7 Common PHRASAL VERBS for Business

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A book on marketing.

Hey, E, how are you doing?

James from engVid.

E's wearing a tie and a briefcase.

Every time he does this, it has something to do with business.

He thinks he's going to get a job.

Anyway, let's ask what's up.

So, what are you working on?

Your business phrasal verbs, because you want a new job, I told you.

All right, you know what?

Let's go to the board and see what he's working on.

So, let's start off, or we can start here with kickoff.

When we kick off, and this is using business, kicking off, it means to start.

Now, those of you in European countries who play or watch football, you know, the kickoff

is the start of the game.

For my American friends, it's soccer.

They're talking about soccer.

It's from European people and people in the Middle East and what have you that watch football.

The kickoff is the start, they drop the ball, boom, they kick.

We say that in North America, to kick something off is to start it off.

So, if you were bringing up a new product, for instance, a new pen, right, a new colour,

you might kick off the product by giving a sale, going, "We've got this brand new pen.

It's 50% off to kick off the new set, the new pen to start something."

Or you can kick off the meeting, you know, "We're going to kick off the meeting."

E, you start and deliver a speech, start.

The next one, brush up on, and here's a brush.

I'm not much of an artist, but if you're an artist, you'll notice that's a brush.

When we brush up on something, you think with a brush you put strokes down, and you can

improve if you're doing a painting or something, yeah?

We brush up on something, it means to update or improve yourself.

What does that mean?

Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch, yeah?

So, I said, "I speak a little German," aber es ist nicht sehr gut.

Any Germans, and I know you're out there going, "Yes, German is very bad."

I know, I just said that.

So, ich brauche studieren, so I need to study more.

I need to study because I know it, and this is what brush up means.

I know some German, but I may need to study it to improve it, okay?

It's not that I'm learning it for new, so keep that in mind when we do our test, I mean,

our exercise later.

So, you want to improve yourself or to update a skill you already have.

Brush up, meaning to practice.

Next, turn down.

Now, I said these are phrasal verbs, so I should have gone through it.

Kick is an action.

Boom, you do, yeah?

Off, to leave, yes; brush, and up.

Look, this one is what's called a three-word phrasal verb.

We have more than two because people will say, "Is it the phrasal verb?

You've got three words."

Yes, these are prepositions.

This is the verb.

Brushing, we know it's a brush, like brush your teeth, is that movement; up, and up usually

means improvement, right?

So, brush up on, and on is a particular surface, so we're improving, cleaning, or moving up

on a particular skill that we have.

We're brushing up to brush, improve on that skill.

You can figure it out if you actually know what kick means.

Kick, boom, off, away, to start.

Now that I did that, I know you can read the board, but think about what I just said.

So, we can say down is to say no, and then there's the thumb.

Reject something, reject an offer, proposal, or application.

If you go for a job, for instance, and they turn down your application, you won't get

I'm going to go a little non-business, but if a girl turns you down, you're being rejected

and you're not getting the date.

So, you don't want to be turned down for something.

This is number three.

Let's go to number four.

Now, we notice falling is when you go down, right?

What is through?

So, you go through a doorway.

You know, when there's a door and you walk, it means going from one place to another.

When something falls through, it's not the same as, but it's in the same mindset as to

fail, like turning down.

It's a negative thing.

If something falls through, it means it doesn't happen as planned.

So, you had some plans to maybe buy a business.

If the deal falls through, you're not going to get the business.

If you have a date to meet an employer or something and it falls through, you're not

going to meet them.

So, when a plan falls through, it doesn't happen.

So, they're similar in that they're negative, and you want to keep that in mind.

Someone turns you down, they're saying no.

If a plan falls through, it's not going to happen the way you want it.

I'm funny on this one because we're talking about banks.

You know, you're supposed to trust them, they'll wear suits and ties, whatever.

But they're supposed to be trusted.

Don't look at the 2008 banking crisis.

You won't like it.

But you're supposed to be able to bank on, that means trust.

That's why we say "bank".

So, over here, when we say you can bank on something, we're saying, hey, something is

going to happen, and it's going to happen in a certain way.

You can bank on Mr. E being in my videos.

Go back over 200 videos, you're going to see his ugly face in every single video.

You can bank on it.

He'll be on the next one.

It's going to happen a certain way.

So, when you can bank on a certain situation, it's different than falling through.

It's almost the exact opposite.

Something fell through, it doesn't happen the way it's supposed to.

When you can bank on it, you know it's going to happen the way it's supposed to.

I can bank on you getting this job because you have all of the credentials.

I'll ask around.

I'll ask around.

What the hell does that mean?

