Stop Being Casual: 15 English Phrasal Verbs to Sound Professional at Work

0:00 Hi, everybody.

0:01 Welcome to www.engvid.com.

0:02 I'm Adam.

0:03 In today's video, I want to talk to you about phrasal verbs,

0:07 and I also want to make sure that everybody

0:09 understands that phrasal verbs are not just casual language.

0:14 You can use phrasal verbs in many situations,

0:17 including academic, but especially in business contexts.

0:21 So today, we're going to look at a bunch of business phrasal verbs.

0:24 Now, again, just a little reminder, what is a phrasal verb?

0:28 It's a verb and a preposition that when

0:30 they are joined together often have other meanings,

0:35 or can have more than one meaning.

0:36 So it's a bit of a collocation and an idiomatic language.

0:40 So today, we're going to look at iron out,

0:44 brush up on, weigh in, or sometimes weigh in with something, wrap up, burn out,

0:52 measure up, sift through or comb through, branch out, wade out,

1:00 zero in on, pencil in, draw up, and sign off or sign off on something.

1:07 So we're going to go through each one.

1:08 I'll give you some...

1:10 A little bit of an explanation and a sample, right?

1:13 So, to iron out, it's just like you would iron your shirt,

1:17 except in a business context, you know,

1:20 you're having negotiations, for example, and you have some...

1:24 Maybe some problems, some disagreements,

1:25 or some things don't really work, but little minor things.

1:29 They're sort of like wrinkles on a shirt.

1:32 So you discuss, you make some changes, and you iron them out.

1:35 You get rid of the little problems,

1:37 just like you would iron out wrinkles in your shirt.

1:42 Yeah, okay, so that's it.

1:43 So brush up on.

1:45 To brush up on means to a little bit...

1:47 Do a bit of a review on something and make

1:49 sure you're a bit familiar with it or comfortable with something.

1:53 Again, so in a business context, before you go to your meeting,

1:57 brush up a little bit on your presentation skills,

2:00 or brush up on your English if you're going to do a presentation in English.

2:06 Just brush up on it, just review a little bit,

2:08 make sure you have all the little particular skills you

2:11 need just in case you have to use them for whatever.

2:16 To weigh in.

2:18 So you don't weigh, like you put yourself on a scale and you weigh yourself,

2:21 but to weigh in means to add or contribute,

2:24 usually your opinion or your thoughts.

2:28 So you weigh in with...

2:30 So you weigh in with an idea or with a proposal,

2:33 so what you're contributing or what you're adding to the conversation.

2:38 But otherwise, in a meeting, you're...

2:41 Everybody's sitting around a table,

2:43 the manager will ask everybody to weigh in with their ideas

2:46 about whatever the topic is for the day.

2:49 Okay, not a big deal.

2:51 Wrap up.

2:52 So when I finish this video, I will wrap it up by telling you to, you know,

2:57 like my video, subscribe to the channel, and so on.

3:00 So to wrap up means to close, to finish something.

3:03 Just like you would wrap a gift, that's the last thing you do with the gift.

3:07 You wrap up a meeting, you wrap up a proposal, you wrap up some paperwork, etc.

3:14 Burn out.

3:15 If you're working too much, then you might feel at some point that you

3:20 just have no energy and you can't think well,

3:23 no mental energy, no physical energy, and you just can't do anything anymore.

3:28 You have to stop, you have to rest, or you have to quit your job.

3:31 So for a lot of people,

3:33 they burn out means they just can't do something anymore.

3:37 Now, there's different degrees, different levels of burning out.

3:40 Some people burn out and they just have to quit their job.

3:43 Other people just burn out today and they

3:45 have to take a little break, so it depends.

3:48 The key is don't burn out, because you don't want to do that, right?

3:51 Because it means you've a little bit melted your brain, maybe.

3:56 Measure up.

3:57 So again, to measure like the length, height, width, your weight, etc.

4:01 But to measure up means to reach a certain level of something, right?

4:08 Like a quality, or qualifications, or all kinds of different levels.

4:13 So when you go for a job interview,

4:16 what they are actually doing is measuring you up.

4:21 They're seeing like do you have enough skills,

4:22 do you have enough background, are you a nice person?

4:25 Or they want you to measure up to their level of sophistication, for example.

4:32 So if you're going to apply to like Google or some big international company,

4:38 you have to measure up by being a graduate of the top schools,

4:41 or having a great resume,

4:43 or being able to do the things that people at that company do, right?

4:47 If you don't measure up,

4:49 you should go look for a job at like Radio Shack or something like that.

4:54 They don't exist anymore.

4:56 Sift through or comb through.

