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An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'put up' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them. 'Put up' is a common phrasal verb in English that is used in many different areas of life, ranging from things as diverse as construction to resistance. It has a broad variety of different uses, many of which are used for quite specific situations and I will do my best to cover all of these in this post. So, let's make a start and see what the phrasal verb 'put up' is all about.... TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one) Put Up - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'put' and 'up' Put Up - Meaning 1: Literal Put Up - Meaning 2: To construct something Put Up - Meaning 3: To place something on display Put Up - Meaning 4: To tolerate Put Up - Meaning 5: To provide money (for financial support) Put Up - Meaning 6: To make something available for sale Put Up - Meaning 7: To propose someone for election Put Up - Meaning 8: To accommodate someone temporarily Put Up - Meaning 9: To resist something Put Up - Meaning 10: To increase a price Put Up - Bonus: Some common expressions with 'put up' I love writing this blog and helping learners but I get very little feedback so I don't always know if it is helpful for you. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like and share it or leave a comment at the end. I would be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS PUT UP: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 10 Simple past form Put up Past participle Put up Separable? Sometimes Before we look at the different phrasal verb meanings of 'put up', let's break down its component words to see if they can offer us any clues to the phrasal verb meanings that we will look at shortly. Firstly we have 'to put', which is certainly one of the favourite verbs of English native speakers as it is in frequent use in everyday English. The general idea behind it is to move or place something into a position, but it does also have other meanings, such as causing emotions or states to change and expressing something with words. The prepositional particle 'up' is one that features in many phrasal verb constructions and is generally used to refer to movement to a higher place or position. Furthermore, it can also be used for increases in numbers, rates and percentages etc. Now we have covered the basics, let's dive into the different phrasal verb meanings.... MEANING 1: Literal Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level A2 - Elementary Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Separable? Yes Before we look at the idiomatic meanings of 'put up', I want to begin with the literal meaning, which you may well be aware of. When we combine 'put' and 'up' in the literal sense, we are talking about placing something in a position that we perceive to be in a higher position than us e.g. a high shelf or a storage space near the ceiling. Moreover, this is used when there is a movement upwards and into a space, such as the little boy in the picture who has put his finger up his nose. I've had to put the ball of string up on the top shelf to stop the cats playing with it. John discreetly tried to put his finger up his nose but to no avail as all of his colleagues saw him. MEANING 2: To construct something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate ​Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To construct, to erect Separable? Yes If you are familiar with a certain well-known Joni Mitchell song, you will know the lyrics "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot" and the usage of 'put up' here is our second meaning, which is 'to construct something, so that it is in an erect or an upright position'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Building Wall Tent Fence This is commonly used with nouns such as buildings and walls, for which there is a building process and at the end of it there is an upright standing structure. This application is for both permanent and temporary structures and thus can also be used with other nouns such as tents, barriers and police cordons. Additionally, we can use it for imaginary walls and barriers, such as emotional walls that people 'put up' to stop themselves being emotionally hurt. Grammatically, this form of 'put up' takes a direct object and can therefore be separated, although we tend to place the object at the end a bit more, however placing the object between 'put' and 'up' is fine to do and not wrong. They demolished the old church and put up an apartment block in its place. We managed to put the tent up in less than 20 minutes! Police have put up a cordon around the crime scene whilst the investigation takes place. Lisa put up an emotional wall after her divorce to avoid getting hurt like that again. MEANING 3: To place something on display Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To hang up Separable? Yes The third meaning of 'put up' is to place something somewhere so that it is on display for people to see. This is normally used with things that are hung on walls such as pictures, posters, notices or mirrors. However, it can also be used for signs, cameras and anything that can be placed in a suspended position above the ground. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Picture Poster Advert Mirror Notice Sign The idea behind this meaning is to put something in a position where it is visible to people. Logically this would need to be somewhere high for optimised visibility, which is why the particle 'up' is required. Notably, this application is also used for decorations, in particular party decorations and Christmas decorations and lights, as these are normally suspended. Strangely, we do also use this for a Christmas tree, even though it is placed on the ground and not suspended from anything. On a grammatical note, this usage of 'put up' is separable and takes a direct object, which is the item that is suspended. One extra thing to note here is that the opposite of 'to put' in phrasal verb constructions is often the verb 'to take' and therefore the phrasal verb to express the opposite action of this meaning of 'put up' is 'take down' and not 'put down'. The local council have put up a network of CCTV cameras around the city to improve public safety. Our cat went missing a week ago. We've put posters up all over the neighbourhood and are hoping that someone finds him soon. We put up our Christmas decorations on 12th December every year and take them down again on 6th January. MEANING 4: To tolerate Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To tolerate, to bear, to endure, to cope with Separable? No This fourth meaning of 'put up' is a really common one that you may already be familiar with and means 'to tolerate'. For this usage we require the additional preposition 'with'. If you 'put up with something', you accept and live with a situation that you do not like, you do not agree with or is not ideal. It is in regular use in English, especially in spoken English, and is more commonly used and informal than its synonym 'to tolerate'. On a grammatical note, you cannot separate this usage of 'put up' and the indirect object always has to come after the word 'with'. If the direct object is a verb action, it needs to be in the gerund ('ing') form. I don't think I can put up with this for much longer! Lisa only puts up with Roger's snoring because she loves him. Nobody should have to put up with being bullied at work. MEANING 5: To provide money (as financial support) Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To finance, to bankroll Separable? Yes Our fifth meaning of 'put up' is to provide money in order to support someone or something financially. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Money Cash Funds Capital If you propose to 'put up money' for something, you are essentially offering to provide the finance for something, such as a project, a business startup or an event in order to make it possible. As you can imagine, this application is used a lot in the world of finance and investment as companies and trust funds are often looking for investors to put up funds in order for them to grow and expand. Aside from the finance sector however, this usage of 'put up' can also be used to describe any time a business or a person is provided with the money to undertake a project or venture. It is not really used for personal lending or borrowing for non-business purposes though, as the words 'lend' or 'loan' would normally be used more naturally here. The company is doing so well that it is now looking for investors who are willing to put up the capital to enable it to expand into overseas markets. We have asked the bank to put up the money and we are waiting for their decision. Helen's rich grandfather put up the money for her to rent a new premises for her shop. MEANING 6: To make something available for sale Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To put on the market, to sell Separable? Yes Meaning number six of 'put up' is 'to place something onto the market in order to be sold'. Here, the additional words 'for sale' are normally used. You may already be familiar with the expression 'to put something on the market' and this form with 'put up' is a synonym of this. The most common example of this that you are likely to hear is with houses as when someone decides to sell their house, they put it up for sale. It can equally be used to talk about placing anything on the market to be sold though. Another variation of 'put up for sale' is 'to put something up for auction', i.e. when you decide to sell something via a public sale to the highest bidder. A further possibility here is 'to put something up for rent', when you decide to rent it out, normally on a long term basis, rather than sell something. After a long period of deliberation, we have decided to put our house up for sale. The apartment was put up for rent by the new owners not long after they had completed the purchase. I've sorted out all of my old clothes and put the best ones up for sale. MEANING 7: To propose someone for election Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To nominate, to put forward Separable? Yes The seventh meaning of 'put up' is one that you often hear around the time of a political election as it means 'to propose a candidate for election'. This is used when a political party has decided the person who will represent them in the election and they would say that they "are putting up this candidate for election", therefore formally naming the person that they have chosen. Another similar usage to this, albeit in a very different area of life, is used when parents decide that, for whatever reason, they cannot look after their child and so opt to put it up for adoption. I guess we use 'put up' in this sense as by doing so, the child is being made available to the public so that the most suitable people can adopt and take care of it. The Green Party have announced the candidate that they are putting up for election in this constituency. My parents put me up for adoption when I was a baby, so I have no memory of them. MEANING 8: To accommodate someone temporarily Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To accommodate Separable? Yes The eighth meaning of 'put up' is to accommodate another person in your house on a temporary basis. This is normally used when a friend or a member of your family finds themselves in a situation where they have nowhere to live or stay and so they stay at your house temporarily. In other words, if you put someone up, you provide them with a place to sleep for a short period of time. Grammatically, this application of 'put up' is only used in a separable way with the person who is temporarily staying at the other person's house always going between 'put' and 'up'. Moreover, this usage of 'put up' is used equally commonly in both an active and a passive way, depending on if the person speaking is the person staying at the other's house (passive) or is the person who is letting their friend sleep at theirs (active). I am having a new kitchen fitted at my house, so my brother is putting me up for a couple of nights whilst the work is carried out. My brother is having a new kitchen fitted, so we are temporarily putting him up until it is completed. Can you put me up for a few days until I make up with my wife? MEANING 9: To resist something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level ​B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To resist Separable? No For the ninth meaning of 'put up', we are thinking about the idea of resistance as here we often combine 'put up' with nouns such 'fight' or 'resistance' to give the idea that something is opposed, fought or resisted in some way. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Fight Resistance Struggle With this usage, we do not tend to separate the words 'put' and 'up' and place the appropriate noun after the phrasal verb. There is no way that the local residents are going to accept this without putting up a fight. The army put up little resistance when the neighbouring countries' troops invaded. MEANING 10: To increase a price Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To increase, to raise, to hike Separable? Yes Our final meaning of 'put up' is more of a British usage that unfortunately has been used a lot over the last few years and that is 'to increase a price'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Prices Costs Rates Charges For this usage, we are talking specifically about when a decision is made by a company or a business to increase prices, rather than prices increasing in general. In fact, normally companies are forced to put up their prices due to a rise in general prices such as wholesale and overhead costs. This usage is separable and is fine to use in both a separable and inseparable way, without affecting the meaning. Due to an increase in our overheads, we have had to put up our prices to ensure that we still make a profit. We are putting up our prices on 1st January, so please check out our website in the coming weeks as the new prices will be published on there. Photo: Pexels BONUS: Some common expressions with 'put up' Before we finish this post, I want to make you aware of some other expressions and specific uses that the phrasal verb 'put up' is featured in. Put up or shut up - This is an idiomatic expression that we use when we want to tell someone to either justify what they said, or else keep quiet. To put your hand up - This is something that is used very commonly in classrooms and, to a lesser extent, business meetings and other group activities and is simply when someone puts their hand in an elevated position above their head to signify that they know the answer to a question or want to speak. To put your hands up - The plural form is very different to the singular and is used to express when a person puts both hands in an elevated position in front of their face to show that they are surrendering. This is normally to the police when they are being arrested for a crime. Moreover, 'put your hands up' is also used in many modern pop songs in a different way as a call to start dancing or show appreciation. To put your feet up - This final expression means 'to sit down and relax' and is normally used after a period of hard work. Photo: Pexels We have now reached the end of this post and I hope that you have found it useful and that it has helped you to understand how to use the phrasal verb 'put up' more confidently and naturally. Feel free to leave any comments, feedback or your own sentences using 'put up' in the section below. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. Do you want to improve your phrasal verb skills? Now that you have read the article, I hope you've learned something new. However, reading is only the first step to mastering phrasal verbs: the key is practice and repetition. That's why I've created a series of PDF workbooks with clear explanations, natural example sentences, exercises, speaking questions and answer keys. This will help you understand and remember common English phrasal verbs and use them confidently in real-life situations. Browse the workbooks here and start improving your phrasal verb skills today.... Thanks so much for reading and see you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'work out' from a native speaker, with examples and exercises. Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my blog all about English phrasal verbs. Each week, I take a different phrasal verb and look at how it is used by native speakers, with a focus on the different meanings that it has and the expressions and idioms that it is used in. The phrasal verb 'work out' is a well known phrasal verb with a number of different meanings in English. I am sure that you will be familiar with at least some of them, especially as one or two have featured in popular songs in recent years. So, without further ado, let's take a look at them.... TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one) Work Out - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'work' and 'out' Work Out - Meaning 1: To do physical activity Work Out - Meaning 2: To find the answer to something Work Out - Meaning 3: To solve a mathematical sum Work Out - Meaning 4: To understand someone's character Work Out - Meaning 5: To plan something in detail Work Out - Meaning 6: To have a good result Work Out - Meaning 7: To work your notice I love writing this blog & helping learners but I receive very little feedback as to how useful it is or if people enjoy & learn from it. