Learn how to use phrasal verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Kellie: Queue Jumping in Britain. |
| John: In this lesson, you’ll learn about phrasal verbs. |
| Kellie: The conversation takes place in a pub. |
| John: It is between Lucy and John, an apprentice mechanic. |
| Kellie: Although they’re strangers, it’s in an informal situation so they will be speaking in a casual, but polite way. |
| John: Let’s listen to the conversation! |
| DIALOGUE |
| Lucy: Where are all the barmaids? There’s only one person serving…hey! I’ve been waiting to be served longer than you have! You can’t just jump the queue like that! |
| Jack: Oh, sorry! I didn’t see you there. I didn’t mean to jump in front of you. It’s really busy today, isn’t it? |
| Lucy: Yeah, it’s full of students crying together over their exam results. |
| Jack: (laughs) Ohhh that explains it. Are you crying over yours or celebrating? |
| Lucy: Celebrating, mainly. I got the results I needed and my friend, Craig, has decided he doesn't want anymore years of student loans and being in debt. He’s just here for the beer. |
| Jack: Well, congratulations then! Let me buy you a drink to celebrate your good results… or will your boyfriend chase me away and beat me up for talking to his girlfriend? |
| Lucy: Oh, he’s not my boyfriend! I can’t think of anything worse than dating him to be honest, he’s far too high maintenance for me. |
| Jack: So he won’t mind if I give you my phone number and invite you out on a date sometime? |
| Lucy: He can be a bit over protective, especially when random men I don’t know start chatting me up in bars. How do I know that you’re not a serial killer? |
| Jack: Hmm, my name is Jack, I’m an apprentice mechanic and I promise that I’m not a serial killer. Now, I’m no longer a random man that you don’t know, so how |
| about that date? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| John: Lucy was queuing at the bar for a drink when Jon jumped in front of her. Queuing really is a way of life for people in Britain and you will see queues everywhere. |
| Kellie: They’re usually quite orderly, aren’t they? |
| John: Yes. You will always have people who try to jump the queue and push in front but it’s very rare, and it’s usually met with a few angry glares or words such as those from Lucy in the dialogue. |
| Kellie: Jon was quite apologetic for his actions, so he understood that he had acted rudely, even if it was unintentional. Why does everyone queue so much? |
| John: “First come, first served” is a very popular saying in Britain and it means that the person who is there first, has the right to be served first. It’s the same with queuing. People at the back of the queue don’t expect to be served first as the person at the front has waited longest. I guess it’s an old sense of fair play that is still lingering. |
| Kellie: I hope it doesn’t change! And what about pubs? They’re pretty unique in Britain, right? |
| John: Yeah, they have a different atmosphere to bars. They used to be an important part of the community, where the landlord, that is, the owner of the pub, would be on first name terms with all of his customers. Each pub has its own character and when you want to relax with a pint, having somewhere you feel comfortable is a good thing. |
| Kellie: Comfort over style? |
| John: In most pubs, yes! |
| Kellie: Okay, let’s move onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is: |
| Kellie: barmaid [natural native speed] |
| John: a female serving drinks in a bar or pub |
| Kellie: barmaid [slowly - broken down by syllable] barmaid [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: queue [natural native speed] |
| John: a line, people waiting in turn |
| Kellie: queue [slowly - broken down by syllable] queue [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: to jump in front [natural native speed] |
| John: not waiting in turn and pushing in front of people who have waited longer |
| Kellie: to jump in front [slowly - broken down by syllable] to jump in front [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: high maintenance [natural native speed] |
| John: a person that needs a lot of time and attention |
| Kellie: high maintenance [slowly - broken down by syllable] high maintenance [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: over protective [natural native speed] |
| John: looks after someone, cares for their safety |
| Kellie: over protective [slowly - broken down by syllable] over protective [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: to chat up [natural native speed] |
| John: to speak to someone in order to date them |
| Kellie: to chat up [slowly - broken down by syllable] to chat up [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: serial killer [natural native speed] |
| John: someone who has killed more than one person |
| Kellie: serial killer [slowly - broken down by syllable] serial killer [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Kellie: The first phrase we’ll look at is “high maintenance”. |
| John: My friend is dating this girl that takes two hours to get ready everyday. She expects him to call or text her all day, take her out to expensive restaurants and plan his life around her. She’s really “high maintenance”. |
| Kellie: So “high maintenance” means somebody that needs a lot of attention and time? |
| John: That’s right! Lucy considers Craig to be high maintenance because he’s a little needy. But it’s not just used for people either. If you do something special with your hair and somebody compliments you, you can thank them and say that it’s “high maintenance”, meaning that it takes a lot of time to do and probably needs touching up during the day. |
| Kellie: Is it a negative phrase to use? |
| John: It depends. My friend likes his girlfriends to be high maintenance so to him, it’s great! Another phrase we looked at in this lesson is “over protective”. |
| Kellie: Yes, Lucy said that Craig was “over protective” in the dialogue. |
| John: Yes, that’s a perfect example of it. “Over protective” is used to describe someone who looks after you and guards you but takes it too far. If your parents have ever warned you about being friends with somebody and told you that they’re dangerous or bad news but you don’t agree with them, you could say that they are being “over protective”. |
| Kellie: Surely they’re just being careful and looking after their child? |
| John: It’s very subjective. Someone I consider “over protective” may just be called “careful” by someone else. |
| Kellie: Finally we looked at the verb “to chat up.” |
| John: This is a really informal way of saying that someone is talking to someone else with the intention of dating them. It’s the same as “to hit on” someone. You can’t use it later in a relationship as it means those initial conversations when you’re trying to set up a date. John is chatting Lucy up as it’s their first meeting and he wants to get to know her better. |
| Kellie: Do you get chatted up often? |
| John: No, I’m usually the one chatting up other people! |
| Kellie: Ok, let’s move onto this lesson’s grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Kellie: In this lesson, you’ll learn about phrasal verbs. |
| John: Yes. A phrasal verb is a verb that consists of a verb and a particle or preposition. So, things such as “to shout out”, “to call up” and “to go in” are all phrasal verbs. |
| Kellie: There are a few examples of them in the dialogue, aren’t there? |
| John: Yeah. John says “will your boyfriend chase me away and beat me up for talking to his girlfriend?” |
| Kellie: Oh, there’s two in that sentence. Both “to chase away” and “to beat up”. |
| John: In both cases, adding the preposition changes the meaning of the verb. “To chase” means to hurry after someone and “to beat” means to win in a match or battle. But “to chase away” means to get away from someone, not follow, and “to beat up” means to physically attack someone. |
| Kellie: So they create entirely new verbs with different meanings. |
| John: They do! And did you notice in the dialogue that there is a pronoun in the phrasal verb? |
| Kellie: Oh, yeah, it’s “to chase me away” and “to beat me up”. |
| John: Yes, these are called separable phrasal verbs and need to be used when the object is a pronoun. So we couldn’t say “he beat up me” but we could say “he beat up the car,” because “car” isn’t a pronoun. |
| Kellie: We would have to say “he beat me up”, right? |
| John: That’s right! Here’s another example for you. If after this lesson was finished, I took you to a nice English pub, could I say that “I took out you to the pub?” |
| Kellie: No, you should say “I took you out to the pub.” |
| John: Very good! Remember that with pronouns, they need to go in between the preposition and the verb. |
Outro |
| Kellie: That’s all for this lesson as we’re now going to the pub. See you next time! |
| John: Thanks for listening! Bye! |
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