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Is there something you’ve always meant to do, wanted to do, but just ... haven’t? Matt Cutts suggests: Try it for 30 days. This short, lighthearted talk offers a neat way to think about setting and achieving goals.

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The transcript of this TED talk is provided below as well as instructions for how you can watch the video with subtitles. This can be helpful for understanding the video, practicing listening comprehension and learning new words as well.

The video is provided here again with English subtitles. (See below for how to turn on subtitles in your own language if they are available).

Matt Cutts:

A few years ago, I felt like I was stuck in a rut, so I decided to follow in the footsteps of the great American philosopher, Morgan Spurlock, and try something new for 30 days.

The idea is actually pretty simple.

Think about something you've always wanted to add to your life and try it for the next 30 days. It turns out, 30 days is just about the right amount of time to add a new habit or subtract a habit -- like watching the news -- from your life.

There's a few things I learned while doing these 30-day challenges.

The first was, instead of the months flying by, forgotten, the time was much more memorable. This was part of a challenge I did to take a picture every day for a month. And I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing that day.

I also noticed that as I started to do more and harder 30-day challenges, my self-confidence grew. I went from desk-dwelling computer nerd to the kind of guy who bikes to work -- for fun.

Even last year, I ended up hiking up Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. I would never have been that adventurous before I started my 30-day challenges.

that if you really want something badly enough, you can do anything for 30 days.

Have you ever wanted to write a novel? Every November, tens of thousands of people try to write their own 50,000-word novel from scratch in 30 days. It turns out, all you have to do is write 1,667 words a day for a month. So I did.

By the way, the secret is not to go to sleep until you've written your words for the day. You might be sleep-deprived, but you'll finish your novel. Now is my book the next great American novel? No. I wrote it in a month. It's awful.

But for the rest of my life, if I meet John Hodgman at a TED party, I don't have to say, "I'm a computer scientist." No, no, if I want to, I can say, "I'm a novelist." (Laughter)

So here's one last thing I'd like to mention. I learned that when I made small, sustainable changes, things I could keep doing, they were more likely to stick. There's nothing wrong with big, crazy challenges. In fact, they're a ton of fun. But they're less likely to stick.

When I gave up sugar for 30 days, day 31 looked like this. (Laughter)

So here's my question to you: What are you waiting for? I guarantee you the next 30 days are going to pass whether you like it or not, so why not think about something you have always wanted to try and give it a shot for the next 30 days.

Definitions of some phrases and words from this talk

to follow in the footsteps of: to do the same thing as someone else did before.

desk-dwelling: a dwelling is a house or a place to live in. People spend so much time sitting at their desks in their offices, it's like their second home.
(He's always at his computer working, like a computer nerd = someone who likes computers and technical things and doesn't have great social skills).

from scratch: from the beginning without using things that already exist.

It turns out , all you have to do is write 1,667 words a day for a month.

By the way , the secret is not to go to sleep until you've written your words for the day.

to stick: to stay or to remain in place.

I learned that when I made small, sustainable changes, things I could keep doing, they were more likely to stick .

Now you can take the quiz to see if you can remember some of these phrases.

At the lower right-hand of the screen there is a drop-down menu that allows you to turn on subtitles ( see screen shot below). Most TED talks have a number of different languages available in addition to English. This can help you understand parts of the video you didn't understand and/or help you to learn new vocabulary words more quickly.

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The transcript of this TED talk is provided below as well as instructions for how you can watch the video with subtitles . This can be helpful for understanding the video, practicing listening comprehension and learning new words as well. The video is provided here again with English subtitles.

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Facial recognition systems from large tech companies often incorrectly classify black women as male - including the likes of Michelle Obama, Serena Williams and Sojourner Truth. That's according to Joy Buolamwini, whose research caught wide attention in 2018 with " AI, Ain't I a Woman?" a spoken-word piece based on her findings at MIT Media Lab.

The video, along with the accompanying research paper written with Timnit Gebru of Microsoft Research, prompted many tech companies to reassess their facial recognition data sets and algorithms for darker and more female-looking faces.

"Coded Bias," a documentary directed by Shalini Kantayya which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in late January, interweaves Buolamwini's journey of creating the Algorithmic Justice League, an advocacy organization, with other examples of facial recognition software being rolled out around the world - on the streets of London, in housing projects in Brooklyn and broadly across China.

Jennifer 8. Lee, a journalist and documentary producer, caught up with Joy Buolamwini and Shalini Kantayya in Park City, Utah after the premiere of Coded Bias. The interview has been condensed for length and clarity.
Joy, why do you combine technology and arts in your work?
Buolamwini: So I am a poet in code - P.O.C. We need more poets in tech, and we need more people of color in tech. The reason I call myself a poet is because poets illuminate the uncomfortable, and they make us feel what we otherwise not might see. And I realized as I was doing these research papers with MIT that performance metrics and statistical analysis only get you so far. So how do you get from performance metrics to performance arts, where it hits you in a visceral way, so that you can humanize the implications of what we were showing with the research?
Shalini, a striking number of the characters and the experts interviewed in the film are women. Why?
Kantayya: My film is mostly women, but it was not intentional when I began the film. What I found was there was this group of mathematicians and data scientists who were incredibly astute, well researched, but at the same time had this commitment to their humanity. Many had a double identity: were a woman, were of color. And that allowed them to see this issue from an entirely different perspective. For me, many of the parallels in the film industry I see happening in the tech industry, and I could very much relate to these women in tech, like issues of representation.
What was it like testifying about your work in front of the House of Representatives, especially given that the Senate hearing for Mark Zuckerberg did not put the technological sophistication of Senators in the best light?
Buolamwini: Many of the committee members had in-depth questions, so they used all of their time. I was really surprised how into the weeds they got, because we do our spoken testimony, three to five minutes, then we have the written testimony which is 20 pages, and they were referencing components where if you didn't really read it, you wouldn't have gotten that in-depth.