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like & share it or leave a comment at the end. I'd be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS WORK OUT: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 7 Simple past form Worked out Past participle Worked out Separable? Sometimes Let's make a start by examining the constituent words of 'work out', as this can offer some understanding of the different phrasal verb meanings that it has. The verb 'to work' is a verb that I'm sure everybody will know as it is used multiple times by most English speakers daily and is a verb which is used with both love and hate in equal measure. 'To work' actually has a variety of different meanings in English, however the main two meanings are 'to engage in physical or mental activity in order to accomplish a job (often for financial reward)' and 'to function properly'. The prepositional particle 'out' is generally used to talk about movement away from an inside, enclosed or central place or space. In addition, 'out' has many other uses as a preposition, adjective, adverb and even a verb, but behind many of its meanings there is an underlying idea of completion or conclusion, which is relevant for some of the meanings of 'work out' that we will cover shortly. So, now that we have covered the basics, let's take a look at the meanings of 'work out'.... MEANING 1: To do physical activity Photo: Wix Media CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere ​Potential synonyms To do exercise Separable? No The first meaning of 'work out' that we will look at is probably the most well known of all of its different meanings and means 'to engage in physical activity'. Typically this is by doing some form of vigorous exercise such as going running, swimming a dance class and perhaps most commonly, training in the gym. Generally when we use 'work out' in this way, we are referring to doing solo activity rather than participating in a team sport. The general idea is that we complete a session of exercise, normally for the benefit of our health and well being. Grammatically, this meaning of 'work out' does not take a direct object and cannot be separated. As an alternative to the verb, it is worth noting that the noun 'workout' is used equally as much as the phrasal verb form, if not even more so. For this, the constructions 'to have a workout' or 'to do a workout' are normally used in the appropriate tense. I usually work out seven days a week and rarely have a rest day. John was working out in the gym when his wife called him to tell him that they had won the lottery. I've already done a workout today and don't intend to do another one. Lisa had such a stressful day at work and so decided to have a good workout in the gym to try and forget all about it. MEANING 2: To find the answer to something Photo: Wix Media CEFR Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms ​To figure out, to understand Separable? Yes Now for the second meaning of 'work out' and for this we are moving away from physical activity and focusing instead on mental activity as the meaning is 'to find the answer to something by using your brain'. This is the first in a series of meanings which are all to do with engaging in mental activity in order to determine some information. For this second meaning, the idea is to undergo a mental process in order to find the answer to a question. As such, we do not use it to talk about answering questions that we already know the answer to as there is no process involved with this - we know the information already and can recall it. 'Work out' here is rather all about the mental activity required to arrive at an answer by using the available clues or information that we have. Typically, 'work out' can be used for things like crossword clues, sudoku, riddles, puzzles and complex quiz questions. Furthermore, it is also frequently used to talk about when people attempt to understand the reasons why something happens or has happened, e.g scientists conducting experiments to understand phenomena or emergency service employees attempting to understand how a car accident has happened. In all of these cases, someone is trying to find out the answer to something by using the clues or evidence that they have. Grammatically, this usage of 'work out' does take a direct object and is therefore separable. I've almost finished this crossword. I just can't work out this last clue!! For years, scientists have been trying to work out how to stop volcanoes erupting but are no closer to achieving their goal. The police have managed to work out that the murder suspect was in the area when the crime was committed but they do not have any evidence to convict her yet. My cat has been acting very strangely and nobody in the family can work out why. Helen was fascinated by the magician at the party and was not able to work out how he performed his illusions. MEANING 3: To solve a mathematical sum Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To calculate Separable? Yes The third meaning of 'work out' is a continuation of the theme of finding the answer to something and means specifically 'to solve a mathematical sum'. In other words, this meaning of 'work out' is to determine the numerical amount of something by using addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, or a combination of these. Again, in a similar fashion to the previous meaning, this also involves the process of calculation to arrive at the answer to something, this time a sum. In addition, we can also use 'work out' here to give the answer of a sum once the calculation process has ended. For this we use the construction 'works out at...', with the additional preposition 'at' required before the answer to the sum. We can also use the construction 'works out to be' here in some cases. The students were asked to work out some mathematical equations during the exam. What is 129 x 75? Can you work out the answer without using a calculator? I've looked at the costs for our family holiday this year and it works out at just over £2000.00. Roger has started buying his groceries online as it works out to be $50 cheaper a week than when he goes to the supermarket. MEANING 4: To understand someone's character Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To figure out, to make out Separable? Yes Meaning number four of 'work out' is the third and final one to do with finding the answer to something and it means specifically 'to understand someone's character'. Unlike the previous two meanings, we often tend to use this version of 'work out' in negative sentences often with 'can't' when we are unable to understand someone's character. This is normally because they act in a strange way or exhibit some unconventional personality traits and we do not understand why they act and behave the way that they do. This meaning of 'work out' tends to be used in a negative way, especially if there is a romantic element involved. Aside from just one person, you can also use this application of 'work out' to talk about groups of people. Again, this would almost always be in the negative sense, with the idea being that it is impossible to understand them and we will never be able to. His behaviour is very erratic, I just can't work him out. Helen thought she had worked Roger out, but she quickly changed her mind when she learned that he had been lying to her. Lisa has never really had much success with romance. She just can't work men out. MEANING 5: To plan something in detail Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To thrash out, to plan Separable? Yes The fifth meaning of 'work out' is 'to plan something in detail' and this is a meaning that you are likely to come across in the business world if you need to use English in your job. For this meaning of 'work out', we are mainly concerned with plans, systems, procedures and processes as these are all things that require a process of mental work and time to complete. The idea here is that the thing that you are planning is complex and involves many details, so a lot of thought needs to be given to it in order to plan and create it effectively. 'Work out' in this sense can be used for just one person's efforts or a collaborative effort between different people. This form of 'work out' takes a direct object and is separable. The direct object is always the thing that you are planning. We sat down this morning to try and work out a contingency plan for an economic recession. When our first child was born we were completely disorganised and didn't know what to do but within a few days we had worked out a system between us of feeding the baby and making sure we both got enough sleep. Did you manage to work out a procedure for resolving invoice queries in a timely manner? MEANING 6: To have a good result Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To succeed Separable? No (only with the word 'itself') Our sixth meaning of 'work out' is 'to have a good result', or alternatively, 'to have the desired result'. For this meaning, as you can guess, we are entirely focused on the results of something and if we say that 'something worked out', then it means that the end result was good or was what we wanted it to be. This can be used across a broad spectrum of situations, from romantic relationships to the execution of plans. When 'work out' is used in this way, we often use additional collocational words such as 'in the end', 'for the best' and 'well'. On a grammatical note, this meaning of 'work out' does not take a direct object and is not normally separable. However, there is one instance where we can use it separably with the reflexive pronoun 'itself'. When we say that something 'works itself out', we mean that a complicated or undesired situation is resolved naturally with minimal intervention. We were worried that something would go wrong on our wedding day but thankfully everything worked out well! I was so certain that my business would go bankrupt but at the last minute an investor stepped in and everything worked out in the end. We had a really complicated legal issue at work last week but miraculously it worked itself out after a few days. MEANING 7: To work your notice Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced ​Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To work your notice Separable? Yes This seventh and final meaning of 'work out' is a rare meaning that is only used in very specific circumstances, but I wanted to make you aware of it nonetheless. The meaning of this seventh usage is 'to work your period of notice in a job after you have tendered your resignation'. In other words, when you decide to leave your job within a company, there is normally a period of notice that contractually must be worked before you can leave e.g. one month. We use 'work out' here to say that a person will 'work out their notice' and stay at the company until the time when they are permitted to leave. I'm leaving Phrasal Verbs Ltd and I am going to work out my notice as agreed with my manager. He left the company last week. He stormed out after an argument with a co-worker and is refusing to come back or work his notice period out. Photo: Pexels We have now reached the end of this post and I hope that you have found it useful and that it has helped you to understand how to use the phrasal verb 'work out' more confidently and naturally. Feel free to leave any comments, feedback or your own sentences using 'work out' in the section below. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. Do you want to improve your phrasal verb skills? Now that you have read the article, I hope you've learned something new. However, reading is only the first step to mastering phrasal verbs: the key is practice and repetition. That's why I've created a series of PDF workbooks with clear explanations, natural example sentences, exercises, speaking questions and answer keys. This will help you understand and remember common English phrasal verbs and use them confidently in real-life situations. Browse the workbooks here and start improving your phrasal verb skills today.... Thanks so much for reading and see you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'grow up' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them. This post is all about the well known phrasal verb 'to grow up'. I am sure that many of you will be very familiar with it, especially with its most common meaning of growing from a child to an adult; however, would it surprise you learn that 'grow up' has at least two other meanings in English? My objective with this post is to go on a deep dive of this common phrasal verb and give you a comprehensive understanding of how to use it and when. In it, I will explain each of the different meanings for you and provide you with lots of example sentences to make it easier for you to learn them. So, let's get started and see what the phrasal verb 'grow up' is all about.... QUICK ANSWER: What does the phrasal verb 'grow up' mean? The phrasal verb 'grow up' has three main meanings in English: To grow in an upwards direction To grow from a child to an adult To gradually emerge and develop Continue reading to learn how to use each one.... TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one) Grow Up - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'grow' and 'up' Grow Up - Meaning 1: To grow in an upwards direction Grow Up - Meaning 2: To grow from a child to an adult Grow Up - Meaning 3: To gradually develop and emerge Grow Up - Bonus: 'Grow up!' used as an imperative Grow Up - Bonus: 'To grow up into' Grow Up - Bonus: 'To grow up' + a gerund Grow Up - Bonus: The noun 'grown-up' Grow Up - Bonus: More example sentences with 'grow up' Grow Up - Bonus: Potential IELTS questions Grow Up - Bonus: Other open questions for further practice I love writing this blog and helping learners but I get very little feedback so I don't always know if it is helpful for you. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like and share it or leave a comment at the end. I would be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS GROW UP: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 3 Simple past form Grew up Past participle Grown up Separable? No To begin with, let's look at the individual component words of the phrasal verb 'to grow up', as this will help us to understand its different meanings. Firstly, we have the base verb 'to grow', whose principal meaning is to increase in size or height. 'To grow' is an irregular verb and is mainly used to talk about people, animals and plants, however it can be applied in more abstract contexts, like business, numbers, popularity and feelings. Less commonly, 'to grow' can also be used as a synonym of the verb 'to become' when describing a gradual change over time and this is typically with adjectives like old, tired, impatient and strong. The verb to grow is usually intransitive, but it can sometimes be used transitively with a direct object too, particularly when talking about growing plants or expanding a business. Our new baby is growing so fast. I keep watering my plants but they don't ever seem to grow. My follower count on social media has grown this year. Our business is expected to grow over the next 12 months. My Dad grew old and was no longer able to play rugby. The new sales manager has been tasked with growing the business by 20% over the next 3 years. Next, we have the particle 'up', whose main meaning is movement away from the ground or towards the sky ↑. 