example, we see an employee orientation. In this |
situation, you can expect that there's going to be a lot of new information. So when we say there's |
going to be a lot of information covered in the orientation, it means it's going to include or is |
going to relate to a lot of important information. So this use of cover is commonly used in teaching |
style situations. The same is true in the second example. We're going to cover a new grammar point |
in the next lecture. That means we're going to get information related to a new grammar point |
in the next lecture. So this use of cover means to relate to some information or to deal with |
some information. Again, a big tip here is that it's usually used in situations where we need to |
teach someone else something. Okay, the fourth additional meaning for this video is to be a |
replacement or a substitute for someone. Here are some examples. Can you cover my shift on Saturday? |
I need to take the day off. My teammates covered my work for me while I was gone. |
Okay, so this use of cover is used when we need to be away from our responsibilities for a period of |
time. In the first example sentence, can you cover my shift on Saturday? I need to take the day off. |
It sounds like we are asking someone else, can you please take care of my responsibilities on |
Saturday? Which means I have a shift on Saturday. I have to work on Saturday, but I cannot be here. |
Can you please do my tasks for me? So this use of cover relates to shifting your responsibilities |
to someone else. So when you say, can you cover my shift? It's asking that other person to do your |
tasks and take care of your responsibilities for you. The same thing is true in the second example |
sentence. My teammates covered my work for me while I was gone. That is a past tense example |
where someone's teammates took care of that person's tasks during the time the person was not |
at work. So when we use this use of cover, it's typically related to errands, tasks, jobs, |
responsibilities, and so on. So those are kind of some hint words that you can use to help you |
identify this use of cover. Okay, great. With those additional meanings in mind, now let's take |
a look at a couple variations with this verb. Okay, the first variation I want to talk about |
in this video is to cover up. This means to hide or conceal something. Here are some examples. |
The company tried to cover up the scandal. I don't know how I'm going to cover up this mistake. |
Okay, so this expression, to cover up, means that you are trying to hide something or to conceal |
something and it's often something that is bad. So we usually don't use cover up something for |
a nice secret or for a positive secret. It's usually because we have some problem or we've |
made some kind of mistake and we're trying to make sure nobody else knows about it. So when you see |
cover up used in the news to talk about company scandals and so on, it's because something bad |
happened and rather than try to fix the problem or talk about the problem, someone tried to hide |
that information. So cover up generally has a very, very negative image associated with it. So |
if you want to use cover up, please make sure that you know this. It is not used for good secrets, |
only for hiding usually bad secrets. Okay, the next variation is to cover one's tracks. |
This means to hide evidence of one's movements. Here are some examples. |
The hacker tried to cover his tracks by deleting his internet history. |
The thief didn't do a very good job of covering his tracks. The police found him right away. |
Okay, so this expression to cover one's tracks or to cover someone's tracks means to hide the |
evidence of something that you did. So this can mean digital evidence like in the first example |
sentence where a hacker deletes his internet history, and it can also mean physical evidence. |
So this expression comes from animal tracks. So animal tracks refers to the footprints that |
animals leave in the dirt when they move through the forest, for example. So if we follow, if we |
look at those animal prints, the animal footprints, we can find where the animal went, right? The same |
thing is true with people in this case, but maybe people don't actually leave footprints so much. |
Instead, they leave other kinds of evidence. So that's what this expression is really about, |
looking for those kinds of small pieces of evidence that tell us what a person did. |
So in the second example sentence with the thief, the thief didn't do a very good job of covering |
his tracks might mean that maybe the thief was seen on a security camera, or maybe the stuff |
that the thief stole was easily found on another market. So you can see that this is kind of a |
different way of tracking a person. So when we use cover one's tracks, it often relates to |
something bad that happened, like some kind of criminal activity, like the thief in the second |
example sentence, and the hacker in the first example sentence here. So if you're trying to |
cover your tracks, it's probably because you're trying to hide from someone or something. Though |
there are some situations where maybe you need to escape or someone needs to escape from a bad |
situation, and they might want to cover their tracks there too. Most of the time when we see |
it used in the news today, it's because someone is doing something a little bit shady or maybe |
that's not quite legal. So you'll probably see this used in the news from time to time, |
but mostly to talk about criminal activity. So now with these variations and additional |
meanings in our mind, let's take a look at the review section for this video. |
I'll introduce two example sentences that are both correct, but that use different meanings of the |
verb. Choose the example sentence that expresses the appropriate meaning. Today's class will cover |
materials from chapters one, two, and three in your textbook. Cover the soup and cook for 30 |
minutes. Which sentence uses the deal with or relate to meaning of cover? |
The answer is the first sentence. This lecture will cover materials from chapters one, two, |
and three of your textbook. That means this lecture is going to include or relate to the |
materials from those chapters in your textbook. So a big hint with this meaning of cover is that |
it's related to teaching someone information. So the second example sentence is about cooking, |
so it has nothing to do with teaching someone how to do something. The first example sentence |
means to relate to information. Great, let's move on to the second review question. |
The yard was covered with leaves. Cover me, I'm going to try to break down the door. |
Which sentence uses the to guard meaning of cover? |
The answer is the second sentence. Cover me, I'm going to try to break down the door. |
This is a request for extra protection for someone to guard the speaker. So we know that this is the |
case. We know that this means to guard or to cover because it's in kind of a fighting or a battle |
type situation. So this is a big hint that the speaker is asking for extra protection or asking |
for someone to guard him or her. I know you broke the glass, don't try to cover it up. |
He covered his mother's shoulders with a shawl. |
Which sentence uses the to hide or conceal meaning of cover? |
The answer is the first example sentence. I know you broke the glass, don't try to cover it up. |
So to cover something up means to try to hide or to conceal something, usually something bad that |
happened. So in this case, we see someone broke a glass and the speaker is accusing them saying, |
I know it was you, don't try to cover it up, meaning don't try to hide that information. |
So something negative happened and we see that cover up expression used after it. That's a big |
hint that the other person is maybe trying to hide a mistake or some other kind of wrong behavior. |
So with this in mind, let's continue on to our last review question. |
We'll cover some new information next week. My ice cream is covered with delicious caramel sauce. |
Which sentence uses the to spread over something meaning of cover? |
The answer is the second sentence. My ice cream is covered in delicious caramel sauce. |
So this sounds like the ice cream is just under so much caramel sauce. There's not a specific |
pattern, it wasn't just placed there gently, it's like somebody just went put so much caramel sauce |
on top of the ice cream. So it was spread all over, all on top of that ice cream. That's the |
idea with this use of cover. Great, that's the end of the review section and the end of this |
episode of Know Your Verbs. In this episode, we covered lots of information about the verb to |
cover. So I hope that you found a lot of new ways to use this very versatile verb. Thanks |
very much for watching this episode of Know Your Verbs and I will see you again next time. Bye! |
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