Learn English Phrasal Verbs with up Speak Everyday English Common Phrasal Verbs

You really need to step up your game. So instead of saying they woke up, we just say they're woke. Let's be honest, men can be helpless sometimes when their wives are not around. Americans bought up all the toilet paper. I've noticed how important it is to study phrasal verbs when learning English. And I noticed that they can also be very tricky. But I want to let you know that when you master a phrasal verb, you're going to be advancing your English skills more quickly because they're so useful. For today's English lesson, I have chosen 10 of the most useful phrasal verbs that I find myself using almost every day, and they all contain the preposition up. So the best way to learn a phrasal verb is by hearing real-life examples. So in today's lesson, I'll teach you real-life examples that will show you how to actually use the phrasal verb. My name is Kayla. I'm an American English teacher. And I will help you speak more natural English that you cannot find in a textbook. So if you're watching today, make sure to help me by subscribing to my channel so that I can be your English teacher every week. And even if you don't subscribe, I can still be your English teacher because my passion is teaching English and I'll still make these lessons. So let's talk about the preposition up. You are either using up to emphasize the verb in the phrasal verb or you're talking about increasing something by saying the word up. Another way that we use the word up is obviously just meaning you're talking about a higher place, up high. So let's start with the first phrasal verb on today's list. Mix up. When you mix something up, you're typically confusing two different things or more. And if you mix up things, there's just overall confusion. So here's my real-life example. When I meet a set of twins and they look alike, I always mix them up. I don't know about you, but twins just really mix me up. Here's another example. There was a big mix-up when I went to pick up my car from the mechanic. He tried to give me someone else's car. So I often mix up my car in a parking lot. I drive a white car, a white SUV. And when I see another white SUV, I try to get into the car. And it's not my car and I hope that nobody sees me because it's kind of embarrassing. So in both these examples, we were either mixing up people or we were mixing up cars. So when you mix something up, there's a lot of confusion. Step up. When we take a step, we're just walking. We use our feet and our legs to move. And in this phrasal verb, we're not actually talking about taking steps like walking. We're talking about step up figuratively. So if you step something up, you're increasing it in a positive way. Here's a funny example I thought of. When the man's wife was out of town, he had to step up to his responsibilities and cook and clean the whole house. Let's be honest, men can be helpless sometimes when their wives are not around. And when you have to step up and take on more responsibility, you are just increasing your responsibility and taking on more than you usually do. If you tell someone to step up, like step it up, come on. You're using this phrase to tell someone they need to do better. So a common phrase we use with this phrasal verb is you really need to step up your game. This means that you just need to step up whatever you're doing, whether it's a sport, whether it's just your responsibility or just your job. You're telling the person to step up their game. Work up. When we talk about the word work, the verb, we mean that somebody is exerting themselves physically or mentally. So when we work up someone, here's the phrasal verb, we're working them up, we're making them angry, excited, we're giving them anxiety or we're making them worried. Here's my personal example of how I work up my mom. I work up my mom by telling her all the dangerous things I used to do as a child. I hope that you don't do this to your mom too. But I give her a lot of anxiety by telling her all the things that I used to do as a kid that make her worked up. I thought of another funny example for work up. The man was worked up when the wife told him how much money she had spent on clothes. So men, husbands tend to get worked up when we tell them how much money we actually spend on our clothes. Another way you can use this phrasal verb is if you work up, you can produce something. So the most common way to use this phrase in this way is to say, I worked up the courage. It's a really common phrase. So when you work up the courage to do something, you produce the courage by getting over your anxieties or overcoming your worries. So here's an example. She had finally worked up the courage to ask for a raise. That means she got over her fear of her boss saying no, and she asked for more money. Here's a phrasal verb that I'm sure you already know if you've been learning English for a while. The phrasal verb is wake up. So I had to have this one on the list because there's two different ways that I want to talk about using it. So we commonly talk about waking up in the morning. I usually wake up at around 7 a.m. But there's another common way to use this phrasal verb. So when you wake up to an idea, you become aware of it and you start to believe it. So there's a slang phrase that I'll teach you too. The slang phrase is woke. So instead of saying they woke up, we just say they're woke. That means they're really aware of modern ideas and progressive policies here in the United States. I'll just leave it at that. Things are very political here. Another thing that people wake up to is climate change. Climate change is another political issue here. So you either believe that people are causing climate change or global warming, or you haven't woken up to that idea yet. Make up. So I'm not talking about lipstick or mascara. I'm talking about when you fight with a friend, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, really anyone. You'll either break up, which means you end the relationship, or you'll make up. If you are a girl and you are fighting with your boyfriend, you can make up by saying sorry, of course. And a common phrase to use is let's just kiss and make up. This means that let's just stop being angry at one another and forget about the problem. It's a common phrase to use when you just don't really feel like fighting. Take up. When you start to become interested in a hobby or a sport, you can take up that hobby or you can take up that sport. So I want to take up knitting when I'm older. I really do. That's a real example. Another way that we use this phrasal verb is when we say we can take up space, time, or energy. For example, if you have a piano, you may need a big house because they take up lots of space. Or children take up lots of energy. This is true. Children have so much energy. In these examples, the piano is taking up or using lots of space and the children are taking up or using lots of energy. Fix up. When you fix up something, you are repairing it. Many times we fix up old cars or old houses. A funny term that you may have not heard of before is when we have an old house that needs repairs. We call it a fixer-upper. There are many shows in the United States about fixing houses like fixer-uppers. It's less common, but you can use the phrase fix up like you would use the phrase make up. Like they need to fix up their relationship. Pick up. When you pick up something, you take it off the floor or another surface. But a more advanced use of this phrasal verb is to drive to someone and pick them up in your car. Here's an example. I'm going to pick up my kids from school at 3 p.m. Do you want me to pick you up? That means do you want me to come get you in my car? This phrasal verb has another common use in America. When you pick up someone, it means you're kind of flirting with them. Maybe you get their number at a bar or another public place. We often say that maybe there's a man who likes to pick up women. Maybe he likes to flirt with them and engage with them romantically. He's trying to pick them up. He's trying to be in a relationship with them. Buy up. When you buy up something, you buy up a lot of it and you buy it quickly without really thinking about it. Here's an example. We're going to use the past tense here of buy. We're going to use bought. We're going to be talking about something that really did happen here in America during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. It was very strange. At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Americans bought up all the toilet paper. Don't ask me why. I don't really know. But this is really what we did. It was difficult to find toilet paper at stores because people had just bought it all up. Comment below if you know what I'm talking about. And if people bought up food or other things where you live during the pandemic, comment below. I want to hear about it. Cut up. When you ask someone to cut up vegetables, you're asking them to cut them into small pieces. Another phrase that we sometimes use that means the exact same thing is chop up. So another common way to use this phrase, cut up, is if someone is running and they're going really high speed at a certain direction. You'll say they cut up. So here's an example. I saw a man drive up the road and cut up to the left. So you can either be running or driving. Or if you have directions, they could say to cut up north. Maybe when you reach the town, cut up north. Thank you so much for watching today's English lesson with me, your favorite American English teacher, Kayla. And I hope that you enjoyed learning about these 10 phrasal verbs. And now you can practice them using the comments down below and in your daily lives. Because remember, these are very common phrasal verbs that I use every day. Make sure to subscribe to my channel for more English lessons every week. And comment any lesson suggestions that you want to learn about. Make sure to follow me on Instagram at English with Kayla for daily English tips. I post some great short lessons on there. Thanks for watching today's video. Good luck studying English. Bye-bye.