English Vocabulary: Many ways to use the word 'BACK'

You probably know the word 'back'. But did you know that it can be used as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and a phrasal verb? In this lesson, you'll learn to use this very common word in each of these ways. The English language has many words that can have different meanings. I'll explain how this simple word can take on many different meanings, and I'll give you examples to help you understand each of them. You'll also learn expressions with the word 'back'. So don't hold back, and don't back out. Check out this video!
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TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at [a]www.engvid.com%2C[/a] and today we have a lesson on a little word "back". And this is in response to a request from Najma, who posted a comment on the www.engvid.com website. So, thank you, Najma, I hope you're watching. This is for you. Okay. So, the use of the word "back". It's a very common word; it's used all the time. And it's also used in different ways as different parts of speech. So it can be used as a noun, as an adjective, as an adverb, as a verb, and it can be used as part of a phrasal verb. So I'll be showing you examples of all of these. Okay?

So, let's start with "back" used as a noun. Okay? So, for example, if you're talking about a friend of yours who, when they get on the bus, they always go to the back, they like to sit at the back. So: "He always sits at the back of the bus." You can tell it's a noun because it has "the" in front of it. "The back", okay? Right, so: "He always sits at the back of the bus."

Second one, the back can be in a location, but you can also talk about my back, that's this, part of your body is your back at the back. So: "My back is itching!" Oo, ah, oo. I have to scratch. It's itching. Ah. Okay? "My back is itching." Okay? Useful word: "itching". It's probably not polite, though, to sort of scratch in public. So you have to be a bit careful about that. It's probably safe to scratch your back and to scratch your head up to a certain extent, but other parts of the body, maybe not a good idea in public. So, okay, better move on.

Right, you're arranging to meet somebody and depending on whether you're in America or in another part of the world where English is spoken, you can either say: "I'll meet you in back of the building." That's the American way of using "back" or in the U.K., for example, we would say: "I will meet you behind the building." That means at the back, behind. It's a similar idea. So "in back of" is American. In the U.K., we say "behind". All right. So that's "back" as a noun.

Moving on to "back" used as an adjective to describe something, a back something. Question: "Did you close the back door?" Okay? In your house, you might have a back door and a front door. This is the back door, the door at the back of the house, the back door. Okay? And also: "He's in the back room." So different rooms in the house, a room at the back is called "a back room" as an adjective. Okay. All right.

Then moving on, using "back" as an adverb where it's sort of modifies a verb: "I'm going back home now." You can say: "I'm going home now." But going back home is like the idea of returning home. "I'm going back home now." To go back. Right? And, finally, in this section: "Our neighbours are back from holiday." So, that again is an adverb: "they are back from holiday". Okay, so we'll move on now to look at "back" used as a verb.

Okay, so now let's have a look at "back" used as a verb. Right? So, for example: "The car was backing into the street." So the car was going backwards into the street, it was backing. So "to back" is what a car can do. Okay? Another way of backing somebody or something, if you say: "Don't worry - if you want to raise this issue with the boss I will back you." Meaning: I will support you. If there's a problem in the office, and your friend is a little bit unsure about whether to talk to the boss about it, they need a bit of support, you say: "I will back you." Meaning: "I will agree with you and say the same thing to the boss that you are saying." Okay? "I will back you", support you. And a similar idea of supporting: "The company will back the project." That usually means money, putting money into a project to make something happen, so "to back something" can be financial. Okay.