Learn 30 phrasal verbs in 30 days.

Jumpstart your vocabulary in 2017.

Today is day 4 and we’re finishing up ‘cut’ phrasal verbs.

Yesterday we started this phrasal verb, but the topic is so big, we cut the video in two.

Today, we’ll start with ‘cut in’.

‘Cut in’ has a couple of definitions.

You can cut in when someone is speaking, interrupt them.

You can also cut into traffic with your car.

Someone cut in front of me.

Or a line.

Don’t you hate it when you’ve been waiting in line for something for a while and then

someone cuts in towards the front?

Not fair!

If you cut somebody in, that means you let them in on a deal or a profit of some sort.

Money.

He cut his brother-in-law in on the deal.

If you cut into something, that means you slice it, with a knife, but you don’t slice

into two parts.

You just cut into it.

It can also happen from your clothing or environment in a way that’s uncomfortable: this shoe

is cutting into my foot, or this bench is cutting into my back.

It doesn’t mean it’s actually cutting through your skin in these cases.

It can also mean to take up too much of something.

All of these emails are cutting into my free time.

Cut off: multiple uses.

To cut someone off is to interrupt.

If someone is telling you a long story and you don’t want to hear it, or you know what

they’re going to say, might say, “I’m going to cut you off right there.”

Or you could say, she cut me off in the middle of a sentence.

It can also mean to stop providing for someone.

My parents cut me off.

They said I need to get a job!

It can also mean to end a relationship.

I cut it off with Bob.

He talks way too much.

Also, with traffic.

This is just like ‘cut in’.

She cut in front of me, she cut me off.

If you cut something off, it’s like to cut away, you remove something with a knife or

other sharp tool.

Van Gogh cut off his ear.

Cut out.

If something stops working.

The radio cut out.

If it sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, like there’s a lose connection, you can

say, “the radio keeps cutting in and out.”

Have you ever heard the phrase “cut out the middle man?”

What’s that mean?

That means you can buy something directly from the business that is making that thing.

Not from a store that bought the item from the maker, that’s a middle man.

The price goes up if you buy something from a business who bought it from another business.

There has probably been a mark up in price.

That’s a bonus phrasal verb for today, mark up.

So if you cut out the middle man, that means you don’t include or involve that person.

And that generally means what you’re buying is going to be cheaper.

To cut out can mean to stop doing something.

I’ve cut out sugar: that means I don’t eat sugar anymore.

Have you ever heard “cut it out!”

This means “stop it!

Stop doing that.”

You can say that when someone is pestering you, annoying you.

Cut it out.

There’s also a phrase, you have your work cut out for you.

That means, wow, there’s a lot to do.

Or what you need to do is really hard.

It’s going to take me weeks to translate all this—I have my work cut out for me.

Not cut out can mean not fit, not having the qualities to do something.

She’s not cut out to be a teacher.

Cut down, cut up, cut back, cut across, cut through, cut away, cut in, cut into, cut off,

and cut out.

That’s a lot.

And so many ways to use these verbs!

I hope studying this verb doesn’t cut into your other studies too much.

The word CUT is pronounced with the K consonant sound, the UH as in BUTTER vowel, and the

T. Kk, touch the back of the tongue to the soft palate and release, cu-.

For the UH vowel, relax everything, uh, , cu-, let the resonance of the voice fall low, uh,

down here.

Uh, cu-.

The pronunciation of the T sound depends on the word after it.

If the next word begins with a vowel, make that a Flap T, like in ‘cut across’.

Cut a-, cut a-, cut a-.

Just bounce the tongue against the roof of the mouth, don’t stop the air, cut a-, cut

across.

If the next word begins with a consonant, then a Stop T will sound great here, like

in the phrase “cut back”.

Cut back, cut, stop the air, cut back, cut back.

You don’t release the T, you don’t hear a T sound.

What you hear is an abrupt stop, the the next word.

Cut back, cut back.

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This 30-day challenge is leading up to a phrasal verbs course that will be available in my

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pronunciation, and listening comprehension.

You will understand Americans better, and speak better English, with these courses.

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