Figure out

Figure out

The phrasal verb I chose today is “figure out.” You have to know this one and you have to be able to use it. This is an extremely common phrasal verb in English—and of course, “figure out” has nothing to do with the words “figure” or “out.” The phrasal verb figure out means to be able to understand something or to solve a problem.

The problem facing Britain and the EU is to negotiate an agreement between the two sides that honors Britain’s decision to leave but also minimizes the pain on both sides. They have not been able to figure this out. They don’t have an answer. They don’t know what to do. They have not yet figured it out. They’d better figure it out quickly because the deadline is in March.

Even beyond the big issues, the two sides have a lot they have to figure out. Britain’s Heathrow Airport is one of the busiest in all of Europe. If Britain leaves, then they won’t have agreements in place with Europe or the rest of the world, since the EU handles all aviation regulations. If they want planes to fly in and out of Britain after next March 29, they need to figure something out. They need to find a solution to this problem.

In these two examples, I used “figure out” to mean, “find a solution to a problem.” It can also mean simply to understand something complicated. At work someone sent me something really confusing and I just could not figure out what it meant. Has that ever happened to you? I even asked some other people and none of us could figure out what these documents meant. Even after studying the documents for a while, none of us could understand what they meant. We couldn’t figure it out.

Here are some more examples. When you listen, see if you can tell if I mean figure out like “to understand” or figure out like “to solve a problem.” I cannot figure out why some people are constantly late. I finally figured out where that bad smell was coming from—it was the bananas in the bottom of the trash can. I can never eat bananas fast enough in the hot and humid weather. I am having trouble figuring out how to get Plain English onto the new Google Podcasts platform. It has something to do with link tags on the home page of the site, but I don’t have an Android device to test it out on, so I’m really having a hard time figuring out how to get Plain English into this new platform.

I hope that was helpful. You have got to use “figure out.” No excuses—if you’re not using it, practice it and try because it is essential in English.

Thanks for listening to Episode 80! JR and I will be back on Thursday with the next episode. In the meantime, don’t be shy about sending either of us a note. JR is [email protected] and I’m [email protected].