'Up' features extremely frequently in English phrasal verbs and, in addition to conveying the idea of upward movement, it can also add ideas like improvement (look up), preparation (set up), ending (break up) and creation (make up). One other idea that 'up' can introduce that will be useful further on in the post is 'increase'. So, now that we have looked at the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'grow up'.... MEANING 1: To grow in an upwards direction Photo:Pexels CEFR Language Level A2 - Elementary Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To grow, to shoot up Separable? No Let's start the meanings of 'grow up'. with a nice and simple one, which is simply the literal combination of the two words 'grow' and 'up', i.e. to grow in an upwards direction. This is, in fact, just a variation of the verb 'to grow', with additional emphasis on the upwards direction and I should state here that this is not really a distinct phrasal verb meaning in the true sense as the two words simply just retain their individual literal meanings. As we do not normally need to express the direction in which something grows, this use of 'grow up' to describe something growing in size is not usually necessary in English and, as a result, it is relatively rare. When we do use it, it is mainly to describe the growth of plants, trees and flowers, emphasising that they are growing in an upwards direction, rather than downwards or horizontally. We do not typically use 'grow up' to describe people getting taller. To do this, we simply just the verb use 'to grow'. It is also possible to use the construction 'to grow + up + noun' to talk about when a plant grows up along the surface of another object such as a building, wall or tree. Photo: Pixels Example sentences.... Plants grow up and not down or out because they need sunlight. The ivy has been growing up the wall for many years. The climbing roses grew up the garden fence, covering it with beautiful dark flowers. Another form that we can use and that you should be aware of is 'to grow upwards'. The suffix '-wards' is used in English to identify a direction of movement, so 'to grow upwards' is a nice alternative way to say that something is growing in an up direction. This is also a very natural way of saying it. Furthermore, if growth is happening towards something e.g. the sky, we can use the construction 'to grow up towards + noun'. This is often an easier and clearer way of expressing literal upward growth when there is no directional phrase following what you said. Example sentences.... The sunflower that we planted last year is growing up towards the roof of the house. Plants naturally grow upwards in search of sunlight. The young trees grew up towards the sunlight, competing for space in the crowded forest. MEANING 2 - To grow from a child to an adult Photo: Pixels CEFR Language Level A2 - Elementary Usage ​Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To mature, to age Separable? No Let's now move on to the second usage of 'grow up', which is by far the most common one in everyday English and is therefore the one that you probably already know: 'to grow from a child into an adult'. When I was a child (many years ago, sadly), I was often asked what I wanted to do when I was older, or more precisely, what I wanted to do when I grew up. Of course, websites and language blogs did not really exist when I was a small child, but I did often tell people that I wanted to be a teacher and so that bit was correct! The reason for my telling you this is that this application is used to describe the gradual process of developing from childhood into adulthood over time, both in a physical sense and in terms of mental and emotional development. As a result, it is often used by children to talk about their future hopes and dreams for when they are adults and likewise by adults who are referring to their childhood and reminiscing about the past. 'Grow up' is most commonly used to describe people but it can also be used to talk about animals developing from babies into adulthood. We do not generally use it to talk about organisations or businesses as there is no equivalent of an 'adult' business. Example sentences.... I grew up in Birmingham, close to a really big park, which we played in every summer. When I was growing up I hated school but now that I am an adult, I wish I could go back! He was born in Edinburgh but he grew up in Glasgow. I had blond hair when I was growing up. Did you grow up around here? When I grow up I want to be a doctor and have an enormous house with a swimming pool. What does your daughter want to do when she grows up? My daughter wants to be a police officer when she grows up. Growing up, my parents never used to let me watch television or movies. In addition to this idea, this application of 'grow up' can be used in a more figurative way to talk about when a person's personality and behaviour change as they mature and become more like an adult than a child. On the flip side of this, you should also note that just because someone grows up and becomes an adult in the physical sense, it does not mean that they are mentally mature. This is certainly true of some adults (in fact I think I've met a few of them!). GROW UP! AS AN IMPERATIVE Consequently, 'grow up' is often used by native speakers in the imperative form: "grow up!". This is usually to show annoyance when someone is acting in a silly way or like a child. If you want to really add some extra spice or impact to this, you could insert 'the hell' or 'the f**k' between 'grow' and 'up' to show that you are very annoyed by their behaviour. You should note here that the expression 'grow the f**k up' is offensive and extremely informal. Example sentences.... Oh grow up, Adam! It's really not funny! Whoever is playing these jokes on me needs to grow up! It's not funny! Seriously, Matt, it's about time that you grew the hell up and stopped acting like such a baby. Photo: Pixels BONUS #1: To grow up into If we want to talk about who or what a person will be at the end of the growing up process, it is necessary to add the extra preposition 'into'..... I see that you have grown up into a fine young man! There are many child actors who grow up into Hollywood film stars. BONUS #2 : To grow up + gerund One way to talk about activities, habits or situations that were a regular part of our childhood is to use the simple past form of the verb (grew up), followed by a verb in the '-ing' form. This construction is often (but not always) used with verbs related to the senses e.g. to watch, to listen to etc. I grew up listening to Michael Jackson and Madonna and so I still love their songs today. My mother is Polish, my father is German and I live in the USA, so I grew up speaking three languages. BONUS #3: 'Grown-up' as a noun and adjective Before we finish this section, I want to make you aware of the existence of the noun 'grown-up', which is used commonly in everyday English, particularly when talking to or about children. A 'grown-up' is just a synonym for the noun 'adult' and simply refers to someone who has finished the growing up process and is no longer a child. It tends to be used a lot when talking to children and is often what a child will say instead of 'adult'. Grown-ups always talk about boring things. I was allowed to sit at the big dinner table with the grown-ups today. If you feel worried or frightened, you should tell a grown-up immediately. Moreover, 'grown-up' can also be used as an adjective. This can either be to describe a person who is an adult, or to describe mature behaviour or typical of adult behaviour; interestingly this second usage can be used to describe something that a child does or how they behave. Mary has a grown-up daughter who lives in London. That was a very grown-up thing to say, Abigail. My son was very grown-up about going to the doctor and didn't cry or moan once. MEANING 3 - To gradually emerge and develop Photo: Pixels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To develop, to spring up Separable? No Our third and final application of 'grow up' is a much rarer and more advanced idiomatic one, meaning 'to gradually emerge and develop'. Nouns commonly used with this application.... Village / Town / City Settlement Business / Company Concept This meaning is not used to talk about people, but rather things that are founded, created or developed by people and these things include businesses, towns and cities as well as abstract items such as theories and academic schools of thought. The general idea with this application is that something comes into existence and then develops and grows over a period of time. As this one is used to talk about the origin and development of things, it is often found in historical contexts. On a grammatical note, this usage is intransitive and therefore does not function as a direct synonym of transitive verbs like 'found' or 'create'. Example sentences.... The idea grew up in the 17th century. The river made trading possible and as a result many towns grew up alongside it. A vibrant community grew up around the shared love of art and creativity. New businesses are starting to grow up in the formerly abandoned neighbourhood. Small settlements gradually grew up along the newly established trade routes. A whole industry has grown up around the development of artificial intelligence. A new philosophical movement grew up in ancient Greece A new school of thought grew up among scientists who began to question the traditional theories about the origins of the universe A strong belief in individual freedom grew up during this period, gradually influencing the political thinking of the time. Photo: Pixels POTENTIAL IELTS QUESTIONS Should children grow up in the city or in the countryside? Where did you grow up? Describe it. Is it better to grow up with or without siblings? Photo: Pexels OTHER OPEN QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER PRACTICE What is your favourite memory of when you were growing up? Did you have a skill or talent when you were growing up that you no longer have? What was it? If you could have grown up in a different place, where would you have chosen to live? Has your taste in music changed since you were growing up? How has the village, town or city where you grew up changed since that time? Photo: Pixels We have now reached the end of this post and I hope that you have found it useful and that it has helped you to understand how to use the phrasal verb 'grow up' more confidently and naturally. Feel free to leave any comments, feedback or your own sentences using 'grow up' in the section below. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. Do you want to improve your phrasal verb skills? Now that you have read the article, I hope you've learned something new. However, reading is only the first step to mastering phrasal verbs: the key is practice and repetition. That's why I've created a series of PDF workbooks with clear explanations, natural example sentences, exercises, speaking questions and answer keys. This will help you understand and remember common English phrasal verbs and use them confidently in real-life situations. Browse the workbooks here and start improving your phrasal verb skills today.... Thanks so much for reading and see you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'get back' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native. The phrasal verb 'get back' is a commonplace phrasal verb in English, with several meanings, which we will cover in this post. You may also be familiar with it as it is the title of a hit song by the ultimate British music band, The Beatles. Read on to find out more about this useful phrasal verb and all the ways that you can use it effectively to communicate in English. So, without any further ado, let's make a start... QUICK ANSWER: What does the phrasal verb 'get back' mean? The phrasal verb 'get back' has six main meanings in English.... To return to a place To return to a previous state To return to a subject To have something again To take revenge on someone To respond to someone with information Continue reading to learn more about how to use each one.... TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one) Get Back - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'get' and 'back' Get Back - Meaning 1: To return to a place Get Back - Bonus: Get back here! Get Back - Meaning 2: To return to a previous state Get Back - Meaning 3: To return to a subject Get Back - Meaning 4: To have something again Get Back - Meaning 5: To take revenge on someone Get Back - Meaning 6: To respond to someone with information Get Back - Bonus: 'Get back!' used as an imperative Get Back - Bonus: Some music featuring 'get back' to finish I love writing this blog & helping learners but I receive very little feedback as to how useful it is or if people enjoy & learn from it. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like & share it or leave a comment at the end. I'd be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS GET BACK: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 6 Simple past form Got back Past participle Got back / Gotten back Separable? Sometimes As is customary, let's start by taking a look at the component words that make up our phrasal verb of choice, as these often give valuable clues to their meanings. Firstly, we have the verb 'to get', which as I have stated before is perhaps the most beloved of verbs by English speakers because it can be used in so many ways (however, this also makes it a nightmare for English learners!). To make it simpler for the purposes of this post, the meaning of 'to get' that is relevant for the phrasal verb 'get back' is the meaning 'to arrive'. The preposition 'back' is a frequently used word in English, although it is perhaps not one of the most common prepositions used in phrasal verb constructions. Luckily, 'back' has relatively few meanings compared with most other prepositions and the general idea of it is 'to return'. So, now we have covered the basics, let's move on to the meanings of 'get back'.... MEANING 1: To return to a place Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level A2 - Elementary ​Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To return, to get in, to get home Separable? No The first three meanings of 'get back' that we will look at are all about 'returning' in some way and this first meaning is 'to return to a place', after having been somewhere else. This meaning is taken directly from the meaning of 'to get' as in 'to arrive', in combination with the idea of 'returning' that we get from the preposition 'back'. One of the most common ways that this is used is to describe when we return home. This could be after a quick trip to the shop, a day at work or a two-week holiday. The general idea is that we use 'get back' to describe the moment that we arrive at home. Aside from home, we can use 'get back' to talk about the moment that we return to a place after leaving it for a period of time. Due to the nature of this, we tend to use it mainly for places in which we habitually spend a lot of time e.g. work, however we can use it for a starting point for a small journey or trip of some kind too. On a grammatical level, this form of 'get back' is not separable and does not take a direct object. The extra preposition 'to' is required to specify the place that you are returning to, except for with the noun 'home' and adverbs of place like 'here' and 'there'. I went to the Ed Sheeran concert last night and I didn't get back until 2am. I am so tired! Our flight home later has been delayed so we won't get back to the UK now until midday. The first team to get back to the starting point will win the orienteering competition. John's doctor's appointment was only supposed to be 10 minutes but he was gone for more than an hour and didn't get back to work until 4pm. Photo: Pexels BONUS: Get back here! If we want a person to return from somewhere, it is very normal in everyday English to use 'get back here!' as an imperative to demand that they come back from where they are. This could be when the person is physically and geographically in a different place, however it is often heard by parents with young children and dog owners who shout 'get back here!' to their children or dogs who have run away from them but are still visible or in hearing distance. Sometimes, we also add the word 'now' for extra impact! MEANING 2: To return to a previous state Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To return, to go back Separable? No For this second meaning of 'get back', we are staying with the general theme of 'returning' but rather than returning to a physical place, we are instead talking about returning to a previous state of being or existence. I would definitely say that the most frequent usage of this application of 'get back' is to talk about the general situation in our daily lives. When things in our lives change and we no longer have the normality that we previously did, we can say that we want things 'to get back to normal'. Or, when normality resumes, we can instead say 'things have got back to normal'. A prime example of when this usage of 'get back' was said all the time was during the Covid-19 pandemic and thankfully things have got back to normal now 😀 In addition to 'get back to normal', some other similar expressions that you may hear are 'get back to how things were' and 'get back to before'. Furthermore, we don't just use 'get back' in this way to talk about a return to normality; we can use it to talk about a return to previous conditions and previous levels e.g. in the economic or scientific fields. I really hate the end of year holidays! I can't wait for things to get back to normal after the new year. It took a while but family life has finally got back to how it was before. Scientists think that it may take many years for carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere to get back to pre-industrial levels. MEANING 3: To return to a subject Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To return Separable? No The third meaning of 'get back' is another variation on the theme of 'returning' and this time means 'to return to a subject or