So I was surprised at first, and then they had a second hearing and they had a third hearing. They were saying that this is one of the committee's favorite topics - facial recognition - because you actually have support and agreement across both sides of the aisle, and it's very difficult to find topics like that in this current political state.

Kantayya: By going to the hearing, I actually learned that our government actually works sometimes.
What would the regulatory oversight of algorithms and artificial intelligence look like?
Buolamwini: I'm actually working with a group of researchers on a paper right now. The major issue is that level of expertise is not going to happen in government, and so we have been looking at a hybrid model where you can have an institution that enables expertise to be cultivated. So that when companies are planning or hoping to deploy A.I. systems, it's not just "spray and pray." You actually have to verify the claims of your system. With the FDA model, it's acknowledged that not all drugs work for everybody. There are limitations.
How did you come up with the idea of putting a white mask on in order to get the computer software to recognize your face?
Buolamwini: The reason I had a white mask in my office was while I was at MIT working hard, one of the older graduate women said, "We need a girls' night out," and it was a girls' night out during Halloween." Before we went out, she said, "We're going to do masks." So I thought it was a costume party and I bought a white mask for the costume party. I show up and it turned out to be facial masks, like a spa treatment! And because I had misunderstood the kind of masks she was talking about, it is why I had a white mask. I was a little embarrassed and I left it in my office.

And so when I came back from going out, I still had this project to do. I was really frustrated trying to get it to work and it was late. I kept trying different ways to detect my face. And the white mask was just sitting there. And I was like, "No way." I grabbed it, and it was almost immediate. I hadn't even turned it all the way, even from an angle it was already picking it up as a face, and I put it on. And I was like, this is crazy. I don't know if this would have happened if I hadn't misunderstood "girls' night out."
Jennifer 8. Lee is a journalist and documentary producer. You can follow her work here.

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subscribe to Code Switch podcast subscribe to Code Switch podcast Facial recognition systems from large tech companies often incorrectly classify black women as male - including the likes of Michelle Obama, Serena Williams and Sojourner Truth. That's according to Joy Buolamwini, whose research caught wide attention in 2018 with " AI, Ain't I a Woman?"

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Teach students how to create a writing outline (preferably building on the topic they brainstormed last week)

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Have students give a "How To..." presentation about something they're passionate about.

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It's no surprise that many teachers don't feel confident about tackling it in the classroom. When teaching grammar or lexis, we find ways of making the language accessible to our learners. How then to do this with intonation?

Can I improve my own awareness of intonation?

What is intonation?
Intonation is about how we say things, rather than what we say. Without intonation, it's impossible to understand the expressions and thoughts that go with words.
Listen to somebody speaking without paying attention to the words: the 'melody' you hear is the intonation. It has the following features:

It's divided into phrases, also known as 'tone-units'.

The pitch moves up and down, within a 'pitch range'. Everybody has their own pitch range. Languages, too, differ in pitch range. English has particularly wide pitch range.

Awareness of intonation aids communication.

Incorrect intonation can result in misunderstandings, speakers losing interest or even taking offence!

In each tone unit, the pitch movement (a rise or fall in tone, or a combination of the two) takes place on the most important syllable known as the 'tonic-syllable'. The tonic-syllable is usually a high-content word, near the end of the unit.

Provide learners with models - don't be afraid to exaggerate your intonation.

Let students compare two examples of the same phrase, eg: varied/flat intonation, English / L1.

Ask students to have a 2-minute conversation in pairs as 'robots' (elicit the word using a picture if necessary), i.e. with no intonation. When they then go back to speaking 'normally', point out that the difference is made by intonation - this is what gives movement to our voices.

Wh-word questions: falling intonation

Question-Tags: 'chat' - falling; 'check' - rising

Lists: rising, rising, rising, falling

Get students to imitate my intonation, but without words, just humming.

The first thing is for learners to recognise the effect of intonation changes. I say the word 'bananas' - firstly with an 'interested' intonation (varied tone); then 'uninterested' (flat). Students identify the two and describe the difference. We then brainstorm attitudes, such as 'enthusiastic', 'bored', 'surprised', 'relieved'. I say 'bananas' for these. Students then do the same in pairs, guessing each other's attitude.

This can be developed by asking students to 'greet' everybody with a particular attitude. At the end, the class identify each person's attitude. For younger learners, I use 'Mr Men' characters (Miss Happy, Mr Grumpy, Miss Frightened, etc.) Each student is allocated a character and, as above, they greet the class with that character's voice.

These patterns of pitch variation are essential to a phrase's meaning. Changing the intonation can completely change the meaning.

Example:

Say: 'It's raining'.

