Phrasal Verb Fun

play back
Back
, after a verb, almost always has the sense of 'return'
Musicians play their instruments and so, by extension, do recording
machines, CD systems, and so on. Once the music has been recorded,
you want to hear it again, don't you? Then the machine plays it back to
you.
Separable two-word verb
Careful.
play down
Yvette lost all her hearing in her left ear, but she plays it down. She

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doesn't talk about it, and you never notice.
When we
turn down
the music, we make it less loud. We make it quieter.
By extension, we can play a situation like an instrument and when we play
the situation
down
, we make it less important. We take the emphasis
away from it.
Separable two-word verb
. Careful.
play up
Mr Wellington was a successful politician who always knew how to play
up the mistakes of his enemies. Every time they said something wrong,
he let everyone know.
When we
turn up
the music, we make it louder.
By extension, we can play a situation like an instrument and when we play
the situation
up
, we make it more important. We give it more emphasis.
Separable two-word verb
. Careful.
point
(point, pointed, pointed)
To indicate with the point of your finger. Notice that point
to
something is
not quite the same as to point
at
it.
At can be aggressive so we usually say point at people.
'Don't point at the strange man, Jeremy. It's not his fault.'
Some of us were told as children that it was rude to point at somebody.
The dial on your car points to 100 miles an hour (about 160 km) and you
hear the police.
The importance of the situation, said the business manager in the fourth
meeting, points to an immediate search for a solution
POINT AT, POINT TO
Inseparable two-word verbs
. No problem..