topic'. This is often used during a conversation or discussion when the subject of the conversation goes off topic, or in other words moves away from the original subject. Somebody usually then says that we need 'to get back to the subject or matter' that was originally meant to be discussed. Guys, can we please get back to the subject in question. I have another meeting shortly. I had a lovely chat with the careers advisor about my future career plans, although at one point we did go off topic and started talking about food but we soon got back to the topic. MEANING 4: To have something again Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To retrieve, to return, to have back Separable? Yes The fourth meaning of 'get back' is 'to have something again', meaning that you are in possession of something again after a period of not being in possession of it. Again, this usage of 'get back' carries the same central idea of 'returning' as the idea here is that something is returned to you, so that you have it once again. Usually, this application is used for physical items such as a car or a book, but it can also be used for anything that we possess and that is ours, whether that be a skill that we lost and gained again, a relative who was away for some time and returned or a feeling such as confidence, that we temporarily lost and regained. Unlike the first three meanings in the post, this usage of 'get back' does take a direct object and is separable. Although, it is possible to place the direct object after 'get back', I would recommend putting it between 'get' and 'back' as it sounds much more natural. My car has been at the garage all day and I am waiting for them to call me to let me know when I can get it back. John's luggage got left in the airport when we were coming home from his holiday and it took almost one week for him to get it back. I need to get my cellphone back from my friend who borrowed it an hour ago! My disease is finally cured and I am grateful to have got my health back! MEANING 5: To take revenge on someone Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To avenge, to exact revenge on Separable? Yes - always Meaning number five of 'get back' is to take revenge on someone or to do something harmful to them because they have wronged you in some way. In other words, if you 'get someone back' for something, you are trying to hurt them in such a way that is equal to (or perhaps worse than) how they hurt you. This usage of 'get back' is different from the previous ones that we have looked at in this post so far because the idea of 'returning' is not the central idea. The main idea of this usage of 'get back' is rather linked to a different, informal meaning of the verb 'to get', which is to catch someone and punish or hurt them in some way. This is a meaning of 'to get' that people often use in a playful way e.g. when playing with and chasing children, however it can be very serious and threatening in tone when used among adults. Grammatically, this usage of 'get back' takes a direct object, which always goes between 'get' and 'back'. There is also a second variation of this usage of 'get back' that you should know, which is 'to get back at someone'. This carries the same meaning as the first variation, however often with this one we need to specify why we want to take revenge and for this the additional preposition 'for' is required. For British English enthusiasts, we also have the variant 'to get your own back on someone', which again means the same thing and is in common usage. Oh I am going to get you back for this! I played a practical joke on my best friend and embarrassed him in front of all our other friends and he has been trying to get me back for it ever since. In an attempt to get back at his neighbour for playing loud music all night, John started doing some loud drilling work early the next morning. MEANING 6 : To respond to someone with information Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To come back, to respond, to let someone know Separable? No The sixth and final meaning of 'get back' is 'to respond to someone with information or an answer to a question'. This is a commonly used application of this phrasal verb, especially in business English. With this meaning, we are back to the idea of 'returning' again, as the idea here is that when someone asks you for information that you do not have, you need to go away and return once you have the information in question. Alternatively, this could be used if you have not decided something and you need some more time to make your decision. For this usage, the construction is 'to get back to someone' and we therefore require the extra prepositional particle 'to'. The representative at the water company is going to get back to me with an explanation of why my water bill is so high. I'm not sure about that to be honest. Can I go away and check with our accounts team and get back to you? They finally got back to me to let me know that they couldn't attend the wedding. Photo: Pexels BONUS: 'Get back!' used as an imperative You may remember earlier in the post, I mentioned about using 'get back here' as an imperative to request that someone returns to where you are. There is another way that 'get back' is used as an imperative and that is simply 'get back!', which is normally used as a demand to people to move backwards or away from something that is potentially dangerous or hazardous. As a consequence, this is likely to be said by people in the emergency services such as police officers and firefighters. Photo: Pexels BONUS: Some music featuring 'get back' to finish Before I finish the post, for anyone who is interested, here is a link to the track 'Get Back' by The Beatles...can you tell which meaning of 'get back' they are using in the song? Photo: Pexels We have now reached the end of this post and I hope that you have found it useful and that it has helped you to understand how to use the phrasal verb 'get back' more confidently and naturally. Feel free to leave any comments, feedback or your own sentences using 'get back' in the section below. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. Do you want to improve your phrasal verb skills? Now that you have read the article, I hope you've learned something new. However, reading is only the first step to mastering phrasal verbs: the key is practice and repetition. That's why I've created a series of PDF workbooks with clear explanations, natural example sentences, exercises, speaking questions and answer keys. This will help you understand and remember common English phrasal verbs and use them confidently in real-life situations. Browse the workbooks here and start improving your phrasal verb skills today.... Thanks so much for reading and see you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'blow up' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native. The English phrasal verb 'blow up' is one that many of you may be familiar with as it has some very commonly used meanings. However, did you know that there are in fact at least eight ways that English native speakers use 'blow up', two of which are extremely new additions to the language. In this post, we will look at all eight of these meanings as well as a nice idiom that you can use to impress your fellow English learners. So, without further ado, let's get started.... QUICK ANSWER: What does the phrasal verb 'blow up' mean? The phrasal verb 'blow up' has 8 main meanings in English: To explode To inflate To lose your temper To enlarge To become stormy or windy To exaggerate To inundate with calls and messages To go viral Keep reading to learn more about how to use each one.... TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one) Blow Up - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'blow' and 'up' Blow Up - Meaning 1: To explode Blow Up - Meaning 2: To inflate Blow Up - Meaning 3: To lose your temper Blow Up - Meaning 4: To enlarge Blow Up - Meaning 5: To become stormy or windy Blow Up - Bonus: Political scandals Blow Up - Meaning 6: To exaggerate Blow Up - Meaning 7: To inundate with calls and messages 🇺🇸 Blow Up - Meaning 8: To go viral Blow Up - The idiom 'to blow up in someone's face' I love writing this blog & helping learners but I receive very little feedback as to how useful it is or if people enjoy & learn from it. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like & share it or leave a comment at the end. I'd be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS BLOW UP: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 8 Simple past tense Blew up Past participle Blown up Separable? Yes As per usual, let's start by taking a look at the component words that make up our phrasal verb of choice, as these can often provide valuable clues to its meanings. The verb 'to blow' is a fairly common verb in English that is primarily used to talk about the movement of air. It does however have some other uses in English, such as to describe a violent outburst of activity or an electrical fuse that stops working due to too much electrical current. Additionally, 'to blow' also has a number of unrelated informal meanings and uses in English. The prepositional particle 'up' is one of the most commonly used prepositions in phrasal verb constructions and is used to refer to a higher place, level or value, often in relation to the speaker. Moreover, used as an adverb, it is generally used to describe movement towards a higher place or level. So, now we have covered the basics, let's take a look at the meanings of the phrasal verb 'blow up'.... MEANING 1: To explode Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To explode, to destroy, to be destroyed Separable? Sometimes We are going to start the meanings of 'blow up' with a bang, or perhaps more aptly an explosion, as this first meaning is 'to explode'. This is most commonly used with nouns such as bombs, buildings, cars and engines, but it can be used with anything that could potentially explode. As you can probably imagine, when something explodes it is normally with a lot of power or force and usually the item that 'blows up' is almost always destroyed in the process. As a consequence of this, we have also come to use 'blow up' to describe something that has been destroyed due to an explosion. A bomb blew up in the centre of the city but luckily nobody was injured or killed. If this canister blows up, we will be seriously injured! A supernova is the name used to describe when a star blows up. Now we are not quite finished with this meaning of 'blow up', as there is another variation that you should be aware of. So far, we have considered 'blow up' from the aspect that something explodes without any human intervention, however we also have the variation 'to blow something up' when a person intentionally makes something explode in some way. This 'intentional' form of 'blow up' takes a direct object, which can either go between 'blow' and 'up' or after them. When talking about the destructive results of an explosion that a person has caused, we tend to use the passive form 'blown up' to describe the destroyed or damaged object. Sadly, this could also be used to talk about a person who is killed by an explosion, but this is a happy, positive blog, so let's move on quickly from that.. Scientists at NASA are working on plans to blow up any life threatening asteroids which may hit the Earth. On the 5th November every year in the UK we celebrate Guy Fawkes night, which commemorates the failed attempt by Guy Fawkes to blow up the houses of parliament in London in the year 1605. The monument was accidentally blown up by the government last year and is now in ruins. MEANING 2: To inflate Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere ​Potential synonyms To inflate Separable? Yes The second meaning of 'blow up' is directly linked to the air movement that characterises the verb 'to blow', as it means 'to inflate', or in other words to fill something with gas or air. Typical nouns that we use with this application of 'blow up' are balloons, tyres, airbeds, inflatables for swimming pools and sports balls. Essentially, it is used for anything that we fill with air or gas, normally to make it function. Grammatically, this form of 'blow up' takes a direct object and is separable, with the direct object going either between 'blow' and 'up' or after them. Lisa felt tired and breathless after blowing up 50 balloons for her birthday party. This airbed is not fully inflated, it needs blowing up a bit more, otherwise I will not be able to sleep on it. My Dad forgot to bring the foot pump to the beach today, so I had to blow up the dinghy myself and it took so long. MEANING 3: To lose your temper Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced ​Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To lose your temper, to lose it, to go off Separable? No The next meaning of 'blow up' is to lose your temper and become very angry, normally in a sudden or quick manner (a little like an explosion). This is a relatively informal usage of 'blow up', but nevertheless it is one that is used fairly commonly among native speakers. It is worth noting that if we want to specify the person to whom the anger is directed, then we require the additional preposition 'at'. As such, 'to blow up at someone' is a common expression that native speakers use to describe these angry outbursts and to say to whom the anger was directed. My husband is normally a very calm and composed man but he does sometimes blow up if something irritates him. My teacher blew up at me in the classroom today for no reason at all! I think she was having a bad day. MEANING 4: To enlarge Photo: Pexels ​CEFR Language Level ​B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To enlarge, to magnify Separable? Yes The fourth meaning of 'blow up' is to enlarge something (make it bigger), in order to be able to see it more clearly or in more detail. Most commonly, this application of 'blow up' is used in relation to photos and text, where the details are not always visible at the standard size. We can also use the past participle 'blown up' as an adjective here, to describe a photo or text that has been enlarged or magnified. Again, this is a transitive usage, so you can insert the direct object between 'blow' and 'up'. I can't read the writing on this document very well. Is there any way that we can blow it up? At normal size the picture does not seem very interesting but when you blow it up, some very curious details are revealed. The police are examining a blown up image of the crowd at the football game to see if they can identify the hooligans who caused the trouble. MEANING 5: To become stormy or windy Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To get windy Separable? No The fifth meaning of 'blow up' that we will look at in this post is to 'become windy or stormy'. This is typically used when we know that a storm or period of windy weather is going to develop very soon, or is even beginning to develop in the present. However, we can also use it to refer to the past when talking about a time when a storm or windy weather was starting. As standard, we would normally say that "a wind or a storm blows up". There is however a second possible variation, which is more common in American English and this is 'to blow up a storm" or 'to blow up a gale*'. This second variation means the same thing. On a grammatical note, unlike the other meanings that we have considered so far, this usage of 'blow up' is not separable and it does not take a direct object. Note that the aforementioned 'blow up a storm' and 'blow up a gale' are set expressions. Come on guys, I think we should go home now as there is a storm blowing up and I think it will be a strong one. It was a calm, sunny morning and I was getting on with my work on the farm when suddenly a strong wind blew up, which was then shortly followed by heavy rain. * The noun 'gale' is a term for a very strong gust of wind. Photo: Pexels BONUS: Political scandals In addition to weather storms, it should be noted that we also use this meaning of 'blow up' to talk about scandals and political storms that become public and well-known. A political storm blew up last week in the UK when politicians were accused of wasting taxpayers' money. MEANING 6: To exaggerate CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To exaggerate Separable? Yes The sixth meaning of 'blow up' is one that I am sure that most people have done at some point in their lives and that is 'to exaggerate something'. If something is 'blown up', then it is made to sound bigger, more important or more serious than it really is. Sometimes, when we use 'blow up' in this way, we add some additional information such as the end result of the exaggeration and for this we can use the additional preposition 'into' - see the examples below. Moreover, a commonly used phrase for this that you may come across is to 'blow things up out of (all) proportion', which essentially means to overreact to something and therefore make it seem more important or serious than it really is. This story about the politicians wasting