The phrasal verbs to cut down, to cut off, to cut out and to cut up

—   Hello, boys and girls! My name is Martin Green. This is James Wilson.

—   Our friend Nathaniel Fleming is also with us today.

—   Welcome to our grammar lesson!

—   Yesterday the three of us went to the newsagent’s near Nathaniel’s house.

—   Before we continue our story, we would like to remind you the meaning of this word.

A newsagent’s is a shop that sells newspapers and magazines, as well as food, sweets and drinks. Here you can also find the things that people often buy such as magnets, balloons, toys, etc.

—   Let’s continue. When we got there, James bought a newspaper.

—   We were just about to go home, but James started reading it.

—   In a few minutes we heard him shouting something.

—   Oh my God! It’s a newspaper. How dare they make mistakes in it?

—   James, what’s wrong?

—   Oh, Martin. Four mistakes! Can you imagine? Four mistakes!

—   Where? What are you talking about?

—   I’m talking about this newspaper.

—   Really? Let us see, please.

—   James gave us the newspaper and we started reading it.

—   We were also shocked.

—   There was one interesting article.

—   Let’s look through it and read the sentences with mistakes.

—   This will help you to guess the topic of our lesson today.

The first mistake is in the title of the article. This article is called “Stop cutting off the trees!”.

The second mistake is in the sentence: “Yesterday two men tried to cut out the trees in the forest near the town”.

The third mistake is in the following sentence: “Those men were arrested, because they were cutting up the trees illegally”.

And the fourth mistake is in the sentence: “If you see someone cutting up the trees, call the police”.

In all of these sentences we need to use the preposition “down”.

And we’ll tell you why in a few minutes.

As you can understand, today in the lesson we will:

·        revise the definition of the term “phrasal verb”;

And

·        talk about the phrasal verbs “to cut down”, “to cut off”, “to cut out” and “to cut up”.

—   First of all, let’s revise the meaning of the term “phrasal verb”.

—   After that we’ll tell you about the difference between the phrasal verbs “to cut down”, “to cut off”, “to cut out” and “to cut up”.

A phrasal verb is a verb that is made up of a main verb together with an adverb or a preposition, or both. Typically, their meaning is different from the meaning of its separate parts.

Let’s look at the following two examples and compare them.

The first example:

Mrs. Donovan suddenly changed her mind and signed the contract.

(Here we used the original meaning of the verb “to sign”).

And the second example:

Joshua signed in and started chatting with his best friend Benjamin online.

(The meaning of the word “to sign” changed, when we added the preposition “in”. Here the phrasal verb “to sign in” means to open a computer program that requires a name and password).

Phrasal verbs can be:

Intransitive (It means that they don’t have an object)

For example:

The sun was beating down so mercilessly.

or

Transitive (It means that they have an object)

For example:

Hailey wanted to beat down the price on that beautiful gold ring, but she couldn’t do it.

Now let’s talk about the phrasal verb “to cut”.

In its primary meaning the phrasal verb “to cut” is translated as “резать, разрезать, отрезать, нарезать, нанести резаную рану”, but if we use it with the following prepositions: down, off, out, up – the meaning of this verb will change completely.

Let’s review all of them.

To cut down

It has five different meanings.

1. To reduce the size, number or amount of something.

Уменьшать размер, число или количество чего-либо.

For instance:

Dr. Beckett told Justin to cut down on drinking coffee and eat more fruits and vegetables.

2. To cut a tree or plant to the ground.

Вырубать деревья или обрезать растения до основания.

For instance:

Mr. Johnson cut down the old tree in his garden two days ago.

3. To eradicate or destroy something or someone.

Истребить или погубить что-либо, или кого-либо.

For instance:

These unique animals were mercilessly cut down many years ago.

4. To remake something in order to make a smaller one.

Ушивать или укорачивать что-либо.

For instance:

Thomas asked his mother to cut down his trousers.

There is also one informal meaning of this phrasal verb.

To reduce the importance of someone by humiliating or criticizing.

Поставить кого-либо на место путём унижения или критики.

For instance:

Jackson cut that arrogant woman down to size.

To cut off

This phrasal verb has seven main meanings.

1. To remove something by cutting it.

Отрезать, обрезать что-либо.

For example:

Yesterday Robin told me that she wants to cut her hair off.

2. To stop providing funds to someone.

Прекратить предоставление средств кому-либо.

For example:

Zoe’s parents were cut off for not paying their electricity bill.

3. To interrupt a conversation on the telephone by breaking the connection.

Прерывать разговор по телефону из-за нарушения соединения.

For example:

Liam’s phone call was cut off before he could get the necessary information.

4. To interrupt someone or stop them from speaking.

Перебить кого-либо или помешать говорить.

For example:

Bobby cut me off when I wanted to tell him everything I know about this incident.

5. To switch off or turn off an electrical device.

Переключить или выключить электронное устройство.

For example:

Landon asked Devin to cut off the lamp, because he couldn’t sleep.

6. To refuse to let somebody receive any of your property after your death.

Лишить кого-либо права на наследство после смерти.

For example:

Mr. Scrooge was a very greedy man, so he cut his daughter off without a cent.

7. To stop somebody from going somewhere.

Помешать кому-либо пойти куда-либо.

For example:

That brave policeman cut off the escape of one dangerous criminal.

To cut out

There are five main meanings of this phrasal verb.

1. To extract something small from something big by cutting.

Вырезáть, извлекать что-то маленькое из чего-то большого.

For instance:

My little sister likes to cut different pictures of butterflies out of magazines.
2. To leave suddenly.

Уходить внезапно.

For instance:

Chase, why are you cutting out of my party?

3. To stop doing or eating something, especially because it’s not good for your health.

Прекращать делать или есть что-либо, особенно, если это вредно для здоровья.

For instance:

The doctor advised my sister to cut salt out of her diet.

4. To stop something such as noise or light from reaching a place.

Не позволить шуму или свету проникнуть в помещение.

For instance:

Tall trees cut out the sunlight.

5. To stop doing or saying something annoying.

Прекращать делать или говорить что-нибудь раздражающее.

For instance:

Seth and Cole, I’m tired of you two fighting all the time! Just cut it out!

To cut up

This phrasal verb has four main meanings.

1. To cut something into smaller pieces.

Разрезать что-либо на кусочки.

For example:

Kimberly cut up the chicken on her plate.

2. To upset somebody.

Расстроить кого-либо.

For example:

Owen’s reaction really cut her up.

3. To behave in a very noisy and silly way in order to make people laugh.

Вести себя шумно и глупо, чтобы заставить людей смеяться.

For example:

Luis and Eric are always cutting up in my class.

4. To injure somebody badly.

Ранить кого-то очень серьёзно.

For example:

Dominic and Antonio were cut up in the fight yesterday.

—   That’s all you need to know about the phrasal verbs “to cut down”, “to cut off”, “to cut out” and “to cut up”.

—   We hope you understood all the information.

—   That’s all for today, our dear friends.

—   See you soon.