Speak better English with Harry - Episode 317
List of verbs of effort in English
Harry
verbs of effort in English
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Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to my English learning podcast where we try to give you a better understanding of the English language. Help you to have better conversations with your colleagues, your friends. Help you apply for that job with that international company, whatever the problem might be. Come along here to my podcast Speak Better English with Harry and we’ll help you to get over them.
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INSANITY: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
What are we going to talk about today? Today, we’re going to talk about verbs and these are the verbs of effort in English. So, I have a number of verbs here with you, some are more formal than others, and I’ll explain those as I go through them.
Effort means something you do, something you have to do or something you attempt to do.
So here they are:
- to go ahead with
- to cope with
- to overcome
- to get on with
- to tackle
- to work on
- to focus on
- to deal with
- to handle
- to give up
verbs of effort in English
As you’ll notice that we’ve got prepositions with a lot of them. And common preposition there is WITH (to go ahead with, to cope with etc).
So let’s take the first one
to go ahead with
Meaning: to start to do something, to get on with a job
This is quite informal, but it’s a very simple explanation.
When we want to get on with a job, when we want to make some progress, we go ahead with it.
Examples:
I’m going to go ahead with the decoration. Why don’t you take the kids out?
Let’s pick this one. That seems to be the best size and shape to fit the room. Let’s go ahead with it.
to cope with
Meaning: to manage to deal with sth, usually indicates a little bit of a struggle that is not easy
Examples:
How do you cope with all this extra work that you have to do?
How do you cope with the pressure of studying part-time to do your MBA?
I find it difficult to cope with extra pressure all the time.
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to overcome
Meaning: to deal with problems or difficulties in a successful way
Example:
We need to find ways to overcome the blocks of developing our business into a new market.
Of course, you could use it in a negative way.
He wasn’t able to overcome the problems and decided to pull out of that particular market.
In that sense, you use it negatively.
He was able to overcome it in time to spend the weekend with his family.
So you might have had a problem in the middle of the week, and you weren’t sure whether it would stretch to the weekend. Luckily, you’re able to overcome that particular problem, find out what was causing the issue, deal with it, and therefore the weekend was free to spend with your family.
to get on with something
Meaning: to proceed with something; to continue with something after an interruption
Example:
Let me get on with this job. I’ve got a tight deadline, I need to finish it before 5 o’clock.
To get on with a job is to continue, to get on with it or you want to begin something. So you can use it in many, many different stages.
Leave me to get on with this is a popular expression.
I’d like to get on with this is another popular way to express it.
Can I leave you to get on with it?
verbs of effort in English
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to tackle
Meaning: to deal with something that is going to be a little bit complicated
Example:
We need one of those pneumatic drills to tackle this job. Tony has this equipment, three of us can tackle this job in no time.
to work on
Meaning: to spend time working in order to create or improve something
Example:
I’m going to spend all Saturday working on this particular presentation because I want it ready for next week.
to focus on something
Meaning: to concentrate on something; to put all your effort into one particular project or task
Example:
I wanted to work from home for a few days in order to focus on that big submission.
to deal with
Meaning: to sort out or fix a problem
We deal with things every day of the week, don’t we? We deal with the mundane stresses of life, getting the kids up, getting them to school, getting the lunches made, getting off to work, or getting in on time, catching the metro, whatever happens. So everything that we have to do, we have to deal with it.
Example:
I went to a restaurant and my food order was taking longer than expected. I had to deal with the manager.
to handle something
Meaning: to get it completed
Examples:
I’m able to handle it, I will just log into the system, I’ll find out and track what’s happened to this delivery.
I think you’re the best person to handle that particular situation.
verbs of effort in English
to give up
Meaning: to surrender, to stop doing what you’re doing, admit defeat
Example:
I don’t know how I’m going to deal with this. I’ve put in so much effort up to now and it just seems to be a wasted effort. So I’m just going to give up.
So if nothing works, if you can’t find the solution to the problem, sometimes it actually is better just to give up, not spend more time or effort because it’s not going to be so useful.
Let me just repeat these verbs of effort in English one more time:
- to go ahead with
- to cope with
- to overcome
- to get on with
- to tackle
- to work on
- to focus on
- to deal with
- to handle
- to give up
That’s the end of this particular podcast. Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed it. And hopefully, you’ve learned something from it. As I promised, if you want to contact me, then you can do so on www.englishlessonviaskype.com.
Really happy to hear from you, and really happy to answer any queries that you might have. If you’re looking for online English lessons on Zoom or Skype on a one to one basis, or on a group basis, write to me and we can see if we can help you.
As always, thanks for listening and join me again soon.
More information
For more information on English grammar rules, English collocations and English idioms, check out the links below:
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You can always study English advanced level at Learning English with the BBC.
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