taxpayers' money has been completely blown up. It involves maybe just one or two politicians and they haven't wasted too much money! The press completely blew the story up out of all proportion. It was so unnecessary! The violence last night in the city has been blown up into some kind of civil war. It really was not as bad as everyone is claiming! MEANING 7: To inundate with calls and messages Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Mainly American English Potential synonyms ​To inundate Separable? Yes This seventh meaning of 'blow up' is a very new addition to the English language and means to inundate someone with phone calls and messages. This usage of English first started being used around the beginning of the 21st century as mobile phones and the internet became widespread among many people in the USA, which is where this usage originated. If someone 'blows up' your phone, they are not making it explode, but rather they are sending you lots of messages and / or calling you repeatedly. It is not just limited to phones though as it can be used to describe excessive communication attempts with any communication device. As you can imagine, due to its recent introduction into English, this usage is mainly used by young people and from my perspective still seems and sounds very American, although that will probably change as time passes. My boss has been blowing up my phone all morning because I haven't gone to work today. Helen's friends have been blowing up her phone all morning since she announced that she and Roger are going to get married. MEANING 8: To go viral Photo: Pexels ​CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To go viral Separable? No This eighth and final meaning of 'blow up' is another one that has come into existence in the modern internet era and it means 'to go viral online'. If something 'blows up the internet', it goes viral, meaning that it spreads quickly and widely among internet users, normally via social media and is therefore seen and reacted to by a large number of people. Another slight variation of this is 'to blow up on the internet', which essentially means the same thing. This second variation with 'on' is intransitive and does not take a direct object. This new story about Taylor Swift has blown up the internet this week. I really want my social media posts to go viral and blow up on the internet someday. Photo: Pexels BONUS: The idiom 'to blow up in someone's face' I know this idiom sounds quite violent and painful but thankfully it does not imply any real physical danger. If something blows up in someone's face, it means that something goes wrong, such as a plan or some action that is being undertaken, and this then harms or creates a problem for the person who is carrying out the action or plan. John was so desperate to get a pay rise at work that he agreed to take on more hours but it blew up in his face when he became sick from exhaustion and had to leave the company. Photo: Pexels We have now reached the end of this post and I hope that you have found it useful and that it has helped you to understand how to use the phrasal verb 'blow up' more confidently and naturally. Feel free to leave any comments, feedback or your own sentences using 'blow up' in the section below. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. Do you want to improve your phrasal verb skills? Now that you have read the article, I hope you've learned something new. However, reading is only the first step to mastering phrasal verbs: the key is practice and repetition. That's why I've created a series of PDF workbooks with clear explanations, natural example sentences, exercises, speaking questions and answer keys. This will help you understand and remember common English phrasal verbs and use them confidently in real-life situations. Browse the workbooks here and start improving your phrasal verb skills today.... Thanks so much for reading and see you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'call in' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them. 'Call in' is a phrasal verb with a number of useful and applicable meanings in everyday English. In this post, I will look at these different meanings and uses, from paying someone a short visit, to not going to work due to illness, and I will explain how to use each meaning with the help of illustrative examples. So, without further ado, let's make a start.... QUICK ANSWER: What does the phrasal verb 'call in' mean? The phrasal verb 'call in' has five main meanings in English To enlist someone's help To pay someone a short visit To order to return To request payment of a loan To telephone a television show Keep reading to learn how to use each of these different applications.... TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one) Call In - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'call' and 'in' Call In - Meaning 1: To enlist someone's help Call In - Bonus: To call in a favour Call In - Meaning 2: To pay someone a short visit Call In - Meaning 3: To order to return Call In - Meaning 4: To request payment of a loan Call In - Meaning 5: To telephone a television show Call In - Bonus: To call in sick I love writing this blog and helping learners but I get very little feedback so I don't always know if it is helpful for you. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like and share it or leave a comment at the end. I would be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS CALL IN: KEY INFORMATION Usage Medium Number of meanings 5 Simple past form Called in Past participle Called in Separable? Sometimes As is customary, let's start by taking a look at the component words that make up our phrasal verb of choice, as these often give valuable clues to its meanings. Firstly, we have the verb 'to call', which is a verb with several distinct meanings, including giving someone or something a name, contacting someone by telephone, raising the volume of your voice to attract someone's attention and visiting someone. The latter three of these definitions are all useful for the phrasal verb meanings of 'call in' that we will look at shortly. In addition to 'call' we have the prepositional particle 'in', which you will all be very familiar with already, and which is primarily used to indicate being on the interior of something or within something. So, with that in mind, do you think you can guess any of the meanings of 'call in'? Read on to find out what they are.... MEANING 1: To enlist someone's help Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To enlist Separable? Yes We are going to start the meanings of 'call in' with one that is very useful if you ever have a problem that you are unable to resolve yourself and that is 'to enlist (ask for and get) someone's help with a problem or issue'. This meaning is quite a simple one to remember as we use it when we have a problematic situation or issue and in order to solve it we need to call someone, either on the phone or increasingly online these days, to come and resolve the issue for us. In other words, we are requesting that someone comes into the situation to help. An example of this would be if an electrical problem occurred at home and we needed a professional to come and repair it, so we 'call in' an electrician, who comes and fixes the issue for us. Moreover, this usage of 'call in' can also be found in the world of work and employment as it is also used by native speakers to describe when an employee is asked (or ordered) to come to work by management . This is often the case for people who work jobs that involve being on call, such as doctors and vets, however it can be used for anyone who receives a request to come into work, especially if they were not supposed to be working that day. It is also worth noting that it is common for the affected employees to talk about 'being called in' to work, in a passive sense. On a grammatical level, this usage is transitive and takes a direct object (e.g. the electrician) and it is possible to place the direct object either between 'call' and 'in' or after them, without changing the meaning at all. My boiler broke down last week and so I had to call in a technician who came and sorted it for me! The staff in the office building couldn't identify the strange and spooky noises in their building and decided to call the Ghostbusters in. Due to the emergency situation, we are calling in as many doctors and nurses as we can today to help out with the influx of patients. I'm so annoyed, I wanted to go to watch the football match this afternoon but I've been called into work as there is an issue with the IT system. Photo: Pexels BONUS: To call in a favour A commonly used expression that I want to make you aware of here is 'to call in a favour'. This expression is used when you ask someone to do something for you (a favour) because you did a favour for them in the past and they owe you one in return. The Prime Minister called in a favour with an influential businessman to gain support in the run-up to the general election. I lent my next-door neighbour my tools last month when they needed to do some DIY, so today when my lawnmower stopped working, I called in the favour and borrowed his. MEANING 2: To pay someone a short visit Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To drop by, to pop by, to pop in Separable? No The second meaning of 'call in' means 'to visit someone for a short period of time' and this is often used to talk about unorganised or uninvited visits to people's houses. Alternatively, it can also be used when talking about short visits to someone in hospital or at their place of work. The general idea here is that the visit is short and is fairly informal in nature. On a grammatical level, this usage of 'call in' does not take a direct object and is not separable. The additional preposition 'on' is required when we want to specify the name of the person who we are visiting. Lisa called in to see me yesterday on her way back from work. Are you going to be at home later? We might call in for a cup of tea if we have time. My Dad has been in hospital for the last fortnight and I call in on him most days. MEANING 3: To order to return Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To withdraw, to recall Separable? Yes The third meaning of 'call in' is 'to order something to be returned'. There are a broad number of uses and applications of this meaning but the general idea of them all is that you request that something is returned to you, or alternatively to its original place. I will now give you some examples of how this is typically used.... When a national bank of a country decides to withdraw a certain type of coin or note in its currency, normally to replace it with a newer version, we can say that it 'calls in' the note or coin in question. In other words, it is asking for it back as it will no longer be able to be used in public circulation. I am sure that when you were a child and were out playing with your friends, your mother or father called you in when it was time to stop playing, maybe as dinner was ready or it was getting dark. This is another typical example of how 'call in' is used in this way. Another usage here would be with the military when soldiers are stationed at outposts, far from the main bulk of the army troops. If these soldiers stationed at outposts are called in, they are asked to return to the main bulk or military station. Of course there are other uses of how this application of 'call in' can be used, but hopefully you get the general idea that it is all about asking or demanding that someone or something returns to its original place. As children, we always used to play outside in our street until it got dark or our mothers called us in. As a result of the troubles that are occurring in the north of the country, we are calling in troops who are stationed in the south as reinforcements. MEANING 4: To request payment of a loan Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To demand (payment) Separable? Yes The fourth meaning of 'call in' is not so different from the last in terms of concept. It specifically refers to banks and financial institutions which loan money to people and 'call in' is used to describe when they request payment for the loans that they have made to people and businesses. If a bank calls in a loan, it decides that it wants the debt it is owed to be repaid immediately and sends a request to the debtor (the person who owes the bank money) asking for full payment. This can be because of a change in the debtor's circumstances or a change in the bank's financial situation. The main idea though is that the bank wants the money now. Due to a downturn in its own financial situation, the bank was forced to call in a large number of its debts. In general, most mortgage providers are not able to call in a loan at random unless specific criteria are met. MEANING 5: To telephone a television show Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To phone in (UK) Separable? No Our fifth and final usage of 'call in' is very much linked to the usage of the verb 'to call' as in calling someone on the telephone, however 'call in' is more specific since it is used to talk about making a phone call to a live television or radio show. This is primarily an American English usage, whereas in British English you may traditionally have heard 'phone in' instead of 'call in', although nowadays I think 'call in' is probably used just as much. From this usage, we also get the noun 'call-in' which describes a TV programme which involves people calling in to participate in it, such as a charity event or a debate. Again, this is the name that you will see on American TV, however in British English we refer to this type of programme as a 'phone-in'. On today's show we are talking about when mortgage lenders call in their loans unexpectedly, so please call in and tell us about your experience if this has ever happened to you. I am currently in the process of creating my own call-in show on my YouTube channel. Photo: Pexels BONUS: To call in sick Before I finish this post, I want to make you aware of another common expression featuring 'call in' and that is 'to call in sick'. This is when someone calls their place of work to let their manager or employer know that they will not be able to work that day because they are sick (or that's what they want their manager to think 😉). This is a very standard expression that you will hear in workplaces all over the anglophone world. John won't be in today as he has called in sick. If you need to call in sick, please try and let your manager know before your scheduled start time. Photo: Pexels We have now reached the end of this post and I hope that you have found it useful and that it has helped you to understand how to use the phrasal verb 'call in' more confidently and naturally. Feel free to leave any comments, feedback or your own sentences using 'call in' in the section below. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. Do you want to improve your phrasal verb skills? Now that you have read the article, I hope you've learned something new. However, reading is only the first step to mastering phrasal verbs: the key is practice and repetition. That's why I've created a series of PDF workbooks with clear explanations, natural example sentences, exercises, speaking questions and answer keys. This will help you understand and remember common English phrasal verbs and use them confidently in real-life situations. Browse the workbooks here and start improving your phrasal verb skills today.... Thanks so much for reading and see you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'come up' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them. 'Come up' is a key phrasal verb for you to know and be able to use as it has a variety of different meanings, which are used in many different areas of life. In this post we will cover all of these different meanings, from some that are very common to some which are used only rarely and in very specific circumstances. So, without further ado, let's get started.... QUICK ANSWER: What does the phrasal verb 'come up' mean? The phrasal verb 'come up' has nine main meanings in English: Literal meaning To be mentioned in a conversation To occur To approach To appear To become available To be heard in a court of law To become brighter after cleaning To think of something Keep reading to learn how to use each one like a native speaker. TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one) Come Up - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'come' and 'up' Come Up - Meaning 1: Literal Come Up - Meaning 2: To be mentioned in a conversation Come Up - Meaning 3: To occur Come Up - Meaning 4: To approach Come Up - Meaning 5: To appear Come Up - Meaning 6: To become available Come Up - Meaning 7: To become brighter after cleaning Come Up - Meaning 8: To be heard in a court of law Come Up - Meaning 9: To think of something Come Up - Bonus: Common expressions featuring 'come up' I love writing this blog and helping learners but I get very little feedback so I don't always know if it is helpful for you. