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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 write. Let's get started.
Let's begin with the basic definition of the verb write.
The basic definition of the verb write is to create characters on a surface. Some examples, write your phone number here.
I haven't written a letter in a long time.
Now let's look at the conjugations for this verb. Present, write, writes, past, wrote, past participle, written, progressive, writing.
One note about this verb and the conjugations of this verb is about the past participle form. It's spelled W-R-I-T-T-E-N.
But in pronunciation, we tend to say written, written. We don't say written, written.
It's very hard to say that quickly. So we use written instead.
It sounds more like a D sound almost. So the T sound is very soft.
When you're speaking, try to use written instead of written. It's very hard to say.
So one extra pronunciation point for this verb.
Let's continue along to some additional meanings now.
The first additional meaning is to communicate with written information. Some examples.
The author wrote that he enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant. Write me when you get home.
So we use the verb write here to just mean communicate with me in a letter form or in written form.
So while you might not see a sentence like this, write me when you get home, you might not see this so much in modern English.
This is the reason why this verb might be chosen.
You might, however, see or hear this in movies or in TV shows that are set in times before the internet, before communication.
So if characters say like, please write me when you arrive, that's what this means.
The first example sentence, however, shows a modern day example.
The author wrote about the atmosphere in the restaurant.
So that means the author communicated an idea in written form about the atmosphere of the restaurant.
So if it's helpful for you, you can kind of think of the verb write as like say, but for information that's written down.
So we use say for things that we verbalize, we actually speak, but when we're writing, we can use write kind of to report that.
So the author wrote that he enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant is like saying the author said he enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant, but it's for written information, not spoken information. So we use write in this way.
The next additional meaning is to compose music, to compose music. Let's look at some examples. Rachmaninoff wrote epic piano pieces.
Have you ever written any music? So this use of write is specifically for music.
We might use the verb make music, but that tends to mean actually creating sound.
When we're talking about writing music, we actually mean like putting pen to paper or using a software, for example, to create notes on a page.
When we talk about writing music, it actually means like creating something for someone else to read in order to make that music.
So writing music and playing music or making music can be different things.
In the first example sentence, Rachmaninoff wrote epic piano pieces.
Rachmaninoff is a very famous or was a very famous composer.
So we use wrote to show that he composed, he actually put on paper all the notes, all of the markings to create these epic pieces.
Epic means like really, really amazing big long pieces.
In the second example sentence, it's a question.
Have you ever written any music? So this is a question asking if the other person has the experience of putting a pen to paper or using software to record notes and other marks so that someone else can play that music.
Let's move along to some variations with this verb then.
The first variation is to write somebody or something off.
This means to decide that someone or something is not going to be useful.
Some examples, don't write people off just because they're young.
The company wrote off the project saying it was a waste of time.
All right, so when we write off a person or write off a thing like a project, it means we decide that that thing or that person is not useful or is not important.
So this does have a very negative nuance about it. The first example sentence is a piece of advice. Don't write people off just because they're young.
So another way of saying this sentence could be, don't assume or don't think that someone is useless or not important just because they're a young person.
So in other words, you should treat everyone with respect is kind of the idea here, or don't assume that they don't know anything.
In the second example sentence though, it's a statement.
So the company wrote off the project saying it was a waste of time, meaning the company decided that the project was not important or it was useless.
And the nuance as well, the feeling here is that the project maybe is canceled or the project is suspended.
There's some reason the project is not going to continue.
So to write something off is to like assume that it's just not worth your time.
So this does have a very negative feeling.
There's another similar use of this expression to write something off that's used when talking specifically about money.
There are actually a couple different ways to use this, but one common way that it's used in business is to talk about accepting a loss.
So for example, we tried to collect the debt from our client but after months of no contact, we wrote it off as a loss.
So to write something off as a loss, here it's past tense wrote something off as a loss means to accept a loss.
So in business terms and money terms, that means to accept not receiving money. It's a loss, you're losing money. So this is very specific.
