Phrasal Verbs - Expressions with 'CUT'

hello everyone and welcome to maple leaf ESL my name is Andrew and thank you for joining me here today for today's lesson I want to take a look at phrasal verbs that use the word cut okay and you'll notice I've only actually got about five different phrasal verbs however all of these phrasal verbs have multiple meanings and a lot of them are very common phrasal verbs okay so we got a lot of work to do in this lesson so let's see if we can get started so the first one here says cut down and we've got three definitions for this one so the first one says to chop something down okay this one's pretty simple if I need to cut down a tree right if I've got an axe or something I'm going to cut down a tree as it says there that just means to chop down so we can say chop down a tree or cut down a tree again I could use it for anything I want to chop down right maybe I've got to chop down a telephone pole who knows so I could say I'm going to cut down the telephone pole okay alright next one it says decrease or lessen the amount used okay imagine my doctor tells me that I need to start eating more healthy food right I need to stop eating junk food right like sugar okay so the doctor might say you need to cut down on sugar or you need to cut down on salt so again that means you need to decrease the amount of salt that you eat or decrease the amount of sugar that you eat also again if I want to cut down on smoking or cut down on alcohol that means I'm going to decrease the amount of alcohol that I drink or decrease the amount of cigarettes that I smoke so cut down and again as I said there it's usually with on we cut down on alcohol right so we usually use that together with okay in the third definition says destroy or kill okay think about a hurricane or a tornado right if a tornado comes into a city it might start cutting down everything in its path right a tree a building a car so the tornado or the hurricane was cutting down everything it was destroying everything right okay again as it says there kill think about the military if the military is cutting down its enemies that means it's killing its enemies or if a person is cutting down victims or cutting down innocent people that means a person is killing people right so they're cutting down victims or cutting down opponents something like that right okay next one says cut in we've got three definitions for this one so the first one says to move in between others without permission okay this one always makes me really angry if I'm waiting in a line up right imagine I'm at a movie theater and I'm it's busy right it's a Friday night so I'm waiting in the line up to buy tickets but then a person suddenly moves in front of me right but the lineup is really long so this person should go to the back of the line up but they didn't they cut in front of me right they cut in the lineup so usually that's a rude thing same thing if I'm driving my car and another car cuts in my lane again as it says there without permission right so this person didn't have permission to go in front of me so it sounds like maybe they moved in sort of like in a sneaky way sort of suddenly went in okay next one says to interrupt okay so again imagine I'm talking with one of my friends and then another person cuts in so that means they interrupt our conversation and maybe it's because they want to join the conversation or give their a pin in or maybe they want to ask me something so the reasons could be many right so again cut in it could be a good thing or maybe it could be a bad thing it could be sort of rude right so it could be of either way but if you say somebody cut into our conversation it just means somebody interrupted our conversation okay all right and last meeting it says to blend or mix something in okay so imagine I'm baking right so I've got some flour and I've got some sugar and some baking soda right I'm making some cookies okay next I need to cut in some butter right so I take a little piece of butter and I'll mix it another piece of butter and I'll mix it so that is cutting in some butter right okay same thing if I've got drugs right and if I cut something in the drugs that means I'm mixing something in the drugs right so that is something that a drug dealer might do right so that way they can increase the amount of drugs that they have to say to sell so they might cut something in okay all right next one there says cut off and again we've got three different definitions so the first one says to stop suddenly right okay imagine if I'm at a bar okay and I'm drinking lots of alcohol and I'm getting really drunk okay so the bartender maybe he notices that I'm really drunk I'm too drunk so the bartender might say you are cut off right so this means I'm not going to serve you he will stop serving me again suddenly right so I'm cut off means I can't order any more drinks he will not serve me any more drinks I am cut off okay again imagine I'm talking with somebody right and then somebody rudely interrupts and they Spacek elite a stop what I'm saying and they start talking okay so that's a little different remember here I said this could be good or it could be bad right doesn't have to be bad but if somebody cuts me off in the middle of a speech or in the middle of a conversation then this is rude right they have started talking over top of me okay one more example