Why should you learn Phrasal Verbs?

Why should you learn phrasal verbs?

You’re probably thinking – “Learning phrasal verbs? All right, it sounds useful, but is it really that necessary? If I haven’t paid much attention to them by now, surely I cando without them in the future!”

Well, I have to tell you that you’re not entirely right in saying that. Of course, you can do without them, but you’ll miss out on so many benefits that the phrasal verbs can give you that it just wouldn’t be wise. And by the way – did you notice that I used two phrasal verbs in the previous sentence – to do without and to miss out?

What I’m trying to say is that on many occasions it will be much easier for you to speak English if you go for more natural, friendly means of expression, and phrasal verbs provide you with exactly that!

And by the way – phrasal verbs make your English speech sound more like that of a native English speaker. Speaking in a native manner definitely makes your speech more understandable and it’s only a bonus.

So if you learn at least the most commonly used English phrasal verbs, you’ll definitely increase your overall English fluency and understanding. If you don’t learn phrasal verbs and use a more formal synonym, you run the risk of sounding pompous or ridiculous to native speakers. Imagine, for example, your friend telling you “Oh, do resist from talking!” instead of “Oh, do shut up!” or “Oh, do belt up!” or “Oh, do pipe down!”

And here’s another great benefit to using and knowing English phrasal words. You can start speaking fluent English much sooner if you learn phrasal verbs as they consist of simple verbs that you’re already familiar with. Majority of English phrasal verbs are formed using basic verbs like to get, to take, to make, to look, to bring, to give and similar. (I’ll explain to you more about phrasal verbs with get, take, make, look, bring, and give in another lesson.) So instead of learning and memorizing plenty of new formal English words you can use your existing basic English vocabulary wisely and form dozens upon dozens phrasal verbs. This way you can start speaking fluently much faster and work on building up your formal English vocabulary afterwards!

How to Keep a Conversation Going

I’m sure most of you have experienced the moments when your head goes blank just as the last few words trickle out of the conversation, and you stand there in an awkward silence that makes you feel like you just want to disappear. You put pressure on yourself to think of something smart, to tell an interesting story, or to reference something relevant, and you come up with absolutely nothing. Zero, zip, zilch, nada!

So, today you’re going to learn how to keep a conversation going in English with a few simple tips from me. You can also watch the videos about the same topic from Howcast and English Tonight at the end of this article.

Here are a few tips to keep a conversation going:

1. Ask open-ended questions

The best way to show that you want to start a longer conversation is to ask open-ended questions. Open-ended questions have to be answered with more than one word and allow the other person to talk longer.

• What do you think about ___?

•  Have you heard about ___? If they answer “Yes”:What do you think?

• What do you like about ___?

These are questions which require more than simple‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers, and offer the possibility of much richer answers. Question like “What do you think of the movie?” instead of “Do you like the movie?” These kinds of questions encourage people to talk and they can be a life saver in stalling conversations.

2. Follow with another question

Follow a prior question with another question or comment to continue the conversation.

• What do you mean?

• Why did that happen? Or: Why do you think so?

• How did you do it? Or:  How was it?

• Interesting! Tell me more.

• What happened next?

• What did you like/not like about it?

3. Show interest

You can use one of these phrases to show interest in what the other person is saying and to let the person know you are listening as he or she speaks.

• Oh, wow!

• Really?!

• That’s interesting / crazy / funny / weird.

• That sounds fun / cool / interesting.

• Cool!

• No way!

• Right. (This means “I agree/acknowledge what you are saying”)

4. Practice, practice, and more practice!

Talk to people around you, talk to people online, talk to people standing next to you in line. Just talk to anyone you can. The more you talk to people the more natural it will become and eventually you’ll become a complete chatterbox and talk to anyone and everyone.

My advice is to start small. Ask them a question about their day, ask them about the football match last night, ask them about whatever you’re lining up for. Just get a conversation started and take it from there. Even if it’s a short conversation you’d be amazed at how easily it all becomes.