Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha.
In this lesson, I'm going to talk about phrasal verbs for meetings. I've chosen a few phrasal verbs that you may hear in business meetings or in other kinds of meetings, like at school. I'm going to talk about the meanings of these phrasal verbs, give some example sentences, and share a few tips for how you can use them as well. So, let's get started.
Okay. First, let's begin on this side of the board. The first phrasal verb I want to talk about is "point out," point out. To "point out" something means to mention something specific. So, a helpful image for this phrasal verb is the action of pointing, pointing. So, you can imagine using your finger to point, and then to point out. Like, this motion from your body. To "point out" something means to mention something specific, just as you do when you make a pointing gesture. Like, you're looking at something specific. You're motioning towards something specific. So, when you use "point out" in conversation or in meetings, you're doing that but with your voice, with your ideas. So, you're sharing an opinion. You're sharing something just with your words, and you want to mention that thing specifically. So, you're not making a pointing gesture, but you are like pointing at something with your words.
So, some examples of how we use this. "I want to point out a potential problem." I want to point out a potential problem. So, this means I want to mention, or I want you to notice a potential problem. So, again, it's like doing this gesture, but just with your words. "I want to point out a potential problem." "I want to point out a potential problem." Another example. "She pointed out that we may not have a big enough budget." "She pointed out that we may not have a big enough budget." So, again, she's calling attention to something. So, to "call attention to something" means to pull people's focus to something, to draw focus to something. So, she pointed out that we may not have a big enough budget. So, she mentioned specifically, "we may not have a big enough budget for this project."
Okay. Let's continue to the next phrasal verb. The next one is "set up," set up. You'll notice for a couple, for just a few of the verbs in this lesson, I've marked them with this S. So, this S mark means that you may hear this phrasal verb split. So, that means, in some cases, for some people, they may choose to put words in between the verb and the preposition. So, this is one verb that you may hear split. So, I'll read the example sentences, a couple different ways in just a moment. The meaning of "set up" for this lesson, however -- I've chosen two I want to focus on. Actually, "set up" has quite a few different meanings. But, in the setting of a business meeting or in the setting of another like meeting situation, you'll probably hear it used for these two meanings. There may be a couple others but these are probably uh the most likely.
So, the first one is "to create," to create something, to make something. The second is to assemble the parts of something. Like, to put something together. For example, "We need to set up a team for our new product." "We need to set up a team for our new product." So, this one means create. "Set up" means create here. Another example sentence. "Let's set up the new office furniture." In this case, it's meaning to assembling the parts of something. So, you're putting things together, like furniture. So, "Let's set up the new office furniture." As I said, this is a phrasal verb that can be split. So, for example, you might hear something like, "Let's set the new office furniture up." You might hear that. This one, "We need to set a team up for our new product," is something you may hear, I suppose. Personally, I probably would not split it in this case. I suppose I may split it here for this "creation" meaning, or rather this "assembly" meaning. But, again, some people may choose to split this one. If you're ever not sure, just keep it together. It's I think easier, and there's no chance for a communication problem there. So, this is one you may hear split. Anyway, this use of "set" is for creating things and for assembling the parts of things.
Okay. Let's move on to the next one, "turn out." To "turn out." This one means to be the result of something. And, we use "turn out" at the end of a situation we're talking about the end of an event, the end of a meeting, the end of an agreement, and the end of a contract. So, we use this phrasal verb after something has occurred, after some activities, after an agreement, after something has occurred. And, we want to talk about the result of that thing. So, it doesn't mean directly to end, it doesn't mean to end. But, we want to refer to the endpoint of something. We want to talk about the result of something. So, let's look at some examples of how we use this.
First, "The test version of our app turned out to be full of problems." So, "The test version of our app turned out to be full of problems," turned out to be full of problems. So, here, I'm using "to be" directly after this verb. You may also hear, as in this one, an adjective coming after the phrasal verb. So, this sentence means the test version of our app -- so we had this test version. "App" means application, like smartphone application. We had a test version of the app. We tested the app. And, in the end, the app was full of problems. So, this means after we tested it, we found it was full of problems. So, this is the nuance that's communicated with "turn out." So, even though this sentence doesn't say directly "we tested the app and we tried many different things," using "turned out" kind of shows us that there was some testing, there was something happening there. So, this is a good hint as well. "The test version of our app turned out to be full of problems." So, we kind of link "turned out" to some kind of like noun phrase that gives us a hint about what might have happened in that situation. So, "turned out to be full of problems." "Full of problems," I mean there were lots and lots and lots of problems with it.
