Wednesday, December 15, 2010

screw something up

A lot of you may be familiar with this one already. When you screw something up, you make a mistake and usually ruin something. This something can be anything--a computer, a project, a relationship, you name it--because as you know, you can screw up anything. You can screw up plans for the weekend by working; you can screw up a piece of equipment by not following instructions; you can screw up a relationship with your significant other by saying or doing something awful that makes him or her angry. 


This phrasal verb has the same meaning as mess up, which you may be familiar with. The teacher messed up means the same thing as The teacher screwed up, which means the teacher made a mistake.

like this:
1. The soup's too salty because John screwed up. He didn't follow the recipe.
2. They might fire him. He screwed up the report, and the company lost a lot of money.
3. Don't bring up politics or religion at the dinner table, ok? ... or you'll screw things up.
4. His cable company keeps screwing up his bill so he might switch to another company. 
5. Don't bring your dog to the wedding or you'll screw up everything.  

Everyone screws up now and then. What have you screwed up lately? Tell us and practice your English. You can comment here or on Facebook. ... or if you're not registered to either of these, you can go to the small guide site and write me an email.

Good luck!
Joe 
the small guide

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