Phrasal Verbs with Go - EnglishClass101

Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody! My name is Alisha.

In this lesson, I’m going to talk about phrasal verbs that use “go.”

So, remember, a phrasal verb is a [verb] + [a preposition] and then, sometimes, something extra. So, today, I’m going to introduce a few common phrasal verbs with “go,” that maybe you haven’t heard of. There are quite a lot with this verb, so I want to introduce some that hopefully, you can use right away.

Let’s get started!

Okay. The first phrasal verb I want to talk about is “go ahead.”

Go ahead

This means permission or encouragement to do something before others.

So, I’ve noticed on this channel, for example, many viewers like to use “go ahead,” but they mean “please continue.” “Go ahead” does not have the meaning of “please continue (something).” It means feel free to do something before me.

So, an example of using “go ahead” might be:

“Go ahead and eat!”

For example, I’m going to be home late today, go ahead and eat dinner. So, “go ahead” means before me. So, “Go ahead and (do something).” We’ll follow go ahead, oftentimes with “and.” Go ahead of me and do something, some verb will follow this. So, in this case, “Go ahead and eat” is a very common way that we use this one.

Okay. Let’s move along to the next phrasal verb which is “go along with.”

To “go along with (something)” means to temporarily, temporarily means for a short time only, to temporarily believe something that may be false. So, here, I put “maybe false.” This could be a story, it could be a plan, it could be like just the way that someone is behaving. But this means to temporarily believe. So, yes, temporarily can be a very short time, but this could be over weeks, months, or years. So, it’s something that perhaps has an endpoint at some point in time that doesn’t have to be very soon, but you temporarily believe or you pretend to believe something.

Here is an example:

“I don’t want to go along with this plan.”

So here, there is a noun phrase. “I don’t want to go along with this plan” means I don’t want to pretend this plan is okay. So, kind of the feeling here of “to go along with (something)” is that you’re believing it and you’re, like, pretending that you’re agreeing with that thing or you’re participating in that thing.

So, “to go along with (something),” it can have a negative meaning. It can also have kind of like a positive feeling, like for example, a surprise birthday party, like we need her to go along with the idea that she’s not meeting her friends today, for example, like we need her to temporarily believe she’s not meeting her friends. But it can have a negative feeling like here, I don’t want to go along with this plan. Maybe the plan is bad or the plan is kind of evil, somehow.

So, “to go along with (something)” is to believe something or to, like, continue doing something, to pretend to agree with something that may not be true.

Okay. So, let’s continue on to the next phrasal verb. The next phrasal verb is “to go around.”

To go around

This has two meanings, actually. The first is to be enough for a group, to be enough for a group. The second one is one that you probably or maybe already know, which is to move past something by moving around it. So, there’s some obstacle that you face and you move around that obstacle. So, that one is probably a little easier to understand, moving around physically in an obstacle in order to pass the obstacle. However, the one I want to focus on for this lesson is this one, to be enough for a group, “to go around.”

So, in an example sentence:

“Do we have drinks to go around?”

So here, “Do we have drinks to go around?” as a question, means - do we have enough drinks for all the people in our group? So, “go around” is a shorter way to say that. So, you can imagine, if you have a group of people in a circle, you can, like, give each person one of something. So, that means to go around. There’s enough of something to go around.

You will sometimes hear people include “enough” in a phrase like this. “Do we have enough drinks to go around?” So, this refers to having enough of something for everyone in a group.

Okay. Let’s move along to the next expression.

The next phrasal verb is “go away.”

Go away

This is probably one that many of you know. To go away is often used as a command without the “to,” just go away, command form. So, it means to move away from the current location, like to move away from the whiteboard, for example, or to move away from the camera. So, you’re moving away from something, so you’re not getting closer. It’s the opposite direction. But like I said, we often use it as commands, so to tell someone to go away, to tell a pet to go away.

Another example:

“I wish these bugs would go away.”

So, in other words, go away from me, go away from me, from the speaker. So, when we say go away and it doesn’t have this kind of like reference point, it tends to mean like from the speaker’s location. So, I wish these bags would go away from me.

Okay. Let’s move along to the next phrasal verb.

The next one is “go back” or “go back to.”

So, you’ll see these both used. So, to “go back to (something),” let’s use that.