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like and share it or leave a comment at the end. I would be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS COME UP: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 9 Simple past form Came up Past participle Come up Separable? No The verb 'to come' is one of the most common verbs in English and is mainly used as a verb of motion, specifically to indicate when someone or something moves towards where the speaker is. It is also used in a wide number of different idioms and phrasal verb constructions, many of which are featured elsewhere on this blog. Then we have the prepositional particle 'up', which is used to talk about movement in the direction away from the ground, towards the sky or to a higher place in relation to the speaker. So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the reason why you are here: the different meanings of 'come up'.... MEANING 1: Literal meaning Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level A1 - Beginner Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To walk up The first meaning of 'come up' is a nice and simple one as it is just the literal meaning of the two words 'come' and 'up' combined, in other words when something or someone moves in an upwards direction to where you (the speaker) are. Due to the spatial element of this usage, its usage is limited to only a few situations and these are mainly when talking about stairs and buildings. Come up and see me, my apartment is on the fifth floor. When you come up to bed, can you please bring me a glass of water? ARE YOU COMING UP THIS WEEKEND? In informal British English it is common to use both 'come up' and 'come down' to talk about when someone travels from where they live to a different place, often to visit and stay with someone else. Moreover, this is normally when the person has to travel a relatively long distance. There seems to be no set rule regarding whether or not we use 'up' or 'down' but I think that we tend to use 'up' more when the travel is in a northwards direction and 'down' when the travel is in a southwards direction (please note though that many people do not know their geography that well, so I would not pay too much attention to whether they use 'up' or 'down'). I am so excited as my son is coming up from London this weekend with his new girlfriend. When are you next coming up to Scotland? It's been ages since you last came up to visit us! MEANING 2: To be mentioned in a conversation Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To be mentioned, to bring up The second meaning of 'come up' is to be mentioned, talked about or discussed in a conversation. If something 'comes up' during a conversation, it is generally not the main topic of the conversation but it is mentioned at some point during it. If you have read my post about the phrasal verb 'bring up' (link here), then you may remember that it has a very similar meaning to 'come up' here. They are indeed very close in meaning, but the difference is that when we use 'bring up', there is usually an element of intention behind it, i.e. someone wants to introduce the topic into a conversation and consequently there is some focus on the person who brings the subject up too. With 'come up', however, there is not typically an element of intention and we are not focused on who introduces the topic; we just use it to say that the subject became a topic of conversation. You may have also heard the expression 'to come up in conversation' before and this is a common way of expressing that something was talked about. Note that in this expression we omit the indefinite article 'a' as it is not required for this expression. Thankfully, the topic of the recent family scandal did not come up during my conversation with my relatives. A: Did anyone mention the reporting issues in the meeting earlier? B: Yeah, it came up. It came up in conversation with your husband that you have recently got a new job. Congratulations! MEANING 3: To occur Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To happen, to occur, to crop up Meaning number three of 'come up' is 'to occur' or 'to happen' and is normally used to describe an unexpected problem or issue. Due to the unplanned nature of the problem, it usually then either prevents us from doing something that we had planned to do or it creates problems for us to do the thing that we had planned, such as making us late. This is a really good one to use when you want to avoid doing something that you do not want to do (and many native speakers do use it a lot). The reason for this is that 'come up' is somewhat vague and non-specific in nature and it simply conveys the idea that there is a problem, without going into details. Of course, some people do then continue to explain what the problem is, however by using 'come up' in this way you do not have to and people understand that it may be something private and so do not normally ask too many questions. For this one, it is usual to use it with the word 'something'. Something's come up and I am not going to be able to make it to dinner, I'm afraid. John and Helen were supposed to come here last night but something came up unexpectedly and they are now not going to arrive until later today. MEANING 4: To approach Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To approach, to come around (time) The fourth meaning of 'come up' is 'to approach someone or something' and can be used to describe when a physical object or person moves towards you or also to describe when a future point in time gets closer. This meaning is closely linked to the meaning of the verb 'to come' and there are moments when 'come' and 'come up' can be used interchangeably to describe a movement towards something, however while we use 'come' to talk about a general movement towards the speaker, we use 'come up' more when the movement is in its final stages and the person or thing is very close or next to the speaker. It is often therefore used when a person approaches another person in order to speak or interact with them in some way. As mentioned above, we also use 'come up' with time, to describe something in the near future which is getting closer to the present. Depending on the speaker's perspective, this can be seconds, minutes, hours, days or even weeks into the future but regardless of the time unit involved, the idea is that something is getting closer and will happen soon. If you ever watch English language television shows or listen to radio shows, you may have heard the presenters talking about what is 'coming up' in the show and this is the standard way of telling the audience what will feature in that particular episode. On a grammatical level, when using 'come up' with time, we tend to use it in the progressive or continuous '-ing' form. It is also worth noting that there is an adjective that has been derived from this usage of 'come up' with time: 'upcoming' and if something is 'upcoming' then it means that it will happen very soon or in the near future. When talking about physical movement, we can use both continuous and simple verb forms. I was at the train station and a stranger came up to me and asked if I was single! Coming up on the left hand side there is the Tower of London. We are coming up to my stop now, so I need to get off the bus. The school holidays are coming up and all of the children are getting excited. MEANING 5: To appear CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To rise, to appear The fifth meaning of 'come up' is to appear or to become visible, however we tend to use it in only a couple of different situations. The first main situation that we use it in, which you can probably guess from the gif in this section, is for the sun, or to be precise, the sunrise. When the sun rises it comes up from the horizon and is visible (ok, not always visible in the UK but is there behind the clouds 😜) and then at the end of the day when it disappears from sight, it 'goes down'. The second situation in which you are likely to come across 'come up' in the sense of appearing, is on a computer screen or a smartphone. Like with the second meaning, this is very similar to the phrasal verb 'bring up' and similarly here, if something comes up on your screen, it normally appears without you intending it to appear. As such, this is commonly found in use with nouns such as 'messages', 'pop-ups' and 'images'. I got up really early in order to watch the sun come up. When the sun comes up, all of the nocturnal creatures go to sleep. MEANING 6: To become available Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To turn up The sixth meaning of 'come up' means to become available and it is used particularly when we are searching for something such as a new job or a new house. During this searching process, if something suitable becomes available, we often say that it 'comes up'. If you have read my post on the phrasal verb 'turn up' (link here), you may remember that this also has the same meaning and these two are in fact synonyms of each other. I have been looking for a new job for weeks now and nothing is suitable! Something had better come up soon. We were waiting for a 3-bedroom house in our town for a long time, so when one finally came up, we made sure that we submitted an application quickly. MEANING 7: To be heard in a court of law Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To be heard The seventh meaning of 'come up' is quite a rare and situation-specific one as it means 'to be heard in a court of law'. In other words, this means that the time comes for a meeting to be held in court to discuss a legal matter, typically after a waiting period. Due to the unpredictable and varied nature of court cases in the majority of legal systems in English speaking countries, there is normally a long wait for court hearings and cases to take place and so when a court case finally is able to take place, we say that it 'comes up'. His court case comes up in a few weeks, so fingers crossed it will go well! When the case finally came up, the defendant had died. MEANING 8: To become brighter after cleaning Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To sparkle For those of you who enjoy cleaning, the eighth meaning of 'come up' is a really useful one for you, as it means 'to become brighter after cleaning or polishing'. We use this one particularly when we are talking about surfaces which are dull or dirty and which after a bit (or a lot) of cleaning become much brighter or cleaner and generally more visually appealing. As you can imagine, this one is used frequently in advertisements for cleaning products! For this usage, we often use an appropriate adverb after 'come up', such as beautifully or nicely to express just how clean the thing is at the end. This tabletop will come up nicely after a bit of scrubbing! My car was so dirty but it came up beautifully after I took it to the expensive car wash. MEANING 9: To think of something Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To think of, to create, to invent We now come to the ninth and final meaning of 'come up' that we will look at in this post and it means 'to think of or invent something'. This final usage is actually perhaps one of the most common of the uses in English, however I have left it until the end of the post as it requires the additional preposition 'with' in order to make sense. If you 'come up with something', you conceive (think of) an idea, you make a suggestion or you find a solution to a problem. Regardless of what you come up with however, the general idea is that you invent something new in your brain, which is normally specific to a particular situation. I've come up with an amazing idea for a website and I think it is going to make me rich. Some of the administration team have come up with some suggestions of what we can do at the Christmas party this year. I wasn't sure how to entertain the kids when I was babysitting, so I came up with a new game for them which they loved. You need to come up with a solution to this problem by the end of the day! Photo: Pexels BONUS: Common expressions featuring 'come up' I appreciate that this is a really long post with a lot of information, so well done for reaching this far! Before I finish the post, I just wanted to make you aware of a couple of other uses of 'come up'.... To come up against something - We use this when we face a problem or a challenge when we are trying to do something. In other words, we face obstacles, which can slow us down or prevent us from carrying out a task. Furthermore, if the obstacle that we face makes our task impossible, we use the expression 'to come up against a brick wall'. The local government came up against a lot of resistance to the plans to build a shopping centre from local residents. We tried to overturn the government's decision but every time we did, we came up against a brick wall and so in the end we gave up. To come up with the goods - This informal British idiom is used to describe when someone does something that they are required to do or achieves the results that they are expected to. I didn't think that Roger would be able to complete the sales report by midday but he came up with the goods! Photo: Pexels We have now reached the end of this post and I hope that you have found it useful and that it has helped you to understand how to use the phrasal verb 'come up' more confidently and naturally. Feel free to leave any comments, feedback or your own sentences using 'come up' in the section below. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. Do you want to improve your phrasal verb skills? Now that you have read the article, I hope you've learned something new. However, reading is only the first step to mastering phrasal verbs: the key is practice and repetition. That's why I've created a series of PDF workbooks with clear explanations, natural example sentences, exercises, speaking questions and answer keys. This will help you understand and remember common English phrasal verbs and use them confidently in real-life situations. Browse the workbooks here and start improving your phrasal verb skills today.... Thanks so much for reading and see you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'pass out' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my website all about English phrasal verbs. Each week, I take a different phrasal verb and look at how it is used by native speakers, with a focus on the different meanings that it has and the expressions and idioms that it is used in. The phrasal verb 'pass out' is used both in British and American English and has three distinct meanings that we will look at in this post. In addition to the phrasal verb meanings, there is also the noun 'pass-out' that we will also cover. So, without further ado, let's get started.... QUICK ANSWER: What does the phrasal verb 'pass out' mean? The phrasal verb 'pass out' has three main meanings in English: To lose consciousness To distribute To graduate from military school Keep reading to learn how to use each of these like a native speaker. TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one) Pass Out - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'pass' and 'out' Pass Out - Meaning 1: To lose consciousness Pass Out - Meaning 2: To distribute Pass Out - Meaning 3: To graduate from military school Pass Out - Bonus: The noun 'pass-out' I love writing this blog and helping learners but I get very little feedback so I don't always know if it is helpful for you. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like and share it or leave a comment at the end. I would be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS PASS OUT: KEY INFORMATION Usage Medium Number of meanings 3 Simple past form Passed out Past participle Passed out Separable? Sometimes As is customary, let's start by taking a look at the component words that make up our phrasal verb of choice as these often give valuable clues to its meanings. The verb 'to pass' is a regular English verb and will likely be familiar to speakers of other European languages as it has cognate words in many of these languages. It is a very diverse verb in English and has a lot of different meanings, but one of the key concepts behind it is movement, especially the ideas of moving past something or leaving something behind you. The prepositional particle 'out' is, like the majority of English prepositions, one with a large number of different meanings and applications. The literal idea of 'out' is to refer to a position on, or a movement towards, the exterior of something. It has too many other meanings and uses to list here, however one to note that is particularly relevant for the phrasal verb 'pass out' is when it is used as an adverb to mean 'unconscious' or 'sleeping'. Ok, so now we have covered those, let's take a look at the meanings of the phrasal verb 'pass out'... MEANING 1: To lose consciousness Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To faint, to lose consciousness, to black out, to zonk out Separable? No In the previous section I gave you a little clue regarding the first meaning of 'pass out', which is 'to lose consciousness' or 'to faint'. In my very humble opinion, I would say that this is definitely the most widespread and commonly used of the three meanings that we will cover in this post. As outlined above, we use 'pass out' to describe when we temporarily lose consciousness, which can be caused by medical conditions, emotional stress or responses to changes in our physical surroundings. In addition to this, we also use 'pass out' to describe someone who quickly falls into a very deep and often unexpected sleep and this is often used by native speakers to describe people who fall asleep in this way due to having drunk a lot of alcohol. On a grammatical level, this meaning of 'pass out' is intransitive and does not take a direct object. In terms of formality, it is relatively informal compared to the official medical terms that a doctor would use, however it is absolutely fine to use in most situations. If you wish to specify the cause of your passing out, then the additional preposition 'from' is required. Helen was in so much pain that she passed out whilst waiting for the ambulance to arrive. If someone passes out, it is important to act very quickly and seek medical advice. John drank so much rum at the party that he passed out on a chair in the corner. Roger passed out from illness and exhaustion. MEANING 2: To distribute Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To distribute, to hand out Separable? Yes The second meaning of 'pass out' is 'to distribute something to a group of people', normally by hand. This usage is derived from the meaning of the verb 'to pass' where one thing is transferred from one person to another (e.g. the salt and pepper at a dinner table), with the prepositional particle 'out' adding the extra meaning of 'to a group of people'. As such, we don't tend to use 'pass out' to describe passing an object to just one person, it's usually to a group, although rarely there can just be one single recipient. The typical environment in which this application of 'pass out' is used is a classroom or an office environment where documents are often distributed to groups of people, but the usage is not limited to these and it can be used to describe when something is given to a group of people by hand. Unlike the previous example, this usage does require a direct object and is therefore transitive. The direct object can either go between 'pass' and 'out' or after them without changing the meaning. Lisa, can you please pass the test papers out to the rest of the class? On my birthday last year I walked around my office and passed out chocolate treats to all of my colleagues. The aid workers passed out water supplies to the victims of the disaster. MEANING 3: To graduate from military school Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? British English Potential synonyms To graduate Separable? No The third and final meaning of 'pass out' is a primarily British meaning and means 'to graduate from military school after finishing the initial training'. The idea here is that the serviceman or servicewoman in question is now qualified and is no longer a trainee and therefore takes part in a ceremony to mark this occasion. In addition to using 'pass out' for graduation from military school, we also use it to describe graduation from training in the police force. Moreover, the graduation ceremony for both these newly qualified police officers and military recruits is called a passing out parade. The noun 'passing-out' also exists in English to describe the act of graduating from police training or a military college. Similar to the first meaning, this usage of 'pass out' is also intransitive and does not require a direct object. A total of 1000 new servicemen and women have passed out of the Royal Military Training Academy so far this year. My son is due to pass out of his police training school next week, so my wife and I are going to his passing-out parade to celebrate with him. Photo: Pexels BONUS: The noun 'pass-out' As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, the noun pass-out also exists in English. It describes a type of ticket or other form of authorisation which allows a person to leave somewhere and re-enter it at a later point of time. This is often used in theatres and other performances where the doors tend to be closed for the show and movement in and out is restricted, however it can be used in a work environment too if you need to leave your place of work for a period of time e.g. for a doctor's appointment. If you wish to leave whilst the performance is ongoing, you will need to obtain a pass-out from a member of staff. My boss wouldn't give me a pass-out last week to go and see my child's school play. Photo: Pexels We have now reached the end of this post and I hope that you have found it useful and that it has helped you to understand how to use the phrasal verb 'pass out' more confidently and naturally. Feel free to leave any comments, feedback or your own sentences using 'pass out' in the section below. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. Do you want to improve your phrasal verb skills? Now that you have read the article, I hope you've learned something new. However, reading is only the first step to mastering phrasal verbs: the key is practice and repetition. That's why I've created a series of PDF workbooks with clear explanations, natural example sentences, exercises, speaking questions and answer keys. This will help you understand and remember common English phrasal verbs and use them confidently in real-life situations. Browse the workbooks here and start improving your phrasal verb skills today.... Thanks so much for reading and see you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'show up' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my blog all about English phrasal verbs. Each week, I take a different phrasal verb and look at how it is used by native speakers, with a focus on the different meanings that it has and the expressions and idioms that it is used in. 'Show up' is a well known and frequently used informal phrasal verb and I am sure that you know at least one meaning of it. It may actually surprise you that it has a total of five different meanings and in this post I will go through all of these to show you how native speakers use them, with plenty of examples to illustrate each usage. So, without further ado, let's get started.... QUICK ANSWER: What does the phrasal verb 'show up' mean? The phrasal verb 'show up' has five main meanings in English: To be clearly visible or noticed To expose the true nature of someone To arrive To embarrass someone To be there for someone TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one) Show Up - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'show' and 'up' Show Up - Meaning 1: To be clearly visible or noticed 🇬🇧 Show Up - Meaning 2: To expose the true nature of someone Show Up - Meaning 3: To arrive Show Up - Meaning 4: To embarrass someone Show Up - Meaning 5: To be there for someone I love writing this blog and helping learners but I get very little feedback so I don't always know if it is helpful for you. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like and share it or leave a comment at the end. I would be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS SHOW UP: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 5 Simple past form Showed up Past participle Shown up Separable? Sometimes To begin with, let's take a look at the words 'show' and 'up' in order to gain an understanding of their key meanings, which in turn can help us better understand the phrasal verb meanings. 'To show' is a verb which means to allow or cause something to be visible or perceived by other people. This is often very visual in nature as when we show something to someone, we intentionally bring their attention to it, so that they can look at or watch it. The prepositional particle 'up' is used to describe a higher position or movement away from the ground and towards the sky or to a higher position. 'Up' also has many other usages in English and one that is noteworthy for this post is when it is used as an adverb to mean 'into view or attention', often used with other 'up' phrasal verbs such as 'bring up' and 'come up'. So, what meanings do we have in English when we combine these two words? Read on to find out more.... MEANING 1: To be clearly visible or noticed Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To be visible, to be conspicuous Separable? No Our first meaning of 'show up' is 'to be clearly visible or noticed'. In other words, if something 'shows up', we are able to see or notice it. With the visual aspect of this first usage, it is clear that it is derived from the verb 'to show'; however, the two do not mean the exact same and are used differently. The key difference between them is that when we show something, there is an intention behind our action, in other words we want it to be seen, whereas with 'show up' there is no intention to show anything or bring it to anyone's attention. In fact, it is frequently used when something is still visible despite efforts to try and hide it. On a grammatical level there is also a difference between the two. We often use the verb 'to show' with a direct object and also an indirect object, i.e. we show something to someone (e.g. "I showed my friend my new house"). On the other hand, we cannot use 'show up' with an object; it is rather used to say that something can be seen by other people and no object is required. 'Show up' is regularly used in the medical world to talk about tests for diseases and antibodies and also x-rays and scans. Moreover, we use it often in IT and computers when we talk about searches and things that are visible on our screen. Outside of these, we can use it to talk about anything that is visible or noticeable, especially after attempts have been made to hide or cover it such as stains on clothes or a credit enquiry on a credit report. I've just received the results of my scan and thankfully nothing bad showed up on it! If two lines show up on a pregnancy test, it means that it is a positive result. I've tried to delete this window on my computer screen but it keeps showing up and won't go away! Despite having washed her favourite shirt several times, the red wine stain still showed up on it. A strange transaction has shown up on my bank statement, so I am going to call the bank now and find out what it relates to. MEANING 2: To expose the true nature of someone Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? British English Potential synonyms To expose someone Separable? Yes Meaning number two of 'show up' is 'to expose the true nature of someone or something', normally when it is something bad. This meaning is not too different from the first one that we have just covered as it is also about something becoming visible to others; however, in this case it is a person's true nature. Alternatively, this meaning of 'show up' can be used with reference to the true nature of something, such as an organisation. As I said previously, this application of 'show up' is usually used when someone or something is revealed to be bad or negative in some way and you may therefore hear it used with nouns like 'liar', 'hypocrite', 'idiot'. For this application of 'show up' we can use the additional prepositions 'as' and 'for', as well as the verb infinitive 'to be', to specify what the exposed true nature of something is. In addition, if someone does something to expose themselves and show their own true nature, we can use the reflexive pronouns himself, herself, themselves etc. Through the publication of his private text messages, the politician was shown up to be an uncaring and horrible person. The newspaper reports have shown him up as a spoilt and petulant soccer player. During a stressful day in the office, Lisa showed herself up as the horrible and spiteful person that she really is. The government has shown itself up to be incompetent and ineffective. MEANING 3: To arrive Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B1 - Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To arrive, to turn up Separable? No The third meaning of 'show up' is one that I think many of you will already be aware of as it is in common use in English: to arrive. When we use 'show up' in the sense of 'to arrive', it is often to talk about arriving at a planned event or gathering. It is commonly used when there is something unexpected about the arrival such as the person arrives later than expected, is wearing something strange or does not arrive at all and this usage is very similar to that of the phrasal verb 'turn up'. Moreover, we can also use 'show up' to talk about unexpected arrivals of any kind, such as when you have an uninvited guest at your house. In very informal English, it is also possible to omit the preposition 'up' for this meaning and just have the word 'show', e.g. "I had a party last night and hardly anybody showed". Please note that you cannot do the same with 'turn up'. John showed up to work this morning an hour late because he slept through his alarm. My friend didn't show up to the restaurant this evening, which is really unlike him! I hope he is ok. Everyone showed up to the school prom on time, except for the teachers! My cousin showed up at my front door at 3am this morning and woke me up. MEANING 4: To embarrass someone Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere - more British Potential synonyms To embarrass, to humiliate Separable? Yes Our fourth meaning of 'show up' is to 'embarrass or to humiliate someone' and for this one we have a direct object, which is the person who is being embarrassed. This direct object (the person) tends to go between 'show' and 'up' and in fact 'to show someone up' is a great synonym for 'to embarrass someone'. Please note that placing the object after 'show up' tends to sound wrong to native ears for the most part. In British English, we use 'to show someone up' when a person is embarrassed or humiliated due to somebody else's behaviour or conduct. This could be in a professional work situation but more often than not it is likely to be in a family or social situation. On a more global English level, 'show up' is often used when someone is made to feel embarrassed or stupid because somebody else does something better than they do. I can't believe you behaved like that in front of my colleagues. You really showed me up! Lisa really showed Helen up during the charity event when she told the guests that she had done all of the preparation work and Helen had done nothing. I don't want to play football against amateurs, I'm too good and I will just show them up! When the two singers started singing, the older lady was much better than the younger lady and really showed her up. MEANING 5 : To be there for someone Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium British or American? Everywhere - more American Potential synonyms To be there for someone Separable? No Our fifth and final meaning of 'show up' is 'to be there for someone when they need it' and for this usage we need the extra preposition 'for' before the pronoun or person's name. If you are not sure what 'to be there for someone' means, think of the theme tune from the 90s sitcom Friends if you know it. If you don't know it, here it is... To be there for someone basically means to be attentive, comforting and supportive to someone when they are having a bad time or are feeling sad, depressed or upset. In other words, to be a good friend or relative to someone. To 'show up for someone' to mean 'to be there for someone' is a relatively new usage of 'show up' and is found primarily in American English, although it would certainly be understood by many British speakers, particularly younger ones. My best friends showed up for me when I broke up with my last boyfriend. When your husband or wife needs support, you should always be the first person to show up for them. Photo: Pexels We have now reached the end of this post and I hope that you have found it useful and that it has helped you to understand how to use the phrasal verb 'show up' more confidently and naturally. Feel free to leave any comments, feedback or your own sentences using 'show up' in the section below. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. Do you want to improve your phrasal verb skills? Now that you have read the article, I hope you've learned something new. However, reading is only the first step to mastering phrasal verbs: the key is practice and repetition. That's why I've created a series of PDF workbooks with clear explanations, natural example sentences, exercises, speaking questions and answer keys. This will help you understand and remember common English phrasal verbs and use them confidently in real-life situations. Browse the workbooks here and start improving your phrasal verb skills today.... Thanks so much for reading and see you next time! James 😊 THE END