again imagine I'm driving my car okay and somebody quickly moves in front of me and it almost causes an accident right I almost crashed my car I could say hey watch out you cut me off right or if I'm talking to my friend I might say that guy or that car just cut me off so again it sounds like that they almost caused an accident because they suddenly switched into my lane okay so something like that okay and last one says to be separated or isolated from others okay imagine that I live in the mountains okay so in the mountains it's difficult to use my phone and my phone doesn't work and same thing with my internet it doesn't work and of course because I'm in the mountains I can't really go talk with my friends easily right or my family so you might say I'm cut off from my friends and family or I'm cut off from the world in this case because again I'm isolated from other people I don't live near other people I'm living in the mountains so I'm cut off from civilization or I'm cut off again from the rest of the world right okay this also could be something that is purposeful something that is intentional right okay again imagine I have a family okay but I have done something really bad to embarrass the family so the family they really don't like me so if I'm cut off from the family in this case it means that I'm separated from them because they have decided they don't want to know me anymore or they don't want to see me anymore so I'm cut off from the family if somebody in the family dies I will not receive any of their money like as an inheritance so I'm cut off from the family right I have no relationship with the family and again it's not because it's my choice it's because it's their choice they don't want to talk to me okay alright next one says cut across we've only got one meaning for this one it says to use a short cut okay remember a short cut is a shorter route a shorter path right it's the shortest distance from A to B okay so imagine I'm here and I want to go here but the street there's only one street and the street goes like this it's a very long way but between here and there there's a park so I could just walk across the park and I would get there quickly so I can cut across the park right I can use this shortcut to get somewhere quicker so that's it that's usually the only meaning for that one right to use a shortcut okay next one we've got cut out and you'll notice we have four definitions for this one plus another definition down here which we'll talk about in a moment okay so the first definition is to delete or omit okay so imagine I am an actor okay and I'm gonna be in a movie right so I'm going to be an actor in this movie but my role my part in this movie is very small okay so we film this movie all right a couple months later the movie is finished and so I go to the movie theater because I want to watch this movie I want to see myself up on that big screen right then I watch the movie and I'm not in it uh-oh I was cut out of the mood be right or the director or the producers cut me out of the movie so again that means they deleted or removed my part from the movie right so I was cut out of the movie okay one more example imagine I have to write an essay for school right I have to write a report okay but my reports a little long right maybe I need to write a thousand words but my report is two thousand words so I need to cut something out of my report right I need to delete something I need to omit something so in this case if I have to cut something out again I have to remove it okay all right second definition it says to remove something by cutting okay so this is different than the first one this second definition means physically so usually we'd be talking about this cutting something with scissors or with a knife okay so if I have a project or again maybe I'm making something with clothing if I need to cut something out again this means literally physically with a pair of scissors I need to cut it out right if I'm making some piece of art and I don't like this little piece well no problem I'll just cut it out right I'll remove it with some scissors right and again same thing you know we can use these ones in almost the same way both of them mean to remove something just this one means physically and this one means deleting something like again it could be on a computer if I cut something out of my report or of my email I've just deleted it from my email message okay all right next one it says to suit or fit by Nature okay now that might be a difficult definition okay one thing is that when we use cut out in this meaning we usually use it in the negative okay so for example imagine I don't like blood okay remember blood is the red stuff ah right I'm bleeding so blood is the red stuff so if I don't like looking at blood oh I can't look at blood then probably becoming a doctor is not a good career choice for me right it's not a good job for me so I might say I'm not cut out to become a doctor right because remember I don't like looking at blood so I'm not cut out to be a doctor again that's not something that I decided just naturally I don't I don't like the sight of blood as it says there by Nature okay again imagine I'm really short okay then probably I'm not cut out to be a basketball player because usually basketball players are tall so I'll find really short that I'm not cut out to be a basketball plan