It's used for money and perhaps for legal and business related terms.
So you might hear more commonly in media writing someone or something off in terms of not thinking they're important.
But if you do hear it related to money and business and deals and trades, it could mean just accepting a loss, accepting a monetary, a money related loss.
Let's move along to our next variation. The next variation is to write somebody up.
This phrasal verb means to report someone in writing for wrongdoing.
Examples, the manager wrote him up for repeated absences. The teacher's gonna write us all up if you don't stop talking.
So to write somebody up means like to give a bad report of someone's behavior.
So to write somebody up is used when someone did something bad or something against the rules or they've made someone angry, like an authority figure angry and they submit a report about that behavior.
So it's a bad thing to get written up means like you did something wrong and someone reported that about you.
We tend to use this in school or perhaps in work situations.
We don't use this so much in like legal situations.
It could be used for legal situations, but I think in those cases, we would probably just use like report, like to file a report, for example, or to make a report about someone.
To get written up sounds like there's some kind of trouble, like a school related problem, for example, but we probably wouldn't use this in serious situations, serious wrongdoing.
It's used more for like minor, like kind of internal organization related offenses.
So in the first example sentence, we see a past tense example.
The manager wrote him up for repeated absences.
So in this case, an employee repeatedly missed work, repeated absences and absence means missing work.
So the manager wrote him up for repeated absences.
Another way to say that is he got written up for repeated absences.
So you can change the subject of your sentence a little bit too.
The second example sentence though is a bit of advice. It's a plea, a request to other classmates.
The teacher is gonna write us all up if you don't stop talking.
So the idea here is that maybe there are a lot of noisy kids in a classroom and one person is really worried about getting written up.
So they say the teacher is gonna write us all up if you don't stop talking.
So that's saying to the classmates, please stop talking, I don't want to get in trouble.
The next variation is to write somebody out of something.
This means to fail to include someone in a written document or other media.
This is used when someone is expected to be included in the document or was included in that media in the past.
Some examples, my parents wrote me out of their will.
The actor's character was written out of the show.
So let's look at the first example sentence. My parents wrote me out of their will.
Let's look first at this vocabulary word will. Will used as a noun here refers to a very specific legal document.
This document details, gives information about what to do if the person who wrote the will dies.
So if I die, there's a document that explains what should happen like with my house or with my money or with my objects, my possessions, that's a will.
So when we write people into our will, which is the opposite of this expression, when we write people into our will, we include people in that process.
So if I die, for example, I write my brother into my will and I specify my brother gets X, Y, and Z.
That's writing someone into your will.
The opposite here, however, is to write someone out of a will.
My parents wrote me out of their will means my parents did not include me in their will.
In other words, if my parents die or if something happens to my parents, I'm not going to get anything from my family.
So this is kind of a common expression of surprise.
Like we typically expect to be included in our family's wills as family members.
So to be written out of a will is quite shocking for many people.
The next example is the actor's character was written out of the show.
This is used if an actor needs to leave a show or an actor is fired from a show, for example.
In this case, it's not a written document.
In this case, it's a piece of media like TV, for example.
So an actor who is written out of the show or the actor's character who is written out of the show means the people who are writing the show, writing the script for the show, choose to write the show in such a way that the actor's character disappears.
So the actor's character is written out of the show. They are no longer a part of the story.
So you might see this relating to like media scandals sometimes.
We've seen a little bit of that over the last few years with people who are involved in scandals and then they have to be removed from their TV show.
So we can use to write someone out of a show to explain that situation.
All right, so I hope that you found a few new ways of using the verb write.
Of course, if you have any questions or comments or want to practice making some example sentences with this verb, please feel free to do so. Also, this verb has a lot of phrasal verbs.
So if you want some more information about this verb and the other ways you can use it, please check a dictionary. I highly recommend that.
Of course, if you liked this video, please don't forget to give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel and check us out at EnglishClass101.com for other resources for your English studies.
Thanks very much for watching this episode of Know Your Verbs and we'll see you again soon.

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