Shadowing Practice: 30 Phrasal Verbs for your Morning Routine - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

Good morning.

Let's talk about it.

We all get up in the morning, right?

Even if you are working from home or watching your kids from home or not leaving the house much in general, you still have a morning routine.

A great way to remember new English phrases is to use them in your daily life.

So today I'd like to invite you to join me on my morning routine as I talk about phrasal verbs

that you can use in the morning during your routine as you get ready for the day.

Are you ready to join me?

Let's go.

Every morning I wake up to my alarm clock or I wake up to my baby.

I try not to doze off again and push snooze, but sometimes I do.

Finally, I turn off my alarm clock and roll out of bed.

Notice the pronunciation of this phrasal verb to roll out of bed.

I didn't say I roll out of bed.

I said I roll out of bed.

The T here is going to change to a D sound, and this means that you are not so enthusiastic about waking up.

You just roll out of bed.

You could also say, I get out of bed.

That's a more neutral phrasal verb, but if you want to let people know you were really tired when you woke up this morning,

you might say, when my alarm clock went off, I just rolled out of bed, walked to the car, and went to work.

You were kind of like a zombie this morning.

You just rolled out of bed.

Next I go into the bathroom and wash off my face.

Wash off does not mean that I am completely erasing my face.

You can just say, wash my face, but we can also use this phrasal verb, wash off my face.

If you feel like you have some kind of dirt or grime that's kind of thick on your face, Maybe after you are sleeping,

there's some, we call this sleep, that kind of crusty stuff in your eyes.

You might want to wash the sleep out of your eyes.

So we are washing it out.

Wash the sleep out of my eyes or wash off my face.

Next I will put on some makeup.

Usually I just put on some makeup under my eyes to mask how tired I really am.

And I will put that away.

Sometimes I put on my glasses for the day and sometimes I choose to put in my contacts.

Now we're saying put on my glasses because they're going on my face,

but I'm putting in my contacts because they're going effectively in my eyeball.

They're going in my eyes.

So I put in my contacts and I put on my glasses.

After I've washed off my face, put on some makeup, put in my contacts, or put on my glasses, it's time to brush out my hair.

We could say simply brush out my hair, and that means you're getting the knots out of your hair,

or it could mean that you're taking your hair out of some kind of thing.

For me, this is a braid.

So I'm taking my hair out of the braid and I'm brushing out my hair.

It's kind of like erasing the knots from my hair.

I'm brushing out the knots from my hair and now it is wavy.

Usually I do this on days that I record videos.

On other days, my hair is just a wild mess.

But because I am recording a video today, you get to see behind the scenes, taking my hair out of braids.

It is a simple and easy way to have have wavy hair.

And I think it's a lot of fun.

You get to have braids, you get to have wavy hair, and it's, as you can see, takes 10 seconds.

Amazing.

That's what I like the most.

I don't know about you, but I hardly ever have my hair down.

This is what it's called when your hair is not tied back.

This is a hair tie.

There are a lot of regional words for what to call this thing.

I call it a hair tie.

But because I'm a mother, I have two young children, I'm always looking down or helping or playing and working in the garden.

I'm always doing a lot of things.

I can't have my hair in my face.

So that means that I need to use a hair tie and I need to tie back my hair.

We can use two different phrasal verbs for this.

We can say tie back or tie up.

And you can kind of get the image here.

I'm tying it back or I'm tying it up.

And it means the same thing.

I'm making this.

Do you know what this is called?

It's a little bit strange.

It's called a ponytail.

A pony is a small horse, but you can get the image of a tail of a horse kind of looks like this, right?

Swish, swish, swish.

So I'm making a ponytail in the back of my hair.

What if I had two?

What if I had two of these and I wanted to tie up my hair like this?

Do you know what these are called when you have two hair ties?

Well, Well, it is not a ponytail because ponies don't have two tails.

Instead, these are called pigtails.

Pigs don't have two tails, but I guess this is just referring to how a tail of a pig is kind of curly.

Maybe originally pigtails were kind of curly.

I'm not exactly sure, but these are pigtails.

Sometimes I wear pigtails, sometimes I don't, but they kind of get in the way when I'm trying to do things.

So usually I use that first expression.

I tie back my hair or I use a clip and we could say,

I pull back my hair.

So here you can see I'm pulling back my hair and putting it up in this clip.

So here we used similar ideas, but with two different verbs, to tie up, to tie back, to pull up, and to pull back.

It just depends on what kind of device you're using, a clip or a hair tie.

They're kind of interchangeable too.

You can pull back your hair with a hair tie.

No one's going to figuratively split hairs over this.

This means get upset about small little differences.

Nobody's going to get upset about these small differences, so you can use them interchangeably.

Next, very important, I've got my toothbrush and I need to put on the toothpaste and simply brush my teeth.

I need to spit out the toothpaste.

After spitting out the toothpaste, I need to put back my toothbrush into the little toothbrush cup.

Now that I'm ready from the shoulders up, I need to get dressed.

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Specifically, I need to pick out my clothes.

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I think I'm going to wear this dress today.

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It's a lovely summer day.

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So I picked this out.

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I do have a closet where I could put clothes,

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but for some reason I'll just like to have this little bar here to put my most used clothes on.

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I find myself more likely to hang them up

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and to take care of them

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if it's really close to my bed where I get changed and I change my clothes before I go to bed.

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It's easy for me to remember this.

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I also have some drawers, some dresser drawers with some clothes in them, like socks or pants, things like this, but it is summertime.

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So I'm going to only wear this sundress that I picked out.

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Usually by then my baby is awake and it's time for me to pick him up.

