This will be my final blog entry for 2010! It’s hard to believe this year has gone by so quickly! I’m going to finish with a phrasal verb because it’s Friday. The one I want to write about is “rope into”. It is used when we want to talk about a person using their influence to have another person do something they don’t really want to do. For example:
I didn’t really want to perform in the show, but Jerry roped me into it. He said they were desperate to find someone.
I was roped into performing in the show. (passive voice)
I can’t believe Susan is working on her day off. Her boss must have roped her into it.
A: How did you get roped into doing all this work by yourself?
B: My wife is sick and no one else had time to help, so that’s how I got roped into it. (passive voice)
You can try to remember this expression by imagining the person using a rope to tie the other person’s hands together and leading them away to do the thing they don’t want to do.
I wish all of my readers a very happy New Year, and I hope I will be able to continue to help you with English in 2011!
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