Everybody ESL

Episode 189 (mini)

Episode Summary

This mini episode teaches you a very useful phrasal verb: “to come down with.”

Episode Notes

Episode 189 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you a very useful phrasal verb: “to come down with.” Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)

Episode Transcription

Intro

"Hello, everyone. This is Sumin Lee from South Korea. And you are listening to Everybody ESL."

Welcome to episode 189 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let's get on with this mini episode.

The episode

In this episode, I am going to teach you a very useful idiom. This idiom is actually a phrasal verb. Do you remember what phrasal verbs are? Phrasal verbs are verbs that are made of a verb and one or more prepositions. Phrasal verbs can be very difficult to learn. There are so many phrasal verbs, and many of them are extremely common. You will hear phrasal verbs in all kinds of natural conversations.

The one that I'm going to teach you today is come down with. Come down with. That's come—c-o-m-e, down—d-o-w-n, and with—w-i-t-h. Come down with. What does come down with mean? Come down with means “to become sick with something.” Usually, we use come down with to talk about people becoming sick with the kind of illness you can catch from somebody else. So we use come down with when we are talking about a cold or the flu or chicken pox or even COVID-19.

Here are a few example sentences that can show you how we use come down with:

“My friend came down with a cold.” My friend came down with a cold. Here, you can see come down with in its past tense form: came down with. My friend came down with a cold.

Here's another one: “I think I might be coming down with the flu.” I think I might be coming down with the flu. Here, you can see the present progressive form—coming down with.

And my last example for you is “How many people in your country have come down with COVID-19?” How many people in your country have come down with COVID-19? In that last example, you can see the present perfect form of come down withhave come down with.

And that is come down with, a very common and a very useful phrasal verb that I think you should know.

Outro

And that's the end of episode 189 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have any questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions about the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can use at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Sumin recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I'll be back soon with another episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. Goodbye. I'll see you soon.