Now say it again using the same words, but giving it different meaning. You could say it to mean 'What a surprise!', or 'How annoying!',or 'That's great!'. There are many possibilities.

Why teach intonation?
Intonation exists in every language, so the concept we're introducing isn't new. However, learners are often so busy finding their words that intonation suffers. Yet intonation can be as important as word choice - we don't always realise how much difference intonation makes:

Though it's unlikely our learners will need native-speaker-level pronunciation, what they do need is greater awareness of intonation to facilitate their speaking and listening.

Can I improve my own awareness of intonation?
It's difficult to hear our own intonation. Choose somebody to listen to closely: as you listen, visualise the melody in your head, 'seeing' how it's divided into tone-units. Next time you do a class speaking activity, focus on your students' intonation. Are there students whose language is 'correct', but something doesn't sound right? Do they come across as boring or insincere? It may well be their pitch range isn't varied enough.

How I help my students
Awareness-raising
Some techniques I find useful for raising learners' awareness of intonation:

Intonation doesn't exist in isolation. So it makes sense to approach it together with other factors.

Intonation and grammar
Where patterns associating intonation and grammar are predictable, I highlight these to my students. I see these as starting-points, rather than rules.

Remember that intonation is relevant to any speaking activity, and makes interesting remedial/revision work.

Remember that students don't always have to 'know' we're focusing on intonation: every time I drill phrases they're hearing intonation models.

Provide realistic and clear contexts.

Avoid going into theory.

Help students find patterns / rules-of-thumb, wherever possible.

Use a consistent system for marking intonation on the board for example: arrow for tone; tonic-syllable in CAPITALS; double lines ( // ) for tone-unit boundaries.

Keep it positive and don't expect perfection. The last thing I'd want is to make my students so anxious about their intonation that they stop speaking!

Some examples are:

When practising these constructions, I include activities focusing specifically on intonation.

For example, Question-Tags: Students in groups are assigned jobs to mime to each other. Students make notes about what they think each person's job is. They then have to check they've understood the jobs: Students use rising/falling intonation question-tags depending how sure they are: 'You're a pilot, aren't you?'. At the end, students confirm their jobs.

Intonation and attitude
It's important that students are aware of the strong link between intonation and attitude, even if it's difficult to provide rules here.

Intonation and discourse

Learners' also need awareness of intonation in longer stretches of language. Here, we can give our learners clearer guidelines: 'new' information = fall tone; 'shared' knowledge = 'fall-rise'.

A simple shopping dialogue demonstrates this:

SK: Can I help you?
C: I'd like a chocolate (fall) ice-cream.
SK: One chocolate (fall-rise) ice-cream. Anything else?
C: One strawberry (fall) ice-cream.
SK: One chocolate (fall-rise), one strawberry (fall-rise). Anything else?
C: Yes. One chocolate (fall-rise), one strawberry (fall-rise), and one vanilla (fall).

Higher level students can identify the 'new' / 'shared' information, and then practise reading accordingly.

With lower level students, we memorise the dialogue together. Although I don't refer to intonation directly, I use my hands to indicate it (fall = hand pointing down; fall-rise = down then up). Students then prepare their own dialogues. I've found my learners pick up these patterns very quickly.

Conclusion
When working on intonation in the classroom I:

Further reading
Sound Foundationsby Adrian Underhill
Pronunciationby Dalton and Seidlholfer
How to Teach Pronunciation by Gerald Kelly
Teaching English Pronunciationby Joanne Kenworthy

Marta J. Sabbadini, British Council, Cameroon

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It's no surprise that many teachers don't feel confident about tackling it in the classroom. When teaching grammar or lexis, we find ways of making the language accessible to our learners. How then to do this with intonation? Can I improve my own awareness of intonation? What is intonation?

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by Claudia Pesce 222,225 views

And since it's so hard for students to learn them effectively on their own, it's up to us to help them. Now, if you're in doubt as to which is the best way to teach phrasal verbs, here are some steps that might help you put them across:

How to Proceed

1. Choose a selection of 5 to 10 phrasal verbs
It is not entirely uncommon for students to receive long laundry lists of phrasal verbs to study, particularly for examinations like the TOEFL, but this is hardly the best way for them to really incorporate them into their vocabulary. So, put away the lists and choose a small selection (no more than ten) that falls into a logical group, either because they are paired with the same preposition or they fit into the same topic. Some examples:

2. Introduce in context
You may be tempted to present each with a synonym or definition, but this may not give students a clear understanding of how each is used. For example, say you want to teach Business phrasal verbs. To present a phrasal verb like " take over ", try the following:
T: Did you hear about XYZ Company? This past week they bought the much smaller ABC Company. XYZ took over ABC.
If you supply real company names and real examples, so much the better, particularly if you're teaching Business English students. They'll really appreciate the examples and will easily understand the phrasal verb and how it's used. Confirm by asking them the meaning of " take over ", in this case. Can they supply other examples of companies that were taken over recently?

Do the same with " go under ". Supply an example of a company that has filed for bankruptcy. Have any of your students heard about another company has gone under recently?
Make them figure out. Help them guess. Give them lots of examples. Use real companies, people and places. But above all, help them understand the phrasal verb, beyond the mere memorization of a definition.
Don't forget this essential clarification: students must understand that phrasal verbs are more informal and are thus used more often in spoken rather than written English, although they may be used in informal written communication like emails to family or friends.

