Common
Phrasal Verbs

 

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Separable Phrasal Verbs The object may come after the following phrasal verbs or it may separate the two parts: You have to do this paint job over. You have to do over this paint job. When the object of the following phrasal verbs is a pronoun, the two parts of the phrasal verb must be separated: You have to do it over.
Verb	Meaning	Example
blow up	explode	The terrorists tried to blow up the railroad station.
bring up	mention a topic	My mother brought up that little matter of my prison record again.
bring up	raise children	It isn't easy to bring up children nowadays.
call off	cancel	They called off this afternoon's meeting
do over	repeat a job	Do this homework over.
fill out	complete a form	Fill out this application form and mail it in.
fill up	fill to capacity	She filled up the grocery cart with free food.
find out	discover	My sister found out that her husband had been planning a surprise party for her.
give away	give something to someone else for free	The filling station was giving away free gas.
give back	return an object	My brother borrowed my car. I have a feeling he's not about to give it back.
hand in	submit something (assignment)	The students handed in their papers and left the room.
hang up	put something on hook or receiver	She hung up the phone before she hung up her clothes.
hold up	delay	I hate to hold up the meeting, but I have to go to the bathroom.
hold up (2)	rob	Three masked gunmen held up the Security Bank this afternoon.
leave out	omit	You left out the part about the police chase down Asylum Avenue.
look over	examine, check	The lawyers looked over the papers carefully before questioning the witness. (They looked them over carefully.)
look up	search in a list	You've misspelled this word again. You'd better look it up.
make up	invent a story or lie	She knew she was in trouble, so she made up a story about going to the movies with her friends.
make out	hear, understand	He was so far away, we really couldn't make out what he was saying.
pick out	choose	There were three men in the line-up. She picked out the guy she thought had stolen her purse.
pick up	lift something off something else	The crane picked up the entire house. (Watch them pick it up.)
point out	call attention to	As we drove through Paris, Francoise pointed out the major historical sites.
put away	save or store	We put away money for our retirement. She put away the cereal boxes.
put off	postpone	We asked the boss to put off the meeting until tomorrow. (Please put it off for another day.)
put on	put clothing on the body	I put on a sweater and a jacket. (I put them on quickly.)
put out	extinguish	The firefighters put out the house fire before it could spread. (They put it out quickly.)
read over	peruse	I read over the homework, but couldn't make any sense of it.
set up	to arrange, begin	My wife set up the living room exactly the way she wanted it. She set it up.
take down	make a written note	These are your instructions. Write them down before you forget.
take off	remove clothing	It was so hot that I had to take off my shirt.
talk over	discuss	We have serious problems here. Let's talk them over like adults.
throw away	discard	That's a lot of money! Don't just throw it away.
try on	put clothing on to see if it fits	She tried on fifteen dresses before she found one she liked.
try out	test	I tried out four cars before I could find one that pleased me.
turn down	lower volume	Your radio is driving me crazy! Please turn it down.
turn down (2)	reject	He applied for a promotion twice this year, but he was turned down both times.
turn up	raise the volume	Grandpa couldn't hear, so he turned up his hearing aid.
turn off	switch off electricity	We turned off the lights before anyone could see us.
turn off (2)	repulse	It was a disgusting movie. It really turned me off.
turn on	switch on the electricity	Turn on the CD player so we can dance.
use up	exhaust, use completely	The gang members used up all the money and went out to rob some more banks.

Inseparable Phrasal Verbs (Transitive) With the following phrasal verbs, the lexical part of the verb (the part of the phrasal verb that carries the "verb-meaning") cannot be separated from the prepositions (or other parts) that accompany it: "Who will look after my estate when I'm gone?"
Verb	Meaning	Example
call on	ask to recite in class	The teacher called on students in the back row.
call on (2)	visit	The old minister continued to call on his sick parishioners.
get over	recover from sickness or disappointment	I got over the flu, but I don't know if I'll ever get over my broken heart.
go over	review	The students went over the material before the exam. They should have gone over it twice.
go through	use up; consume	They country went through most of its coal reserves in one year. Did he go through all his money already?
look after	take care of	My mother promised to look after my dog while I was gone.
look into	investigate	The police will look into the possibilities of embezzlement.
run across	find by chance	I ran across my old roommate at the college reunion.
run into	meet	Carlos ran into his English professor in the hallway.
take after	resemble	My second son seems to take after his mother.
wait on	serve	It seemed strange to see my old boss wait on tables.

