Hello, hiya, thanks for finding your way here to this video right now to come and learn
some English. Good intention, so let's make sure we concentrate, I sound like such a teacher,
don't I? Concentrate, yeah, and really learn, take the vocab because we want you to be using
it this next week. What are we doing? We're looking at phrasal verbs to do with success
and a couple to do with failure. Now, these can be used in all sorts of contexts, so they're
very useful to know because while I'll be showing you how to use them to talk about
fashion, in sports and with academic studies, but you could - there's so many different
things that you could use them to talk about.
To start with, we're just going to look at what they actually mean before we really apply
the verbs. My first section all have "off" in them. So, to bring, it's like a physical
action, bring it over here, bring me the remote control, bring me the jug of water, if you
bring something off, it's like off is a place where everything works, yep, it's looking
like it's not going to be very good and then we get up here and, abracadabra, to bring
something off, yep, turn it around. To pull something off is exactly the same, but with
a different verb, okay? So, take your pick, which do you like? Are you more of a B or
a P? I'm more of a B, my wife's a P. To carry something off, very slight change here. Well,
it's a different verb, to carry something off is kind of - you're going, it's more of
a kind of sense of, like, continuing, yep, I carried it off. I was going with it for
a long time, yep, carrying a heavy bag, and I got there and, yes, I made the destination.
I carried it off. Whereas these, it's more like a bit more of a sudden turn-around, okay?
It's only a small, small difference and some people wouldn't say there's a difference at
all. Now, to come off. We're much more likely to encounter this in the past tense. Yeah,
it came off quite well. But very similar meaning, it means, like, something has kind of worked.
Yeah, it came out pretty well, it came off pretty well. Okay. Different meaning here:
something takes off, like a rocket going into space. So, it's like the YouTube channel suddenly
has millions of subscribers. Well, how does it happen like that? Because guys like you
and girls like you press subscribe and you share it with all of your friends, right?
Hope so, and don't just press subscribe, actually watch the videos. How do you do that? Yep,
that bell thing up there, so every time my lessons come up, you guys watch them, yeah!
And then that will really pay off with your English, yep. You'll see a - you'll see results,
yep, to pay off, yep, we've got the idea of money, so money is a reward for work, for
doing something, so if something pays off, then you enjoy the reward of your good work,
okay?
On to "through". Are you with me so far? I hope so. "Through". If I go through the jungle,
yep, the jungle's here, and I'm going through it, to fall through. If I - you've got a sort
of a ceiling up here, it's not a very strong one, if I fell through the ceiling - then
my mum did that once, actually, she fell through a hole in the floor, very painful. To fall
through - drop, drop, drop, drop, drop. If something falls through, then it looks like
it's going to work, and then suddenly, it doesn't. So maybe a football player is looking
to join a new club, but at the 11th hour, the last minute, the deal fell through. It
wasn't completed. Muddle - this is more of the British English than an American English
word - to muddle through something. Now, "muddle" means confusion, okay? So, if you muddle through,
this is talking about how you get through the jungle. It's like I kind of got a hat,
have I got any insect repellent, yeah maybe in my pocket here, have I got compass, I'm
not quite sure, uh, uh, uh, confusion and we kind of get through the rainforest, but
you do get through it, or jungle or whatever it is. So, to muddle through means to go through
chaotically, okay? To get through, if you get through something, then you're surviving
but there's not much of a sense of enjoyment or huge amount of success about it. We got
through something, yep. It was okay, but we didn't really like it very much. To sail through
is quite different, though. Yep, think of the boat and the sails filling with wind to
sail through, there's a feeling of speed and flamboyance if you sail through something,
then you find it quite easy, because the sails are full of wind and you're going rather effortlessly.
You don't even need a motor. Whereas the kind of vehicle here, I'm thinking of like, a really
Take over. A take over - so, where one person takes control from the other person. So, we've
got a - I'm thinking of a football club, if there's a take over, then someone else suddenly
starts ruling that football club. Ruling - it's not a king, it's kind of managing, okay. A
take over, yep. I take over the control. Catch on. If something catches on, then it's like
a - a fashion. So, if I start walking down the street and I start this new walk, which
is like, it's kind of a sort of a flappy arm walk and I'm starting to see, in the streets
of Toronto, that some people are doing my flappy arm walk, then I'd say "Ah, it's starting
to catch on." Okay. Really strange example for you there. Hope you're not thinking I'm
a total lunatic. To build on. So, builders, what do they do? They often make houses. They're
going to start with foundations and then they're going to build the walls and the roof, etc.