3. Students practice the new words
There are a number of ways in which students can practice their new phrasal verbs.

Worksheets - Phrasal verbs with up, with on, with in - download some or make your own. Fill in the blanks or matching - give them plenty of opportunities to practice.

Videos - This Phrasal Verbs and Mamma Mia movie workheet is a great example of how you can practice phrasal verbs with a movie or a video.

Games - Bingo, Tic Tac Toe, or design your own board game. Just give students the synonym, for example, "postpone" and ask them to come up with the right phrasal verb, in this case, "put off".

4. Students perform or produce with the new words
The goal, here, is to help students go from very controlled activities or exercises to using the new phrasal verbs on their own. To this end, you may ask them to:

Give every pair of students 2-3 phrasal verbs that they must use in a conversation. Students come up with a dialogue, put it down on paper, and then act it out in front of the class.

Give each student a set of phrasal verbs they must use in an email to a friend or family member. For example, they may use phrasal verbs connected with food to write about their Thanksgiving meal.

Ask students to prepare a PowerPoint presentation that shows some examples of what you talked about in class. Business English students may research recent takeovers or bankruptcies to put on their slides.

Did you know we have our very own Phrasal Verbs section with almost 100 worksheets? Feel free to download some and put them to good use. And if you design some of your own, don't forget to add them to our collection so that together we can reach that 100-worksheet marker!

Did you notice that in this article we used several phrasals of the same verb with different prepositions? See how many you can find and comment below! Hint: the first is in the title...

P.S. If you enjoyed this article, please help spread it by clicking one of those sharing buttons below. And if you are interested in more, you should follow our Facebook page where we share more about creative, non-boring ways to teach English.

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by Claudia Pesce 222,227 views And since it's so hard for students to learn them effectively on their own, it's up to us to help them.

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Getting students to come to terms with phrasal verbs is a constant challenge. The fact of the matter is that phrasal verbs are just rather difficult to learn. Learning phrasal verbs out of the dictionary can help, but students really need to read and hear phrasal verbs in context for them to be able to truly understand the correct usage of phrasal verbs.

Developing Comprehension and Brainstorming

This lesson takes a two-pronged approach to helping student learn phrasal verbs. It begins with a reading comprehension which can also serve to introduce some interesting student stories for discussion. This comprehension is peppered with phrasal verbs which can then be discussed as a class. The second part of the lesson includes a brainstorming session for students to create lists of phrasal verbs to share with one another.

Once students have become familiar with phrasal verbs, you can refer them to these resources to continue their learning. This phrasal verbs reference list will get students started with short definitions of approximately 100 of the most common phrasal verbs. This guide in how to study phrasal verbs will help them develop a strategy to understand and learn phrasal verbs.

The Lesson Plan

Aim: Improve phrasal verb vocabulary

Activity: Reading comprehension followed by brainstorming session and discussion

Level: Intermediate to upper intermediate

Directed Instruction Steps

Have the students read the short story full of phrasal verbs.

Ask them some general comprehension questions about the text. Once they have read the text, ask them to tell a story of their own from their youth.

Now that you have discussed the text, ask the students to find the phrasal verbs from the list which occur in the reading selection. Once the students have found these phrasal verbs, ask the students to provide synonyms for the phrasal verbs.

Tell the students a little bit about what you have done that teaching day:Example: I got up at seven this morning. After I had breakfast, I put together tonight's lesson plan and came to school. I got into the bus at X square and got off at Y square...

Ask students which of the verbs you used were phrasal verbs and ask them to repeat those verbs. At this point, you might want to ask them if they have ever taken a look under the heading 'get' in a dictionary. Ask them what they discovered.

Explain that phrasal verbs are very important in English - especially for native speakers of the language. You can point out that it might not be important for them to be able to use a lot of phrasal verbs if they use their English with other non-native speakers. However, it is important that they have a passive knowledge of phrasal verbs, as they will need to understand more and more phrasal verbs as they become used to reading, listening, seeing and exploring authentic materials in English. Obviously, if they are going to use their English with native speakers, they will really need to buckle down and get used to using and understanding phrasal verbs.

Listing the Verbs and Group Work

Write a list of common verbs that combine with prepositions to make phrasal verbs. I would suggest the following list:
Take

Get

Make

Put

Bring

Turn

Be

Carry

Divide students into small groups of 3-4 each, ask students to choose three of the verbs from the list and then brainstorm to come up with as many phrasal verbs using each of the three verbs that they can. They should also write example sentences for each of the phrasal verbs.

As a class, ask students to take notes while you write the phrasal verbs down that each group provides. You should then give a spoken example or two for each of the phrasal verbs so that students can understand the phrasal verbs from the context of what you are saying.

Once you have provided the students with examples, ask the students to read their own examples and check to make sure that they have used the phrasal verbs correctly.

NOTE: Don't introduce the idea of separable and inseparable phrasal verbs at this point. The students will already be dealing with almost too much new information. Save that for a future lesson!

