This week in class one of my students said that he needed to catch up on his work. Uh, oh….
When I showed him this picture he understood his mistake.

In order to improve your American English pronunciation you must know how to use syllable stress and word stress. One pattern that you must follow is this: in phrasal verbs the stress is on the participle or second part of the verb.

Here are a few examples:
put down, not put down, that’s like an insult
stand up, not stand up, that’s a type of comedy
turn on, not turn on, that’s a sexual term
turn over, not turn over, that’s type of pastry
catch up, not catch up, (ketchup) that’s for french fries

We use many phrasal verbs in English. To read more about phrasal verbs check out the Longman Pocket Phrasal Verbs Dictionary. This great little resource is only $6.00 and it’s easy to carry around with you.
Longman Phrasal Verbs Dictionary