For a full Typescript and Podcast please visit http://usephrasalverbs.com
I created this video to help you learn, remember and use this phrasal verb. It is for all students of English of all levels of ability. A typescript and a podcast can be found at the website, along with other phrasal verbs. The eventual aim is to have a video available for all English phrasal verbs, along with typescripts and podcasts.
This channel is one of the Linguaspectrum English learning channels. You will find others at http://www.youtube.com/user/Linguaspectrum, http://www.youtube.com/user/irregularenglishverb, http://www.youtube.com/user/speakbritishenglish.
Use phrasal verbs today. Today's phrasal verb is...
Hang Up
Hang up comes from the early days of the telephone. In the early days of the telephone the mouthpiece, that part of the phone you speak into, was fixed to the wall. The earpiece, that part of the phone that you hold to your ear, was hung on the side of the phone. When you answered a call, you took the earpiece from the phone and held it to your ear. When you finished the call, you put the earpiece back in its holder.
To put the earpiece back in its holder you had to hang it up on the side of the phone. Hence, hang up.
Phones have moved on a lot from the early days, but we still use the phrasal verb hang up to describe finishing a phone call.
Hang up is intransitive. It does not need an object.
The verb hang is irregular. That is, it does not add -ed to form the past simple and past participle. Rather it uses hung for the past simple and hung for the past participle.
Here are some examples of usage.
I told her that I would take a taxi and hung up.
I always hang up if someone's trying to sell me something on the phone.
You can also use on with the phrasal verb hang up.
For example: Don't you hang up on me!
Can you believe it? She's hung up on me!
And we can also say hang up the phone, as in, Hang up the phone and get yourself home now.
He hung up the phone, angry at her refusal to speak to him.
You can also use hang up to describe putting things like clothes on a hook or something like the back of a chair.
For example: He hung his coat on the hook at the back of the door.
You need to go and tidy your room. I don't want to see your clothes in a pile on the floor. Hang them up on the hangers in your wardrobe.
Notice that when hang up is used with this meaning it is separable and transitive. It is separable because you can separate the verb hang from the particle up. Bear in mind that if the object is a pronoun then it must separate the verb from the particle.
For example: Hang up your clothes or Hang your clothes up.
Hang up your coat or Hang it up.
Sometimes we hang things up with no intention of ever using them again. This gives us the use of the phrasal verb hang up to mean to stop doing a job or a sport after many years.
For example: The boxer finally hung up his gloves after fifteen years in the ring.
After 30 years on the force, the policeman finally accepted it was time to hang up his badge and retire.
And you can be hung up about something. This means to be extremely worried about something, or to spend a lot of time thinking about something you are interest in. This is normally used to mean that the obsession is negative and unhealthy, and the term is used informally.
For example: He's so hung up about the size of his pension.
She's so hung up about her weight that she never enjoys her food.
Hung up about is inseparable. That means you cannot separate the verb and the particles, even if the object is a pronoun.
For example: He's hung up about it.
When used in this way, the verb is always used as hung and never hang.
From hung up about we get the countable noun, hang-up. To have a hang-up means to be hung up about something.
For example: She's hung up about the size of her nose. She has a terrible hang-up about the size of her nose.
I hope you found that video useful. You'll find a full tapescript and a podcast at http://www.usephrasalverbs.com
See you again soon.
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Jack Inby UsePhrasalVerbs458 views
i think that it is a bad video.no pictures .it is boring
boshra74 4 months ago
Excellent videos,thaks! really helpful :)
jimipage6662 7 months ago