Adventures Growing Up

I was brought up in a small town in the countryside. Growing up in the countryside offered lots of advantages for young people. The only problem was that we often got into trouble as we made up stories that we acted out around town. I can remember one adventure in particular: One day as we were coming back from school, we came up with the brilliant idea to make out that we were pirates looking for treasure. My best friend Tom said that he made out an enemy ship in the distance. We all ran for cover and picked up a number of rocks to use for ammunition against the ship as we got ready to put together our plan of action. We were ready to set off on our attack, we slowly went along the path until we were face to face with our enemy - the postman's truck! The postman was dropping off a package at Mrs. Brown's house, so we got into his truck. At that point, we really didn't have any idea about what we were going to do next. The radio was playing so we turned down the volume to discuss what we would do next. Jack was all for switching on the motor and getting away with the stolen mail! Of course, we were just children, but the idea of actually making off with a truck was too much for us to believe. We all broke out in nervous laughter at the thought of us driving down the road in this stolen Postal Truck. Luckily for us, the postman came running towards us shouting, "What are you kids up to?!". Of course, we all got out of that truck as quickly as we could and took off down the road.

Phrasal Verbs List

There are at least 7 other phrasal verbs in the text. Can you find them?

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Introducing Phrasal Verbs to ESL Students

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Getting students to come to terms with phrasal verbs is a constant challenge. The fact of the matter is that phrasal verbs are just rather difficult to learn. Learning phrasal verbs out of the dictionary can help, but students really need to read and hear phrasal verbs in context for them to be able to truly understand the correct usage of phrasal verbs.

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Phrasal verbs are a verb + preposition, adverb or particle. Teaching phrasal verbs is notoriously difficult because the verb often bears no relation to the meaning.

And yet, phrasal verbs are everywhere in English.

And so, on some deeper level . We may not be able to explain adequately how we know what they mean but we do know what they mean. For example, as children we didn't struggling to remember the difference between 'to take up' and 'to take on.' We understood it intuitively.

Likewise, when we come across a new phrasal verb like 'lawyer up' or, 'wind down', we instantly understand the meaning, even though no one has told us its denotation.

What an amazing power we native speakers have. The TEFL teacher who helps their students crack the code of phrasal verbs would be the best teacher an ESL student has ever meet in their lives.

Well, there is a way to share your deeper knowledge of phrasal verbs to your students. That is, teaching the phrasal verb by the preposition and not the verb.

How teaching phrasal verbs by preposition works

This is a revolutionary idea, when you think about it. For decades ESL teachers have been asking students to memorise lists of phrasal verbs without investigating the deeper meaning. All the meaning, when you analyse phrasal verbs more closely, is found in the preposition, and not the verb.

Take the verb: ' To take on. ' It means to assume responsibility, work, clients or staff.

'Take' in this case, doesn't make any sense but 'on' really does.

Phrasal verbs with ' on' have two meanings (see below for more details). One of the meanings is ' to attach. ' For example:

'To put on' = to attach clothing to yourself.'

'To try on' = to attach clothing to yourself, but only for trying.

If you focus on 'on' for 'to attach,' 'to take on' makes perfect sense. An individual or company is 'taking work, responsibility, clients or staff' and then, 'attaching those responsibilities to themselves.'

'Steve takes on a project' = Steve takes that project and attaches it to himself until he completes it.

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How to use this phrasal verb list

Below you will find 135 common phrasal verbs divided by preposition with meanings and explanations. It is important to recognise that not every phrasal verb has preposition that makes sense (for example, 'to take up tennis') but most of them do.

How to teach phrasal verbs, using this list

1# This list is too long to teach in one go. Therefore, only teach one preposition per session.

2# Illustrate each preposition with lots of examples until your students are completely confident of the meanings

3# Practice with conversation questions or a role play.

4# Next session, study the opposite preposition. For example, if you start with, 'on', next you should teach, 'off.' If you start with, 'up' next you should teach, 'down.'

5# At the end of this article you'll find a pdf of this phrasal verb list that you can download to give to your ESL students as a hand out in class.

Phrasal verbs with 'on'

Meaning 1#: To attach

To put on = to attach clothes to your body.
'She puts on a pair of socks in the morning.'
To try on = to attach clothes to your body to try them.
'Excuse me shop assistant, where can I try on this jacket?'
To take on = to attach a new employee to a company, or, to attach more work or responsibility to an individual.
'He is taking on more clients at the moment.' 'I can't take on any more work. I have too much already.'
To get on with someone = to attach yourself to a person for friendship (to like someone as friends).
'I get on well with my neighbour.'
To get on + bus, plane, boat = to attach yourself to a vehicle.
'He got on the plane at 9am and it took off at 9.30am.'
To turn on/ to switch on = to attach device to power/electricity.
'How do I switch the computer on?
Advanced

To catch on = a new idea or fashion attaches itself to a society.
'The idea of legalising gay marriage is catching on around the western world.'
Meaning 2#: To continue

To go on = to continue speaking or continue moving.
'Please go on and finish what you were saying.' 'Go on until the church and then turn left.'
To carry on = to continue an activity.
'She carried on working until she was 70.'
'Keep calm and carry on.' (British phrase to mean 'continue with your life as normal until the difficult time passes').

