This month in the group we are reading The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie. If you don't have a copy you can find links in the BOOKS! section of this website. Agatha Christie's dialogues are so natural you can hear the character's voices as you read.
When you read or listen to anything sooner or later you will come across a phrasal verb. (Oh look there's one in that sentence too!) The Body in the Library is no exception, in fact this week I will make a new infographic on phrasal verbs from the book. Everyone I speak to has difficulty with these verbs and asks themself what is the best way to learn them or at least understand them a little better. Let me try to help. It is said that you can speak English using only a few words. This is true only because one word can have many different meanings. In a previous post in May, I explained that in the past words of French or Latin origin were used to talk about more formal subjects while shorter Old English words were prefered for everyday conversation. Short words are the people's words, they are familiar. Short words and phrases and no specialist terms are characteristics of English that I think are behind its international 'popularity'. As society evolved and people extended their horizons beyond their immediate surroundings they applied simple words, understood by everyone, to explain more complex or abstract concepts. So they took short verbs and added prepositions stretching the physical meaning of the preposition and using it figuratively. Instead of trying to learn the meanings of lists of phrasal verbs that you may never use or that can have different meanings in different situations, it is better for you to get to know well the physical meanings of prepositions and imagine how those prepositions can be interpreted figuratively. Close your eyes and try to create a picture in your mind. Let's think about the preposition 'up'. 'Up' means towards a higher position, superior. In fact if you look up to someone you respect them because they are superior to you in status or skill. If you want to arrive at that person's level, but you are a bit behind you can try to catch up with them. Maybe we can say that you look up a word in a dictionary to increase your knowledge. We can also think that if something is in a higher position it is easier to see so if we look a word up we bring it to our attention, into our view. If you put some water into a glass, the level of the water will rise. When the water reaches the top of the glass, the glass will be full. By extension, 'up' also means completely, totally. Imagine you go to a shop but find the door is locked. You look in through the window. The lights are off, there is no one there. You tell yourself the shop is shut but you can come back tomorrow. Now imagine you look closer. The shelves are bare, the posters are down, the shop is shut up, permanently closed. It will not open again. Have you taken up any new hobbies recently? 'Take up'? Imagine you see a guitar on a table. You hold the guitar in your hands and you raise it to your chest and start to play some notes. You have taken up playing the guitar, you have started a new hobby or activity. Who brought you up (bring up)? When you were a baby your parents took your hand and accompanied you as you advanced in years until you became an adult. How can you look at the prepositions 'down', 'off', 'back' or 'after'? Next time you see a phrasal verb try to picture the situation in your mind and consider how the preposition affects what you see or which direction you look at it from. If you would like to receive my phrasal verb infographic this week write me your email address in the comments. Then you can try out this method with verbs from Agatha Christie's 'The Body in the Library'. Happy reading!
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What is this?When I started lostinclassics I looked for language lessons in the books I was reading, such as for example the use of phrasal verbs or inversion in conditionals and I explained them through examples found in the text. I also did reviews of the books I read and tried to give some advice on how to read classics using the various resources I know of. Then I switched to just reviews and lately I have been doing a bit of creative writing inspired by my reading. Who knows what I will come up with next! Archives
September 2020
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