4:58 So a comb, you know, like you comb your hair, so there are like little teeth,

5:03 so some things go through and some things are blocked out.

5:07 Sift, to sift something, like if you cook,

5:10 you have some flour, you're going to bake some bread.

5:14 So what you do, you put the flour through

5:17 a sifter to make sure there are no big pieces,

5:20 so all the small flour comes out and all the big pieces stay up top.

5:24 So when we sift through or comb through,

5:27 we are looking through something to find

5:29 all the little things that don't belong there.

5:32 So before you're going to sign a contract,

5:35 you have to make sure to comb through it

5:37 carefully to make sure that every word is perfect, every detail is perfect,

5:41 so you don't get into an agreement or into a contract you don't want.

5:46 You can sift through it or you can comb through it.

5:49 Basically the same thing.

5:50 Sift through is more commonly used with physical things.

5:54 So here's a box full of papers,

5:56 just sift through it and find the little things that don't

5:59 belong or the little things that you're actually looking for.

6:03 To branch out.

6:05 So when a company gets bigger,

6:07 they don't want to have only the office they're at now,

6:11 they want to have an office in this city and an office in that city.

6:14 If it's a store, they want to have a store here and a store there.

6:18 So you've heard of branch stores.

6:20 So some big companies have branches in many different places.

6:23 So to branch out is to spread and go different places.

6:29 To wade out.

6:30 Now, if you...

6:32 If sometimes you go to a swimming pool,

6:34 some people like to dive in, they just go quickly into it.

6:37 Some people like to put their toe in, feel how the temperature,

6:40 you know, "Oh, it's not too cold", go in a little bit more, a little bit more,

6:44 and then they slowly start swimming until they get to the deep end.

6:48 That slow movement is basically to wade out.

6:53 So, if you're going to wade out into this business...

6:56 So some companies, like, let's say they do computers, but they want to a little

7:01 bit start experimenting with cryptocurrencies, for example.

7:05 So they're going to wade out into this field,

7:07 they're not going to invest too much money,

7:10 they're going to put a little bit and see what happens,

7:12 and they're going to hire one person and see what happens.

7:14 If they see success, then they might dive in and do the full investment

7:19 and build this business or this side of the business.

7:23 To zero in on, so zero, like the number zero.

7:27 When you zero in, so like you have a circle, a zero, and then a zero,

7:31 smaller, smaller, smaller, smaller, boop,

7:32 until you hit that point that you're looking for.

7:35 To zero in on means to focus or to target something very, very specifically.

7:40 And it's always the full thing.

7:42 You can't say zero in, it has to be all three,

7:45 zero in on your target and make sure that you aim for it particularly.

7:51 Pencil in.

7:52 Now, this is a bit of a casual one, but it's still...

7:55 The idea is there.

7:56 A pencil, like you write with a pencil in your notebook.

7:59 If you pencil, and usually you would

8:01 say pencil someone in, you would pencil someone

8:04 in for an appointment or you pencil in an appointment

8:07 to meet that person, you can use both.

8:10 To schedule, basically.

8:12 To write someone into the time schedule for appointments, usually.

8:19 To draw up, basically means to create, but usually on paper as well.

8:23 So, I'll draw up a contract and we can sign it and then go on from there.

8:28 So, you don't have something and then you're creating it very

8:33 casually and quickly until you can do a more formal one later.

8:37 So, you can draw up a contract, draw up a proposal, draw up a plan,

8:41 all kinds of different things that you

8:44 can just quickly do and then formalize later.

8:48 And sign off.

8:49 So now, I'm almost done, I'm going to sign off.

8:52 It's very similar to wrap up.

8:55 Sign off, basically, especially in TV and radio,

8:57 they say goodbye and now we're going to go and that's their sign off.

9:01 But in a more business context, sign off on something.

9:07 So, before a business can do anything, the person in charge,

9:11 like the CEO, the president, etc., must authorize it, must agree to it.

9:17 So, he will give his signature to say, "Okay,

9:20 go ahead and do this plan." When he does that signature,

9:24 that means he is signing off on the plan.

9:27 He is giving it authority, giving it permission, etc.

9:30 Okay?

9:31 And that's all of these business phrasal verbs.

9:34 Very useful and very commonly used.

9:38 It's not just for this video here.

9:40 You will hear these, you will say these in business situations a lot.

9:46 Okay?

9:47 So, if you have any questions about this, of course,

9:49 come to www.engvid.com and ask me there.

9:51 And you can also take the quiz, of course, make sure you understand all these.

9:55 And, again, if you like the video, give me a like and subscribe to my channel.

10:00 And come back next time,

10:01 we'll give you some more useful tips to help you in the business world.

10:06 See you then.