Phrasal verbs in English

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In this chapter the English phrasal verbs will be explained. Phrasal verbs are made up of a main verb and a proposition or an adverb. The meaning of the phrasal verb is different from the original one.

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1.Formation and use of English phrasal verbs
2.Intransitive phrasal verbs
3.Transitive phrasal verbs - separable
4.Transitive phrasal verbs - inseparable
5.Most common phrasal verbs in English
6.Exercises
6.1.Practice the English phrasal verbs
6.2.Exercise word order English phrasal verbs
6.3.Exercise phrasal verbs in English

Formation and use of English phrasal verbs

The table below shows what a phrasal verb can be.

What can a phrasal verb be?	Example
A combination of a verb and a preposition.	We broke up three months ago. I agree with you on this subject.
A combination of a verb and an adverb.	The colours of this shirt are fading away. She can not get away with this.
A combination of a verb, a preposition and an adverb.	He looks down on his girlfriend. Keep up with the news please.

Phrasal verbs have different meanings than the original verb. They are usually used in everyday speech. The phrasal verbs can be divided in:

Intransitive phrasal verbs: they have no object.
Transitive phrasal verbs: they can have an object.

The transitive phrasal verbs can be divided in inseparable and seperable according to whether the particle can be separated from the verb or not.

The phrasal verbs can be used in all tenses by conjugating the verb part.

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1) Intransitive phrasal verbs

Intransitive phrasal verbs are not accompanied by an object complement.

Examples:

Prices have gone up remarkably over the last few months.
I waited and waited but he did not turn up.

The table shows a list of intransitive phrasal verbs.

Phrasal verb	Example
break out	He breaks out of the cage.
carry on	They carried on with their life as if nothing has happened.
get by	After her divorce Fiona had just enough money to get by.
get up	Kids get up to fighting when their parents are not home.
go off	The alarm went off in the middle of the night.
hold on	Hold on for a minute, I will be right there.
speak up	He had to speak up, because he did not agree with the idea.
set in	The rain's set in for the day, so we can not go to the beach.
show off	He is always showing off with his big car.

2) Transitive phrasal verbs - separable

The separable transitive phrasal verbs are accompanied by an object, which has a different position in the sentence depending on the function:

If the object is a noun, it is either placed between the particle and the verb or after the particle.
If the object is a pronoun, the object precedes the particle.
If the object is represented by a complex expression, it is place after the particle.

The table below shows the structure of the sentence for every function as discussed above.

Object function	Structure of the sentence	Example
Noun	Verb + particle + object / Verb + object + particle	Turn off your mobile. Turn your mobile off.
Pronoun	Verb + object + particle	Turn it off
Complex expression	Verb + particle + object	We turned off the electrical applicances in the house.

The table shows a list of separable transitive phrasal verbs.

Phrasal verb	Example
bring up	He was brought up by his mother and father.
call off	We have decided to call of the wedding.
carry out	The investigation was carried out by the police.
fill in	Fill in the correct conjugation of the past simple.
find out	Yesterday she found out that he was lying to her.
give up	Last year I gave up drinking.
let down	You have let me down again.
look up	Paul is looking words up in the dictionary.
make up	Apparently she made the whole story up.
pick up	I have to pick up my sister after class.
think over	We have to think over your request before we say yes.
try on	Yasmin has tried on many shirts in the shop.
work out	They have to work out their differences.

3) Transitive phrasal verbs - inseparable

The inseparable transitive phrasal verbs always have the same structure, because the preposition or adverb can not be separated from the verb.

Structure: verb + particle + object

The table below shows a list of inseparable transitive phrasal verbs.

Phrasal verb	Example
ask after	I met John and he was asking about you.
break into	After the concert the audience broke into applause.
call on	He has to call on professional help after his accident.
count on	Can I count on you tonight?
deal with	Rebecca has to deal with a lot of issues at the moment.
do without	I don't know what I would do without you.
get over	He has to get over his relationship to feel happy again.
go over	We always go over the essay to correct mistakes.
join in	Sometimes you just don't feel like joining in the celebrations.
look after	The grandmother looked after her grandchildren yesterday.
run into	I ran into an old friend last week.
stand for	The letters WWW stand for World Wide Web.
take after	She takes after her mother.

Most common phrasal verbs in English

The table below gives an overview of the most common phrasal verbs in English.

