What do you do when you want to shimmer and shine? Do you get all dolled up with expensive jewelry, like diamonds and gold? Do you wear one piece of statement jewelry, or do you like to wear a lot of smaller items? Some people prefer costume jewelry to actual jewels. Other people think that if it is not valuable, there is no point in wearing it!
In many countries, it is customary for men to give jewelry to their wives or girlfriends as a gift. For example, in the United States, men usually give women a diamond ring when they propose marriage. Many men also give jewelry as a gift during the winter holidays and on Valentine’s Day.
Jessica’s friends just got a lot of new jewels for the holidays. Listen as she and Dominique talk about jewelry.
Jessica: Dominique, I have never really worn a lot of jewelry, but a lot of my friends got diamonds for the holidays, and it was so fun looking at the pictures of them wearing such beautiful gold and silver and just dolled up with this amazing jewelry… I was a bit jealous.
Dominique: Wait, how come you aren’t into jewelry? I mean, diamonds are a girl’s best friend.
Jessica: It’s true. And I do have a princess cut diamond on my wedding ring, but, I don’t know, I’ve just never really used jewelry to express myself. But you look gorgeous.
Dominique: Thank you.
Jessica: You’ve got some beautiful jewels on.
Dominique: Thanks! I really like statement jewelry, big, chunky pieces. I also like rough and raw diamonds. Have you ever seen them, just fresh out of the ground?
Jessica: Wow, I actually haven’t.
Dominique: Very beautiful.
Jessica: It sounds really great. I think I could get into wearing jewelry too, I don’t know, show off my style. But I feel like it’s just so heavy and bulky. It’s hard to make jewelry versatile and fit your style and your outfit every day.
Dominique: But there’s so many different types of stones. Different colors, different cuts… I mean, you can get a dainty necklace and match your outfit right now.
Jessica: It’s true. You’ll have to help me with this, because I’m new to this world, and you’ll have to show me how it’s done.
Dominique: No problem. I am your resident expert!
Jessica: Thank you!
Jessica is a little bit jealous because many of her friends got beautiful diamond jewelry for the holidays. She does not wear jewelry very often, although she does have a diamond wedding ring. She is not sure how to express herself with jewels. She thinks that it is difficult to find jewelry that she could wear every day.
Dominique loves wearing jewelry. Her favorite pieces are big, chunky items. She likes to wear jewelry that makes a statement. She also loves raw diamonds that have just come out of the ground and are not cut or polished. She offers to help Jessica learn how to feel comfortable wearing beautiful jewels.
Do you wear a lot of jewelry? Do you like silver or gold better?
Jessica would like to wear more jewelry. She says, “I think I could get into wearing jewelry.” She uses a phrasal verb.
Phrasal verbs include a verb + a preposition or adverb that changes the original meaning of the verb. For example, a lot of phrasal verbs use the preposition “out.” Examples include break out (get away from), hand out (give to people), and, of course, make out (kiss a lot).
Some phrasal verbs are non-separable, meaning the preposition must directly follow the verb. For instance, you can say “I dropped by the bar,” but not “I dropped the bar by” because drop by is non-separable.
On the other hand, drop off is separable. You can say, “I have to drop off my son at school,” or, “I have to drop my son off at school.”
We can see that Jessica uses a non-separable phrasal verb. She can’t put the preposition anywhere else in the sentence. It would be incorrect to say, “I could get wearing jewelry into”!
Which is correct, “I got off the bus,” or, “I got the bus off”?