AEE: Rev Up Your Brain With These Phrasal Verbs
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This is an All Ears English episode. Rev up your brain with these phrasal verbs. Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection with your American host, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz.

and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. Are you fired up about phrasal verbs? Today, let's insert some energy into your English. Plus, find out how to get access to our brand new AI conversation templates.

Are you still translating from your native language into English in your head? Are you always getting confused between the different grammar tenses? Let's figure out what you need to work on. Find your current English level with our five-minute quiz at allearsenglish.com slash fluency score.

Hello, Aubrey. How are you today? I'm great, Lindsay. How are you? Good. I'm glad to be here. Aubrey, what is your morning routine? How do you rev up your brain and your mind in the morning? Definitely coffee. There are probably a lot of our listeners that are like, yes, coffee. You got to rev up your brain. I'm excited to dive into this vocab, rev up,

I hear it a lot. It's funny. It was recently reminded in one of our courses. And after that, I started hearing it everywhere. Do you hear this a lot? Rev up, not just with engines, but like rev up your brain, rev up your ambition. Yeah, I like it because it has a notion of forward moving activity, right? Yes. I'm going to gather energy to do something big and exciting.

Right, to rev up. Yeah. Exactly. And it's fun because it kind of sounds like when you rev an engine, that word rev, it sort of is that onomatopoeia or it's sort of the sound that it makes. Yeah. I love that.

Exactly. And our listeners who come to Open Conversation Club, they know at the 7am time, I always have my coffee, right? When we're on the call, I'm always revving myself up with coffee. Right? You've got your coffee to rev up your brain. Totally. For sure. For sure. So what are some sample sentences with this phrase, rev up?

Yeah. So this means become more active. Like we said, you could say the company is revving up for its launch. And this is interesting to rev up the phrasal verb, just one V, R-E-V, two words, up. But when you use it in present continuous like this, you double the V. It looks kind of strange, very rare in English. So it's R-E-V-V-I-N-G and then up, revving up.

up. Yeah, I honestly feel like a lot of native speakers wouldn't know that they wouldn't know how to write revving up. Or they might spell it incorrectly, right? And when we see it written, it's like that looks strange to V's in a row. That's weird. And here's another one. I revved up my brain with a cup of coffee. I mean, yeah, for sure. And past tense when it's the past participle to V's. It does look

A little strange. So Aubrey, where did this phrase come from? You said it came from one of our courses. Yes, right. It's in module three of our C1 course, Connect Over Shared Experiences. And when we're helping create the courses and we're pulling this vocabulary from native speaker interviews, the interesting vocabulary that they use, that we actually use in conversations. And one of them said this, Rev Up. And ever since then, I hear it everywhere.

Yeah, that's the connection method. That's what I love about the connection method. Our courses, what you learn comes directly from our non-scripted conversations with native speakers, right? And what I love the most about C1 is that it's where we aspire to the highest levels of English.

Exactly right. We're trying to make our language more precise, nuanced, and sophisticated. This is where I am in French too, and it's an exciting place to be. We're excited for all of our listeners that are there as well. Oh my gosh. Speaking of French, Aubrey, I took a French lesson this morning because I'm getting ready for a trip to Belgium. It was a disaster. Oh no.

Things have gotten real bad, real bad. You're going to need to spend some time working on your French, Lindsay. There are some real gaps and that's the value of taking a course. Honestly, it's what I need in French is taking a focus study plan, a curriculum that has been created for your level. I would need at this point like an A2 curriculum for French.

- But Lindsay's not at C1 like a lot of you guys are. - That's okay, we gotta start somewhere. - Yeah, but I love it. But we're talking about C1 today, guys, because we have a special offer on the C1 Fluency Course this week only. Aubrey, tell us about it. - Yes, you can save up to $100 on our regular price.

