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Speaker 1: Knock knock, who's there? That's an old style joke in English,

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the knock knock joke. Well, instead of making a joke today,

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let's take a look at phrasal, verbs and idioms that

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use the verb knock.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast coming to you from

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New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.

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Speaker 1: All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael

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here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.

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This is Happy English Podcast Episode eight oh two, Knock knock.

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Did you know that you can knock back, knock down,

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knock around, and knock up. You can even knock someone

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out or tell someone to knock it off. For today's

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English lesson podcast, you're going to build your vocabulary and

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sound more natural using knock. Let's get the ball rolling.

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The verb knock in English basically means to hit or

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strike something. When you want to enter a house or

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a room, you can knock on the door. That's where

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those corny old knock knock jokes got their start. You

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can also knock into another person. You know, when you're

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walking down the street and someone is paying more attention

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to their phone than where they are walking, they're probably

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gonna knock into someone. This basic meaning of knock brings

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us right into our first phrasal verb of the left

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less knock out or more specifically, knock someone out. In fact,

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knock someone out has two meanings and uses. The first

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one comes from boxing, you know, the sport where two

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people enter the boxing ring and punch each other until

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one of them can't get up anymore. Whenever that happens,

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we can say that the champion knocked out his opponent.

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Legendary boxer Mike Tyson knocked out his rival Marvis Frasier

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in just thirty seconds back in nineteen eighty six. He

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knocked him out. But it doesn't take a violent sport

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or a champion fighter to knock someone out. You can

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say that physical activity, a difficult exam, or even medicine

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can knock you out. It could make you end up unconscious,

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like I caught a cold this week and the cough

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medicine from the doctor totally knocked me out, Or something

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can make you totally exhausted. One of my students took

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the TOIC exam a few weeks ago, and she said

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that experience knocked her out. She was exhausted for the

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rest of the day she was knocked out. And speaking

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of hitting something, when you knock something down, like a

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building or some other structure, you demolish it. Like they

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knocked down an old house on my block and built

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a new house on the same land. The city decided

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to knock down an old railroad bridge and turned that

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area into a park. And you know what eventually happens

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to those old bookcases from Ikea. You knock them down

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and put the whole thing in the trash. So when

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something knocks you out, you kind of stop what you

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were doing, right, And when something gets knocked down, it

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stops being used with this kind of image. If someone

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is doing something that bothers you, why not just tell

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them to knock it off. Knock it off is a

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set phrase that means stop doing that, and it's a

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pretty direct way to tell someone to stop doing something,

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Like if your kids are arguing about something while you're

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trying to listen to this podcast, just tell them a

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knock it off. Or if a coworker is watching YouTube

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instead of working, you can tell her, yo, why don't

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you you knock it off and get back to work.

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Knock has some more idiomatic uses, too, like you can

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knock around a place, which means to move around that

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place without any particular purpose. Like when we were teenagers,

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we used to spend hours knocking around the mall. One

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of my friends got himself a backpack and decided to

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knock around Southeast Asia last summer. Sounds relaxing, doesn't it,

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which brings us to another casual phrasal verb, knock back.

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We use knock back to talk about drinking something quickly

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and entirely. At the party last weekend, Paul knocked back

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a few beers with his buddies. You could even say

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that you knocked back a few glasses of iced tea

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on a hot day, but to be perfectly honest, we

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tend to use knock back when we talk about drinking alcohol.

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And finally, we have knock off, which is a pretty

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versatile phrasal verb. Knock off means to stop working for

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the day. I usually knock off around eight pm. At

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the factory, they start work early and knock off at

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four o'clock. Also related to work, you can knock off

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a task, which means to finish that task. I knocked

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off three podcasts this afternoon. Jack knocked off the monthly

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report in just an hour. Damn He's quick. Knockoff can

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also be used to talk about discounting the price of something.

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When I bought a new desk, they knocked off fifty

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dollars because there was a scratch in the wood on

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the side of the desk. At the auto shop, the

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mechanic told me that he could knock off one hundred

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dollars if I paid in cash. What a nice guy.

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Keep in mind, the best way to remember English like

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this and any other phrase or word in English is

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to take that phrase or word, write it in a

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sentence that's true for you or true in your world,

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and then memorize your sentences. Did you know? You can

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get more practice using your English when you join my

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podcast Learner's study group. There you can make new friends,

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join us for live group lessons every week where we

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practice these podcast lessons together. Plus you get access to

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the PDF, transcript and audio download for every Happy English

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podcast in the past and in the future. And on

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top of that, each episode has exercises where you can

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practice this English point with speaking in writing checked by me.

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To learn more, just visit my Happy English dot com

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and choose podcast lesson eight oh two. Remember, learning another

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language is not easy, but it's not impossible, and I'm

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here to help you on your journey.

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Speaker 2: This podcast is brought to you by Happy English. Please

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visit myhappy english dot com. Show your support for Happy

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