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MAIRO VERGARA
ADVANCED PHRASAL VERBS COURSE
Lesson 29 ¦ Transcript
Well, hello my friends. Once again, it’s me Brooks Gillespie, your
phrasal verbs guru. Sitting again on my porch. It’s a beautiful,
incredible autumn day here. It’s probably going to get to about 85, 90
degrees, which is pretty warm for this time of year but I love warm
weather so I’m not complaining.

So our phrasal verbs today are ‘date back’, ‘show up’ and ‘miss out’. So
let’s start with ‘date back’. And of course, the key word here being -
‘date’. A date is a specific day and time or a specific day and time. So
to date back means for something to have existed for or since a
particular point in time; and my first example here is this sentence:

The animosity between my mother and father dates back to when

she discovered he was cheating on her early in their marriage.

So in this case my mum and dad don’t have a good relationship and
somebody might ask ‘how long has this been going on with your mum
and dad? They don’t get along too well.’ And the answer is – it dates
back, it started a long time ago when my dad was unfaithful to her.

Another example based on the city where I live:

There are very few city buildings left in my hometown of Omaha

that date back to the nineteenth century.
Of course the nineteenth century is the 1800s and Omaha, my city, was
founded I believe in the 1850s. So originally, some of the original
structures were built in the 19th century but most of them were not
quality and have not survived. So if you go around my city there are not
many that date back, that have existed or were constructed in the 19th
century.

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And our final example, the existence of Islam dates back to the 7th
century and the life of Mohammed. So it was in the 1600s that
Mohammed existed and he started the Islamic religion. So it has
existed, Islam has been with us, has been in the world since the 7th
century. It dates back to that time.

Alright, so our second phrasal verb of the day is ‘show up’ and there
are two different meanings. They’re similar but not exactly the same.
The first is to arrive or to be present. To show, well means to be
physically… like when you show something it’s physically visible so to
show up is for something to arrive and to be present or physically
visible.

We wanted to wait until all the guest arrived before we started the
party but half of them didn’t show up so we had to start without
them.

So in this case half of our guests never show up, they never came to
the party, they never showed up, they never appeared.

The second sentence:

I show up to work every day, whether I feel like going or not.

So in this case I’m arriving at work, I’m present at work. If I’m feeling
good – I go. If I’m feeling bad – I go. If at all possible I show up to work
on a regular basis.

Now my final example for ‘show up’ is the second definition where
something appears or is visible. It’s not necessarily talking about
arriving; it’s about something being visible. You can see it.

If you use red ink when writing on red paper, your writing will not
show up very well.

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In other words, because the color of the ink and the color of the paper
are the same, or very similar, it will be hard to see what you have
written; The writing will not show up very well.

And I’m getting a visit from a bee. But I’m not afraid of bees so we’ll be
just fine. And the third phrasal verb today - and I like this one, I don’t
know why – is ‘miss out’. And to miss out, let’s think about the word
‘miss’. There’s two definitions in English to miss and they’re kind of
similar. The first is like when, like I haven’t seen somebody for a long
time and I wish I could see them. I say I miss them. I haven’t seen you.
Like you know, I have friends in Brazil that I haven’t seen in two years
and I really miss them. And to miss also means like if you are trying to
do something or, and you don’t quite do it like for instance if I tried to
throw a ball at your head – I got mad at you and I tried to throw a ball
at your head and the ball didn’t hit you I would say the ball missed you.
Or if I’m trying to catch a bus and I know the bus is going to be there
in 5 minutes and I’m 7 minutes away and I try to get there as quickly as
I can and just as I arrive at the bus stop, the bus is leaving. I missed
the bus; so missing something has a lot to do with not quite hitting the
mark, so to speak.

To miss out is when you fail to participate in or enjoy an event or an

opportunity and I’ve got three examples for you here and these all
come from my own life, interestingly enough.

I’m afraid if I spend too much time working, I’ll miss out on some
of the most important moments in my children’s lives.

So I’m a dad. I have four kids and I want to be there for them when
they need me and if I work too much I may not make the time for them
and as a result I may miss out on a chance to be there for them when
they really need me. So in this, here again, I’m failing to be there for
that opportunity.

A second one:

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I hated going to bed early as a child because I was afraid I was

missing out on all the fun things my parents were doing like eating
popcorn and watching T.V.

And this is very true. I remember going to bed and then I would hear
my parents, like my dad loved popcorn so I would hear the popcorn
popper popping popcorn and sometimes I would actually get out of
bed and go to the bathroom and I would walk through the kitchen and
I would look at my parents with the really sad look on my face and they
felt bad for me because I looked so pathetic. I didn’t want to miss out
on all the things that were going on. So that’s another example of
missing out. I mean not wanting to miss out.

And my final example has to do with travelling to Brazil which is a

hobby of mine:

My friends tell me that if I don’t come to Rio in February, I will miss

out on all the excitement of Carnival. But to be honest, I prefer to
go to Rio in January to avoid all of those crowds.

So I have been to Rio a few times and I have missed out on Carnival. I
have not been there when Carnival happens and that’s intentional,
really, because I don’t like big crowds and so I intentionally plan to be
in Rio at a time when Carnival is not happening because I do want to
miss out on all the commotion and all the chaos and all the crowds.

So there you have it, and then one of my little traditions which I really
enjoy is I try to figure out a way to use all three phrasal verbs in one
sentence and for whatever reason, I think this is the second time that I
mentioned Paulo who works for Mairo Vergara and he’s the head of
content and I work with him on a regular basis to create these lessons
and I want to use a sentence that involves him.

My friendship with Paulo dates back a couple of years and I’m

really glad that I showed up on the website where we met because

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if I hadn’t met him, I would have missed out the opportunity to be a

language partner with him and also an opportunity to sit here and
help you students learn more about phrasal verbs.

So that’s it for today. It’s been a pleasure, as always. Have a great day
and happy studying!

MAIRO VERGARA ADVANCED PHRASAL VERBS COURSE