Bring Me Down

This week I have been teaching phrasal verbs (verb + participle such as, cheer up, take away, try on, etc.). I have come to the conclusion that only thing harder than learning phrasal verbs is having to teach them. For example..

You put ON a jacket.
You put AWAY your groceries.
You put OUT a fire.
You put UP a fight.
You put UP WITH your boss.
You put DOWN the gun.

You try explaining to 15 overwhelmed English students from 7 different countries that you don't hang up with your friends or take off the garbage. It's exhausting. They were very receptive to the phrasal verb give up.

Then today I came to the phrasal verb fall for. I told my class that it means your believe something that isn't true. I gave them the example of fell for a joke or fell for a lie. Then I told them that it could also mean to have strong romantic feelings for someone as in, I fell for him. Then I realized that really, both have the same meaning. I didn't tell my class that though; that's a lesson they're going to have to find out on their own.