 Are you ready to add a really natural phrasal verb to your vocabulary that's going to help you sound like an advanced English speaker? Because that's exactly what we're going to do in this video and you're going to learn this phrasal verb naturally by seeing a native English speaker use it both in written and spoken English. Of course, I'm Jennifer from jforisenglish.com and this channel is dedicated to helping you sound like a fluent confident natural English speaker. Now before we go any further, make sure you subscribe and hit that bell notification so you're notified every time I post a new video. Now let's dive in with this lesson. Add to your vocabulary. Now first a question for you. Did you see my video yesterday? Because in my video yesterday, I taught you an idiom and I taught you an idiom by seeing a post that a native English speaker posted on Facebook. So this was the post and the idiom was to be in over your head. Okay. Now this is important because the phrasal verb I'm going to teach you today is actually from the comment that someone wrote on this post. So just in case you didn't watch my video yesterday, I'll just briefly explain that the idiom to be in over your head is when you feel like a task or a problem or a situation is too complex or too advanced for you. Okay. So you feel like you don't have the knowledge, the skills or the ability to handle that task problem or situation. And because of that, you feel overwhelmed. It's not a positive feeling when you feel like you're in over your head. You're overwhelmed. Okay. And that's exactly how this person feels because of their online course. They feel it's too advanced, difficult or complex for them. So they feel overwhelmed because they're in over their head. Now let's take a look at the comment section of this Facebook post. Okay. So this is what someone wrote as advice in the comment section. Now look closely, pause the video if you need, because there's a really awesome phrasal verb in the comments right here. And this is the phrasal verb that I'm going to teach you today. Can you see it? Can you see that phrasal verb? Now the phrasal verb is to break something down. Okay. To break something down. And here the something is the it. Break it down. And you're going to see it used where the something is it because the something has already previously been mentioned. And in this case, the something is the online course. Okay. Creating an online course. That's the it. Break it down. Break your online course down. Now this is such a common phrasal verb. Native English speakers use it all the time. And because of that, I've already taught this phrasal verb to my students in the Finally Fluent Academy. So I already have a detailed explanation of this phrasal verb available. So I'm going to share that with you. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to jump onto my computer. And first you're going to hear this phrasal verb break something down. Okay, you're going to hear it by a native English speaker. And then I'm going to explain exactly what it means to break something down. And you're going to see this phrasal verb in lots of natural example sentences. So by the end of this, you'll know exactly how to use the phrasal verb break something down. So let's jump onto my computer and start the explanation. In this segment, we highlight a business that's just doing things right. And then we break down how to apply those smart lessons to whatever you're working on. In this segment, we highlight a business that's just doing things right. And then we break down how to apply those smart lessons to whatever you're working on. In this segment, We highlight a business that's just doing things right and then we break down how to apply those smart lessons to whatever you're working on. So here in bold you can already see two phrasal verbs. Now working on I'm sure you already know this one so I'm not going to explain it but I do want you to notice even when I don't explain specific expressions I still want you to notice what preposition the verb needs okay so this phrasal verb is you work on something so already you know how to use this in a sentence because using the incorrect preposition is a very common mistake okay so you can just write that down so you have it in your notes and now we're going to look at this phrasal verb break down to break something down this means to take something large and complex and divide it into smaller pieces or sections this is a very useful phrasal verb and I'm sure you'll use it in your everyday speech now notice here this is a separable phrasal verb so let's look at an example sentence I can say let's break this down and think about it strategically okay so here what is the this hmm let's break this down so maybe it's this report that they're working on okay and this report has so many different facts and figures and statistics and it might be quite overwhelming if you look at the entire report so instead we're going to break it down so we take something large the entire report and we break it down into smaller sections okay and then we just look at one section at a time so it makes it a lot easier to learn and you become instantly less overwhelmed when you take something large and you break it down here's another example let's break this down and just focus on the marketing piece so this could be a good recommendation you take your entire project so here maybe this is sales marketing advertising accounting administration communications so you have all these different elements but in this meeting you're going to break it down the this the project and you're just going to focus on the marketing piece and notice how we use peace because this looks like a pie right and we use a piece of the pie so oh here's a piece for you and that's why i'm using peace here another example if you feel overwhelmed just break the problem down and solve one piece at a time so again just one piece focus on this ignore the rest and then once you check you solve this then you put all your attention on this piece check and then you move on check and this way you break it down break it down and you feel less overwhelmed so notice here i've been using the pronoun this you can say it as well really doesn't matter and by here i'm saying the problem so the project the problem the report you can break down many different things there's really no limit to what you can break down as long as it's large to begin with so break the problem down now this is separable right so i can also say just break down the problem break the problem down they're the exact same of course when it's a pronoun it has to go here it's the only place so this is a very good phrasal verb you can use it for advice to somebody if somebody is feeling stressed out or overwhelmed you can say like hey let's just break the problem down and solve one piece at a time in this segment we highlight a business that's just doing things right and then we break down how to apply those smart lessons to whatever you're working on all right so welcome back now you know exactly how to use the phrasal verb to break something down so let's go back to our original post so now you can see that the original poster felt really overwhelmed because the online course was too complex too difficult they didn't have the skill or the knowledge okay so as advice the person suggested you take that online course and you break it down into individual sections and then you just take that one section at a time and that's a way for you to feel more relaxed right because all of a sudden this thing that seemed very overwhelming you only have to do this much you can handle that and this is exactly what you can do with your approach to learning English if you take a look at all the verb tenses all the phrasal verbs all the expressions the pronunciation all the grammar rules if you look at that at one time you're going to feel like you're in over your head right but if you just break it down and focus on mastering verb tenses mastering common idioms improving your pronunciation and just one thing at a time break it down take it one thing at a time you're going to feel nice and relaxed and that's the approach that you can use for learning English if you found this video helpful please hit the like button share it with your friends and of course subscribe now before you go make sure you head on over to my website jforisenglish.com and download your free speaking guide in this guide I share six tips on how to speak English fluently and confidently and until next time happy studying