UE 039 - Learn Phrasal Verbs with The Word Tear

Uncensored English

Gabe and Keiran tear it up on todays podcast, explaining several phrasal verbs using the word tear.

***Transcript***

What’s up everybody this Keiran the crazy Canadian, and welcome to another podcast of unnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnncensored English! Where we talk about whatever the hell we want to talk about.

So today on uncensored English Gabriel Omassi is back on the podcast joining us again, and we’re going to be talking about different ways you can use phrasal verbs, with the word tear. Alright let’s get this thing started, alright what’s up Gabriel how’s it going man?

G: yo yo yo what’s up

K: not much what’s new with you?

G: Ah man, I’ve been playing a lot of mindcraft, watching world war 2 documentaries.

** Gabriel’s bird squawking**

G: You hear that?

**chirping continues**

K: What? What is that?

G: I have a new parrot that’s going fucking crazy.

K: What happened to your old one?

G: Shut the fuck up! It’s uh… the other ones dead.

K: It’s dead, why what happened to it?

G: It flew out the window.

K: Ah that’s kinda ah that’s kinda a bit of a downer.

G: Yeah but I got a really good new joke out of it so it’s alright.

K: Alright, well I guess that’s what’s important in life.

G: yeah

K: Alright so today Gabriel we’re going to be talking about how to use phrasal verbs with the word tear.

G: Yeah man

K: So when you think about the word tear.

G: Hold on, let me

K: I think your parrot wants to be part of the podcast.

G: Yeah, he’s he’s crazy.

K: alright, when you think about the word tear what’s the first phrasal verb that pops into your mind?

G: To be honest, oh the phrase to tear into.

K: tear into,

G: yeah like let’s say you do something wrong, or you do something that isn’t like up to the standard of what the person asked you to do. The person will critique you or belittle you or humiliate you by pointing out what you did wrong and the reasons why it’s wrong, it could be like unreasonable or well it could be called for meaning that like it’s good that this is happening cause you’ve learnt from your mistakes.

K: Alright, , let’s use

G: Sorry, go on

K: Let’s give a concrete example, let’s say that you were late for work and the night before you didn’t close up at the bar well.

G: Yeah

K: What would your boss say to tear into you?

G: Well my boss would say that I’m irresponsible that I’m not good at my job, that I could have caused a huge problem, someone could have robbed the bar and it would’ve been my fault. And it’s cause by like me cause I’m not a good person.

K: Yeah you know now that I think about it the only person who ever tears into me is my father.

G: Oh yeah

K: He’s really neurotic about cleanliness and when I lived with other guys I was always the cleaner person. Like I’ll go to bed, and the Kitchen is like spotless but I’ll leave like one spoon beside the sink

G: oh wow

K: and the next day when he sees it he’ll be like “ KEiran you left the kitchen in a mess again! It was filthy, there was stuff all over the place!

G: Jesus, he’s an asshole

K: And I’ll be like, Dad there was one spoon, “It’s not acceptable in this house!”

G: Wow, sorry.

K: Nah it’s alright, it’s funny, I always just laugh it off. What about you has anyone ever torn into you?

G: Yeah man, so when I first started doing comedy, I did a show, and it was whatever, it was fine but then the last joke bombed really hard and it made everybody uncomfortable. So the host of the comedy show went up. And he just started tearing into me and say that I’m like not funny. And that the joke wasn’t good and that I should never tell the joke again.. and he did it in public and humiliated me. and I quite comedy for 2 years after that.

K: Wow that’s pretty uh that’s pretty shitty of a host to do that.

G: yeah he’s terrible.

K: Who was it?

G: uh, Stephen Spinola.

K: Really, that was uh dick head thing to do.

G; yeah yeah yeah, it was uh really sad.

K: Alright, let’s move on to the uh, well hopefully we’ll get some happier examples in the next phrasal verb. Alright so we did tear into, another one that uh, actually tear into has another meaning too right? We could say when John got home from the soccer game he just tore into the pizza.

G: Ah yeah, it’s true!

K: What does that mean in that sense?

G: Like he was so hungry he just like opened up the box and ate like all the pizza.

K: Yeah he just went nuts, he ate as much as he could handle at that moment. Right?

G: Yeah yeah exactly.

K: yeah, usually, usually I tear into food when I’m feeling, sometimes I sometimes, nah I’m not going to continue this though.

G: Alright, when you’re sad?

K:No it’s not sad, it’s just at the end of the night I just tear into a bag of chips at the end of the night.

G: Mmmmmmmmmmm

K: You know?

G: Yeah it’s true

K: I’ve been trying to cut that off though. I’ve gained a bit too much weight though. So I’m going to stop tearing into food all the time.

G: I understand

K: Alright this sounds like therapy.

G: huhuhuhuh

K: Alright, well lets go on to the next one. What about like tear down?

G: ok so tear down, it could be like in the literal sense, mean like there’s a building that needs to be demolished and you tear it down. Yea it’s literally, it could be in the literal sense of tearing something down.

