Learn how to use the verb "Fill"
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| First, let's start with the basic... |
| Got another, didn't quite, didn't, couldn't quite fill all the time needed. It's not… |
| Hi, everybody! Welcome back to Know Your Verbs. |
| My name is Alisha and in this episode, we're going to talk about the verb "fill." |
| Let's get started! |
| Let's start with the basic definition of the verb "fill." |
| The basic definition of the verb "fill" is "to put as much as possible into something." |
| Some examples: |
| "Fill this cup with water." |
| "She filled her bag with books." |
| Now, let's look at the conjugations for this verb. |
| Present: fill, fills |
| Past: filled |
| Part Participle: filled |
| Progressive: filling |
| Now, let's talk about some additional meanings for this verb. |
| The first additional meaning is "to take up all the space" or "to spread into a space." |
| Examples: |
| "A delicious aroma filled the kitchen." |
| "Smoke is filling the room! Get out!" |
| So, in these examples, we don't necessarily see, like a physical like object that we maybe pour or that we put into something else. But rather, it's something, some material, or some sort of like conceptual idea, in some cases, that can spread into a space. In this case, with these examples, I'm talking about a room. |
| In the first example, it's a delicious aroma which filled a room. So, we can't see it, but the aroma, so "aroma" means smell, like a nice smell, so a delicious aroma filled the room or filled the kitchen, meaning, the aroma went into all parts of the room. So, not just in one place, but we want to emphasize the aroma, the smell was everywhere, we use the verb "fill" to do that. |
| In the second example sentence, it's about smoke. We see it in the progressive tense. "Smoke is filling the room!" So that means, the room is not yet filled with smoke, but right now, smoke is coming into the room, so smoke is entering the room very quickly. It's spreading into the room, like it might fill the room, so we say, "Smoke is filling the roo, get out! it's a dangerous situation." |
| So, it doesn't have to be a room. It doesn't have to be a physical space. We can also use like mental space as well, like "Don't fill her…" sorry, like "Don't fill her head with crazy ideas," for example. It doesn't mean physically filling someone's head with ideas. It means giving them lots and lots of crazy ideas. So, this can mean a physical space, yes, but it can also refer to conceptual spaces too. |
| The second additional meaning for this verb is "to put a person in a job." |
| Some examples: |
| "Thank you for your interest, but the position has been filled." |
| "We need to fill the position by next month." |
| So here, we see "fill" used with words like position or job. |
| So, "to fill a position" means to find a person to do a specific job. |
| In the first example sentence, it's actually a common expression used to decline someone for a job or used to like reject someone. "Thank you for your interest, but the position has been filled," means we found another person to do the job you applied for. We don't need you, sorry, in other words. So, a job that has been filled is a job for which a person has been found. So, someone has that job, it's done, it's finished. |
| In the second example sentence, "We need to fill this position by next month," it means we need to find a person to do this job. We need to put a person in this position to do this job by next month. |
| So, "to fill a position" refers to getting a person to do a job. |
| Let's go on to the third additional meaning for "fill." |
| The next additional meaning for the verb "fill" is "to fix cracks or breaks in a material with (something)." |
| So, let's look at some examples: |
| "My dentist filled a cavity yesterday." |
| "Let's fill this hole with glue." |
| So, these are kind of specific situations. |
| My first example sentence refers to teeth. So, I said, "My dentist filled a cavity yesterday." A cavity - "cavity" is a hole in your tooth. So, when a dentist fills a cavity, the dentist uses a material to fill the hole, so there's something that's making the hole, like fixed in other words. We're fixing the hole with a material. We use the word "fill" to talk about that. |
| In the second example sentence, "Let's fill this hole with glue," it means there's like maybe a hole in the wall or there's some, I don't know, .small crack or some small hole that needs to be fixed, someone might suggest, let's fill it with glue, so let's put glue inside the hole to fix the hole. |
| So, we can use the verb "fill" to refer to fixing, like cracks or holes or breaks in one material by inserting another material inside. |
| So, the fourth additional meaning for the verb "fill" is "to cause someone to feel an emotion strongly." |
| Examples: |
| "Your good news fills me with joy!" |
| "He heard a scream and it filled him with terror." |
| So, in these example sentences, we see one that's very happy (filled with joy) and another one that's quite scared (filled with terror). So, to be filled with an emotion means it's like that's the one emotion that you feel. You feel that one emotion very strongly. |
| So, in the first example sentence, "Your good news filled me with joy," means like I felt only happiness, I felt joy only. My whole body was full of, I was like made of, my whole body was composed of the emotion of joy. |
| In the second example sentence, however, it's terror, terror. He was filled with terror. Terror is a noun which means fear, but terror is like a step above, maybe two steps above fear. So, "terror," "filled with terror" is like he was very, very afraid, in other words, but we use "filled with terror" to like emphasize. His whole body felt this one strong emotion. Okay. |
| All right! Let's continue on to some variations for this verb. |
| The first variation is "to fill in" or "to fill out." |
| "To fill in" or "to fill out" means "to complete or to write in information." |
| Some examples: |
| "Please fill in the form." |
| "We filled out all the documents." |
| So, "to fill in" or "to fill out" means like to write your information on, usually, like a form, an application. You can use this for physically writing something or you can use it for forms and like documents on the internet as well. This is okay for digital forms, digital information sharing. So, when you need to give your information to someone else using like a form, using some kind of like, I don't know, checklist, some kind of sheet, we can use "fill in" or "fill out" to refer to that. So meaning, complete everything here. |
| The next variation is "to fill someone's shoes." |
| To fill someone's shoes |
| This expression means to be able to do the things another person, usually, your predecessor, the person who came before you, was able to do. |
| Examples: |
| "I don't know if this president can fill the shoes of the last president." |
| "Do you think she'll be able to fill her mentor's shoes?" |
| So, this expression doesn't actually mean someone's foot being able to fill their predecessor's shoes. It doesn't mean that at all. It means, is this person, the current person going to be able to do the things their predecessor did. |
| So, in the first example sentence, "I don't know if this president can fill the shoes of the last president," means I don't know if this president is going to be able to do the same things that the last president was able to do. So that means like the last president was a very capable person, could do many things, or had like a positive role. So this usually means that like the predecessor was a, kind of like honorable or maybe could do their job really well. It has a good nuance to it. So, to fill someone's shoes is like to be able to do the same thing at the same level. |
| In the second example sentence, "Do you think she'll be able to fill her mentor's shoes?" It's a question about someone's ability to do the same things her mentor did or does, we don't know. But again, like, can she do the things her mentor is able to do? |
| You might also hear the expression, "big shoes to fill," big shoes to fill which we don't tend to use like in a sentence. We'll just say like, "Oh wow, you have big shoes to fill," meaning, your predecessor, the person who came before you set a very high level for their job or maybe in their lifestyle, like they were really honorable or good person or very good at their job. So, if you hear the expression, "Wow, he has big shoes to fill," it doesn't mean like actual foot size. It means they have like a big expectation to live up to. Hmm, interesting phrase. |
| Okay. That's it! So, those are a few new ways I hope for you to use the verb "fill." I hope you found something new and interesting. Of course, if you have any 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! |
| I'm gonna fill this room with some air...coz it's hot. |
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