You notice how we talked about, I was going to say the banking here isn't trust and "on",

I should have said that one.

Well, "ask" is the verb, and "around" means kind of like a circle, right?

Yeah, yeah, that's almost what it is.

When you're asking around, you're going to ask many people the same question because

you generally want to see what the general opinion is.

Here's an example.

E says, "Hey, who wants to have McDonald's for dinner?"

I go, "I don't know.

I'll ask around."

I'm literally going to go to people and say, "Do you want McDonald's for dinner?

Do you want McDonald's for dinner?

Do you want McDonald's for dinner?" and I may come back and say, "I asked around and

nobody wants it.

The general opinion is this."

So when you ask around, you're going to ask many people the same question to get a general

Happens a lot in business.

Like, who wants to open a business over here, a hair salon?

Let's ask around."

Let's ask people in the area and see what the opinion is.

And number seven, which is what I wanted to do with this lesson about zeroing in in phrasal

verbs, right, to give you some business phrasal verbs you can use, "zero in on" means to focus

closely on something.

You can notice this is a zero, if you ever do any math, and we're focusing on that zero

with a little red dot.

So when you zero in on, it's as if you have a big area of study, and then you concentrate

So, even though we're doing some grammar, right, phrasal verbs, we're zeroing in on

specifically phrasal verbs from grammar, because we're looking at prepositions and verbs, but

we're zeroing in on the combination of phrasal verbs.

So, let's see if we got all seven.

Kicking off is to start something.

Brush up on is to update or improve something.

Turn down is to reject or say no.

All through is not to happen the way you wanted it to.

Bank on, you can trust it.

Just remember 2008.

Six, ask around.

Talk to some people, see what their opinion is, and zero in on, which is what we've done,

is zero in on phrasal verbs for business, and we're going to go further after this little

break because we're going to do the quiz, get our homework, and our little extra.

All right, so we're going to do our quiz.

We've got our little extra here, and then I've got your homework.

Let's go to the board.

So, I explained a lot of these phrasal verbs, and I showed you how you could look at the

verb and the preposition, yeah, to kind of figure it out.

I did that earlier because later on, or in a second or two, you'll see why that was important,

to help you grow in your learning, because I can't teach you every phrasal verb, and

you don't have time to always study everything, but you do have a wonderful brain you can

So, let's do that here.

The company decided to something the new product with a big sale.

What do you think it was that they did?

Okay, kick off.

Remember we talked about kicking, boom, kick, and off to take off or go away?

And they kicked off the product with a big sale, so they'll start selling it.

What about the next one?

We can something Mr. E doing a good job.

We can something Mr. E doing a good job teaching a lesson.

What do you think?

Hmm, we talked about money and bank on.

We can bank on Mr. E doing a good job teaching the lesson.

We know it's supposed to go a certain way, and he will do it that way.

Remember the bank?

You put money in the bank because you trust it, bank.

Number three, the deal something when we...

When the bank didn't approve the loan.

The deal something when the bank didn't approve the loan.

What would that be?

Now this might be a little confusing, and I did this on purpose because they're kind

Remember I discussed earlier, these two are both negative, but which one is most appropriate?

Well, the deal fell through.

It didn't go the way we planned.

Remember, you wanted to start a business with a deal, it didn't go the way we planned because

it fell through.

It's not that they just turned you down, that's one thing.

But you had a plan and that didn't happen, and fell through is the most appropriate answer

Number four, I need to something on my math if I want to go back and get my degree in

math at university.

This one's also a tough one.

You're smart, so I'm making it tough, but you'll figure it out.

Which is it, brush up or zero in on?

I know, hold on, hold on.

Some of you out there are going, "I need to focus.

You need to focus on your math."

Yes, you could say that, but no.

In this case, they're going back to university, so they probably have practiced it already,

so brushing up is more appropriate.

It's very important that you look at context.

So phrasal verbs, you can learn in two ways.

Understanding what the verb is and the preposition, and how coming together they might change

it slightly, but we can also look at the context.

That's why this one and this one were difficult, because this one is negative, but looking

at the context, there was a plan and it didn't come through, this is most appropriate, not

And in this case, yes, you should focus on your math if you want a degree in it, clearly.

But what the person is trying to tell you is, "I studied math before, I'm going back,

that means I haven't been there for a while, so I need to work on it to improve."

It's not a first time.

And this is where you start mastering English, because you're going from just doing what

the teacher told you to being able to think about information, and that's going to help

you with future phrasal verbs.

"I had to something the job offer because they weren't going to pay me enough."

Once again, we have "turn down" and "fall through".

Which is the appropriate answer?