“To go back to (something)” means to return to a previous location or you can use it for a phase, like a step in a project, or you can use it for a person. To go back to a person, to go back to a certain phase of your project, to go back to a place.

So, we use this when we’ve made progress in some way or we’ve changed our life in some way and we returned to something that we did earlier or we returned to a person that we associated with, earlier.

When we use this expression to talk about people, it’s often because we’re talking about a romantic relationship.

Like for example:

“He went back to his ex-girlfriend.”

Or, “She went back to her former boss,” for example.

So, there’s something that, like we knew in the past, we knew is true about the person in the past and they returned to that point. So, we can use “go back to” to refer to that.

More commonly perhaps though, is when we just want to return to something we saw earlier.

For example:

“Go back to slide 2, please.”

So, if you’re giving a presentation, you could say:

“Go back to slide 2.”

Please return to slide 2, so everyone saw slide 2, I, the speaker or the presenter, want to return to that slide for some reason.

So, “go back to (something)” is to return to something.

Okay. Let’s move along to another one that’s very similar.

So, we talked about “go back” or “go back to.”

Now, let’s look at “go back on.”

So, to “go back on (something)” is to choose not to do something as promised. So, we tend to use this expression with promises or agreements of some kind. So, to go back on a promise means you make the promise and then your actions do not align with the promise.

So, in an example sentence:

“The president went back on his promises.”

So, to go back on his promises. This means the president made a promise and the president’s actions did not match that promise. So, for example, the president of the company said he would give all employees their birthday off and then the president decided not to do that in the end. So, he made a choice here, she made a choice not to make that birthday policy happen. So, that would be an example of the president going back on his promise. So, choosing not to do a thing that you promised to do.

In some cases, people will do the opposite of what they promised to do. We can use that as well.

So, “to go back on” and “to go back to” are quite different.

Keep in mind, “to go back on” always sounds quite negative. “To go back to” doesn’t necessarily sound negative, it can, depending on what is being returned to. Like if a person is going back to a negative relationship, for example, it could feel negative. But “to go back on” does have that negative feeling of, like, betrayal.

Okay. So, let’s continue onto the next phrasal verb, which is “go for.”

To go for (something)

“To go for (something)” means to try to obtain (something) or (someone), to try to get (something) or to try to get (someone).

So, when I say “to get (someone)” here, this can mean, like, to get someone as, like a boyfriend or a girlfriend, or it can mean to try to get someone to participate in something. So, you want someone to join, like a party or a conference or something similar, you can use this expression, in that case.

So, let’s look at an example:

“She’s going for the gold medal.”

So, very common in the Olympics and sporting events in general.

“She’s going for…”

Here, I have the progressive tense, “she’s going for.” That means she’s trying to get the gold medal. She’s going for the gold is also a way that we say this. So, in this case, it’s an object.

If you want to use it to talk about a person, you could say like:

“Oh, I tried to go for that girl (or that guy) across the room, but he (or she) wasn’t interested,” for example.

So, you’re trying to get or you’re trying to attract a person.

Okay. Let’s move along to the next one, which is “go in on.”

To go in on (something)

Careful, “go back on” and “go in on” are quite different.

“Go in on (something)”

“To go in on (something)” means to become one of a group of people investing in something. So, investing, in many cases, this means investing money in something, in probably most cases with this expression. So, you, and some other people have decided you all want the same thing and you invest your resources in that thing.

In example:

“I went in on a shared office.”

So here, we have past tense, “I went in on a shared office.” So, “shared office” is the thing that each person wants in this group. We don’t know how many people, but we use “I went in on.” This shows us that there are other people who want the same thing, but we don’t have to mention the other people.

“I went in on a shared office.”

So, I invested money, perhaps, time, effort, resources, in order to get this shared office with other people.

So, “to go in on (something),” it does have, kind of a cooperative feeling about it. It’s neither positive nor negative, really.

Okay. Onto the next one.

The next one is “go off.”

To go off

So, “to go off,” when you’re talking about people, “to go off” means to lose your temper, means, like to shout or to yell angrily, “to go off.”

You’ll also hear when something goes off, it could be like an alarm, like the alarm went off this morning. So, it has kind of the same feel though, like when a person goes off, they lose their temper, they shout, they scream. When an alarm goes off, it makes a lot of noise. So, you can imagine sort of like an object losing its temper or an object making a lot of noise as well. So, we can use this for a few objects, but we use it a lot for people’s tempers as well, their emotions.