To keep on = to continue with an action.
'They kept on swimming until they reached land.'
To move on - to continue to another topic or another phase in one's life.
'OK, we've finished with the accounts, let's move on to talk about the marketing budget.'
To soldier on - to continue with your daily activities despite feeling unwell or unhappy about something.
'My husband has a terrible cold, but he's soldiering on.'
Phrasal verbs with 'off'

To take off = to detach clothes.
'Take off your shoes when you enter the house, please.'
To take off = when a plane detaches itself from the ground.
'The pilot took off into the blue sky.'
To call off = to cancel a meeting or event (detach yourself from the meeting or event by calling people about it).
'They called off the wedding at the last moment.'
To put off = to detach yourself from something you previously loved.
'I used to love football, but an injury put me off it.'
To put off = to postpone (temporarily detach yourself from a responsibility you have to do.)
'I have put off taking that exam until next year.'
To go off = food goes bad. Food detaches itself from being edible.
'This milk has gone off!'
To turn off / to switch off = to detach device from electricity.
'Turn off the computer when you are finished.'
To get off + bus, plane, boat = to detach yourself from a vehicle.
'It is difficult to get off a boat when there are lots of waves.'
Advanced

To drop off = take someone somewhere by car and leave them there (to detach them from your car).
'Can you drop me off at the station?'
To go off = to explode. The trigger in a bomb detaches itself and the bomb explodes.
'The bomb went off in the town square. It was a terrible tragedy.'
Meaning 2#: To leave

To be off = to tell someone you're leaving or to comment that someone else is leaving.
'Are you off already? The party has only just started.'
To drive off = to leave by driving.
'The truck drove off into the night.'
To walk off = to leave by walking or to abandon.
'The man walked off and left his kids in the park.'
To run off = to leave by running.
'Don't run off and leave me here with all these bags.'
Advanced

To head off = to leave, going towards a new place.
'Where is John?' 'I saw him earlier, heading off into town.'
To set off = to start a journey (to leave your place of origin to begin a journey).
'They set off for the mountain early.'
Phrasal verbs with 'up'

Meaning 1#: To provide emphasis to the verb.

If you say 'eat up your food!' what you're really saying is 'eat all of your food' or 'eat and eat your food until it is finished.'

To clean up = to clean when something is very messy.
'Clean up this mess!'
To clear up/ to tidy up - to put a place in order.
'I have to tidy up my room because it is a mess!'
To eat up - to eat everything on your plate.
'Eat up children, don't waste food.'
To save up for = to save money for something in particular.
'He's saving up for a new bike.'
To beat up = to physically beat someone (punching).
'The man got beaten up outside a pub.'
To listen up = to listen with attention.
'Listen up people; we need to rebuild the library.'
To read up on = to do a lot of reading about a subject.
'We visited Egypt and so I did a lot of reading up on the ancient Egyptians before we left.'
To use up = to use completely.
'We have to use up all the milk in the fridge before it goes off.'
To free up = to liberate time or space.
'Computers free up a lot of time.'
To fix up - to fix something to a high standard.
'She fixed up her bike and now it looks like new.'
To mix up - to mix and mix or to get confused.
'Mix up the mixture and put it in a baking tray.'
Advanced

To cut up = to completely destroy something through cutting.
'He cut up his t-shirt.'
To buy up = to buy everything in a shop.
'There was an offer for toilet paper and so Dad bought up all the toilet paper in the shop.'
To cheer up = to animate someone.
'We are taking him out to cheer him up after he didn't get the job.'
Meaning 2#: To increase

To turn up = to increase the volume of a speaker.
'They turned up the music to maximum, until the neighbours complained.'
To speak up = to speak louder.
'Speak up please; my grandmother is a little deaf.'
To speed up - to increase speed.
'Speed up, it's a 50 kpm limit here.'
To warm up - to increase your body heat before exercise.
'Spend 5 minutes warming up before you hit the weights.'
Meaning 3#: To make a distinction when one verb has two or more meanings

To grow up - when a baby turns into an adult.
'I knew a lot of people in my neighbourhood when I was growing up.'
To break up = to end a relationship.
'My brother and his girlfriend broke up last spring.'
To build up = to accumulate.
'We're building up our contacts with clients right now.'
To bring up - to introduce a subject.
'They brought up the issue at the meeting.'
To catch up - to do tasks that should have been done earlier/ to reach someone ahead of you.
'This afternoon I need to catch up with some reading.'
To chase up - to pursue information or work that you expect completed.
'I need to chase up an answer from the sales team.'
To follow up = to continue a meeting with another action.
'I will follow this up with an email next week.'
To end up = to end in an unexpected way.
'I made the cake for my colleagues, but I ended up eating it myself.'
To look up = to search in a dictionary or on the internet.
'I will look up the word in the dictionary.'
To set up - to configure, organise, start a business.

To make up = to invent a story.
'Beatrix Potter made up a fantastic story about rabbits.' Other uses of 'to make up':
To reconcile = 'They made up after the argument.'

To compensate = 'Let's take a taxi to make up some time.'

To consist of = 'The soup is made up of carrots and potatoes.'

Advanced

To do up = to fasten a piece of clothing or a seat belt.
'To do up your shoes.'
To dress up = to dress in a costume or put your best clothes on.
'I am going to dress up for the party.' 'It is customary to dress up in a scary costume for Halloween.'
To mess up = to make a mistake
'I just messed up the project. Sorry!'
Phrasal verbs with 'down'

Meaning 1#: To reduce something.

