What is a phrasal verb?
A phrasal verb is a verb plus one or two small words that together create a new meaning.
- look means to use your eyes, but look up can mean to search for information.
- give means to hand something over, but give up means to stop trying.
- run means to move quickly, but run out of means to have none left.
The small word is called a particle. Common particles are up, down, in, out, on, off, over, away, back, through and around.
Phrasal verbs are everywhere in everyday English, especially when we talk. Learning them makes your English sound natural and helps you understand what people mean.
Literal and non-literal meanings
Some phrasal verbs are easy to understand from their words:
- sit down, stand up, come in, go out
Others work like an idiom: the meaning is not obvious.
- Break down = stop working: The car broke down.
- Bring up = mention: She brought up a good point.
- Get over = recover: He got over his cold.
- Turn down = refuse: I turned down the offer.
One phrasal verb can even have several meanings:
Pick up your toys. (lift)
I’ll pick you up at five. (collect in a car)
She picked up some French on her trip. (learn without trying)
Common phrasal verbs
| Phrasal verb | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| wake up | stop sleeping | I wake up at seven. |
| put on | dress in | Put on your coat. |
| take off | remove; or leave the ground | Take off your shoes. The plane took off. |
| find out | discover | We found out the answer. |
| look after | take care of | She looks after her little brother. |
| look forward to | be excited about | I’m looking forward to the trip. |
| give up | stop trying | Don’t give up! |
| figure out | solve, understand | Can you figure out this puzzle? |
| turn on / turn off | start / stop a machine | Turn off the lights. |
| clean up | make tidy | Let’s clean up the classroom. |
| run out of | have none left | We ran out of milk. |
| get along with | be friendly with | I get along with my cousins. |
Separable and inseparable phrasal verbs
When a phrasal verb has an object, word order matters.
Separable phrasal verbs
A separable phrasal verb can be split. The object can go in the middle or at the end.
- Turn the music down. / Turn down the music.
- Put your jacket on. / Put on your jacket.
But when the object is a pronoun (it, them, him, her), it must go in the middle.
- ✓ Turn it down.
- ✗ Turn down it.
Inseparable phrasal verbs
An inseparable phrasal verb must stay together. The object always comes after.
- ✓ She looks after her dog. ✗ She looks her dog after.
- ✓ I ran into an old friend. (met by chance)
- ✓ We got off the bus.
Three-word phrasal verbs are always inseparable: look forward to, get along with, run out of, catch up with.
Phrasal verbs without objects
Some phrasal verbs don’t take an object at all:
The plane took off. Prices went up. Please sit down. The campfire slowly died down.
Phrasal verbs in formal writing
Phrasal verbs are perfect for conversation and stories. In very formal writing, you can sometimes choose a single-word verb instead.
| Phrasal verb | Formal verb |
|---|---|
| find out | discover |
| put off | postpone |
| look into | investigate |
| go up | increase |
| come up with | create |
Common mistakes
- Pronoun in the wrong place. ✗ Pick up it. → ✓ Pick it up.
- Splitting an inseparable verb. ✗ Look the baby after. → ✓ Look after the baby.
- Wrong particle. Fill in a form and fill out a form both work, but fill on a form does not. Particles change meaning, so learn each one as a set phrase.
Try it yourself
Replace the underlined meaning with a phrasal verb:
- Please remove your boots. (take …)
- We need to discover who left the gate open. (find …)
- Don’t stop trying! (give …)
- I met by chance my teacher at the mall. (ran …)
Answers: take off, find out, give up, ran into.
Quick recap
- A phrasal verb is a verb plus a particle that makes a new meaning.
- Many phrasal verbs work like idioms and must be learned as set phrases.
- Separable phrasal verbs can be split; pronouns must go in the middle.
- Inseparable phrasal verbs always stay together.