This time it's "turn down", because you're rejecting it.

It didn't fall through, nothing fell through, the plan was maybe for them it fell through,

but you wanted something, you didn't get it, so you turned it down, the plan didn't fall

And you can see how these two sentences are similar, that they're negative, but you need

to use different phrasal verbs.

That's what we call intuitive, that means comes from inside an English speaker, a native

English speaker, they don't think about it, they know.

And that's part of my job, is to get you to understand this, not just know the rules.

And now you've worked on some difficult ones, you've got more confidence.

I've been making you this big speech about learning and looking at phrasal verbs in context

Here's the extra, usually I give you extra phrasal verbs, today I want to give you something

that most teachers...

I have not really touched on, and I don't believe a lot of other teachers touch on,

the difference between phrasal verbs and idioms.

A lot of times we teach you phrasal verbs and idioms, and you know, that's great, I

just did that here.

But then the smart one of you guys are out there going, "Look, they're short kind of

sentence-like things, and they seem to have a different meaning than I would think, but

they're kind of the same, so what's the difference?

What is the difference between a hot potato and bank on?

Why...

"Hot potato" is two words, "bank on" is two words, why phrasal verb, why idiom?

"Oh, well, because one has a preposition and a verb, and it's da-da-da."

Yeah, it's a phrase, a small phrase, and that's what "hot potato" is, it's a noun phrase,

They're both phrases, so why specific?

Well, when you have an idiom, for instance, "hot potato", so some of you right now going,

"This is food that is very hot", actually, if someone says, "Hey, I got a real hot potato

here", they're not talking about food, they're saying a difficult and dangerous situation,

and it's hot, so it's being passed around.

That's all that information in that saying.

Or another one is "raining cats and dogs", there are not dogs and cats coming from the

sky, it means it's raining a lot.

You can never really learn what these things mean until they are introduced to you, and

someone explains it, then you know.

You can't really guess what it means by hearing the words.

All verbs are different, though, not always, but a lot of times, say 60-70% of the time,

if you understand what the verbs are and the way the verb can be used - that's why dictionaries

are important - and the same thing with, sorry, prepositions, how preposition "up", for instance,

can be "more" or the direction "up".

It's more than just "up", it can be more, like "fill up the tank", "get more".

Once you understand that and the verb and the combinations, you can see the possibilities,

and then you can understand why our phrasal verbs are used in different ways.

They're very, very...

I want to say "utilitarian", and you go "What was that?"

They're very useful, that's an easier word.

But the difference between them is, with phrasal verbs and with practice and experience and

using your dictionaries and thesauruses, you may be able to look at phrasal verbs you've

never seen before, and you notice I mentioned context here.

I was trying to teach you what we call a meta-lesson, a bigger lesson.

By the context, you can sometimes start figuring out phrasal verbs.

And believe me, there's a phrasal verb dictionary that's this thick.

It's easier if you can use your brain and a few words and use that much information,

while idioms, you just got to learn them.

And that, my friends, is the difference between idioms and phrasal verbs.

One can be learned if you study enough, and the other one you have to have experience,

which is what you're supposed to be doing here, gaining the experience to know these

And last, before we go, I want to give you some homework, where it's not a Mr. E. and

I got three questions, you're going to answer them in the comments below, either here or

Now, if you're answering on YouTube, you will get 1 million dollars if you answer the questions,

all three correct.

Well, no dollars, but you'll get a million points for every one you answer.

I love looking over the comments section and seeing you guys actually answer the questions,

and other people giving you the thumbs up, which means you did it correctly, or the thumbs

down, which is eh.

Most of you get it right, because it means you're paying attention to the lesson and

you're thinking.

Keep up the good work.

So, let's look at the three questions you get to answer.

Don't forget to put it in the comments below.

And other students, give it a thumbs up.

Give it a thumbs up to know they're doing a good job.

The company needs to something the problem if we want to stop losing money.

These ones aren't easy, because there are two possible answers to this question, but

only one right one, and that's understanding the context.

The company needs to something the problem if we want to stop losing money.

I am traveling with Martina to Germany.

I need to something on my German.

I'm traveling with Martina to Germany.

I need to something my German.

What would I have to do?

And finally, who's the new guy?

Who's the new guy?

Hey, good luck on this.

Anyway, I don't think you need luck.

If you watch to the end of this video, you're a worker, so you're going to learn.

So, what would I like you to do?

I'd like you to go to www.engvid.com to see other lessons on phrasal verbs and idioms,

so some brilliant teachers that we have there.

We got Jill, we got...

Who else we got there?

Have a good one.

Have a good one, and I'll see you in the next video.