K: so you mean Donald Trump wanted to knock down his building so he evicted all the tenants then tore the building down and sold it for profit.

G: exactly

K: yeah, oh Donald I think that actually happened. I heard about it on the roast. I think it was Chapelle who made fun of him for kicking black people out of a building so he could tear it down and build a new one.

G: yeah yeah yeah he’s a slumlord.

K: he’s a slum lord, the slum lord of the US. Alright, tear into, tear down. And what else comes to mind when you think of tear, do you have another one?

G: tear apart

K: tear apart, k what’s tear apart?

G: Similar to tear into, but it’s like uh, I feel like tear into like means like your more kinda going after someone for their personality. Like your specifically trying to hurt them tear apart could be, it’s like a blind act of anger sort of thing you’re just like tearing a person apart. You’re ripping them a new one, which is also another expression meaning the same thing.

K: Ok so tearing into someone is going after them for some kind of like personality trait or some kind of character that’s just part of who they are but then tearing somebody apart is about reacting to something maybe?

G: Yeah, but it could also be like it doesn’t necessarily, it could be both. It could also be about their personality or something to do or it could just be like let’s say there’s um like a sports commentator that’s literally just tearing somebody apart for the sake of like publicity or something you know.

K: Yeah, right, I know I know what you mean. Alright let’s go on to tear up.

G: oh yeah, like I guess that would be, like I guess if you were a surfer. Like they have an expression they like to tear up the waves, which means they like to go on their surfboards and ride the waves. Uh very extremely.

*laughter*

K: Ok so you mean they’re doing well while they’re riding the waves. Right?

G: Yeah exactly.

K: Like tearing it up doesn’t refer to surfing, it refers to performing, performing well.

G: Yeah like at a high level.

K: Yeah you could say like Louis CK has been tearing it up for like 5 years.

G: Yeah yeah exactly.

K: He’s been doing well in the comedy scene.

G: Yeah, he’s amazing.

K: Or you could say Max has not been tearing it up for 5 years.

G: No, I mean he did ok yesterday I think.

K: *fumbling words* no I was just making a point so now I’m tearing into him.

G: Oh yeah

K: Alright let’s finish up with one more what about torn between?

G: ooooooooh. That’s when you can’t make a decision, and so you’re torn between the two um, you’re torn between the two uh decisions.

K: Yeah exactly you have an indecisive moment because you want to do both things. Right?

G: Yeah you don’t know whether or not you want chips or chocolate. Sometimes. I want one thing but I can’t have both. Or like uhhh sometimes like if I go s-s-sometimes what I do when I make a lot of dates on one day. I decide like one day I’m going to go out with this girl or that girl and I’ll decide on that day. And then I’m torn between the two. Ah man that’s one’s hot but this one’s cool and this one has like a nice house and a lot of money you never know.

K: right, right man. I was just thinking the last podcast I did, I was talking about I was going to go on a diet. I’m going to lose some weight. And I’m going to stop drinking alcohol for a month.

G: yeah

K: and eating like red meat and stuff. And then that very night my parents came back from like a ten day vacation they took. And they brought home like 5 cans of cider.

G: OH wow!

K: And I was just torn between whether I wanted to you know keep my keep the goal I set for myself and not drink and lose weight, or just drink the cider. Right now cause it was so tempting.

G: Well if you’re a real alcoholic what you gotta do is drink all the cider to make sure there’s no more cider left in the house. So then you can finally feel healthy.

K: *laughter* So if you want to feel healthy, you should drink an abnormal quantity of alcohol.

G: that’s what I did

K: to feel healthy

G: I’ve been sober two weeks cause I drank all the alcohol in my house.

K: *laughter* Alright well how much did you have?

G: uhhh jesus Christ, an ungodly amount. Remember you remember Barry? God damn that guy was an animal. So we’d drink every single night until he left. No he’s gone, forever hopefully. And then I’ll be able to stay sober. And then I have a girlfriend and she’s sober so I’m happy. And I’m not and I’m not torn between love and alcohol. Ok? This is off the records.

K: Alright guys were going to wrap this up. We did a few phrasal verbs today we did tear apart, tear into, which means to go after someone for their character or to kind of react to something right?

G: yeah

K: and then we did tear up, which means to

G: do something particularly well.

K: yeah to perform extremely well in some kind of activity. IT also means just to rip up a paper.

G: Oh yeah it’s true. In the literal sense.

K: Yeah, you’re tearing up a paper. And then tearing up the waves, or tearing up the hockey scene means to be doing well in that particular sport.

G: yeah

K: then the last two we did was tear down, which is really simple it means just to tear down a building, to knock down the building right?

G: yeah

K: and torn between which was you know he’s torn between alcohol and love. Which one is he going to choose?

G: yeah you gotta listen to the podcast and find out.

K: yeah right, alright thanks man for helping us with this and we’ll catch you next time.

G: yeah man

K: alright ciao buddy. Alright guys that’s the end of the podcast so stay tuned for the next podcast of Unnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnncensored English!