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Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody.
Welcome back to Know Your Verbs.
My name is Alisha.
And in this lesson, we're going to talk about the verb swing.
Let's get started.
Let's begin with the basic definition of the verb swing.
The basic definition is to move from side to side or backwards and forwards, usually from a point.
Examples.
The door suddenly swung open.
My laundry is swinging in the breeze.
Now let's look at the conjugations for this verb.
Present, swing, swings.
Past, swung.
Past participle, swung.
Progressive, swinging.
Now let's take a look at some additional meanings for this verb.
The first additional meaning is to move something, to try and hit something.
So the movement happens in order to try and hit something else.
Examples.
He swung his golf club at the ball.
A drunk person at the bar swung at my brother.
So first, let's look at this golf example sentence.
So he swung his golf club at the ball.
This refers to the swinging motion that is used to swing a golf club.
So the piece of equipment used when playing golf is called a golf club.
So this motion, this swinging motion is used to try to hit the ball.
So when we describe this, we can say he swung his club at the ball.
In other words, he swung his club in order to try and hit the ball.
So we make this shorter by saying he swung his club at the ball.
In cases like this, too, where it's very clear from the situation, like a golf situation, we sometimes drop the object that is being swung.
So he swung at the golf ball, for example, that's a pretty clear situation.
You don't always need to describe the object or the thing that is being moved.
We see an example of this in the second example sentence.
A drunk guy at the bar swung at my brother.
So in this case, swung at my brother doesn't include like the object that was moving.
In cases like these, we have to guess from the situation what the object is or what is being moved.
In this case, however, this is a great example of when to take a swing at someone or to swing at someone means to try to punch someone.
So the object here is someone's arm trying to punch my brother in this case.
So you might hear cases where there doesn't seem to be an object, a clear object described in the sentence that's actually moving.
But you can kind of guess based on context, you can kind of guess based on the situation.
So here it's a drunk person in a bar who swung at my brother.
This probably means he tried to start a fight or tried to swing his arm to punch my brother.
Let's move on to the next additional meaning.
The next additional meaning is to make arrangements for something or to persuade people.
Let's look at some examples.
Do you think you can swing a 3pm meeting? They swung a surprising number of voters.
So in the first example sentence, do you think you can swing a 3pm meeting means do you think it's possible to arrange a 3pm meeting? When we use swing, it sounds like it might be difficult to make those arrangements, but perhaps through making some changes or like telling some people a few different stories, for example, you might be able to make a change in the situation.
So swing can sometimes have a little bit of like a negative nuance, a very small negative nuance in this case, like I can make some changes like to accommodate your request, I can make some arrangements.
So you might make arrangements at the expense of someone else in this case.
So do you think you can swing a 3pm meeting is like do you think you could change your schedule a little bit to suit my schedule? That's sort of what this sounds like.
So to swing could mean a little bit of like changing in some way that might not necessarily be positive.
In the second example sentence, the arrangements are more about persuading people.
So we commonly see the verb swing used in politics, actually.
So when we swing someone, it means we persuaded someone like we were able to arrange the situation to influence a person.
So to swing a voter means to persuade a voter to change his or her opinion.
So you've like arranged a situation.
And through that arrangement, you've convinced someone or you've persuaded someone to do something.
So the sentence they swung a surprising number of voters means they were able to influence a surprising number of people through the situation that they created.
So this is kind of an interesting political word to swing voters like to change opinions by persuading, making special arrangements to persuade people.
Let's continue on to the next additional meaning.
The next additional meaning is to change from one condition to another.
Examples.
His moods swing quickly when he's tired.
The team's attitude swung from disappointment to happiness when they heard the news.
So this use of swing commonly refers to emotions.
This use of swing commonly refers to emotions, changes in emotions.
In the first example sentence, his moods swing quickly when he's tired.
Moods refers to the way a person feels, happy, sad, angry, disappointed.
So when someone's moods swing quickly, it means they change their mood.
It means like they change their feeling, their emotion quickly.
So we use swing here to show that it's like a back and forth motion much like the original meaning of the verb swing.
So when we say that someone's moods swing or like their moods swing quickly, it means like they go from happy to angry, happy to angry very quickly especially when tired as in this case.
So it's usually between like two states, two conditions.
We see this in the second example sentence too.
The team's attitude swung from disappointment to happiness when they heard the news.
So in this case, it's moving in one direction.
They don't swing back to disappointment but they swung their mood.
It means there was a change in their condition.
So it sounds like kind of there's maybe two sides, two sorts of like opposite ends you can kind of imagine and the condition changes across like those two points, those two conditions, those two statuses.
So when you hear swing used in this way, it commonly refers to changes in emotional condition.
Okay, so let's move on to some variations then.
The first variation is to swing around.
To swing around means to turn around very quickly.
Some examples, he swung around when he heard a noise in the hall.
She swung around and headed toward the exit.
So to swing around is, I've used it in past tense here, swung around means to quickly turn around.
So it's not so much like this swinging motion we've talked about thus far in the lesson, rather to swing around is like to quickly turn 180 degrees and face the opposite direction.
In the first example sentence, he swung around when he heard a noise in the hall.
It means he turned around quickly when he heard a noise in the hall.
So swung around is a quicker, easier way to say he turned around quickly.
He swung around when he heard a noise in the hall.
In the second example sentence, she swung around and headed for the exit.
To head for an exit means to move in the direction of an exit.
So she swung around means she quickly turned around and began moving toward the exit.
So when you want to describe someone turning quickly, you can use to swing around to do that.
The next variation is to swing by a location.
This means to quickly stop at a place.
Examples, I'm gonna swing by the store on the way home.
She swung by the bar after work.
So when we use a swing by, it means we're making a quick stop somewhere like we're not planning on staying somewhere long.
We often use this when we are running errands.
To run errands means to go to a few different places to take care of small tasks.
For example, going to the supermarket, to the post office, to the gym, I don't know, other places that people might need to go to for small periods of time.
So we use swing by to mean make a quick stop like I'm gonna swing by the store.
Store means supermarket by the way.
We don't say supermarket usually, we say store.
So when we say I'm gonna swing by the store on my way home, it's like I'm going to pick up a few small things at the store very quickly on my way home.
The second example sentence, she swung by the bar after work, sounds like she made a quick stop at the bar after work.
So like maybe she went to the bar, she had one drink and then headed home.
So to swing by means just to make a quick short stop somewhere.
This is very common.
This was used a lot in my house when I was growing up.
My parents used it a lot to like communicate their needs, what we needed from the store, what we needed done like I'm gonna swing by the store, do you need anything? This was a very common expression in my house growing up.
So I hope it's useful for you too.
Okay, we'll finish there.
So those are hopefully a few new ways for you to use the verb swing.
If you have any questions or comments or want to practice making an example sentence, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video.

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