again I can't decide that right I can't make myself taller as it says there it's by nature right so again it's something I can't control it's something that I naturally am so if I you know if I'm for example again if I'm short then probably I'm not cut out to be a flight attendant because normally flight attendants have to be tall because they have to reach up high so if I'm short by nature I'm not cut out to be a flight attendant okay and sorry and one more we can see here for cut out it says to be predetermined okay all right so for this one there's really only one way that we use this right okay and it would be imagine I have a big project okay and there's a lot of work to do for this project right we have to do this and that this so we might say we've got a lot of work cut out for us right so there's a lot of work that is predetermined right that we already have scheduled to do okay so again it's really only using that one phrase right he's got his work cut out for him or they have their work cut out for them right so it's really only used in that one phrase right to have your work cut out for you okay all right and last thing I wrote down there cut it out okay and I wrote this one separately it's another one with cut out because it's normally used in this phrase we'll see the meaning is to stop doing something okay if I say cut it out that means stop it stop doing that okay now I normally think about a parent saying this to a child or a teacher saying it to a student imagine brother and sister they're fighting they're arguing so the father might say cut it out right stop it stop arguing same thing if the teacher she sees some of the students are being really noisy the teacher might say cut it out right and again that means stop it okay so I'm going to see if we can erase the whiteboard and I want to take a look at some written examples using each of these phrasal verbs okay so let's look at these examples we've got a lot of examples to get through so let's start here so first one says pass me that axe I want to cut down this tree right so I want to chop down the tree okay next one the doctor said I need to cut down on sugar so again I need to reduce the amount of sugar I eat or decrease the amount of sugar that I eat okay the soldiers were cut down during battle so again the soldiers were killed during that okay that guy totally just cut in the line right so again in this case that would be rude right he moved in the line up in front of us without our permission right we didn't say he could go in we didn't let him he just jumped in the line he moved in the line okay next one sorry to cut in like this but can I say something right so sorry to interrupt like this so that would be a common way to use that okay next one next use a knife too in some butter so this one might be the instructions on a recipe right so next cut in some butter okay next one sorry pal I'm cutting you off no more drinks right so imagine the bartender saying that sorry buddy right sorry friend I'm cutting you off right I'm stopping to serve you drinks right now right okay next one I'm trying to say something stop cutting me off right so stop interrupting me so remember that is always rude if you cut somebody off but you can apologize right if I cut you off I can say sorry to cut you off but and then I can say something right okay next one since I moved to this small city I feel so cut off from the rest of the world right so I feel so isolated from the rest of the world because this little small city you know maybe it doesn't have anything sort of metropolitan or it has nothing big right okay next one let's cut across the schoolyard it's quicker so again remember that means let's take the shortcut through the schoolyard right okay next one this report is too long you should cut some of it out right - you should delete parts of it you should emit certain parts of the report okay next one do you have any scissors I want to cut out one part remember that's going to be physically right it might be an art project or a craft project so I want to cut out one part okay we got two more next one says he's not cut out to be a manager he doesn't know how to communicate with people right so again remember if you're not cut out for something it means by nature this job or this role doesn't suit you it doesn't match with you right okay last one this is a big project we've got our work cut out for us and so like I said before when it's this meaning it's usually only used in this exact sentence here right I've got my work for me or we've got our work cut out for us okay and I didn't have room for the last one cut it out but remember it only has that one meaning stop that stop doing that right cut it out okay that is the end of today's lesson it was a long one but thank you for sticking with it and also thank you for joining me here today at maple leaf ESL and we will see you again next time

Channel: Maple Leaf ESL

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Keywords: ESL, English, Study, Learn, Teacher, Teachers, Student, Students, Education, Language, Lesson, Online, Free, Maple, Leaf, Lessons, School, Grammar, English grammar, phrasal verbs, verbs, two word verbs, three word verbs, cut down, cut down on, cut in, cut off, cut across, cut out, cut it out

Id: ZjX5aI5_SQs

Length: 19min 58sec (1198 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 12 2016