{"id":16856,"date":"2018-12-16T01:56:10","date_gmt":"2018-12-16T06:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/?p=16856"},"modified":"2023-05-11T09:58:51","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T14:58:51","slug":"answers-to-your-questions-about-phrasal-verbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/answers-to-your-questions-about-phrasal-verbs\/","title":{"rendered":"Answers to your questions about phrasal verbs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zn_hKCz4NNM?rel=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><center><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><a class=\"elementor-button rounded large blue\" style=\"color: #ffffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/espressoenglish.lpages.co\/phrasal-verbs-in-conversation-course\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Learn more about the Phrasal Verbs Course<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/center><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/phrasal-verbs-in-english\/\">Phrasal verbs<\/a> are very common in everyday spoken English &#8211; and many students ask me about the definitions of phrasal verbs they&#8217;ve heard in conversations, TV shows, or movies. Today I&#8217;m going to explain the meanings and uses of five phrasal verbs that you might not know yet.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>square away<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>One student read the phrase &#8220;square away the paperwork&#8221; in a newspaper article, and was wondering what it meant. First of all, the word &#8220;paperwork&#8221; refers to forms, applications, contracts and other documents. And to <strong>square away<\/strong> means to finish something &#8211; we usually use it for minor tasks, not huge projects or goals. For example, before you go on vacation, you might have a few things to\u00a0<strong>square away<\/strong> at work &#8211; you handle and finish those tasks before traveling.<\/p>\n<p><em>What&#8217;s one thing you need to<strong> square away<\/strong> at home, work, or school?<\/em><\/p>\n<h4><strong>step up<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Another student was watching a movie and heard a boss tell his employees that everyone needed to\u00a0<strong>step up.\u00a0<\/strong>What does this phrasal verb mean? In general, step up can mean to increase &#8211; for example, a charity that needs more donations might\u00a0<strong>step up\u00a0<\/strong>its fundraising efforts. But when we talk about a person stepping up, it means the person improves their performance and\/or takes on more responsibility. If the mother of three children is sick, the father will have to\u00a0<strong>step up\u00a0<\/strong>and do more things around the house.<\/p>\n<p><em>Describe a time you have <strong>stepped up<\/strong> or seen someone else <strong>step up.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<h4><strong>space out<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Next we have the expression <strong>space out<\/strong>. A student heard someone apologize for &#8220;spacing out&#8221; for a moment. If you <strong>space out<\/strong>, it means you are temporarily distracted and not focused on the present. Someone who is <strong>spacing out<\/strong> isn&#8217;t paying attention to things around them &#8211; they might appear to be lost in thought, or staring at nothing in particular &#8211; and you might need to call their name or touch them in order to bring their attention back to the current task or conversation.<\/p>\n<p><em>Have you ever <strong>spaced out<\/strong> or seen someone else <strong>space out<\/strong>?<\/em><\/p>\n<h4><strong>blow over<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Another student heard a news commentator say that a politician would wait for a scandal to\u00a0<strong>blow over.\u00a0<\/strong>This phrasal verb refers to when something intense and negative &#8211; usually a scandal, crisis, argument, etc. &#8211; eventually passes and gets forgotten by most people.<\/p>\n<p><em>What was a big news event in your country that has now <strong>blown over<\/strong>?<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>swear off<\/h4>\n<p>Finally we have the phrasal verb\u00a0<strong>swear off\u00a0<\/strong>&#8211; a student saw a character in a TV show say that she&#8217;d &#8220;sworn off drinking a long time ago.&#8221; This phrasal verb means resolve not to do something or use something anymore. So the line from the TV show means she had resolved to stop consuming alcohol a long time in the past.<\/p>\n<p><em>What&#8217;s something you&#8217;ve <strong>sworn off<\/strong>?<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"alert\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Learn 500 Phrasal Verbs Naturally<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/espressoenglish.lpages.co\/phrasal-verbs-in-conversation-course\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-10178 \" src=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/phrasal-verbs-course-video.png\" alt=\"Phrasal Verbs in English Course\" width=\"415\" height=\"294\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><center><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><a class=\"elementor-button rounded large blue\" style=\"color: #ffffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/espressoenglish.lpages.co\/phrasal-verbs-in-conversation-course\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Learn more about the Phrasal Verbs Course<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/center><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Learn more about the Phrasal Verbs Course Phrasal verbs are very common in everyday spoken English &#8211; and many students ask me about the definitions of phrasal verbs they&#8217;ve heard in conversations, TV shows, or movies. Today I&#8217;m going to explain the meanings and uses of five phrasal verbs that you might not know [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[158],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-phrasal-verbs-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Answers to your questions about phrasal verbs - Espresso English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&nbsp; Learn more about the Phrasal Verbs Course Phrasal verbs are very common in everyday spoken English - and many students ask me about the definitions\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/answers-to-your-questions-about-phrasal-verbs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Answers to your questions about phrasal verbs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; 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