Unit 12

 Good morning, everyone. Today, we're going to dive into the versatile world of the verb "take." As you know, "take" is one of the most common verbs in the English language, and it has an incredible range of meanings, especially when combined with prepositions and adverbs to form phrasal verbs. We'll be looking at how we can categorize these meanings to make them easier to remember and use.

Let's begin with the physical sense of "take."

First, we have "take apart" or "take something apart." This means to separate something into its different parts. For example, "Rod loves taking clocks apart, but he never manages to put them together again." You can also say, "I had to take apart the engine to fix it."

Next, there's "take back." In its physical sense, this means to return something you bought or borrowed. For instance, "When you go into town to take back your library books, could you also take these trousers back to the shop for me — they’re too small."

"Take aside" or "take somebody aside" means to separate someone from a group to speak with them privately. As in, "My boss took me aside at the Christmas party and told me he was going to give me a promotion in the New Year."

Finally, in this category, we have "take off." In this context, it means to suddenly leave a place without telling anyone where you are going. For example, "Most people stayed at the party until quite late, but Rose took off early for some reason."

Now, let's transition to the more abstract meanings of "take," often found in phrasal verbs.

"Take up" has a few meanings, but a common one is to start a particular job or activity. For instance, "My son has recently taken up stamp collecting as a hobby."

When we talk about numbers, "take off" can mean to subtract a particular amount from a total. The example given is, "The shop assistant took off ten per cent because the item was damaged."

In a similar vein, "take away" means to subtract a first number from a second number. "If you take 11 away from 33, you're left with 22."

"Take back" in an abstract sense means to admit that something you said was wrong. A very useful phrase here is, "I shouldn’t have called you lazy — I take it back."

And to "take in" something means to look at it carefully, noticing all the details. "He showed us a photo of his house, but I was so tired that I didn’t really take it in."

The text also provides us with a great example using several other phrasal verbs related to "take." Let's break it down:

• Take out: In the sentence, "She has taken out a year’s membership," it means to subscribe to or register for something officially.

• Take to: "She has taken to going to the swimming pool every lunch hour." This means she has started to do something often.

• Taken up with: "She is so taken up with her swimming." This is an interesting one, meaning she is very busy doing something.

• Take me up on: "She wouldn’t even take me up on my offer." Here, "take me up on" means to accept an offer.

• Takes it out of her: "The exercise certainly takes it out of her." This phrasal verb means to make someone feel very tired or exhausted.

As you can see, "take" is a powerhouse of a verb. The key to mastering these phrasal verbs is to group them by their meanings. This makes them much easier to remember than trying to memorize a long, disconnected list. My advice to you is to follow this practice: when you encounter a new phrasal verb with "take," or any other common verb like "get" or "make," try to categorize its meaning and record a full example sentence in your vocabulary notebook. This will solidify your understanding and help you recall the correct usage in the future.

Are there any questions about the different uses of "take" that we've covered today?