An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'take on' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context Photo: Pexels Hello and welcome to my website all about English phrasal verbs. Each week, I take a different phrasal verb and look at how it is used by native speakers, with a focus on the different meanings that it has and the expressions and idioms that it is used in. The phrasal verb 'take on' is a commonplace and diverse phrasal verb, in both the field of business English and general English. As such, you may already be familiar with at least one of its meanings. In this post we will cover the different uses that it has in English, as well as the classic 80s song that it features in (although used slightly incorrectly). So, without further ado, let's get started.... QUICK ANSWER: What does the phrasal verb 'take on' mean? The phrasal verb 'take on' has eight main meanings in English: Literal meaning To employ someone To accept or undertake a task or role To oppose someone or compete against them To acquire a quality To admit passengers (onto public transport) To show emotion To do something without approval or permission Continue reading for an explanation of each one.... TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one) Take On - The Basics: Key information and the individual words 'take' and 'on' Take On - Meaning 1: Literal Take On - Meaning 2: To employ someone Take On - Meaning 3: To accept to undertake a task or role Take On - Meaning 4: To oppose someone or compete against them Take On - Meaning 5: To acquire a quality Take On - Meaning 6: To admit passengers (onto public transport) Take On - Bonus: The idiom 'to take something on board' Take On - Meaning 7: To show emotion Take On - Meaning 8: To do something without approval or permission Take On - Bonus: Take on me - Let's go back to the 80s I love writing this blog & helping learners but I receive very little feedback as to how useful it is or if people enjoy & learn from it. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like & share it or leave a comment at the end. I'd be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 Photo: Pexels THE BASICS TAKE ON: KEY INFORMATION Usage Common Number of meanings 8 Simple past form Took on Past participle Taken on Separable? Yes As per usual, before we look at the different meanings of 'take on', let's quickly look at the individual words which make it up. Firstly, we have the verb 'to take', which I am sure will be very familiar to all of you. The verb 'to take' is extremely common and has a plethora of different uses and meanings in English such as to move something, to remove something from a place and also to accept something, which is the meaning that is relevant for the phrasal verb 'take on'. Secondly, we have the prepositional particle 'on', which has a large number of applications in English too, but perhaps the most relevant definition of it here is 'to be in contact with and supported by something'. So, now we have briefly looked at those, let's get started and see what the wonderful phrasal verb 'take on' actually means.... MEANING 1: Literal Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level A1 - Beginner Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To carry on Separable? Yes The first meaning of 'take on' that we will look at is the literal meaning of the combination of the two words 'take' and 'on', which is 'to transport or carry something with you when you are moving onto something'. This can be used with any noun for something that we can be 'on', however most of the time we use it in relation to mass transportation such as airplanes and trains, in a similar way to how we use the phrasal verb 'carry on'. It is also very common to use the similar preposition 'onto' here, without a change in meaning. The following items are strictly prohibited and must not be taken on a British Airways aircraft under any circumstance.... I am going to take my book on the train with me so that I can read during the journey. MEANING 2: To employ someone Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere (Business English) Potential synonyms To employ, to hire Separable? Yes We are starting the non-literal meanings of 'take on' with a business English usage, which is 'to employ or hire someone to work for you or your business'. This can normally be used interchangeably with the verb 'to hire' when talking about the process of advertising for, interviewing and employing new employees. Furthermore, it is used in businesses of all sizes, from huge multinational companies to sole traders who decide that they need some help in their business. As with most of the meanings that we will cover in this post, 'take on' is used transitively here, i.e. with a direct object, and it is absolutely fine to put the direct object (the new employee) either between 'take' and 'on' or after them both, which affects neither the meaning nor the intention. So, we have mentioned that businesses 'take on' new employees, however you should be aware that this can be used in a passive sense too; native speakers who have recently started new jobs often say that "they have been taken on by a company" instead of saying that they have been employed. We are looking to take on a new science teacher as one of our current teachers is on long-term sick leave. The company first took John on as an administrative clerk back in 2003 and now he is one of the company directors. Sorry, we are not taking on any new members of staff at the moment but please continue to monitor the Careers section of our website, in which any new job vacancies will be posted. My daughter has been taken on as a trainee photographer with the local newspaper. MEANING 3: To accept to undertake a task or role Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper Intermediate Usage Common Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To undertake, to accept Separable? Yes For meaning number three of 'take on', we are going to stay with business English as the meaning of it is 'to accept or undertake to do a role'. As you may have worked out, this third meaning is really just a shift in perspective from the employer to the employee, however there are some differences and they are not exact opposites.... In the first meaning, the use of 'take on' is limited to when a company hires a new employee from outside the company, i.e. they did not work for the company before. However, in this second meaning, where the perspective is shifted to the employee, it is used to express the action of accepting a new, often better, job within the same company, or alternatively accepting additional responsibilities and tasks in an existing job. It is also possible to use this to talk about accepting a job in a new company, or to talk about 'taking on' second jobs outside of your main work e.g. part time work in a restaurant at weekends. The central idea here is that you are accepting to do work, or more work than you currently do. My colleague is leaving the company in two weeks and I have agreed to take on some of her responsibilities until we can find a replacement for her. Due to changes in the management structure, we are pleased to announce that Lisa Smith will be taking on the role of Head of Export and we wish her every success in this role. Helen was struggling financially and had to take on a part time job as a waitress in a restaurant at weekends in order to make ends meet*. * To make ends meet is an idiom that means to make just enough money to survive. MEANING 4: To oppose someone or compete against them Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate British or American? Both Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To oppose, to compete against Separable? Yes The fourth meaning of 'take on' means to oppose someone or something, or alternatively, it can mean to compete against them. Photo: Pexels In the sense of opposing something, we use 'take on' when there is something that we do not agree with or want to stop and therefore we take action in order to make this happen. It is worth noting here that usually we use this when the person or thing that we are opposing is much bigger or powerful than us in some way. An example of this would be if a person or group of people decides to oppose something that a large multi-national company with billions of dollars is planning to do. In this instance we would say that "they are taking on the company" as the company is much more powerful than the person / group. As I mentioned, we can use 'take on' to talk about entering into competition with someone too. This is used a lot to talk about sporting matches and fixtures but can apply to any competitions where people compete directly against each other. The idea that the opponent is bigger or more powerful also applies here, but it is not always the case and 'take on' can equally be used to describe an ordinary match or competition without a big power imbalance. A common expression used with this meaning is 'to take on the might of*' when a so-called lesser or smaller opponent agrees to compete against or oppose a larger one. The women took on their company in an attempt to get equal pay and after a long legal battle, they won! Accrington Stanley FC are taking on the might of Manchester United in the lunchtime football game tomorrow. The British champion will take on the best long distance runners in the world next week in the London marathon. * To avoid any confusion, 'might' here is a noun meaning 'power' and is not being used as a modal verb of probability. MEANING 5: To acquire a quality Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Medium Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To acquire Separable? Yes The fifth meaning of 'take on' is to 'acquire a quality or, in the case of words, a new meaning'. The idea of 'take on' here is that an object acquires or absorbs something, which then changes or adds an additional quality to it. In order to understand this meaning, I think it is helpful to think of an item as a collection of qualities. For example, let's imagine our item is a regular tomato soup and its qualities are that it is hot, red, tasty and filling. If we add some chilli flakes to it, it also becomes spicy and so we can then say that after adding the chilli flakes, the soup takes on a spicy quality too. In other words, the soup has absorbed the chilli, which has now changed it. To give you another example, you will have seen a chameleon in the gif for this section and the reason for this is that it is a case in point of something which acquires or 'takes on' the qualities of its environment and in the end resembles it. 'Take on' in this sense can also be used to talk about people, food, situations, stories or anything else where one thing can be integrated or absorbed into another, causing the original thing to change accordingly. The word 'gay' originally meant happy and cheerful but during the twentieth century it took on a completely different meaning. The party was really crazy to begin with but it took on a much more relaxed feel after some of the younger people went off to another party. A large amount of dust from the Sahara desert caused the sky to take on a yellowish colour over much of northern Europe last week. MEANING 6: To admit passengers (onto public transport) Photo: Pexels ​CEFR Language Level B2 - Upper intermediate Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To admit, to board Separable? Yes The sixth meaning of 'take on' is a rarer meaning that is limited to public transport and it means specifically to stop and allow new passengers to board a vessel. This can be used with airplanes, buses and trains, however I think it is most commonly used with boats and ships. In addition to 'taking on' passengers, it is also possible to 'take on' goods and cargo. Furthermore, if a ship or boat is damaged and has a hole in it, leading it to slowly fill with water, we say that the boat is 'taking on water'. Moreover, 'to take on water' is also an idiomatic expression used to describe a situation which is becoming more difficult or hazardous or when problems start arising which could cause you to fail in what you are doing. The cruise ship will stop in Montego Bay tomorrow to take on passengers and supplies. The crew sounded the alarm as soon as they realised that the boat was taking on water and they needed help. Photo: Pexels BONUS: The idiom 'to take something on board' I know that I have just given you a boat-based idiom with 'take on', but there is a second one that I want to tell you about. To take something on board is an idiomatic expression that we use and means 'to fully consider a new piece of information in order to understand and accept it'. The origins of this idiom arose from the need to thoroughly check cargo at seaports before it was accepted and loaded onto a ship, however these days we use it in many different situations. The radio DJ has taken on board the complaints that he received for his bad language and has promised to avoid using it in future. Whenever my wife is mad or upset with me, I always try to think about why and take it on board, so that I can avoid arguments in the future. MEANING 7: To show emotion Photo: Pexels CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Usage Rare Where is it used? Everywhere Potential synonyms To get upset, to get emotional Separable? No The seventh meaning of 'take on' is a rare meaning that means to show emotion, which is normally negative such as crying and sadness. On a grammatical level, this application of 'take on' is unique compared to the others as it is the only meaning which is intransitive and does not take a direct object. As such, if a person is emotional, we would just say that they were 'taking on' with no need for an object. As I said above, this is certainly a rare meaning that I think is perhaps more literary and perhaps slightly archaic and it is not one that I use or hear people use in everyday English. Nevertheless, it is always good to know these things 😃. What are you taking on for? There is no reason to be sad or upset. MEANING 8: To do something without approval or permission Photo: Pexel CEFR Language Level C1 - Advanced Where is it used? Everywhere British or American? Both Separable? Always Now we come to our final meaning of the phrasal verb 'take on' and well done for making it this far! This last meaning is more of a common expression than an entire meaning, so I decided to dedicate a section to it as it is a useful one to be aware of. The expression here is 'to take it (up)on oneself to do something' and it means to decide to do something without approval or permission from other people. In other words, if you take it on yourself to do something, you decide that you are going to do something, or perhaps give yourself a responsibility of some sort, without checking with other people first. There are two variations of this expression which are 'to take it on yourself' and 'to take it upon yourself', which both mean exactly the same. It's just a matter of personal choice whether you choose 'on' or 'upon', however personally I prefer the 'upon' version, which is the one I use more frequently and is the more commonly used of the two variations in general. I had all of the wedding preparations under control but then my mother took it upon herself to start arranging the seating plan for the wedding breakfast. Our HR manager has taken it on himself to arrange a charity event to raise money for a good cause. BONUS: Take on me! Let's go back to the 1980s I couldn't finish this blog post without a little nod to a classic 1980s track featuring an amazing video that captivated me when I was very small : Take on Me by A-ha. Despite how well-known and successful this song is, it is quite interesting to note that the title and main lyric of the song 'take on me' is not actually grammatically correct and does sound wrong to a native speaker's ears. The reason for this is that the direct object pronoun (me) needs to go in the middle of the phrasal verb, i.e. 'take me on'. They also do sing the correct lyrics in the song, so they are forgiven; obviously the choice of words is just poetic licence for effect. Anyway, here is the video if you want to check it out. Photo: Pexels We have now reached the end of this post and I hope that you have found it useful and that it has helped you to understand how to use the phrasal verb 'take on' more confidently and naturally. Feel free to leave any comments, feedback or your own sentences using 'take on' in the section below. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media. Do you want to improve your phrasal verb skills? Now that you have read the article, I hope you've learned something new. However, reading is only the first step to mastering phrasal verbs: the key is practice and repetition. That's why I've created a series of PDF workbooks with clear explanations, natural example sentences, exercises, speaking questions and answer keys. This will help you understand and remember common English phrasal verbs and use them confidently in real-life situations. Browse the workbooks here and start improving your phrasal verb skills today.... Thanks so much for reading and see you next time! James 😊 THE END