This is the Rachel’s English 30-Day Challenge! Learn 30 phrasal verbs in 30 days! Jumpstart your vocabulary in 2017. Today is Day 22 and we’re studying phrasal verbs with “polish”.

Polish. I like these phrasal verbs. We just have to polish up, and polish off, but they are useful. You’ll notice them in conversations.

Polish off. This means to finish something. We use it a lot with food and drink. There’s only a little wine left in the bottle. Who will polish it off? Or, I tried not to, but I polished off the cake.

It can also mean to kill somebody. This use is much less frequent. She wanted her boyfriend to polish off her ex husband.

Polish up. It means to change things, to improve things, in order to help the image of something. I’m going to polish up my sales pitch before I send my next emails. It can also mean to work on something to improve it, to practice. I really need to polish up this piano piece before the recital. Or, I need to polish up my Spanish before my trip to Peru.

Will you polish up your phrasal verb vocabulary? Keep working on the videos in this 30-day challenge!

Polish is a two-syllable word with stress on the first syllable. POL-ish. Polish. It begins with the P consonant, so the lips come together and then release with a little burst of air into the AH as in Father vowel. Poh- poh- ah- The tongue presses down a little bit.

Then we have an L. It’s at the end of a syllable, so it’s a dark L, but I actually think this works better as a Light L. Tongue tip up to the roof of the mouth, pol- pol-. Or you can put your tongue so the tip is touching the back of the teeth, or even pressing up on the bottom of the top teeth. Uhll—pollll—polish, poll– There, you see a little bit of the tongue.

Then the second syllable, unstressed. A quick IH vowel and the SH consonant, -ish, -ish, -ish. Make that very quickly. Simplify everything. You don’t need to flare your lips like you would for the SH sound at the beginning of a stressed syllable, Shh— -Sh. -ish, -ish, -ish, -ish. More simple, less movement. Polish, polish.

We do this because it’s an unstressed syllable and simplifying the movements allow us to make that syllable even shorter. We want this so there’s contrast with the longer, up-down shape, the stressed syllable. POL-ish. POL-ish. Polish, polish.

To catch all of the videos in this 30-day challenge, be sure to sign up for my mailing list, it’s absolutely FREE. And definitely subscribe to my YouTube channel and LIKE Rachel’s English on Facebook.

Click the links in the description. This 30-day challenge is leading up to a phrasal verbs course that will be available on my online school on February 1. Rachel’s English Academy is a collection of online courses focusing on English conversation, pronunciation, and listening comprehension. You will understand Americans better and speak better English with these courses. Visit rachelsenglishacademy.com to sign up and get started today.