Let's look at one more example then. "Our event turned out great! Lots of people came!" So, in this sentence, "Our event turned out great!" "Great" here follows "turned out." As I said, adjectives can follow this. In this case, I've used "to be" as well. You can use both. So, "our event turned out great." So, that means, this event -- whatever it was, it could have been a party, a conference, whatever, that activity happened. So, many things happened at the event. And, in the end, the end result of that was great. The end result was positive. "Lots of people came!" So, here, there's some extra information to give us a hint about why the event was great. So, again, we use "turn out" when we want to talk about the end result of some action or some activity.
Okay. Let's go on to the next one. The next one is "take on," take on. To "take on," in this case, means to accept a responsibility or challenge, to accept a responsibility or challenge. You may also hear this in movies, like maybe superhero movies, when they say like, "I'm going to take someone on." That's like taking a person on as a challenge. Like, they're accepting a challenge. Usually, a fight. So, as you maybe just picked up on, this is another one that some people will split. "To take someone on," or "to take something on," or "to take on someone," "to take on something." You may hear this phrasal verb split.
Some examples. "We're taking on some research projects." "We're taking on some research projects." So, that means this company perhaps has decided to accept the challenge of some research projects. "We're taking on some research projects." So, the difference between like "taking on" and "do," in this case, like "We're doing research projects," versus "We're taking on research projects." Using "taking on" sounds more like there's a challenge related to the situation. It sounds like it's difficult, or it's new. There's some new responsibility relating to the situation. So, both are grammatically correct. Like, "We're doing some new research projects next year." But, "taking on" sounds like it's a bigger step. It sounds like the next thing, or it sounds like the next challenge.
One more example. "He took on a lot of difficult work last year." "He took on a lot of difficult work last year." Here, I'm using it in past tense. The previous sentence used that progressive form, "taking on." So, "he took on a lot of difficult work last year," means he accepted a lot of new challenges or a lot of responsibilities last year. So, we want to maybe talk about that person's maybe personal development or career development over the previous year, we could do that. As I said, this is a phrasal verb that can be split. So, for example -- you might hear like something like this used. "He took a lot of difficult work on last year." So, you might hear it used in that way. Again, personally, I probably would not split this phrasal verb. I would keep "take" and "on" together. I tried to do that anyway just to make sure that everything is very clearly communicated.
Okay. Let's continue on to the next group. The next phrasal verb is "show up." To "show up" means to attend or to participate. Usually in an event, in a meeting. This could be a conference, a party, whatever, "to show up." It could also mean to show up to work, or to show up to school, to attend school, to participate in school. Some examples. "Our manager never showed up today." So, here, I'm using it past tense, in past tense. "Our manager never showed up today." That means our manager never came to work today, did not attend work today. "Our manager never showed up today."
Another one. "Do you think he'll show up at the party?" That means, "Do you think he'll attend the party?" So, we use "show up" a lot in cases where there's kind of like some maybe social discomfort, like there might be some shame, or maybe you have a bad relationship with someone and you're not sure if they're going to come to an event. So, for example, "Do you think he'll show up at the party?" This might be used if like for example, a previous co-worker made a huge mistake, or they really, really had like a bad relationship with someone else on the team, but there's a company party. So, other team members might say, "Do you think he'll show up at the party?" So, that means, "Do you think he'll come?" So, to "show up" kind of has a little bit of a feeling of maybe there's some kind of trouble there, or there's some reason why a person might not attend or might not participate. So, this can have this kind of negative nuance from time to time.
Okay. On to the next one. To "take off," to take off. So, for this lesson, "take off" means to succeed. Like, especially for plans, ideas, new products, new things, generally. So, it might be helpful to imagine another way of using this phrasal verb which is to describe airplanes. Like airplanes, helicopters, and so on. When we're talking about airplanes and helicopters, we describe this motion. The motion of the plane leaving the ground as taking off. So, to "take off" means like to have enough speed to leave the ground successfully. This is kind of the image that you can think of for this phrasal verb. For concepts, for ideas, to succeed, for plans and ideas. So, imagine it's like an idea that is going okay. You start this new idea and it's successful. That's the idea with "take off" for a concept.
