Santa gives out gifts, charities give back to
their communities, and your computer might give
out too. These all mean very different things,
and on today's episode, you'll learn why. Welcome
back to the Learn English Podcast, the podcast
teaching English in context so you can learn
naturally. It is almost the end of 2025. It is
already December and Christmas is almost upon
us. Christmas means giving out presents, giving
gifts out to other people. And because you have
that gift giving experience here in the U .S.,
you hear a lot of phrasal verbs with the word
give in them. So on today's episode, that's what
I want to explore. I want to talk about some
of the most common phrasal verbs you'll hear
during the month of December here in the United
States, but also what they might also mean when
you hear them at different times of the year,
maybe when you're not talking about gift giving.
So if you're interested in learning more about
these give phrasal verbs, then follow along.
because we're about to begin. Before we get started,
I want to remind you to look at the description
of this podcast episode. There you will find
the list of the words and phrases that I use,
especially these phrasal verbs. That way you
can take this list, study it, and build your
English vocabulary. Now let's talk about these
phrasal verbs. Like I said, all of them are going
to have give in them because we do have this
really large exchange of gifts in the United
States during the month of December. Here in
the U .S., we give gifts to family members, friends,
co -workers, neighbors, people who provide service
for us. There's this huge gift exchange culture
and experience that occurs in the month of December.
So the first phrasal verb that we are going to
talk about is to give to. This is what you say
when you are giving a gift to someone. It's specifying
who you are giving that gift to. For example,
I hear this a lot when I am going shopping with
my mom. She will talk about someone that she
needs to buy a gift for. And she might say, I
need to give a gift to your cousin. So I need
to find something that he likes. That's an example
that you might hear. Someone saying that they
need to find a gift or buy a gift or maybe even
make a gift for a particular person. You will
hear that phrase give to. I need to give a gift
to someone. You will also hear this when people
are passing out gifts on either Christmas Eve
or Christmas morning when people exchange gifts
with each other. You will hear this that a particular
present was given to someone. I'm giving this
gift to my daughter. I'm giving this gift to
my husband. I'm giving this gift to whomever.
That is one of the ways that you'll hear this
phrasal verb. You'll also hear this phrasal verb
when someone is donating to charity. During the
holiday season, during the Christmas season,
there is a big push, a big feeling that you should
be giving money to charity, that you should be
helping people who are in need. And you do hear
this phrasal verb, give to, in that context.
People will say that they're going to give to
a particular charity. I'm going to give some
money to a dog rescue. I'm going to give some
money to cancer research. I'm going to give items
to the local homeless shelter. Those are all
examples, sentences that you might hear or things
that you could say when you are using this phrasal
verb. Now, our next phrasal verb is give out.
Give out is a thing that you'll hear at this
time of year because in the Christmas mythology,
you have Santa Claus. Santa Claus is this mythical
person who apparently lives in the North Pole,
the northern part of the planet Earth. He has
a list of all the good and bad children. And
to all the good kids, he gives out. So you will
hear this phrasal verb give out because Santa
Claus gives out gifts to all the good children.
In this case, what give out is referring to is
to distribute something. Santa Claus gives out
gifts, which means that he distributes gifts
to children. You can also hear it in different
contexts. Let's say that you work for a charity
and that charity is providing food and water
to a... part of the earth where people are really
struggling where they don't have enough food
or water you can say that the charity is giving
out food and water and supplies to these people
who are in need again it just means distribute
it means that you are distributing food and water
And this can work for any type of distribution.
Let's say you play a video game and because of
the holiday season, the distributors of that
video game, the developers of that game are providing
the players with a free item. You can say that
they're giving out that particular item to the
players. Or if you are at work and your work
has a bonus that they provide to their workers
at the end of the year, you can say that the
company is giving out the yearly bonus. All of
those are appropriate ways to use this phrasal
verb because that just means they are distributing
something. For the second meaning, I'm going
to provide you with a sentence and just see if
you can tell what I mean by this. I am recording
this podcast episode on my computer and I tell
you that my computer gave out. Think about that
sentence because we know we're not talking about
a gift. My computer is not distributing. anything.
But I can say that my computer gave out. And
in this case, this second meaning for give out
is very different from the first. What it means
is that something stopped working or stopped
functioning. If I say that my computer gave out,
that means that my computer stopped working.
My computer died. I need to replace it or at
least get it fixed. Another example is with people.
For example, if you have someone who is very
athletic, who does a lot of sports, maybe they
go running every day early in the morning because
they like to stay very fit. If they are running
and all of a sudden they have leg pain or knee
pain and they have to stop running, they might
tell you that their knee gave out or their leg
gave out. which means that something went wrong.
There was some type of injury and they weren't
able to continue running because their leg was
not functioning the way it normally should. Our
next phrasal verb is give back. Give back is
another one that you will hear at this time of
year because it's most closely associated with
charity giving. at least in the month of December.
Like I said, there is this whole culture and
idea of donating to charity, of helping people
who are in need. And that is one of the phrasal
verbs that you'll hear with that idea. What this
first definition of give back means is that you
are helping or you are showing gratitude to someone.
For example, let's say that there is a popular
sports team in your city. And during the month
of December, they have a lot of charity events.
They help people who are in need. Usually those
sports teams will say that they are giving back
to the community. That means that they are providing.
They are giving maybe food, water, gifts, money,
something to the community. And that they are
showing their gratitude. They are showing gratitude
to the city, to the people who live in it. You'll
also hear this with people who work in careers
that are trying to help people. Maybe some technology
company is trying to make things better for people
in the future. Or maybe you have someone who
works in health care or education or public safety.