To settle down = to reduce your movement.
'Settle down children and relax.'
To calm down = to reduce your stress.
'You've had a stressful day. Have a cup of tea to calm down.'
To cut down on = to reduce something you eat, drink or smoke.
'I'm cutting down on sugar.'
To cool down = to reduce your heat.
'After working out at the gym, it is important to take a moment to cool down.'
To turn down = to reduce the volume of something.
'Turn down that music!'
To slow down = reduce your speed
'Slow down, we are coming to a traffic light.'
Advanced

To come down to = to reduce an argument to its basic point (this is often money).
'Well, it all comes down to whether they can afford to buy the house, or not.'
To turn down = to reduce your options by rejecting something.
'He turned down the job offer.'
To let down = to disappoint (to reduce your expectations).
'She felt let down when her parents didn't come to see her in the play.'
Meaning 2#: To remove something that is higher or wider than you

To blow down - when something large (like a house or tree) collapses due to strong wind.

'Many trees blew down in the last hurricane.'

To burn down - when something larger than a person is destroyed in a fire.
'My uncle's house burned down. It was a disaster.'
To cut down = to cut something that is higher or wider than you (a tree or a hedge).
'We need to cut down the tree.'
To knock down - to deliberately make a building (or part of it) fall using a wrecking ball or other tools.

To shoot down - to shoot something higher than you such as a bird or plane with the intention of bringing it down to the ground.

Meaning 3#: To temporarily break something

To break down = a large machine like a car, plane or boat temporarily breaks.
'My car broke down on the motorway.' Down = for temporarily breakage (not a phrasal verb).
'The communications network is down.'

'The coverage is down at the moment, so I can't call you.'

Phrasal verbs with 'out'

Meaning 1#: To exit

To fall out = to exit by falling.
'Don't stand so close to the window, you may fall out.'
To get out = to exit a small space that you can't move in like a car, shower, elevator or bed.
'I always get out of bed in the morning at 7am.'
To break out (of prison) = to exit by breaking.
'It took the main character in the Shawshank Redemption 25 years to break out of prison.'
To take out = to take something outside/ to withdraw money/ to shoot someone in a video game (exiting them from a video game).
'Can you take out the rubbish please?' 'How much money are you going to take out the bank to buy the car?' 'I just took out that guy in the rabbit costume Fortnite. Now there are only three of us left.'
To sell out = all the products exit the shop by being sold.
'The shop has sold out of bread.'
To move out = to move house or apartment (to exit the house or apartment by moving).
'My flatmate is moving out next month and so we have to find someone else to replace her.'
Advanced

To buy out = to exit a business by allowing someone else to buy it completely.
'My uncle owns a grocery store but he let a big supermarket buy out his business.'
To get out = to leave something you're currently inside or a rude way to tell someone to leave.
'Please get out of the car; we have arrived at our destination.' 'Get out of my office! You're fired!'
To pop out = to exit somewhere quickly and then return.
'I am just popping out to buy some bread. Does anyone else want to come with me?'
Meaning 2#: To complete/ to solve
To fill out a form. 'How many forms do I have to fill out to get my VISA?'
To sort out = to organise, arrange or fix something.
'We have to sort out a new router for the WIFI.'
To work out = to solve a problem.
'We'll work out how to fix the program later.'
To figure out = to understand what something is and try to solve it (to decipher something).
'Sherlock Holmes is good at figuring out who committed the crime.'
Meaning 3#: To find something because it is out of immediate experience.

Imagine that you are sitting in the middle of a circle. The circle represents your expertise or what you know on a particular day, or, how far you can see or hear something. The thing you are trying to find, see or hear is OUTSIDE of this circle and so you have to go out the circle to capture/discover it.

To find out about = to look for information outside of your immediate knowledge.
'I don't know what time the train leaves but I will find out.'
Advanced

To make out = to capture sound or something visual which is out of your normal range for these senses.
'I can't make out what she was saying, she was too far away.'
To set out = to try to achieve something new (outside of your circle).
'NASA set out to land on the moon by the end of the 60s.' 'She set out to reorder all the books in the national library - the job took her 6 months!'
Meaning 4#: To hide something, or to keep something from getting close to you.

To cross out = to hide a line of writing by drawing a line through it.
'Cross that out, it was a mistake.' 'I have cross out many things on my to-do list today!'
To keep out = to maintain something outside of a perimeter.
'The sign says "keep out" so we shouldn't enter.'
To block out = to keep an idea out of your mind.
'She has blocked out the car accident. She doesn't remember anything.'
Meaning 5#: To extinguish, or, to lose enthusiasm for something.

To put out a fire = to extinguish a fire.
'It took the firefighters a week to put out the forest fire.'
To fall out of love = when you start a romantic relationship well but then the enthusiasm dies.
'She fell out of love with her husband and eventually they got divorced.'
To run out of something = to temporarily finish something and so you have to buy/obtain more.
'My mobile battery is running out. I need to charge it.' 'We have run out of milk.'
Advanced

To fizzle out = something that you started with lots of energy is now 'dying'.
'The party was great until 11pm, and then it fizzled out.'
To die out = to become extinct.
'How did the dinosaurs die out?' 'I don't know - look it up on Google!'
Phrasal verbs with 'in'

Meaning: 'To enter.'