Some examples of this. "We were thrilled our new product took off so fast!" "We were thrilled our new product took off so fast!" Here, I'm using past tense, "took off," took off. So, "take off" becomes "took off." "We were thrilled our new product took off so fast," means we were thrilled, we were very happy, we were very excited, that our new product was successful so fast, or our new product became successful so fast. So, that means there's a short time from the launch of the product to the product succeeding. So, it wasn't like a long, long process before the project succeeded, or the product succeeded. It was very quickly. So, to "take off fast."
Another example. "I'm not sure if this idea is going to take off." "I'm not sure if this idea is going to take off." That means I'm not sure if this idea is going to succeed. So, that means maybe, I'm not sure that this idea is going to ever be successful. So, that's kind of a negative feeling. But, "take off" has like that image of something very quickly, or like very quickly. Like succeeding, like going up. So, there's kind of like a big spike, a success spike. You can imagine that. Okay. So, this is "take off." To "take off" for ideas, for ideas.
On to the next one, "rule out." "Rule out" is a tricky one. You may hear from time to time in like policy making, agreement making, and discussions about these kinds of things. The meaning of "rule out" is to exclude, or to eliminate, or to make something impossible. So, the idea here is when you're talking about maybe future -- like if you're talking about the future, you're talking about potential situations in the future, and you want to exclude potential situations. Say, "No, that's not possible," "No, that's not going to happen," you can use "rule out" to describe those things. So, let's take a look at some examples.
First, "We can't rule out the possibility that our clients will reject our proposal." "We can't rule out the possibility that our clients will reject our proposal." So, that means we can't assume, or we can't think it's impossible for our clients to reject our proposal. So, that means it is possible our clients are going to reject our proposal. So, this person is very softly saying, there's a chance the clients are going to reject our proposal, so we need to consider this. It's important to consider this. We can't think it's impossible that they will reject our proposal. So, we can say this nicely with "rule out," we can't rule out the possibility. So this, you might see this specific phrase, "rule out the possibility that," or "the possibility of." So, that means we can't imagine there's no chance of this thing happening. So, "we can't rule out the possibility of," or "we can't rule out the possibility that." You might hear that used a lot with "rule out."
Let's look at one more example. "The failure of this project rules out a budget increase for next year." The failure of this project rules out a budget increase for next year. So, that means this project failed. The failure of this project "rules out," rules out. So, we're saying this project failed. Because of that, a budget increase for next year is impossible. So, this project failing made this other situation impossible. We use "rule out" to describe that. "The failure of this project rules out a budget increase for next year.
Okay. Let's continue on to the next example, or the next phrasal verb rather. Next is to "go over." To "go over" means to review basic information. You're just looking at like the key points of something, you're not looking so much in details. Some examples. "Can we go over last month's budget?" "Can we go over last month's budget?" So, that means, can we just look at the basic information about last month's budget? So, you're not really looking into details maybe. So, this, you might use this to make a request to somebody. And then, maybe later, you do need to go into details, which is fine. But, you can use "go over" to make it sound like you just want to take a quick look at something, a basic information review.
Second example. "We went over the article the magazine wrote about our company." "We went over the article the magazine wrote about our company." Here, past tense. So, "go" becomes "went," just as we would do with a regular non-phrasal verb. So, "we went over the article." "We went over the article," means like we did a basic review. We reviewed the basic information in the article a magazine wrote about our company. So, again, to "go over" something has that feeling of just the basic information being reviewed.
In contrast then is this next phrasal verb, "go through." To "go through" feels like you're reviewing information in detail. So, if you want to "go through" something -- sorry, if you want to talk about something in detail with another person or with a group of people, it's probably better to say "go through it." If you want to just review the basic information, choose "go over." So, let's look at some examples here. "Let's go through the plan step by step." "Let's go through the plan step by step," sounds like you want to look at the details of each item in your plan. So, one by one, step by step, you're going to look at the details of something. So, we wouldn't really say, "Let's go over the plan step by step," or I suppose some people would. But, to me, "go through" sounds like it's a little bit of a more detailed look. Perhaps this depends a little bit on the person. In my case, I would definitely say "go through," if I want to make it sound more like I'm interested in the details of something.
One more example. "He went through the whole contract with me." "He went through the whole contract with me." So, "whole" means 100% of something. The entirety, all of something. So, he went through -- again, I'm using past tense, "go" here. "He went through the whole contract with me," is like saying he gave me all of the details of the contract, 100% of the details of the contract, he explained them to me. Like, he did it together with me. So, not just giving me the information, but together, we reviewed all of the details. So, "go through" and "go over," very similar, quite similar. And, I suppose some people may use them interchangeably. I personally would say I use "go over" to talk about basic information, and "go through" to refer to more detailed things.
