‘Turn it on’ and other common separable phrasal verbs

Many English phrasal verbs are separable. Separable means the verb and the other little word (the preposition or particle) can be separated.
This video’s about eight very common separable English phrasal verbs. Watch and learn how they work.

You can see these exact verbs used in rap which we recorded with Jason R Levine, Fluency MC. Click here to watch it.
Click here to see more English grammar videos.
Click here to see Vicki and Jay doing more cooking.

Separable Phrasal Verbs Video Script

Hi Jason.
Hmmm?
I’m your surgeon.
My surgeon?
And this is your appendix.
My appendix?
We had to take it out.

We’re making smoothies with our blender.
We’ve put pineapple in.
And strawberries. Another strawberry?
Yes, put it in.
And banana.
Banana’s fattening.
Now we’re going to turn on the blender and make a smoothie.
Wait. Don’t turn it on yet. I’m going to put in some spinach.
Spinach! Take it out.
No, it’s good for you.
OK.
Turn it on.
Spinach?
I’ll turn it on.
I think you can turn it off.
OK, Jay. It’s a green smoothie. What do you think?
Mmmm. It’s not bad.
And it’s good for us.

Another strawberry? Yes, put it in.
I’m going to put in some spinach. Spinach! Take it out. Spinach?
I’ll turn it on. I think you can turn it off.

Many English verbs have two parts: a verb and another small word.
We can say ‘put the strawberry in’ and ‘put in the strawberry.’ But notice what happens if we sat ‘it’.
Put it in. We can’t say ‘put in it’. This is wrong.
We can say ‘turn the blender on’, ‘turn on the blender’, turn it on. But we can’t say ‘turn on it.’
There are lots more verbs like this. Let’s look at some.

We’re going out tonight. I’ll wear my new bow tie. I’ll put it on.
What are you wearing?
That’s my new bow tie. Don’t you like it?
Take it off and put a proper tie on.

Here’s that video. Can you hear it?
No.
I’ll turn it up.

Ahhh. Yeah, turn this up. Turning it down.

Is that your jacket on the floor?
Yes.
Well, pick it up.

Where’s my hairspray. I thought I put it down here.

Click here to watch this video with a clickable transcript
You can see these exact verbs used in rap which we recorded with Jason R Levine, Fluency MC. Click here to watch it.
Click here to see more English grammar videos.
Click here to see Vicki and Jay doing more cooking.