If you sign up before June 1st at midnight, this is a limited time offer. Go to allearsenglish.com slash C1. And we have something exciting here. We have new AI conversation guides so that you can extend what you learn in the course and get unlimited feedback.

speaking practice. Exactly. So this is very exciting. It's super exciting. This is the very first time. This month is the first time we're launching these. We give you the exact prompts of what you've learned in the course to put into AI to create essentially a conversation partner for yourself to practice.

practice what you've already learned from the interviews and the lessons from the course. It is so fun. Cool. Yeah, we both tried it, right? We're taking people we interviewed in the course and we're sort of creating this AI robot of someone very similar that would have the same background that you can continue the conversation with. What amazing practice.

Exactly. But they work together beautifully. You learn the fundamentals in the course and then you extend with that unlimited speaking practice with the conversation guide. So we'll give you a little more information at the end of the episode today. But think about it, guys, because this is how you get better.

Okay, good. Absolutely. All right, let's dive into the second meaning of rev up, which is very similar. But it's interesting because the first one is a verb, right? The company is revving up. I revved up my brain. And then we use it just slightly differently. It means

to make someone or something more active or effective. So we're just changing it a little, changing the direct object. You could say the coffee revved up my brain, right? Or we are hoping these new policies will rev up the economy. Right, exactly. Or they're trying to get customers revved up for the launch of this new product. So they're maybe teasing the launch. They're

surveying the audience, dropping hints of what's coming, getting them revved up and ready. Right? Exactly. And this happens a lot with phrasal verbs. This is kind of a little insider look into English grammar that sometimes a phrasal verb will have these very similar meanings but be used grammatically different in a sentence. So one is means become more active and the other means to make

something else become more active very similar in use but if you're diagramming sentences you would notice a difference interesting super interesting i love it and then a similar related phrasal verb fire up or get fired up also a fun one to use i think yes right this means to make something more active or intense we hear this a lot in sports right let's get fired up or the coach is trying to fire up her players but we hear it other ways too right lindsay

Well, yeah, it really makes me think of, and here's a question from high school. Did you used to go to pep rallies, Aubrey? Do you remember pep rallies? Absolutely. Yeah. Yes. Get the whole school fired up for the big game, right? I wonder if that's a thing anymore. I hope it is because usually you come and there's the band playing, there's loud music, there's someone making this. Cheerleaders are flipping around. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Pep rallies. But it would usually happen during class time, I think. So we would take

class time off to all go to the gym and get our school spirit on, right? Right. Yeah, it's fun. I have a feeling they still do. I'll have to ask my teenagers if they still do it. You should. But you hear this in other contexts besides sports. For example, someone, you might say, after meeting with her therapist, she was fired up about making some changes. So this means really driven, really ambitious. Like, I'm going to set some goals. I'm excited to make some changes. Okay. And here's another example. The coach is trying to fire up her players.

Yes. Right. Exactly. Trying to motivate, get people fired up. What's really tricky about this phrasal verb is there's a second meaning that's very different. That means to get really upset. So you might hear someone say like, oh, he got really fired up when she lied to him. Yeah. And that has this totally different meaning of being really angry. But also still kind of related because it means emotions are

increasing right exactly right emotions are more intense yeah they're on their way up right exactly so it is kind of related it just has kind of two manifestations right exactly yes yeah and then let's get fired up yeah interesting um on a related note one place people are often very fired up is at a graduation but you know what i learned aubry at the la when i went to a graduation in utah last weekend

kids don't throw their hats anymore. They don't do that. That's not a thing anymore. They don't want to lose it. I was so shocked. We were all shocked. We're like, okay, now they're going to throw it. Oh, they're going to do it. They're going to do it. And then we asked my stepbrother after like, why didn't you throw your hat? He's like, oh, we don't really do that anymore. And

Yeah, they didn't at my daughter's graduation either. They kept their hats, but they had these sort of poppers where they pulled it and confetti flew up. So instead of throwing their hats, the confetti went. So it was still a great photo with the confetti, but I didn't even think about it. And I didn't ask, but they didn't throw hats. But it's just so iconic, this whole idea of all the hats in the air. I don't know. I'm sad when some tradition- If you want your hat, you can go find it after.

