Phrasal Verbs in spoken English.

This is part 2 of a blog post in which we listen to a phone message and work out what is being said.    Part 1 of the blog post is here.    If you have not read part 1 you might want to go back and read / listen and work out what the core message of the blog post is.    Then we go through all the phrasal verbs used in the message and look at their meaning.

Part 2   – More Phrasal Verbs

I’ve left you a message:

Listen to the message – did you hear the phrasal verbs – phone back, call back, give us a ring?   Did you understand the main meaning of the messge?   It’s very difficult as I am talking quickly and using lots of phrasal verbs and colloquial expressions.  We will examine all of this in detail in this and the next blog post.    Read through part 2 of the blog post, listen to the audio files for each phrasal verb and then go back and listen to the whole message again and see if you can understand more of the message.

Listen again and see if you can pick out the main gist of the message.

1      What am I  planning?

2      What date is Tom’s birthday?

3     When do I want  you to telephone me?

I have put the answers to these questions in the comments so you can check you have understood the main points of the message.

In the previous blog post we looked at the different phrasal verbs that we use to mean to return a telephone call eg to call back, to give someone a ring, to phone back.

In this blog post, we are going to look at the other phrasal verbs in this message.

 

1   to let somebody know about something.

This phrase means to inform somebody about something.    To give somebody information about something.  Notice that the person you are giving the information to has to be included between the verb “let…….somebody…..know”.     The “about something” does NOT need to be included if it has been mentioned previously and the person knows which subject you are informing them about.

For example:

A)  What date is the party?     B)   I don’t know.    I’ll let you know.   

In the message we heard:

I need to let you know to save the date: 29th July.

 

2  To turn up

This phrasal verb  has two different meanings.

A   Somebody turns up somewhere,   this means the person arrives / appears at a place.    This is the meaning of turn up in the phone message. When turn up is used to mean to arrive then turn + up are inseparable.   A person turns up.

In the message we heard:

…that way people can turn up to whatever they can fit into their schedule.

B  Somebody turns something up.

Can you turn the volume up?     Can you turn up the volume?  Can you turn it up?

This means can you increase the volume.   ie: turn the switch to increase (up) the volume.   Turn and up can be separated and you put the device being increased in between.

In the message we heard:

…that way people can turn up to whatever they can fit into their schedule.

 

3 to fit something in ..(to a space either a physical space or time space.)

This means to have enough space in a place or a diary to allow something to use that space or time-slot.

Will this sofa fit into our living room?  Or is it too big?

 

Do you want to meet for a drink one night after work? I know you are busy so what night can you fit it in?  

 

In the phone message we heard:

…that way people can turn up to whatever they can fit into their schedule.

 

There is another meaning of this phrasal verb.

to fit into something

eg The new goal keeper fitted into the team really well.

eg The new housing block has been designed to fit into the landscape.  It has a similar architectural style and blends in with the older buildings.

 

In these two examples, something (the new housing) / somebody (the goalkeeper)  fits into something, a particular place or group this means it belongs there, it is happy there, it looks or feels like it is in the appropriate place, it’s the right place / environment for it, the rest of the group all work together well with the new person / thing.

 

4   I’ll fill you in on the plan.     

This was discussed in the last blog post and means to update someone on something,  to tell them all the latest information about something.

 

5  to come over    

To come over means to come / to travel to the place being mentioned.    Come over here (said when the speaker is in her own home) means “come to my house to visit me.”     We can use any verb of movement with “over”.    It makes it sound more friendly.  When we use over we can omit to say the place we are asking you to go to.

Oh run over to the shop and buy a pint of milk please.   I’m making coffee and we have run out.

Run out – this is another phrasal verb meaning to have used something up and have none left in the house.

We must go over and see my parents next week. We haven’t seen them for ages.

The place you are asking people to go to can be omitted if it is obvious or if it has previously been mentioned.

In the message we heard:

We need to arrange for you to come over here one night this week.

 

But I could have omitted  “here” and it still makes sense.   Come over implies come over here to my house, the place where I am at the moment.

 

We need to arrange for you to come over one night next week.

 

 

6     To meet up  

to meet up with somebody means to meet them usually by arrangement.

In the message we heard:

….or  we can meet up down the pub.  

 

In part 3 we will look at some of the other expressions used in the telephone message.

Listen again to the whole message and see if you can now understand more of it now that you understand the meaning of more phrasal verbs.