get along with someone, put off something, call off an event, blow up, go off, these are some very
common phrasal verbs we use regularly in english and indeed phrasal verbs with get take have go put
are commonly taught in youtube videos and of course in textbooks in course books and at school
in today's lesson i want to share 12 slightly more unusual weird and wonderful phrasal verbs
with verbs that you wouldn't necessarily think of using maybe even as verbs so these phrasal verbs
although actually quite commonly used amongst native speakers are perhaps some that we would
less commonly teach so if you do want to learn a few weird and wonderful phrasal verbs then keep
watching welcome back to Love English, I'm Leila and today we're going to learn some phrasal verbs
right number one to plod now i'm teaching you the verb before i teach you the phrasal verb to plod
is a way of walking of moving to warp taking slow steps particularly as though your feet are quite
heavy perhaps you might plod when you are walking up a hill or when you're particularly tired or
when you're walking down a muddy path we plodded through the muddy field now when we talk about
plodding along or plodding on we're talking about making progress in a slow but steady pace
she's still plodding along with her homework how are things going oh you know plodding along so
you're making progress but in a slow steady way it's often a way of responding when someone asks
how you are what you're doing you can just simply say oh you know plodding on plodding along
meaning moving forward in life but nothing exciting particularly happening
so a lovely phrasal verb and a fantastic verb to talk about the way you might walk if you're
tired with very heavy feet number two to mull mul now mal is often used when we talk about mulling
wine so heating something up making it warmer stewing it almost but when we talk about
mulling something over we're talking about thinking carefully considering something
before we perhaps make a decision i really needed to mull over the job proposition i
really wasn't sure if it was the right thing for me number three to muster something up to muster
something up usually we refer to mustering up courage or energy to do something it's when
you create a feeling or quality in yourself because you need it in order to do something
she was so nervous when it came to taking the exam but she mustered up the courage and she took that
exam and she passed oh i really don't think i can muster up the energy to go to the gym today
pay attention you muster something up you muster the energy up you muster the courage up in order
to do something so you need two and the infinitive there in that structure she mustered up the
courage to ask him out number four size now when we talk about size we're usually referring to an
object whether it's big or small or medium but in this case we are using it as a verb a phrasal verb
to size something or somebody up you could see the cats sizing each other up when we introduced them
eventually they got along so in this sentence we are suggesting that they are looking analyzing
each other it essentially means to examine someone or something carefully to understand
them better and of course to see whether you trust them or not the voters are still sizing up
the presidential candidates five a weird one ham yes usually referring to the meat of a pig but in
this case we're talking about hamming something or it up to perform or behave in a false way
especially in a way that is too obvious really in order perhaps to make people laugh it can be
a slightly negative thing to do because it can come across as being very false or unnatural oh
she's always hamming it up for the boss to get attention and special mention in the meetings
now number six this is a verb you are familiar with and it is of course normally a verb to sniff
yes to sniff something out to search for and discover something now i'm not talking about
sniffing for chocolate no we're talking about perhaps finding a job opportunity or even the
truth his mother was always able to sniff out the truth he couldn't tell her a lie even if he wanted
to she's great at sniffing out job opportunities she found one just last week now number seven
weed a weed is normally a horrible flower that we don't want in the garden it's not a flower
it's like a plant or some kind of i don't know whatever that grows in the garden that
essentially might kill or damage other plants or flowers around you can tell i'm not a gardener
so um but if we are trying to weed something out then we're trying to get rid of unwanted things or
people perhaps in a group so think about weeding the garden you want to remove the weeds so that
you can have the lovely flowers and plants with weed something out you want to remove something
because it is not beneficial to the situation in the first round of interviews we wanted to
weed out the weaker candidates the business plan looks great but i think there's a few
things we could weed out here number eight to play something down to play something down
to make something seem less important or bad than it really is the military spokesperson
tried to play down the seriousness of the event so as to not cause concern
oh sorry number nine zone out to zone out means that you lose focus or concentration for a short
period of time a little bit like daydreaming to stop paying attention or seeing what's going on
around you for a short period of time it could be that you were distracted tired or you are simply
a daydreamer when men talk about football i just zone out it's probably the same for you
guys when we talk about shoes number 10 dish dish usually referring in a formal way to a plate or a
meal that's provided a dish that you cook in this case we are talking about dishing something out
now we're not literally dishing out the food but rather to give or say something
to someone without thinking about it particularly carefully a good doctor listens to their patient
rather than simply dishing out the drugs he's mad at me for teasing him he can dish
it out but he can't take it number 11 if someone is too serious if they seem like
they're taking life too seriously or a particular situation you could tell them come on lighten up
meaning try to relax and take things a little less seriously i'll lighten up i was only joking
she has been working way too hard i really think she needs to lighten up and take a bit of a break
number 12 a really weird one fawn four now i think a thorn is a baby dear i should google that
yes a young deer in its first year thank you very much so we're not talking about deers at all here
the phrasal verb is to fawn over so we're using this noun as a verb in a very particular context
to praise someone too much and give them attention that's not really very sincere honest
so for example he's always fawning over the teacher in hopes of getting better grades
i really hate waiters that fawn over you in the hope of getting more tips and there we have it 12
rather weird and wonderful and slightly unusual phrasal verbs that i wonder have any of you
actually ever heard them before they're not phrasal verbs so that i would commonly teach
and although they're probably less commonly used i think that i would use them i do use them in
day to day english but probably not as much as phrasal verbs like get along or i don't know put
off like i gave you examples at the beginning of the lesson so if any of these phrasal verbs
are new for you then please do take them write some sentences and actually comment below try
using some of these phrasal verbs and remember my key tip make sure that you personalize them
give them a context think about a situation where you felt someone was fawning over you or where
you needed to sniff out a job or i don't know the truth use some examples that are relevant to your
life so the phrasal verbs become a part of your permanent vocabulary range and there we have it
12 phrasal verbs that i hope you will enjoy using learning and hopefully understanding in future
thank you so much for watching and of course don't forget there's plenty more where that came from