all the same just grab one it's a fun tradition so all right good stuff anything else we want to say about these three phrasal verbs aubrey yeah these are super interesting all of these phrasal verbs are let's do a quick role play okay show how we'd use them in a conversation you and i are chatting about our fitness routines here okay here we go yes i need to rev up my workout routine i might get a gym membership oh good idea that's a good motivator

I feel like you revved up your routine when you started going to Orange Theory. For sure. Their classes are really good at revving up my motivation. Okay, that's it. I'm fired up and I'm going to go right now and sign up for a membership. Yeah. I mean, are you able to, for me, the whole key of, for me, Orange Theory is that there's a coach saying, run.

They're right there firing you up the whole time. They're keeping you fired up. They make you run. For me, if I just joined a gym, I would just go and walk on the treadmill for half an hour and watch the news. You know, someone pushing you.

Yeah. Well, we want you guys to be fired up about this new course, right? C1, especially about these new AI conversation guides. This is a very exciting addition. What a great way to give yourself a lot unlimited practice speaking. Yeah, it's super cool. First, let's just go through the role play real quick, Aubrey, and then we'll come back to just reminding our students about the course. Yeah. Should we review the role play real quick? So first I said I need to rev up my workout routine. Yeah.

Yes. And that rev up just meaning to get more serious about it, right? More intense with your motivation. To increase it, right? Increase it. And then what did you say, Aubrey? And then I said, I feel like you revved up your routine when you started going to Orange Theory. So this means like whatever routine you had before, like you said, walking on a treadmill at the gym, when you went to Orange Theory, you revved it up. You were able to intensify it, improve it.

Exactly. I love it. And then I said, for sure, their classes are really good at revving up my motivation. And that is that weird way of spelling where we have a double V. Okay. Exactly. Both revved up that I said and revving up both of these, you're going to double that V. Keep an eye out for that's tricky spelling. And then what, Aubrey? What's the last thing we said?

And I said, I'm fired up and I'm going to go right now and sign up for a membership. And I will say this, right? If I get excited about something, I get motivated, like, okay, that's it. I'm fired up. Let's do it. Then you have to take action right then, right? To make sure it happens. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, exactly. Totally. Yeah.

thing about this new AI piece that we've added to the courses is it's not just about speaking with the AI forever. It's about building your skills. So when you come to our live community speaking events, you are ready, right? So that's the beautiful combination of the curriculum, the community events,

and the AI operating. Absolutely. AI is never going to be able to replace people, right? This is great conversation practice, but you're going to get to the point where there's just not as much creativity, right? It's still a robot in the end, but it's going to give you that practice you need to build fluency and confidence so that you're ready to practice with people

over Zoom or with those for those in-person conversations. Exactly. So we've got all the bases covered. So guys, to get access to these brand new AI conversation guides and to save $100 on the course, go to allearsenglish.com slash C1. That's letter C number one before June 1st at

midnight all right good yes don't miss out we are excited to see you in our community and for you to take advantage of all that we have in that c1 course so cool aubrey where should we leave our listeners today yes well the best way to rev up your english learning is learning vocabulary strategies grammar grammar structures that native speakers actually use right we often say this

we're teaching something that you won't find in a textbook, right? A lot of the language we actually use in real conversations, what we use in our courses from native interviews is not what you'll find in a textbook. Yeah. And I would say also to make sure there's energy in your learning, always be questioning your methods, right? If you're doing something that's kind of feeling kind of meh, like kind of average, change the method, do something different. We want to keep life in our learning. Okay.

Absolutely. You want to stay fired up about what you're learning. Totally. Love it. All right. Good stuff. We hope to see you guys inside the C1 course. Aubrey, I'll talk to you very soon. Have a good day. Awesome. Talk to you soon. Bye. Bye.

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