Hey, there. I'm Ronnie, here to teach you English. It's the purpose.
Phrasal verbs. Oh, everyone hates them because
they're so confusing, and they have a couple
different meanings sometimes, and they're just
kind of weird, and awkward, and difficult.
A phrasal verb is a verb with a preposition.
Up, by, for, to, down. And I'll tell you how
this lesson came about, or how I thought of this lesson. I was riding my bicycle on a
beautiful day, and I was riding next to the lake, Lake Ontario, not that beautiful, and
I saw a sign that said, "We are cleaning up Lake Ontario." And if you've ever been
to Lake Ontario... Not Ontario Lake, it's
the lake in Toronto, in the surrounding area.
It's pretty dirty. It's polluted. It's not
really safe to swim in it. We cannot eat the
fish from it. I mean, we could, but you might
die or get really sick. I don't think that
I've ever put my body in the lake, just because
it's so dirty. Like, yeah, you be the judge,
though. You can go and have a look. And when
you're there, come visit me and I give you
some lessons. You can take private online lessons with
me, englishwithronnie.com, www.englishwithronnie.com.
Hit me up for private online lessons. But let's get back to this. So, I'm riding my
bike and the sign says, "Cleaning up Lake Ontario", and I thought, "Hmm, why did the
sign say 'cleaning up' and not 'cleaning' Lake Ontario? Why does it say 'cleaning up
Lake Ontario' and not 'cleaning Lake Ontario'?
Or, "We want to clean Lake Ontario. We want
to clean up Lake Ontario. Why do they use a phrasal verb 'up'?" So I thought about it,
and this is what I came up with. And it is confusing. So, to clean something, the base
verb, we clean dirt. We can dust something, you know, dust. We can wipe something, use
some toxic chemicals, get that really shiny there. But if we clean something up, like
an object, we're not necessarily just removing
the dirt or the dust. We're actually putting
things away. We're removing things, like garbage.
So, it's kind of hard to clean a lake. You
just, like, get some spray, it's clean. But if we clean up the lake, we're taking the
bad shit out of it. We're taking out all the
chemicals. They're never going to get this
done. They're taking out the chemicals, they're
taking out the garbage, all the crap that's
in there that doesn't belong. You can clean your room, you can dust it, you can get the
dirt out, but if you clean up your room, you're
taking the garbage out, making your bed, making
sure it's all beautiful. So, cleaning up your
room or cleaning your room is very different.
You can't clean the lake. You can clean up the lake because you take stuff out of it.
Okay? Next one... Oh, I forgot. We can also
use the past tense. So I can say, "Oh, yeah,
yeah, yeah. Hey, guess what? I cleaned my room." Woo-hoo. Or if you're doing it now
in the process, "I'm cleaning my room." Okay?
"I cleaned up the area" or "I'm cleaning up
The next one is "to find". Do you know the past
tense of "find"? The past tense is "found",
f-o-u-n-d. So, if we find something, we look
for something specific, like, "Oh, oh, look,
I found my red marker." Purple marker, red marker. So, we look for something. But if
we add "find out" or the past tense "found out", it means we discover information. We
discover something that we didn't know before. It
can be through observation or through learning.
You can say, "Oh, I found out through this
video that there's a difference between phrasal
verbs and just regular verbs. It was great."
Next one, "pick". The past tense is easy, it's just "picked". But the pronunciation's
kind of weird. We have to say it like a "t",
we have to say "picked". "I picked this one."
So, we write it like an "ed", but it sounds like a "t" sound, so we say "picked". Can
you do it? "Picked". "Pick" or "picked" means
you choose something. "Oh, I picked this shirt
today because it's a beautiful colour." But if you pick up something, it's different.
Maybe if you're ordering food, people will say, "Oh, do you want delivery or pick up?"
Choose. I'm not choosing. I've already chosen.
So, "pick up" means you retrieve, or less
formal, get something. So, I can go and pick up
a takeout order, or get. I can lift something,
like, "Oh, hold on, let me pick up the marker
off the table." So you're physically lifting
something. You've already chosen it, you're just physically actually lifting it.
What are some other things? You can pick up
people. "Oh, yeah." So you'll hear people say,
"Oh, yeah. I went to the bar and I picked up
a guy last night." Like, damn, you're strong.
But it doesn't mean to lift. It has two meanings.
One of them means, like, get, the other one
means lift. So, if you pick up somebody at
the bar, it means that you've lured them into
your bedroom. "Oh, what are you going to do? Are you going to play chess?" Mm-hmm.
"Bring". Past tense is weird. "Brought". That's
even a hard one to say because the spelling
looks so weird. B-r-o-u-g-h-t. So, if I brought
something or I bring something, I mean I physically
carry it with me to another place. "Oh, look,
I brought some markers today." But this one,
"bring up" or "brought up" has three completely
different meanings. So, "bring up" means to
talk about. I can say, "Hey, shh, don't bring
up the fact or don't talk about the fact that
I'm wearing a yellow shirt today. Shh, don't,
don't. Mm-mm, mm-mm." Or, "Oh, please talk
about, please bring up the issue of the black
curtains. We want to talk about it." It also
means mention. Okay? "Oh, let's talk about the red cup. Please mention the red cup in
your speech." Oh, you might hear people say,
"Oh, I brought up dinner." It's like, you
talked about dinner? No, it means I barfed
or I vomited. "Vomit" is a very formal word.
I prefer "barf". "Oh, I brought up my lunch.
Oh, I had a sandwich. Mm, yum." And it can also
mean that you raise a child. Okay? We don't
grow children. Mm-mm, we raise children. So you,
if children are misbehaved, we'll be like, "Who
brought you up?" It means basically who educated
you, who raised you. "Were you brought up..." Oh,
there's an expression. "Were you brought up by
wolves?" My mother brought me up. My mother raised
me, cared for me, educated me. So there's one,
two, three different meanings for this one. Be
careful. And the last one, "show". Past tense,
"showed". That pronunciation's easier, at least.
So if I show you something, it's like display,
like... Markers. Now, let me show you my pet
hamster. But if I show up, you'll hear people
say, "Oh, hey, where's Ronnie? She didn't show up
for the... The shoot. Where is she?" I don't know.
"Oh, hey, you didn't show up last night." You're
like, "I didn't display? Was I supposed to display
something? Did I forget?" But "show up" means
attend. So if you don't show up for something,
it means you didn't go. Okay? So, hey, please show up for the classes.
Englishwithronnie.com, I have private online
classes to help you with all of this confusion
about phrasal verbs. So if you show up or you
attend your class, you're going to be amazing
at English. You're going to learn so much and
have fun. If you have questions, write them in
the comments. I hope that you enjoyed everything.