hi everybody and welcome back to love
English with Layla and Sabrah
I'm Sabrah I'm a British University
teacher and today I have a lesson for
you all about ten phrasal verbs with the
preposition down now I made this video
because last time I made the video about
phrasal verbs with up and I said to you
in that video which preposition would
you like me to do next
and you asked for down so that's why
we're doing 10 phrasal verbs with the
preposition down now as I said
previously with regards to up up tends
to be when we want something to be more
for example liven up means please be
more active be more lively now we're
down it's the opposite we can't say liven
down English is not that simple but
when we do say something down we mean we
want something to be less we would like
less of that thing
for example calm down means please
please be calmer be less active be be less
stressed please calm down so up and down
with phrasal verbs work like this number
one break down break down now phrasal
verbs often have two or more meanings
this one has two meanings so sometimes
when when a phrasal verb has two
meanings I will explain to you both of
them it's like two for the price of one
so break down now this means something
is not working it's not functioning its
collapsed or there's some kind of problem
so for example your car can break down
this is a mechanical failure your
dishwasher can break down again a
mechanical failure
so we frequently use it with these
things
oh my car's broken down I needed to call
the emergency services because my car
broke down the second meaning is where
we talk about a relationship or a system
or something between
people not working anymore we can say
that this has broken down so if two
people are not getting on anymore their
relationship is not working you can say
their relationship has broken down their
relationship has broken it down number
two now I mentioned this one previously
but I want to go into a little bit more
detail about it and it is - calm down -
calm down now this can be used for
people or for things for example you can
say to your friend if she's stressed you
can say calm down everything's going to
be okay and this means be calmer but you
can also use this about things for
example you can say ah the weather has
calmed down there was a storm last night
but now it's raining less it's less
windy it's calmed down so it's for
people and things and of course also
animals I'm always hoping my dog will
calm down
he's always barking I'm always telling
him round down number three to put down
so to put down means physically to put
something down so to put the pen down on
the table to put down the dinner to put
down something so it's quite simple in
that sense but the second meaning is a
bit different so when we say to put down
someone we can of course mean someone
who is smaller for example a child
children often will say put me down if
they are being carried by their parent
but the other meaning is not as literal
it's not physical the other meaning is
when we put somebody down we we make
them feel bad about themselves
for example we make negative comments
about them or we insult them or someone
can of course do this to us so for
example your brother might make jokes in
front of his friends and say that you
are not good at maths and you can say to
him don't put me down don't put me down
you're putting me down so making making
someone feel bad about themselves to put
someone down I'm sure we've all been in
this situation before where someone puts
us down or maybe we have not been very
nice and we've put
someone down and maybe said something
negative about them often in front of
other people so this is more
embarrassing for them so it's not a nice
thing to do everybody so don't do that
number four now this one has a very
positive meaning but it also has a
negative meaning two very different
meanings this is - to get down - to get down
now the first meaning is can you guess? It
means to enjoy yourself on the dance
floor to dance a lot to get down in the
Michael Jackson song the Thriller I'm
sure you know this song thriller it says
and those who ever can be found without
the soul for getting down meaning you
need to dance a lot enjoy yourself
to get down the second meaning however
is quite negative and it means to feel
sad to feel low to get down for example
at this time of year the weather is not
very good and I can sometimes get a bit
down I can get down because the weather
is not very good and I like the sunshine
so it can make me feel a bit depressed
or a bit low other things can get you
down maybe your football team's recent
performance is getting you down and you
wish they would just win a match that might
get you down so it's not a permanent
situation it's just when we feel a
little bit depressed to get down what
gets you down please tell me about it in
the comments I would like to know about
that what gets you down
number five hold down hold down and this
again it has a physical meaning and a
less physical meaning so to hold down
means literally to hold something down
so imagine that it is windy you might
need to hold down your paper or your
book so it doesn't blow away in the wind
to hold down we can hold someone down
for example you could say the police had
to hold down the thief to stop him
escaping the police had to hold down the
