Learn how to use the verb "Post"
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| Hi, everybody! Welcome back to Know Your Verbs! |
| My name is Alisha and in this episode, we're going to talk about the verb "post." |
| Let's get started! |
| The basic definition of the verb "post" is to publish or announce something on a sign or something similar to a sign. |
| Examples: |
| "He posted an advertisement on the community bulletin board." |
| "Let's post signs around town!" |
| Now, let's look at the conjugations for this verb. |
| Present: post, posts |
| Past: posted |
| Past Participle: posted |
| Progressive: posting |
| Now, let's talk about some additional meanings for this verb. |
| The first additional meaning is "to share something on social media." |
| Examples: |
| "I saw that photo you posted on Instagram yesterday." |
| "Did you see that message she posted on Facebook." |
| So, when we upload information like photos or messages, tweets, whatever, we can use the verb "post" to talk about that. For Twitter, I suppose, we can use "tweet" as a verb too. You can say, "I posted on Twitter" or "I tweeted…" as well. But "post" is the kind of the general verb we can use for all social media. When we share anything on social media, we can say "I posted (something)" on Facebook, or on Instagram, or on Twitter, or on Snapchat, or on, what else is there, YouTube, posted on Youtube or uploaded it to YouTube, I suppose too. But "post" is the general verb used for social media sharing. |
| So, I think, actually, that this use of "post" comes from the original, like definition which is like to put something in a community sign or like to put something in a community place where many people can see it coz that's the purpose of social media, is to share something so many people will see it. So, I think that use of "post" comes from that basic definition of the verb "post," like sharing something in a community space because we want other people to see it and respond to it. |
| The second additional meaning is "to send something by mail." |
| This is more commonly used in British English, actually. In American English, we tend to use the verb "mail" more often, but in British English, you might hear "post " used. |
| Examples: |
| "Can you post me the documents?" |
| "I posted a few letters today." |
| So here, "post" refers to mailing something, like, "Can you post me the documents?" means can you send me the documents by mail, like physically by mail? |
| The second sentence, "I posted some letters" refers to mailing some letters, sending some letters via mail. So, this is kind of more commonly used in British English. "Post" is more commonly used to mean "mail" in British English. In American English, we tend to use the verb "mail" more commonly. So, depending on the type of English you are studying or you prefer to use, you might make a decision here with this verb, so "post" or "mail." Post (British), mail (American). |
| The third additional meaning is "to send someone somewhere for work." |
| Examples: |
| "He's been posted outside the White House!" |
| "There's security posted around the building." |
| So, you can see in these example sentences, it's kind of work relating to security or to military, to guarding of some kind. We don't really use it for, like a regular office job, like I wouldn't say like I'd been posted to my company's, like branch in Beijing. It sounds a little bit weird. We would say maybe "transfer" or I'd been, like I'd been transferred or I'd been moved to my company's office. |
| When we're talking about, like a specific place, like a job where we need to stand and wait somewhere and it tends to be for like security, military purposes, that kind of thing, we can use the verb "post" to talk about that. |
| It might sound a little out of place if you use "post" for a different job. So these are a couple of examples of ways that you can use "post" to refer to being sent somewhere to do this kind of work. |
| Now, let's move on to some variations for this verb. |
| The first variation is "to keep someone posted." |
| To keep someone posted |
| This means to provide regular updates to someone. |
| Examples: |
| "Keep me posted about your project." |
| "I'll try to keep you posted about my schedule." |
| So, to keep someone posted means to give them regular updates, like you can think back to the original definition of the verb, like post, like sharing information in a community way. To keep someone posted is sort of like to continue to share information. So, as you're working on a project or as you're making progress with something, you share your updates, you share your information, you keep someone posted. So we see that in these sentences. |
| So, in the first one, "Keep me posted about your project," it means please send me updates about your project, I want to know. |
| The second example sentence, "I'll try to keep you posted about my schedule," means I will try to keep you updated, I will try to send you regular updates about my schedule. |
| Let's go on to another variation for this verb. |
| The second variation is "to post bail." |
| To post bail |
| This means "to offer money in exchange for freedom from prison." |
| Examples: |
| "He posted bail and got out of jail immediately." |
| "Many people aren't able to post bail, even for minor crimes." |
| This is a very specific variation. In the US criminal system, there is this thing called "bail." So if someone is convicted, if someone is arrested and has to go to prison because of a crime they committed, there is this thing called "bail." If the person can pay this amount of money, they can be released from prison. They don't have to stay in prison. We refer to paying that money, so that...the name of that money is "bail," but we use the verb "post" here. So, we say "post bail." To post bail means to pay the required amount of money to get out of jail. |
| So, this is a specific phrase that we use only for this type of money, to post bail. We don't use this in another, like financial transaction at all. To "post bail" refers only to paying this amount of money to get out of jail, so this is a very specific one. I don't know if you have bail in your country, but this is something that exists in the US. |
| So, those are a few new ways I hope that you can use the verb "post." Of course, if you have questions or comments or want to practice making sentences, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video. |
| Thanks very much for watching this episode of Know Your Verbs and we'll see you again soon. Bye-bye! |
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