Mentionsy

Hi there, this is Teacher Lab Podcast episode 308.

You read English, you understand English, you've been learning for years, but when it's time to speak, your mind just freezes and the words don't come out.

Today we're going to look at phrasal verbs, but not in the usual way.

We're not just memorizing long list of words, instead we're going to study five really powerful phrasal verbs and here's why this is very smart.

Because the brain loves patterns.

So every time you hear put off...

put off your brain starts building a little map it says to itself imagine your little brain or your big brain of course your brain is saying oh yes that's when i delay a meeting you know to put off a meeting or

It puts me off.

So the more connections you make, the faster you remember.

And the easier it is to use the word in a conversation.

So think of this lesson as training your brain to be flexible.

Before we begin, I have to invite you to another free live class with me.

We're meeting on the 28th of September 2025 at 8.20pm.

Check out the links below or simply go to teacherola.com forward slash chat to sign up.

BRING UP.

You're at a family dinner, everyone is eating peacefully and suddenly your cousin says So, what do you think about the election?

Boom, he just brought up politics.

Or imagine you're in a meeting at work, everything's going well, but you know there is a problem with deadlines.

you take a deep breath and say i'm sorry but i need to bring this up we're going to be late with the project

That's the perfect moment to use bring up.

Bring up, again, it means to start a new topic.

Listen to these sentences.

She always brings up politics at family dinners.

I didn't want to bring up the problem, but it was important.

Can we not bring up my ex-boyfriend right now, please?

Go to the comments section and let me know what are the topics you never bring up.

The second meaning of bring up is to raise a child.

Someone asks you about your childhood, let's say, and then they say, where were you brought up?

Where were you brought up?

and that means where did you grow up, who raised you.

For instance, I was brought up in a small town by the sea.

My grandparents brought me up after my parents moved away.

It's not easy to bring up kids today.

Take up.

The first one to start a new activity or hobby.

Imagine you're chatting with a friend over coffee and she tells you I've just taken up running.

I've just taken up

running so she has just started this new activity or hobby that's how people use it or in january when everybody is talking about their new year's resolutions you can say i don't know i want to take up pilates this year three examples listen i took up pilates last year and i love it

He is thinking of taking up Spanish classes in the evening.

During the lockdown many people took up baking bread.

Have you taken up a new sport or hobby recently?

Let me know in the comments.

The second meaning of take up is to use space or time.

So you're standing in your living room looking at your big ass sofa and you sigh.

This sofa takes up so much space.

Emails take up half of my day.

So they use the space or they use your time.

This sofa takes up too much space in the living room.

Work takes up most of my time.

Answering emails takes up a big part of my day.

The third meaning of take up is to accept an offer or challenge.

You smile and answer, OK, I'll take you up on that.

Or your company offers you training and you accept it.

You take up the offer.

You take up the offer.

I think I'll take up their offer of a free trial.

He took up the challenge and ran a marathon.

They offered her a new job and she decided to take it up.

Three, put off.

Of course, I've got more than one meaning.

I've got two and the first one is to postpone something.

Can we put it off until next week?

You're talking about your kids' homework and you say to them, don't put it off until Sunday night.

We had to put off the meeting until next week.

Don't put off your homework until the last minute.

She keeps putting off going to the dentist.

The second meaning of put off is to make someone dislike something.

You're about to take a seat and suddenly you notice a terrible smell.

The smell has put you off eating there.

You might say later, honestly, his behavior put me off working there.

Put me off.

So he or the smell made you dislike this place, dislike this situation, dislike this person.

Listen to these.

The bad smell put me off the restaurant.

His rude comments put me off working with him.

I was put off by the long queue, so I didn't go in.

Come up with.

There's just one meaning of the verb I need you to remember and be able to use and it's to invent or think of an idea, a plan or an excuse.

Here's the situation.

Here's the sitch.

And then one person says, wait, I've come up with an idea.

I've come up with an idea.

Or your child is late to school and when the teacher asks why, he comes up with a crazy excuse.

She came up with a brilliant idea for the project.

We need to come up with a plan before Monday.

He came up with a funny excuse for being late.

Two meanings quite similar.

The first is to discover information.

Or you're planning to take a train, but then you find out it's cancelled.

Like in these examples.

We found out the train was cancelled.

She found out the truth about him.

The second meaning of find out is to check or investigate something.

Let's say you're going on holiday and you don't know when the museum opens and you really want to go there.

And you tell your partner, can you find out the opening hours, please?

Or at work your boss asks you, find out how much the tickets cost.

I need to find out what time the shop closes.

Can you find out how much the tickets cost?

The police are trying to find out who did it.

Say the sentences after me and say them out loud.

She always brings up politics at family dinners.

She always brings up politics at family dinners.

It's not easy to bring up kids today.

He's thinking of taking up Spanish classes in the evening.

Work takes up most of my time He took up the challenge and ran a marathon

We had to put off the meeting until next week.

I was put off by the long queue so I didn't go in.

I was put off by the long queue so I didn't go in.

He came up with a funny excuse for being late.

We found out the train was cancelled.

I need to find out what time the shop closes.

You've just learned five phrasal verbs with multiple meanings and real life examples to help you use them.

Use them confidently.

And remember, you can join my free live class on the 28th of September.

Sign up at teacherola.com forward slash chat to save your spot.

The links are below as well.