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“Hi Jane, are we still on for the movies tonight?” “Sure pick me up at 7 and maybe on the way back we can drop in on Sally and the gang for a drink.”

From standard conversations like this one to more professional conversations native English speakers will constantly be using phrasal verbs to express ideas. The strange thing is that non native English speakers even those with a high level often don’t know these phrasal verbs. Consequently, a non native speaker can quickly feel hesitant and confused even in a simple conversation – what a shame.

It’s true there are a lot of phrasal verbs and often the same phrasal verb can be used to communicate different things but it’s a real weakness in the schooling systems that are not giving enough importance to phrasal verbs. It’s also true that often there is a standard verb that can express the same information as the phrasal verb but often there’s not. Trying to replace pick you up with a regular verb can quickly sound strange…maybe – I’ll collect you at 7, might work but it’s certainly not the usual expression.

So what’s the solution? First, start being more sensitive to the use of phrasal verbs, which are not just used in spoken language, but are also used a lot in written language, often to say something in a shorter more stylistic way e.g. the recent budget deficit blow outs in the UK have lead to a run on the pound.

The second way is simply to learn them. Directional phrasal verbs like get down or go away are straight forward and logical. Ones like – Do you get it? or Are you catching on? both which mean do you understand might need to be learnt by heart. The way you learn them is the same way you should learn any new vocabulary in the context of a sentence and / or a situation. The best site I’ve found for learning phrasal verbs is the English Pages’ website at the following link: http://www.englishpage.com/prepositions/prepositions.html

Lots of luck

David

Okay, so you’re understanding and speaking pretty well but you still feel your level is not where you want it to be. How do you keep working and making progress on your English?

This is a situation I encounter a lot particularly with business people who have a good level but still find themselves feeling uncomfortable about their English in pressured discussions, often when they are dealing with native speakers.

It can be a speed thing where the native speaker starts speaking faster when something important is being debated. Or it can be a cultural thing if there are several native speakers from the same country speaking at the same time. These two factors are probably the hardest to prepare someone for.

Perhaps it will give you some reassurance to know that even native speakers can feel a bit lost at times if they are mixing with native speakers from another country. There are just so many subtleties in conversation styles, sporting and cultural references that it’s impossible to always be following what’s being said 100% of the time. I think the best strategy is if you feel you missed something important say something like: “Sorry, you lost me there, what were you saying?” or “Sorry, could you repeat that”. The reaction will always be to then repeat the idea in a more straight forward way.

The key is to know when and how often to interrupt with a request to repeat information but you shouldn’t feel hesitant to do it a few times to remind the meeting participants that they need to be more considerate in their communication style.

Next blog: Phrasal verbs to help brush up your English