Onward. Let's take a look at "lay out," layout. To "lay out," or to "lay something out," means to create like a plan or a schedule. So, this is different from "set up." "Set up" and "lay out" can be used sometimes to mean create, if you're talking about a schedule. You're talking about a schedule or a plan, you could say, "Let's set up a plan," or "Let's set up a schedule." You could use "lay out" in the same way in that sense. But, "lay out" tends to be used almost exclusively for a plan or a schedule of some kind. We don't use "lay out" to talk about like assembling things. We use it to talk about making plans, making schedules, making -- yeah, as we'll see in a minute, campaigns, promotions, that kind of thing. So, "We need to lay out a timeline for development." "We need to lay out a timeline for development." So, a "timeline" means a plan a schedule of when everything is going to be completed. "We need to lay out a timeline for development." So, that means, "We need to create a timeline for development."
Second example. "She laid out a campaign for her client." "She laid out a campaign for her client." So, here, this means she created a campaign for her client. If it's helpful, an image that might be useful is to imagine physically using like pieces of paper, like it could be just a small piece of paper. Like, imagining putting these on a table in front of you to create a plan for something. So, you're making a plan, like you're making a timeline, or you're making a schedule using pieces of paper on a table in front of you. That's the idea with "lay out." So, you're going to "lay something out." And, usually, we use this verb when we're going to show that plan to someone else. So, this might be a helpful image in remembering when to use "lay out," lay out.
Okay. Let's take a look at the next one, "follow up," follow up. To "follow up" means to share or to ask about an update from a past conversation. So, when I say "to share, or "ask about," you can say, "I want to follow up and give an update." Or, you can also say, "I want to follow up and ask for an update." You can use this verb to do both, actually. Some examples. "I want to follow up on my last email." I want to follow up on my last email. So, you can write this in an email, or you can say this to someone. "I want to follow up on my last email." So, you can use this actually if you want to check in with someone and like you have an update for them, or you want to ask them for information. "I want to follow up on my last email. Did you have a chance to look at the files I sent you?" So, that's like a request. Maybe you didn't get a reply from someone. Or, "I want to follow up on my last email. Something has changed." So, you have an update to share. So, that just means you're giving an update, or you're asking about an update. It depends on the next sentence kind of. Another example. "Please follow up with the client tomorrow." "Please follow up with the client tomorrow." So, that means, please give the client an update, or please ask the client for an update. So, "Please follow up with the client tomorrow." So, this is kind of useful. You can use it to mean both giving and asking for an update.
Okay. The last one for this lesson, another one that we can split is "write down," write down. So, to "write down" just means to write usually by hand. When we say "write down," it usually means writing something with a pen and paper by hand somewhere. Some examples. "He wrote down the details of the discussion." "He wrote down the details of the discussion." So, this sounds like in a meeting, someone wrote down -- just wrote on paper with his hand, the details of a discussion. Second example. "Can you write down your name and phone number, please?" "Can you write down your name and phone number, please?" So, you might see this at like the reception of a conference, the reception area. "Can you write down your name and phone number, please?" So, this sounds a little more natural than, "Please…" Like, "Can you write your name and phone number, please?" You could use that. But, I guess, oftentimes, when we make this motion, it is kind of with a downward motion, yeah. So, I think maybe that has something to do with why we use "down." So, "Please write down something." When we're talking about putting things into computers though, we don't use "write down." We might say "take down" instead. Like, "Can you please take down this information?" And, that sounds a little more general. We use the verb "write," specifically, when we're talking about using a pen or a pencil. So, physical objects to make notes.
As I said, this is one that you may sometimes hear split as well. So, "write something down." For example, "He wrote the details of the discussion down," or "Can you write your name and phone number down, please?" So, again, you may hear people split it. But, I again tend to use these together. Like, if you split these and there's a lot of information between "write" and "down," you might get lost a little bit. You might kind of lose the original intention of the verb, like your original plan, your original meaning for the verb. So, I think it's generally better to keep the verb together, keep the two parts of the phrasal verb together. But, again, you may hear some people split this one.
Alright. So, those are some phrasal verbs that you hopefully will find useful in meetings, and in other situations as well. Thanks very much for watching this lesson, and I will see you again soon. Bye-bye.

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