You'll hear that people want to work in these
industries because they want to give back, which
means they want to help the people of their community.
They want to help their neighbors and people
who live in their area. You also hear this with
businesses that are maybe trying to have good
publicity. They're trying to say that they're
going to help people. And so they'll say that
they're giving back to their community. They're
giving back to the people that support them,
which means they are giving them something, trying
to help them in some way. The second definition
is maybe the more common one when you're not
in the month of December, when you're not talking
about charity. And that means to return something
to its rightful owner. Let's say I am at a business
and I need to sign some paperwork and I take
a pen from the desk and I sign the paperwork
that I need to sign. But then I put the pen in
my pocket and I am about to leave. And then I
realized that wasn't my pen. I need to go return
it. I need to give it back to the front desk
because I am not the owner of that pen. I just
almost accidentally walked off with it. Another
example is if you have a flight, you are traveling
during the month of December, but there was some
delays, there were some things going wrong with
the airline's system, with the weather, and your
flight got canceled. In that case, because the
airline canceled your flight, they had to give
you back your money. They are returning your
money to you because you're the rightful owner
of it. It is your money and you originally gave
it to them for this flight. But because the flight
didn't happen, they had to return the money to
you. They had to give it back to you. Another
example of using this is if someone steals something
from you, if someone takes something that is
yours. For example, let's say you're walking
down the street and someone takes your cell phone.
You can yell at them to give it back, which means
that you're wanting them to return it to you.
And hopefully they stop. Hopefully they give
it back to you. But that's what this means is
that we're trying to get that returned, trying
to get that item back to its rightful owner.
And our last phrasal verb is giveaway. Giveaway
means to give something to someone for free.
There is no cost when you have a giveaway. For
example, we did that sentence about a video game
that has a free item for the players as a gift.
In that case, you can say that the item was given
out by the developers, or you can say that the
item was a giveaway. to the players. The item
was given away because it was free. You didn't
have to pay for it. It was just a gift from the
developers to the players. You also hear this
a lot, especially with YouTube and social media
content creators. A lot of times, These different
influencers will have giveaways on their channel.
If you comment, if you like, if you repost something,
they will enter you in a particular giveaway
for a free item from some sponsor. I know I have
seen a lot of those videos and posts that people
do that are announcing some particular giveaway.
And again, you might also hear this in the month
of December because people do donate items. They
do give things to charities. And you might hear
that this isn't as common, but you might hear
that someone is giving away their old clothes
to a charity. Something that you might hear,
like I said, not as common when you're talking
about donating to charity, but it is a phrasal
verb that you might hear. The second definition
for this is that you are revealing some secret
or some hidden information. Let's say that you
bake a cake because you are having a family party.
You bake the cake and you put some frosting on
it, some chocolate frosting. You have a young
child who really wants a piece of cake. But you
tell your child, you can't have it right now
because the party is later and we need this cake.
for later. But you can have it in a few hours
when everyone is here and when we have our party.
After you tell your child that, you go, you shower,
you get ready for this party. And when you come
out, you look at your child and your child has
chocolate frosting all over their face. That
is a giveaway. That child really wanted that
cake. They really wanted a slice of cake. And
maybe they were going to lie to you. Maybe they
were going to say that they didn't eat it or
they were going to try to hide it in some way
and say that they did not eat the cake. But because
they forgot to wipe their mouths, because they
forgot to hide all of the evidence, they gave
away their secret. So you can say the chocolate
icing. gave away the fact that they ate the cake.
But maybe you have a friend or coworker, someone
you know, who has a particular behavior they
do when they are trying to hide something. Maybe
you know someone who's not very good at lying
and they act very strange when they try to lie.
Maybe they have some weird hand movement. Maybe
they have some nervous laugh that they do. Whatever
that is, whatever that thing is that they do,
that action that they perform, that makes you
think that they're lying, that makes you think
that they aren't telling you the truth. That
is that action of giving away that secret information.
And the last use of this phrasal verb is the
least common. I've only really heard it in one
context, and that is to give someone. away. Usually
this is during a wedding when the bride and the
father of the bride are walking down the aisle
to the actual wedding ceremony. You will hear
that the father gave away the bride. This is
really the only context I can really think of.
It is a little weird to me because like I said,
usually when you're talking about giveaway, you're
talking about property. So This usage of phrasal
verb makes it seem like the bride is the property
of the father, which maybe historically is where
this comes from. But that is, I would say, the
least common use of it. But it is something that
you'll hear at weddings. Usually they ask who
is giving away the bride and the person who is
walking her down the aisle is the one who says
they are doing that. And that's the last definition
for this phrasal verb. I hope you enjoyed this
episode. I hope you learned a little bit about
these phrasal verbs. These are not all the phrasal
verbs with give in them, but they are the ones
that are the most common to hear during the month
of December, during Christmas time here in the
United States. And like I said, there's a number
of different definitions. So you really will
hear these all year round. I have done a number
of episodes on phrasal verbs. I will leave a
link. Like I said, I know phrasal verbs are very
confusing. students. I've had a lot of students
say that they struggle with them. So I've been
trying to do these episodes to help build your
English vocabulary and really help you hear these
different phrasal verbs in different contexts.
The more that you are exposed to them, the more
examples that you see, the easier it gets to
understand what they mean and how to use them
yourself. A reminder to look at the description
of this podcast episode so you can get that vocabulary
list with these phrasal verbs in them. You can
study them and really start to build your English
vocabulary. If you liked this episode, please
let me know. Leave a comment. Tell me if you
want me to continue talking about phrasal verbs
or... if there's other topics that you would
want me to discuss and to do episodes on in the
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