Uploaded May 2021 | Updated September 2026, 10 hours ago
Julian Northbrook is on a mission to change the way people learn English for the better. To get Julian's legendary free daily email tips for speaking better English go to: doingenglish.com/emails
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Transcript:
So, okay, well really, I mean it depends on how you look at it. Phrasal verbs are tricky and I think the only reason that phrasal verbs can be a little more tricky than other “different types” of chunk, and that’s all they are. I mean all languages are “chunk” to a certain extent. We have different names, different things, you know, we talk about idioms and applied linguistics at least, and we talk about lexical bundles, which really, are kind of most “chunk-like-chunk”, I guess. You know, we also talk about collocations, we talk about phrasal verbs, and they’re all really just different names for what is essentially the same thing.
The thing that can make phrasal verbs tricky is that you do get this thing where really they can be, they can either be stuck together or they can have like other “chunks” like embedded into the middle of them. And, you know, whenever I have to come up with an example of something, my head just goes totally blank.
For example, “fall over” can also be “fall right over”, though there are better examples as well. But, really, just my advice is just look at them as just a type of chunk. And try not to worry too much about the distinctions between things because as soon as you start doing that, we really, then, start going back to, really, the old ways of thinking about things and we start to overthink things, and we start to really pay too much attention to it.
And, I mean, phrasal verbs, like many things, is one of those things where all the people say “oh my god, they’re so difficult, they’re so hard” but the reality is, is just like the idioms, the vast majority of phrasal verbs actually really aren’t that frequent. You know, we have some, many, which are like ultra-frequent come up, for example, or I believe the most common in British English is “come on”.
As long as you learn those, and you also understand that they have multiple meanings, just like many types of chunks, I think really that’s going to give you 80-90 per cent of the benefit without having to worry too much about these really, really rare ones which again, really are: one, not that common; two, they tend to have single meanings anyway; and three, I think it’s just chunks and they’re much easier anyway.
A good example would be something like “whip up”, and it doesn’t really make that much sense until you actually think of it as a larger kind of block of English. “Whip up breakfast” meaning to quickly make breakfast. So that’s really just the main advice I’ve got for phrasal verbs, is try not to think of them too much as “phrasal verbs”. Don’t worry about the distinction between things, just really focus on what we talked about in week 4 or week 5.
Learning from real data so that you’re always actually learning samples of natural English that people actually use. And then, using the tools like I introduced you to really understand the, what the frequency of how often that they are used because that’s useful information. Also, you know, the deep meaning—how they’re actually used if they’ve got multiple meanings, it’s worth looking at that as well.
But really, just don’t worry about them too much is the main advice I’ve got there. Does that help?
It’s really the same advice for other things like prepositions as well. If we start to think of prepositions as simply a part of the chunk, suddenly, life becomes much easier. It’s only because we’ve all spent so long looking at prepositions in the dictionary and trying to somehow comprehend these abstract meanings and rules that they have that we struggle with them so much. And as soon as we just let go of that and just think “well they’re just chunks, learn them like that” life is just much easier. Cool. That was a good question Chema, thank you.
#DoingEnglish #JulianNorthbrook #learnEnglish
Julian Northbrook is on a mission to change the way people learn English for the better. To get Julian's legendary free daily email tips for speaking better English go to: doingenglish.com/emails
Go here to get the free training:
doingenglish.com/freetraining
Read the Good Shadowin Guide:
doingenglish.com/shadowing
Transcript:
So, okay, well really, I mean it depends on how you look at it. Phrasal verbs are tricky and I think the only reason that phrasal verbs can be a little more tricky than other “different types” of chunk, and that’s all they are. I mean all languages are “chunk” to a certain extent. We have different names, different things, you know, we talk about idioms and applied linguistics at least, and we talk about lexical bundles, which really, are kind of most “chunk-like-chunk”, I guess. You know, we also talk about collocations, we talk about phrasal verbs, and they’re all really just different names for what is essentially the same thing.
The thing that can make phrasal verbs tricky is that you do get this thing where really they can be, they can either be stuck together or they can have like other “chunks” like embedded into the middle of them. And, you know, whenever I have to come up with an example of something, my head just goes totally blank.
For example, “fall over” can also be “fall right over”, though there are better examples as well. But, really, just my advice is just look at them as just a type of chunk. And try not to worry too much about the distinctions between things because as soon as you start doing that, we really, then, start going back to, really, the old ways of thinking about things and we start to overthink things, and we start to really pay too much attention to it.
And, I mean, phrasal verbs, like many things, is one of those things where all the people say “oh my god, they’re so difficult, they’re so hard” but the reality is, is just like the idioms, the vast majority of phrasal verbs actually really aren’t that frequent. You know, we have some, many, which are like ultra-frequent come up, for example, or I believe the most common in British English is “come on”.
As long as you learn those, and you also understand that they have multiple meanings, just like many types of chunks, I think really that’s going to give you 80-90 per cent of the benefit without having to worry too much about these really, really rare ones which again, really are: one, not that common; two, they tend to have single meanings anyway; and three, I think it’s just chunks and they’re much easier anyway.
A good example would be something like “whip up”, and it doesn’t really make that much sense until you actually think of it as a larger kind of block of English. “Whip up breakfast” meaning to quickly make breakfast. So that’s really just the main advice I’ve got for phrasal verbs, is try not to think of them too much as “phrasal verbs”. Don’t worry about the distinction between things, just really focus on what we talked about in week 4 or week 5.
Learning from real data so that you’re always actually learning samples of natural English that people actually use. And then, using the tools like I introduced you to really understand the, what the frequency of how often that they are used because that’s useful information. Also, you know, the deep meaning—how they’re actually used if they’ve got multiple meanings, it’s worth looking at that as well.
But really, just don’t worry about them too much is the main advice I’ve got there. Does that help?
It’s really the same advice for other things like prepositions as well. If we start to think of prepositions as simply a part of the chunk, suddenly, life becomes much easier. It’s only because we’ve all spent so long looking at prepositions in the dictionary and trying to somehow comprehend these abstract meanings and rules that they have that we struggle with them so much. And as soon as we just let go of that and just think “well they’re just chunks, learn them like that” life is just much easier. Cool. That was a good question Chema, thank you.
#DoingEnglish #JulianNorthbrook #learnEnglish