thief to stop him escaping and this
means physically not let him move so to
hold down now the meaning that isn't
physical is when we want to
keep something we managed to keep hold
of something in our lives normally we
use this about a job so if you hold down
a job you keep the job even if there
were some difficulties so for example
you could say my mother held down her
job even though she had three children
this means she kept her job even though
so as well
she was looking after three children or
you could say my dad held down his job
even when he was ill so he kept his job
so to hold down a job or to hold down a
career it means to keep something even
when there are difficulties number six
this is to back down to back down and
this is we're in a situation where there
is conflict or where people are being
aggressive to each other where one of
these people or one of these groups of
people decides to come out of the
conflict they decide that they will not
be aggressive anymore even if they think
they are right they will come out of
this and they will say okay okay I'm
wrong or I'm sorry and they will come
back from this so it's something that
often happens between family members in
relationships but it can also happen
between companies for example if you're
complaining about a company you might be
trying to sue the company which means
taking them to a court so legally trying
to get money back for something that you
think they have done wrong to you and if
you are trying to do this but you feel
that it's not going to be successful you
could back down which means you could
stop this and say okay I think you were
wrong but in this case I won't pursue
this anymore I won't carry on with this
more aggressive behavior number seven to
settle down now this means to have a
calmer lifestyle to start to have perhaps
a more routine lifestyle so often we say
we settle down when we've got married or
we have children so we've settled down
we're not as young and perhaps our life
is not as changeable as it used to be
you can also use this with for example
if a person
a little bit stressed or things like
that you can use settle down in a
similar way to calm down you can say
settle down if they are getting a bit
stressed or even a bit aggressive you
can say whoa settle down so it's similar
in that sense to settle is to be more
calm or more relaxed more stable so
settle down number eight we have two
meanings here and this is the phrasal
verb to turn down to turn down so this
can mean to turn down the volume for
example if you're playing the radio or
the television you can say oh please
turn it down please turn down the volume
and this means please make the volume
lower the second meaning however is to
say no to say no to an invitation or to
to something that somebody has offered
you so for example if someone says would
you like to come for dinner with me
and you say no thank you
you have turned them down you said you
would not like to so to turn down it can
also be in the case of for example a job
opportunity if someone offers you a job
but you decide I don't want to take that
job you can turn them down so it's a
general thing where we say no to an
offer or an invitation number nine to
knock something down to knock down so to
knock down means to take something down
to literally physically knock it down
for example you can knock down a wall so
normally you would need something quite
big to knock down the wall it means to
destroy it to remove it completely to
knock something down old buildings often
get knocked down after a long time they
are not useful anymore so somebody
knocks them down so finally number 10 we
got there everybody it took us quite a
long time but we've arrived at number 10
this is look down on to look down on and
this is a little bit of a negative
phrasal verb and it means that someone
can think they are superior to another
person so to look down on someone means
that you you think you are better than
that person for some reason you think
that you are richer cleverer
more good-looking but you make this
obvious to the person you make this
clear
so it's not very nice so to look down on
someone so people often complain about
this they might say oh the rich people
in my street they look down on us
because we're not as rich as them or
someone at work might look down on you
they might think that you are not in
such a high position as them so they
might they might look down on you and
not treat you as an equal to look down
on someone right guys that was our 10
phrasal verbs with down if you haven't
watched my video on 10 phrasal verbs
with up go and watch that now please
leave a comment try and use these
phrasal verbs once you start to use them
you'll remember them they are very
common so please leave a comment and I
will I promise that I will have a look
at that and check that you are saying it
correctly
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finally if you're feeling in the mood
for some grammar and you would like to
learn about the grammar of phrasal verbs
so which phrasal verbs are separable and
which are inseparable and where to put
the object in the separable phrasal
verbs go and watch Layla's fantastic
video on the grammar of phrasal verbs
thank you very much for joining me today
guys hope to see you soon. bye bye
 
