Learn 10 English PHRASAL VERBS with “UP“: dress up, wash up, grow up...

Here in the U.K., we love using phrasal verbs! If you want to speak with us and understand us, you’ve got to learn these English expressions. In this lesson, you’ll learn 10 phrasal verbs with the preposition ’up’ in them. I’ll explain the meaning of each phrasal verb and give you examples of their common usage. You’ll learn ’dress up’, ’drink up’, ’wash up’, ’look up’, ’speak up’, ’read up’, ’grow up’, ’mess up’, ’cook up’, and ’make up’. After the lesson, you can take the quiz on EngVid, where you can also watch many other free lessons on phrasal verbs. TRANSCRIPT Hi. This is Gill at , and in today’s lesson we’re going to be looking at some phrasal verbs using the preposition “up“. So, a phrasal verb, just to remind you, is the verb plus the preposition. So, in this case, the preposition in all of these examples is “up“, so it’s being put with a main verb to turn it into a phrasal verb. Okay? So let’s have a look at what we have here. So, first of all: “Children love to dress up.“ Okay? Children like to put clothes on, maybe their mother’s clothes, put makeup on, ear rings, all sorts of things to dress up. So, that’s the phrasal verb. “To dress up“ is to put sort of special clothes on for, you know, just for fun really. Adults dress up as well if they’re going somewhere special. “Oh, we’ll have to dress up for this party“, put some jewellery on and a long full-length’s dress or a tuxedo with a bowtie, all that sort of thing. Dressing up in special clothes for a special occasion. Okay? Dressing up. Second one: “It’s time to drink up - the bar is closing.“ So, “to drink up“ is to finish your drink. Drink up, you’re putting the glass up like that to finish your drink because the bar is closing and you have to go, so you don’t want to leave your drink there. You want to drink it because you paid for it, so you don’t want to waste it. Okay. “Time to drink up“. Right, now, this is a common complaint that somebody in the household: “He never washes up.“ And we have the noun from this: “the washing up“, which is about washing the dishes after a meal. “He never washes up.“, “To wash up“ means washing all the dishes after a meal. Okay. Now, next one, if there’s a word you don’t know: “I don’t know that word - I’ll have to look it up.“ So the phrasal verb is “to look up“. But you’ll notice that the pronoun “it“ has to go in the middle there. You don’t... You can’t say: “I have to look up it.“ You have to put the pronoun in the middle: “I have to look it up.“ Okay. Right, so and “looking it up“, that means getting the dictionary or using a computer, looking for the word to find the meaning. “Looking it up“ means find the page, look down the page: “Ah, there it is. What does it mean? Ah, okay.“ Looking up, referring to a book or referring to a website to find out the definition. Okay, next one: “I can’t hear you - please speak up.“ Okay? “Speak up“ means get louder, say it louder. “I can’t hear you. Please speak up. Turn up the volume.“ Okay? “Speak up“. Okay, next one, you’re studying and you say: “I’m having to read up on Shakespeare for the test next week.“ So, if you “read up“ on a subject that means you’re reading lots of information about the subject. You’re finding books, you’re finding websites, all sorts of sources to get lots of information, learning all the information, get it into your head for a test, for the test next week. “Reading up“ means to gather information about a subject. Okay. Right. Now, this next one is not a very nice thing to say to somebody, especially if they’re maybe over 40: “When are you going to grow up?“ Okay? It’s okay... If you say it to a child, that doesn’t really make sense because a child hasn’t grown up yet. But people tend to say this to adults because if an adult is behaving in a very silly way like a child, a childish way, somebody might say to them: “When are you going to grow up?“ Meaning become mature. “Grow up“ can mean to get taller, but it also means to become more sensible, more mature, you know, be a more responsible adult person. Okay. Rather than messing about and being silly. All right. Okay, next one: “You’ve really messed that up.“ So, mess... “To mess up“, if you mess up... And again, you’ll see another word comes in between, but this is the phrasal verb: “to mess up“. “To mess something up“ is to do something badly. Just a mess is untidy, not very good. If you mess something up, you’ve made a very bad job of it. You’ve not done it at all well. You’ve done it very badly. Okay. Next one: “What are you cooking up now?“ So, “to cook up“, you might think this is some food that you’re cooking in the kitchen, but in this sense it’s more metaphorical. If you cook something up, you’re planning something.