To break in = to enter by breaking something.
'The thief broke into the museum.'
To move in = to enter an apartment or house by moving into it.
'They moved into a beautiful apartment by the river.'
To get in something = to enter a small space where you can't move around like a car, shower, elevator or bed.
'Get in the car please, it is about to rain.'
Advanced

To get into something = to start a passion or hobby (to enter a passion or hobby).
'He got into jazz music in his 20s.'
To pop in = to quickly go into a shop or house to buy or get something and then come out again.
'I'm just popping into this shop to buy some milk. Do you want anything?'
Meaning two 'to investigate'

To look into something - to investigate.
'We're looking into your car insurance claim now.'
Phrasal verbs with 'away'

Meaning: 'The method in which you leave.'

Most of these examples are not phrasal verbs because the definition of a phrasal verb is that it has to have two meanings.

To back away = to leave but backwards (facing the person you're leaving).
'They backed away from the thief because he had a knife.'
To move away = to leave by moving.
'My best friend moved away to another province and now I barely see them.'
To walk away = to leave by walking (also figurative, 'he walked away from the marriage.)
'The ex-boyfriend and girlfriend hugged each other and walked away.'
To drive away = to leave by driving.
'The taxi left her at the station and drove away into the night.'
To give away = to allow something to leave because you donate it for free.
'They are giving away free tomatoes at the market because they have too many. Let's go and get some.'
To sail away = to leave by sailing on a boat.
'All I want to do is sail away into the distance on a beautiful yacht.'
To run away = to flee.
'The people ran away from the earth quake.'
To throw away = to throw rubbish into the bin. (Can also be used figuratively)

Advanced

To sneak away = to leave by stealth.
'She sneaked away from the meeting.'
To break away = to leave by separating yourself from a bigger entity.
'The politicians broke away from the main party and formed a new party.'T 'My sister never does her homework, but our parents don't notice. She always gets away with it.'
To get away with something = to leave with impunity.
'I'm so stressed, I need to get away.'
To get away = to go on holiday (to escape your normal life).

Also, 'The get-away driver,' in a robbery.
'The dog scared the birds away'.
To scare away = something leaves because it is scared.

Phrasal verbs with 'about' and 'around'

Meaning: To do something with no particular purpose.
'There are those teenagers again, hanging about in the park.'
To hang about/around = to pass time with your friends doing nothing.
'I've been running about all day!'
To run about/around = to run from place to place.
'We walked around Paris all day. It was great!'
To walk about/around = to walk in a place with no purpose.
'Stop messing about and do some work!'
To mess about/ around = to do silly things with no purpose.
'I've been going around the mall all morning.'
To go around = to travel (walk, drive, or cycle) without a direction.
'They spent all week wandering about London. They got lost but it was lots of fun.'
To wander about/around = to walk in a place with no direction, looking at the sights.
Another 'around' verb with a different meaning.
Advanced

To get round to + gerund = to find enough time to do something.

'I will get around to calling my mother later.' (It's on the list but I have to postpone arriving at that task until later.)

Phrasal verbs with 'back'

Meaning: To return.
'She gave back the ring when they ended their engagement.'
To give back = to return something that was given.
'After trying it on at home and deciding he didn't like it, Peter took back the jacket to the shop.'
To take back = to return something that was bought (taken from a shop).
'After washing up the dishes, we put them back on the shelves.'
To put back = to return something that was deliberately put in a certain position.
'Simon called his wife and told her that he was coming back home at 5 pm.'
To come back = to return (from the perspective of the people you are returning to).
'She'll get back to you tomorrow.'
To get back - to return a phone call or other communication.
'Simon told his boss that he had finished his work and he was going back home.'
To go back = to return (from the perspective of the people you are leaving).
'It's going to take years to pay back the money for this car.'
To pay back = to return money by paying.
'After university, my sister moved back home to look for a job.'
To move back = to return to your place of origin by moving there.

Advanced
'I took a break from my diet over Christmas but now it's the new year, I am getting myself back on track.
To get back on track = to return to the "path of success."

Phrasal verbs with 'over'

Meaning 1#: To pass above, through or on something.
'The car ran over the cat and killed it.'
To run over = to pass above something in a car, causing them terrible harm.
'It took me a long time to get over this cold.'
To get over = to recover (to pass through an illness or bad situation and come out the other side.)

To stop over (noun: A stopover) = when a plane stops in a city and then the passengers have to catch another plane to reach their destination. (To pass through another city in a plane, stop there and then leave).

To take over (noun: 'A takeover'). = An outside force takes control of something.'
'OK actors; let's go over this one more time to make it perfect.' PDF Download: The big list of phrasal verbs by preposition pdf download
To go over = to rehearse, or, to look at a piece of information again.

Final thoughts

One final thing, your students don't need to know all of these phrasal verbs. They could probably get by with a much smaller repertoire. But, it is important to teach higher-level students at least the meaning of each preposition so that when they interact with a native speaker they can understand them.

For those students who are sceptical as to why they should learn these prepositions, explain to them that it is for their comprehension.

What phrasal verbs have I missed here that fit these meanings? Or, is there another meaning for a preposition that I haven't included. Post your thoughts in the comments below.

Happy teaching! A.

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How to teach phrasal verbs (so that ESL students remember)

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Phrasal verbs are a verb + preposition, adverb or particle. Teaching phrasal verbs is notoriously difficult because the verb often bears no relation to the meaning. And yet, phrasal verbs are everywhere in English. And so, on some deeper level .

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3 Activities to Teach Phrasal Verbs | ESL Activity