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Good morning, baby!

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Is that how you feel about the morning?

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You want to tell us what it's like to be a baby?

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What's it like to be a baby?

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Is that really what it's like?

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Oh wow!

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I never drink coffee, but most mornings I make some tea.

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To make tea, I need to heat up some water in a kettle.

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We can call this a tea kettle, a hot water kettle, or just a kettle.

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And after the water has heated up, I need to pour out the water into my teapot.

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After the tea has steeped for three or four minutes, I need to pour out the tea into my mug.

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Or we could say simply, I need to pour the tea, or we could say pour out the tea, that's fine.

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Or we could say, I'm going to fill up my mug with some delicious tea.

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This is some green tea that I added some dried lavender to.

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I have a lavender bush in my yard

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and I put some dry lavender in here and added it to the green tea.

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It smells amazing.

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I forgot to show you, but I also whip up some breakfast.

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To whip up means that you're making something really quickly.

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Usually it's not very thoughtful.

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It's pretty simple.

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And for me this morning, I just whipped up a piece of toast.

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Typically this means that you're making something instead of just cutting something.

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So for example, part of my breakfast is this cantaloupe that came from our garden.

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A cantaloupe is a melon.

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I don't know if they have it in your country, but it's pretty typical here.

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We actually grew this in our garden.

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When I cut this cantaloupe, I wouldn't say that I whipped up the cantaloupe because I didn't make it.

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I didn't create this even though, yes, it did come from our garden.

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But instead, because the toast, I put some butter on it, I put some jam on it.

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I actually made it in a way.

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We could say I whipped up some breakfast.

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But if you're just opening a granola bar and eating a granola bar, or if you're just cutting a piece of fruit and eating it,

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you're not really whipping up breakfast.

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You have to have some kind of making or creating that happens.

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So for me, I whipped up breakfast, I made a piece of toast, And then I cut up this cantaloupe.

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Finally, it's time for me to go over my plans for the day.

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Go over is simply another way to say review.

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Usually I try to be pretty organized because there's so much going on in my life.

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I have a toddler, a newborn, a husband, so I need to keep up my relationship.

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I'm also an individual, so I need to do things for myself as well.

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And I am your English teacher and I run my own English teaching business.

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So there's a lot of different hats that I have to wear.

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For me, the key to my sanity is to keep organized.

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So I usually have a list of the things that I want to accomplish that day or maybe that week.

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And in the morning, I go over my plans for the day.

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Because I work here from home, I don't need to go anywhere to work.

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But if you are going to the office at the end of your morning routine, when you open the door of your house and leave your house,

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you can say, I'm heading out the door.

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This isn't just your head going out the door.

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It just means that you're leaving your house.

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I'm heading out the door or I'm heading to work.

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We use that expression head to talk about the movement here.

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I'm heading out the door.

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I'm heading to work.

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Where are you going?

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I'm heading to work.

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Great.

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We can use this phrasal verb.

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Hope that you enjoyed following me on my morning routine.

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Now I have a question for you.

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Can you use three of these phrasal verbs to describe your morning routine?

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It's time to take action and use what you've learned.

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Please write a comment below using three of these phrasal verbs to tell us what you do in the morning.

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Thanks so much for learning English with me

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and I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.

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Bye.

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The next step is to download my free ebook, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English Speaker.

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You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.

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Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

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Thanks so much.

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Bye.

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Who Will Benefit from This Morning Routine Video?

This video is perfect for beginner to intermediate English learners who want to master everyday phrasal verbs while building practical speaking skills. If you’re tired of memorizing lists and want to use new words in real life, this is your go-to resource. Whether you’re prepping for daily conversations, improving your shadowing practice, or just want to sound more natural, these morning routine phrases will stick because they’re tied to actions you do every day.

Must-Know Phrasal Verbs & Expressions

The video is packed with high-frequency phrasal verbs that make your morning routine sound authentic. Here are the standouts:

Roll out of bed: To get up slowly, like a zombie (great for showing you’re tired!).
Wash off/Wash out: Clean something specific (e.g., "wash off my face" or "wash the sleep out of my eyes").
Put on/Put in: "Put on glasses" (on your face) vs. "put in contacts" (in your eyes)—small prepositions, big difference!
Brush out: Remove knots from hair (or undo a braid!).
Tie back/Tie up: Keep hair out of your face (e.g., "tie back my hair into a ponytail").

These aren’t just words—they’re tools to describe your day clearly and confidently.

Nailing the Pronunciation & Flow

To sound like a native, focus on the speaker’s casual pronunciation. For example, "roll out of bed" often drops the "t" sound, making it "roll ou(d) of bed"—a common feature of natural speech. Practice shadowing these phrases using a shadowing site or app to mimic the rhythm and stress. Platforms like shadowspeaks or other shadowing tools let you replay short clips, so you can match the speaker’s tone and pace. Remember: shadow speech isn’t just about repeating—it’s about feeling how the words connect. Try pausing the video, saying the phrase aloud, then playing it back to check your flow. You’ll be surprised how quickly these small tweaks make your English sound more natural!

Ready to turn your morning routine into a language lesson? Grab your phone, pull up the video, and start shadowing—your daily practice just got a whole lot more useful. With tools like a shadowing app or even YouTube itself (yes, learn English with YouTube works!), you’ll be mastering these phrasal verbs before your coffee cools down.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've washed · has heated · has steeped
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is not tied · is called · are called
Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain	might say · might want
Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now	are working · am completely erasing · are sleeping

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: 30 Phrasal Verbs for your Morning Routine - Learn English Speaking with Video

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