Three-Word Phrasal Verbs (Transitive) With the following phrasal verbs, you will find three parts: "My brother dropped out of school before he could graduate."
Verb	Meaning	Example
break in on	interrupt (a conversation)	I was talking to Mom on the phone when the operator broke in on our call.
catch up with	keep abreast	After our month-long trip, it was time to catch up with the neighbors and the news around town.
check up on	examine, investigate	The boys promised to check up on the condition of the summer house from time to time.
come up with	to contribute (suggestion, money)	After years of giving nothing, the old parishioner was able to come up with a thousand-dollar donation.
cut down on	curtail (expenses)	We tried to cut down on the money we were spending on entertainment.
drop out of	leave school	I hope none of my students drop out of school this semester.
get along with	have a good relationship with	I found it very hard to get along with my brother when we were young.
get away with	escape blame	Janik cheated on the exam and then tried to get away with it.
get rid of	eliminate	The citizens tried to get rid of their corrupt mayor in the recent election.
get through with	finish	When will you ever get through with that program?
keep up with	maintain pace with	It's hard to keep up with the Joneses when you lose your job!
look forward to	anticipate with pleasure	I always look forward to the beginning of a new semester.
look down on	despise	It's typical of a jingoistic country that the citizens look down on their geographical neighbors.
look in on	visit (somebody)	We were going to look in on my brother-in-law, but he wasn't home.
look out for	be careful, anticipate	Good instructors will look out for early signs of failure in their students
look up to	respect	First-graders really look up to their teachers.
make sure of	verify	Make sure of the student's identity before you let him into the classroom.
put up with	tolerate	The teacher had to put up with a great deal of nonsense from the new students.
run out of	exhaust supply	The runners ran out of energy before the end of the race.
take care of	be responsible for	My oldest sister took care of us younger children after Mom died.
talk back to	answer impolitely	The star player talked back to the coach and was thrown off the team.
think back on	recall	I often think back on my childhood with great pleasure.
walk out on	abandon	Her husband walked out on her and their three children.

Intransitive Phrasal Verbs The following phrasal verbs are not followed by an object: "Once you leave home, you can never really go back again."
Verb	Meaning	Example
break down	stop functioning	That old Jeep had a tendency to break down just when I needed it the most.
catch on	become popular	Popular songs seem to catch on in California first and then spread eastward.
come back	return to a place	Father promised that we would never come back to this horrible place.
come in	enter	They tried to come in through the back door, but it was locked.
come to	regain consciousness	He was hit on the head very hard, but after several minutes, he started to come to again.
come over	to visit	The children promised to come over, but they never do.
drop by	visit without appointment	We used to just drop by, but they were never home, so we stopped doing that.
eat out	dine in a restaurant	When we visited Paris, we loved eating out in the sidewalk cafes.
get by	survive	Uncle Heine didn't have much money, but he always seemed to get by without borrowing money from relatives.
get up	arise	Grandmother tried to get up, but the couch was too low, and she couldn't make it on her own.
go back	return to a place	It's hard to imagine that we will ever go back to Lithuania.
go on	continue	He would finish one Dickens novel and then just go on to the next.
go on (2)	happen	The cops heard all the noise and stopped to see what was going on.
grow up	get older	Charles grew up to be a lot like his father.
keep away	remain at a distance	The judge warned the stalker to keep away from his victim's home.
keep on (with gerund)	continue with the same	He tried to keep on singing long after his voice was ruined.
pass out	lose consciousness, faint	He had drunk too much; he passed out on the sidewalk outside the bar.
show off	demonstrate haughtily	Whenever he sat down at the piano, we knew he was going to show off.
show up	arrive	Day after day, Efrain showed up for class twenty minutes late.
wake up	arouse from sleep	I woke up when the rooster crowed.

Many of these verbs and definitions (but by no means all) are adopted from Grammar Context by Sandra N. Elbaum. Second Edition, Book 2. (Heinle & Heinle Publishers, Boston, 1996.) The examples are our own.



You can radically improve your English fluency in a short time if you learn the most commonly used English phrasal verbs and start using them in your English conversations. And of course, the same applies on written communication! If you’re able to use phrasal verbs in your e-mails, for example, they’ll be much easier to read and understand!

So without a further ado, let’s get down to the business!

Bring up – means to mention something. You can tell your colleague, for example: “They didn’t bring up any of our suggestions in the meeting”.

Carry on – this phrasal verb is very similar to “go on”. Just like “go on” it means “to continue” but it’s usually used in phrases like “Let’s carry on” or “You can carry on without me”.

