Speaker 1: I was working away this morning, trying to write this
podcast English lesson, and it was hard to concentrate because
my dog Max was barking away while looking out the window. Meanwhile,
my other dog Rosie was sleeping away, snoring on the sofa.
You see, working from home is not as easy as
it sounds.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
This is Happy English Podcast, Episode eight twenty five. Frasal
verbs with away, Hello and welcome. Thanks for joining me
for another episode of the Happy English Podcast. I'm your
English teacher Michael, and I'm glad you could join me here. Today.
We're going to talk about a group of phrasal verbs
that all have something in common. They use the word away.
When we use away like this in a phrasal verb,
it gives us a feeling of something continuing, something happening
with a lot of energy or focus. It's kind of
like the word away tells the verb hey, keep going.
So when you hear someone say they're working away or
typing away, it doesn't just describe what they're doing. It
tells you they're doing it with focus, maybe for a
long time, and probably with no interruptions. And now let's
look at some common away Fraser verbs that you'll hear
all the time in everyday conversation. The first one for
today is cook away. When someone is cooking away, they're
busy cooking and they've probably been doing it for a while.
We have a holiday in the States in November called
Thanksgiving Day, and it's a holiday that's based around a
huge meal with special foods that needs a lot of
special preparation time. I'm gonna guess you have a holiday
like that in your country too. And I remember when
I was a kid, my mom was in the kitchen
cooking away all day to prepare that meal. She was
cooking away, dressing the turkey, mashing the potatoes, preparing in
baking the apple pie. Yeah, she was really cooking away there.
The next one is something we all do from time
to time, whether it's at the office or at school.
Work away. I think workaway is a phrasal verb that's
easy to imagine someone at the desk sitting in front
of the computer for hours totally focused on work. Like
this morning, Jack was working away at his laptop and
didn't even notice I walked into the room. He was
really working away. It seems that his team has been
working away all week to meet a project deadline. And
I've been working away here all morning to bring you
this podcast. Working away, it's a feeling of steady, focused activity,
just putting in the effort to get the job done.
And in a similar way, we have type away and
write away. Both of these give the image of fingers
flying across the computer keyboard like Jack's coworker Kim. Like Jack,
she was typing away all morning, probably finishing some report
or a spreadsheet. I remember when I was a kid
and my dad would work from home, typing away at
the typewriter on his desk. And the other day at
the coffee shop, I saw a guy writing away in
his notebook. It seemed like he was totally lost in thought.
It's not just writing, he was writing away. He was
in the zone. And what's possible with your fingers is
also possible with your mouth. You can be talking away.
Over the weekend, I got a phone call from one
of my cousins who I haven't heard from in a while.
We were talking away for over an hour, and Away
teams up with probably all of the verbs related to talking.
Like after work, Kim and her co workers were chatting
away at the bar with a few beers, and one
of the major topics was about the boss who was
yelling away at Jack for coming to work late. You
can be talking away, chatting away, gabbing away, blabbing away,
and even yelling away. And regardless of what comes out
of your mouth when you use away, it's a lot
and with a lot of energy. Do you like music?
Have you ever been singing away in the shower? Or
maybe you like rock and roll and head to YouTube
to watch Eddie van Halen playing away on that red
and white guitar of his playing away, singing away. Whatever
instrument you use, you're putting a lot of energy and
effort into it. Maybe you like the drums and spend
hours on end banging away in the studio. And you
know how we call a photo a snapshot. That's because
you can snap a photo, which means to take a photo.
And when you take a lot of photos continuously, you
guessed it snap away. At the wedding last week, the
photographer was snapping away, the band was playing away and
the guests were drinking away during the reception. Well, there
you have it, Thanks for studying away with me today.
Keep in mind the best way to remember English like
this or any other word or phrase in English, is
to take that word or phrase, write it in a
sentence that's true for you or true in your world,
and then memorize your sentences and remember this. You can
get more practice using your English when you join my
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top of that, each episode has exercises where you can
practice this English point with speaking and writing checked by me.
To learn more, well, just visit Myhappy English dot com
and choose podcast lesson eight twenty five. Remember, learning another
language is not easy, but it's not impossible, and I'm
here to help you on your journey.
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