Example:

“A guy went off at a cop.”

So, here, you’ll see, yes, I’ve used it in the past tense, “A guy went off at a cop.” We can use “at” after this to show the recipient of the anger. So, in this case, a cop. So, a cop is slang for a police officer. So, a guy went off, lost his temper at a police officer.

I’ve used “at” here. We will also hear “on” like “My mom went off on me” is another common one or “My mom went off at me.” You might hear both of those. I think I probably use “on” more often, but you may hear “at” as well.

So, “to go off on (someone)” means to lose your temper with someone.

Okay. Onto the next one. The next one is “to go out.”

To go out

So, “to go out” means just to leave your home, to leave your home. So, this can be used, I feel, positively to refer to doing activities outside of your house. It’s like you’re going to do something fun.

For example:

“Why don’t we go out tonight?”

So, this is one that you can use when you’re thinking about, like planning activities, so let’s go out or we went out to a movie last night, for example. So, “to go out” sounds like you’re out and about, doing things.

Okay. Let’s move on to the next one then.

The next one is the expression “go together.”

To go together

So, yes, this does mean to physically go to another location with someone, like let’s go together. Let’s go to the movies together. But this also has the meaning of suiting, like to suit, or to combine well, to suit or to combine well. So, we use this a lot for clothing, actually.

So, a really common example sentence with clothing:

“Do these shoes and this shirt go together?”

So, the speaker here is asking about two things, a pair of shoes, these shoes (the plural), and this shirt. So, the speaker is asking, do these two sorts of parts to my look go together?

So, one point to be careful about, “go together” does not mean “match.” So “to match” means two things are exactly the same, 100% the same. “To go together” means they combine well, they combine nicely, they look good together.

So, you’ll often hear people actually drop this “together.”

People will sometimes say like:

“Do these shoes and this shirt go?”

“Do they go?

Instead of “go together.” So, when we say “go” in this way, it means do they suit each other, like do they combine nicely? So, we use this a lot for talking about our clothes and for our appearance. So, keep an eye out for this one. It’s quite common.

Okay. Let’s move on to the next one, “to go with (something)” or “to go with (someone).”

To go with or to go- I’m sorry. “To go with something, to go with someone” means to choose, to choose. We use this a lot in restaurants and kind of in any situation where we’re making plans.

Like for example:

“I’m gonna go with the steak.”

So here, I have “go with” followed by the object the speaker chooses.

“I’m gonna go with the steak.”

So, I chose the steak or I choose the steak.

If you’re using this to talk about a person, you might be planning something, like you’re planning a team, like I’m gonna go with person A for this role in my company or this role at the event. I’m gonna go with person B for this role. So, when you’re choosing people or maybe you’re choosing teams for something, you could use “go with.” It sounds kind of like a casual way of choosing someone. Instead of choose, like I choose this person, I choose that person, using “go with” sounds a little bit lighter, a little less formal.

Okay. So, let’s continue to the last one in this list, which is “go without.”

To go without

So, “to go without (something)” means to do something without typical items or typical people. So, there’s some, like common task, some kind of well-known task or well-known activity, but you have to do that thing without something that you usually use.

So, an example:

“I had to go without rain gear for my hike.”

So, imagine, it’s a rainy day and the speaker had to go on this hike, but without his or her rain gear, with no rain gear, without using this thing that he or she usually uses.

So, “to go without (something),” this does have a negative nuance that this thing that I need or this thing that I prefer to have, that it’s common to have, I did not have that for a task or an activity that I was doing. So, “to go without (something).”

In another example, like maybe I could say:

“I had to go without a microphone for this lesson.”

Like it would maybe make it less of a good experience. The experience would not be as good or it would be difficult to do things. So, “to go without (something)” does tend to sound a little bit more negative.

Okay. So, this is a lot of information, I know, but this is just a quick introduction to some phrasal verbs that use the word “go.” If you have any other questions or if you want to know some more about other phrasal verbs that use “go,” I would highly recommend checking a dictionary. There are a lot of words, a lot of expressions that use “go,” so please take a look at a dictionary for some more information and some more example sentences as well. Of course, if you have questions or comments or if you want to practice making an example sentence, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video.

Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon. Bye-bye!

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