Chase up – a very handy way of saying “to find, to seek out”. For instance, you’ve been assigned a particular task, but some necessary files are missing. You can say “I’ll chase up those files” meaning you’ll go and see where those files are. You can also chase up a person – “I’ll chase up Frank because I need his help with homework and no-one else has an idea how to do it!”

Come across – to find something by chance or to encounter something unexpectedly. If you found an interesting article online and you’re telling your friend about it, you can say: “You know, I came across this article online where they’ve done research on…”

Come up with – this is a very useful phrasal verb if you usually find it hard to describe the fact when someone has told you about a new plan or a good idea. You might be struggling with phrases like – “He created a good plan” or “She produced a brand new solution” or even – “I devised a new idea on how to…” Native English speakers would simply say “She came up with a brand new solution” so you can start using this phrasal verb!

Fall apart – describes when something falls into pieces. Let’s say you’re wrapping an awkward package and you’re struggling with it. You can say “The whole thing just keeps falling apart, I can’t wrap it; can you help me?” This is another phrasal verb foreigners don’t normally use and if you start using it on similar occasions you’ll find it much easier to describe the situation!

Get along – means to have a good relationship with someone. You can say “Do you get along with Mary from the accounting?” if you want to ask that person if he/she is in good terms with Mary. Another sample sentence - “I don’t get along with Mark, I didn’t like him from the very first day I met him!”

Get away with – means to avoid being punished for not having done something or for breaching rules. A typical phrase you can start using right away is “Did you think you can get away with this?” if you’ve caught someone having done something you’re very unhappy about.

Get over – if you can’t accept something that’s happened in your life and you can’t stop thinking about it, you can say - “It’s very hard for me to get over it.” And if you want to lift someone’s spirits and say that it’s not such a big deal after all, you can say: “Common, get over it, it’s not as bad as it looks!”

Give up – use this phrasal verb when speaking about resolution you’ve stopped pursuing or expectations that are most likely to remain unfulfilled. “I gave up my New Year’s diet; I just couldn’t stick to it.” “I’ve given up hope of getting a better job.”

Go on! – This is a typical way of telling someone to begin a particular action or resume doing something. If you can’t wait on someone to start telling an interesting story, you’d exclaim in excitement – “Go on, go on!” You can also use “go on” if you, for instance, are writing down figures your co-worker is calling out for you. Every time you’re ready to put the next figure down you can use the phrasal verb “go on” to let your partner know that he can call out the next figure.

Hold on! – Literally “hold on” means to hold on to something. Most common use of this phrasal verb, however, is when you want to tell someone to stop doing something or to wait until you’re ready to proceed with the initial action. Foreigners usually use “Stop!” and “Wait!” instead; “hold on” is more natural in spoken English.

Look after – means “to take care of” and is used a lot in communications between supervisors and employees at work. Typically your boss would ask you “Can you look after this order for me?” So if you want to sound more natural and friendly, don’t say things like “I’m responsible for this customer”. “I’m looking after this customer” is the best way of putting it.

Look up – to find something in a phone book, on the Internet or any other reference media. This is a very handy phrasal verb to use in sentences like “Can you look up their address on the Net?”

Make out – to recognize, to distinguish details of something. “I just couldn’t make out what she was saying!” – you can say a phrase like this if the person in question spoke too fast, or with a distinct accent, or too quiet. Another sample sentence – “I can’t make out these details; can you help me with this, please?”

Pull over – if you drive a car, you can use this phrasal verb to describe an action of driving to the side of the road in order to stop. Typical application of this phrasal verb – “Can you pull over at the next petrol station?” Foreigners would most likely say “to stop at…” so if you start using “pull over” you’ll sound more natural when speaking English!

Put down – simply means “to write down.” “Hold on, I’ll put it down, let me just find a piece of paper!”

Put off – this is an informal way of saying “to postpone”, “to do later”. “I don’t want to clean my house today, I’ll put it off till tomorrow” would be a perfect example of this phrasal verb in use.

Turn up – means to arrive. You can inquire about your friend by asking “Has Michael turned up today?” if you haven’t seen him and you’re wondering if he’s come to work or school today at all.

Watch out! – you can use this phrasal verb if something endangers someone else’s safety and you want to bring that person’s attention to that object or activity. Foreigners usually use unarticulated sounds instead – like “Ahh!” or “Ohh!” simply because on occasions when a super-fast reaction is needed they can’t think of a fitting word or phrase to say.