So, to build on means we've had this success, and we're going to use this and we're going
to continue from there to make something even bigger, okay? So, we have a firm foundation
and we're going to continue growing. To walk into something. So, to walk into something
means you enter it very easily. Yeah, I walked into an amazing job, I didn't even have to
have an interview. I just knocked on the door and the man gave me the job. Or, the woman
gave me the job. Okay. To walk into something means to get something good with a minimum
of effort. To catch up, there are a couple of different meanings of this. You can have
to catch up in communication where you talk to an old friend who you haven't spoken to
in a long time, but this is to do with success and failure. So, we've got a race, yep? We've
got the tortoise and the hare. The hare goes really, really fast and then falls asleep
and the tortoise catches up with the hare, so the progress is caught up. Catches up.
To keep up. So, again, you could think of a race, you've got people going around the
400 meter track and you've got this really fast person and this one - can they keep up
with the really fast person? Okay? If I say - it doesn't have to be physical, though.
I could say, in a class, "Keep up", yep, means, you know, listen, make sure that you're paying
attention, okay. To capitalise on. So, capital is really money. So, if I capitalise then
I'm sort of making it into money, which, in a wider meaning means that I'm getting some
benefit from. So, if you were to capitalise from this lesson, you're going to need to
actually use some of these words with the people that you know. Okay? Cement the learning.
To lose out to. New Zealand lost out to England in the Rugby World Cup semifinal. So, they
lost out to, it means both teams were trying to get to the final, but, you know, New Zealand
weren't quite at that same standard as England, hahahahaha, so they didn't get to the same
kind of prize that England did. To stay ahead. Maybe thinking of driving a car, you know,
staying ahead means you're in front, okay? So, if you stay ahead of the competition,
then you're bigger and you're continuing to be dominating that market.
So, as I said at the beginning, we're now going to try and use some of these talking
about these different areas of modern life. So, let's go for fashion. Now, which of these
can I talk about with fashion? To bring something off, yeah, you really brought that off. To
pull something off, to carry something off, to come off. Something takes off, to pay off,
okay. So, fashion, to bring, yeah, you really brought that off, pulled something off, so
pull something off, we're talking about something being successful. So, maybe I'm wearing - actually,
I'm making a video later today where I'm going to be dressed up as a woman. So, I've been
busy preparing for that all day. If I pull that off successfully, then I will look like
a woman. It will be believable. You're going to have to watch this video now, aren't you?
Right. If I carry it off, then you're going to say to me, you're going to believe that
Benjamin looks like a woman. Don't say that, I've even got facial hair, come on, I'm a
man. If something takes off and it becomes popular, so fashion. Maybe if I start walking
around with stripey socks and it takes off, then everyone starts wearing stripey socks.
Okay. It doesn't really work with "through", these ones, unless you're taking about the
business aspect of fashion. Yeah, a sales deal - a sales deal sailed through, but this
is more sort of the business area. To catch on, a fashion catches on. And then to capitalise
on, again, sort of more sort of business related as would be to stay ahead and to lose out
to, talking about kind of competition.
Sports. They carried it off excellently. England carried off their game plan exceptionally
well. Their hard work paid off. They got through the game successfully. They sailed through
to the World Cup final. They built on their hard work. They capitalised on New Zealand's
What about studies? Yep, I pulled it off. I got an A. My hard work has paid off. Or,
I muddled my way through university means I did a little bit of work, I did a little
bit of that, I wasn't very concentrated, but I got through it, I got to the end. I managed
to walk into a job after my studies. I caught up with my friends by doing some revision.
You could say I lost out on - I lost out on getting a first-class degree, which was a
So, the more familiar you get with these phrasal verbs, the better. Look out for them in the
things you're going to read and listen to and just try to expand your vocab. Thanks
for watching. Any questions, write them down in the comments below and I'll see you in