Jazz up your phrasal verbs

06.10.2009

Tearing up the dance floor. Photo by Joe Mabel.

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Londoners are learning to do the Lindy Hop (Spotlight 10/2009). They're hooking up with partners to brush up their moves. In contests set up by the London Swing Dance Society, they're really tearing up the dance floor.

The Lindy Hop is so fast that it's quite difficult to keep up, especially when the music picks up speed during the contest. But if a couple mixes up the steps and screws up the dance, it's not a problem. For one thing, the events are a great opportunity to pick up new moves and jazz up a routine. And then it looks like everyone ends up having far too much fun to pass up an occasion like this.

You've surely noticed that the above text is full of two-part verbs using the small adverb "up". These phrasal verbs can really jazz up your spoken English. So that you don't mix them up, here they are again:

phrasal verb	paraphrase or synonym
hook up	(ifml.) start a relationship, do something together
brush up	practise and improve
set up	start (an institution)
tear up	1. damage 2. perform with great success
keep up	continue at the same speed
pick up	1. get better, faster 2. learn
mix up	confuse
screw up	(ifml.) make a serious mistake
jazz up	make more lively or interesting
end up	be in a certain state as a final result
pass up	miss or not take an opportunity

Now practise using them in context on the next page.

Anne Hodgson

(ifml.) sich zusammentun

aufpolieren

zerfetzen; hier: das Parkett zum Wackeln bringen

Geschwindigkeit beibehalten

~ speed: schneller werden

verwechseln

(ifml.) versauen

lernen

interessanter machen

vorbeigehen lassen, auslassen

COMMENTS

Submitted by k.flechsig@... on Tue, 13/10/2009 - 23:39.

11. They (brush up; correct tense)

their steps ever since.
Your answer was incorrect.
The correct answer is: have been brushing up

My answer was: have brushed up - so it's obviously a problem of 'simple tense versus continuous tense'... Is it...? Really? Or something else?

Thank you.
K. Flechsig

Submitted by Anne Hodgson on Wed, 14/10/2009 - 10:51.

Thanks for this interesting question. And your analysis is absolutely right. You could say "I've brushed up my dancing skills", but then you'd be done with the learning process, and would be where you want to be. Our dancers, however, are still working on their skills. They are still going dancing regularly. So they are still improving, or still brushing up, those skills. The present perfect continuous expresses that "work is still in progress", as it focusses on the process. The present perfect simple announces that something has been updated, as it focusses on the result.

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