Phrasal verbs: sort sth out, clean sth out, tidy sth up
What is the difference among these phrasal verbs: sort sth out, clean sth out, tidy sth up? Thanks.
*sth=something.
3 Answers
Sort out: picking one thing out of another, as in separating the chaff from the wheat in the Bible. You could sort out the quarters from your pocket change. It also can be used to mean thinking something through. One sorts out their life after a crisis. It generally means finding things that are all of a type and removing them from the whole.
Clean out: I clean out my car by putting all of the trash I have accumulated in the interior in a bag and removing it. This is different than cleaning the car, which means running it through the car wash. In slang, it means to have spent all of your money. "Taking her out to dinner and a show really cleaned me out."
Tidy up: I tidy up my living room before my guests come over. It's like "clean up" but only involves putting things away, not mopping and vacuuming.
Well, to "sort out" means to put in some kind of order, or to straighten out a problem, or to separate like things from unlike things, such as different size cups, for example.
"Daddy, Michael is on my side of the car". "Quiet, we'll sort it out later".
Clean out is to get rid of stuff, like "Peter, you have too much junk in the shed, clean it out.
Tidy up is like a light cleaning, like dusting and putting things away. "Peter, the housekeeper is coming today.. Tidy up your den before she gets here!!!!" (I will never figure out why my wife wants me to "tidy up" before the cleaning lady comes).
You load up the car and I’ll sort the kids out.
Tú mete todo en el coche y yo me ocupo de los niños.
Buying drinks for everyone cleaned me out.
Me quedé sin un duro pagando las copas de todos.
We clean the stables out every day.
Limpiamos los establos a fondo todos los días.
Don't forget to tidy up when you've finished.
No te olvides de recoger cuando termines.
