Beef up

#. Beef up

 

Hey guys! Today's English phrasal verb is "beef up." "Beef up" means to improve or make something stronger. This is an imformal phrasal verb; however, you will hear this quite often in business English conversions. Now listen to dialogue between two friends talking about a car. Listen closely for the expression "beef up."

 

Wow Nikki, nice car! Is it new?

> Yeah, I bought it last week.

It's amazing! And check out those fancy wheels.

> Actually, I bought the wheels separately to beef the car up a bit.

It looks awesome. Can I give it a drive?

> No chance!

 

Remember "to beef up something" means to improve or make something stronger. This is a separable phrasal verb so you can use it in two ways, for example, "I want to beef my car up" or "I want to beef up my car." Both are correct. Try to use this expression the next time you're talking about improving or making something stronger. Thanks for listening and see you next time.

 

• beef biːf 소[쇠] 고기 (→corned beef)  beef something up ~을 보강[강화]하다  give a drive 드라이브하다

• check somebody / something out  ~을 확인[조사]하다 , (흥미로운 것을) 살펴보다 [보다]  no chance 그럴 가능성은[그럴 리가] 없다

• separable ˈsepərəbl 분리될 수 있는 , 분리 가능한