Phrasal Verb	Type	Example
Answer back	Intransitive	Don't answer back to your mom!
Ask out	Transitive separable	When we were young he asked me out.
Ask over	Transitive separable	I asked him over to have a drink.
Back up	Transitive separable	She always will back you up.
Blow down	Transitive inseparable	The machine blew down the building.
Break down	Intransitive	She broke down when she received the sad news.
Break into	Transitive separable	He broke into our meeting without knocking the door.
Break out	Intransitive	The murderer broke out of jail.
Break up	Intransitive	They broke up after four years.
Bring up	Transitive inseparable	We had brought up our wedding during the dinner.
Call off	Transitive separable	The meeting got called off.
Call on	Transitive separable	She knows she can always call on me when she is sad.
Calm down	Intransitive	Calm down! Everything is going to be okay.
Carry on	Intransitive	They carried on with the lecture in spite of the problem with the computer.
Carry out	Transitive separable	We carried the plan out as we had planned.
Cheer up	Transitive separable	She cheered him up with a surprise.
Clear up	Transitive separable	It was raining when I got up, but it cleared up during the morning.
Come back	Intransitive	She is abroad, but she is coming back next week.
Come into	Transitive inseparable	He came into the room carefully to not make noise.
Come upon	Transitive inseparable	We came upon your brother in the cinema.
Count on	Transitive inseparable	You can always count on me.
Cross out	Transitive separable	I saw her crossing your name out from the list.
Cut out	Transitive separable	They cut out his tattoo because he didn't want it anymore.
Deal with	Transitive inseparable	We dealt with the problem easily.
Do up	Transitive separable	We have been doing up our room to make it nicer.
Drive off	Intransitive	After their argument, she drove off crying.
Drop by / Drop in	Intransitive	I dropped by when the party was about to finish.
Drop off	Intransitive	My mom drops me off at school after work.
Drop out	Intransitive	The driver dropped out the car when it started to burn.
Eat out	Intransitive	We would eat out more if we had more money.
Fall out	Intransitive	They have fallen out of contact after college.
Figure out	Transitive separable	How did you figure out the problem?
Fill in	Transitive separable	Fill in the form first, please.
Find out	Transitive separable	They found it out after studying the case deeply.
Fix up	Transitive separable	We will fix up the new office.
Get along	Intransitive	My mom and I get along very well.
Get away	Intransitive	The thief couldn't get away from the police.
Get by	Intransitive	I don't know how they get by without food.
Get in	Intransitive	I got in very late yesterday night.
Get on	Intransitive	Get on, we have to finish the project today.
Get up	Intransitive	I get up at 7.30 every morning.
Get over	Transitive inseparable	It took me months to get over my breakup with James.
Give away	Transitive separable	We have given our old clothes away, because we don't use it anymore.
Give up	Transitive separable	Don't give up on your dreams.
Go on	Transitive inseparable	Go on please, I want to listen to your version of the story.
Go off	Intransitive	The fire alarm went off when it detected the smoke.
Go out	Intransitive	We want to go out tonight.
Go over	Intransitive	She was going over what he told her for hours..
Hold on	Intransitive	Hold on, I pass the phone to my father.
Hold up	Transitive separable	I can't hold up when he speaks a lot.
Join in	Intransitive	You can join in whenever you want.
Keep away	Transitive separable	Keep away from this guy, he is a bad influence.
Keep on	Transitive inseparable	Why does he keep on texting me?
Keep up	Intransitive	This subject is very difficult and I have some problems to keep up with the class.
Leave out	Transitive separable	They always leave me out in their plans.
Let down	Transitive separable	Don't let me down, I trust you.
Look after	Transitive separable or inseparable	Could you look after my children on Friday night?
Look into	Transitive inseparable	In this laboratory, they are looking into a new medicine.
Look out	Intransitive	Look out when you cross the street.
Look up	Intransitive	If you look up you will see all the stars. It's magical.
Make up	Transitive separable	Don't trust him, he always makes stories up.
Move in	Intransitive	It has been one year since I moved in with my sister.
Pay back	Transitive separable	I have to pay my parents the money back that they lent me.
Pick up	Transitive separable	We are going to pick up my sister at the airport.
Plug in	Transitive separable	You should plug in your phone because you don't have battery left.
Point out	Transitive separable	She pointed out the important parts of the research yesterday.
Put away	Transitive separable	The kids put their toys away.
Put off	Transitive separable	We had to put off the dinner because he was ill.
Put on	Transitive separable	Put your jacket on, it's very cold outside.
Put out	Transitive separable	The firefighters put out the fire quickly.
Put up	Transitive separable	I was glad to put my sister and her husband up at home when they came to visit me.
Rip off	Transitive separable	A lot of restaurants rip off the tourists.
Run away	Intransitive	She ran away from her house when she was 18 years old.
Run into	Transitive inseparable	We ran into your mom in the supermarket. What a coincidence.
Run out	Intransitive	I have run out of money, I have to find a job.
See off	Transitive separable	He came with me to the train station to see me off.
Set in	Intransitive	She set in a new town to start from zero.
Set off	Intransitive	The plane sets off at 12 p.m.
Set out	Intransitive	They set out from Paris.
Set up	Transitive separable	He always thinks we are trying to set him up.
Show off	Intransitive	She was showing off about her new car.
Sleep in	Intransitive	She doesn't work on Sundays so she can sleep in.
Slow down	Intransitive	You are driving so fast! Slow down.
Sort out	Transitive separable	She wanted it perfect and that's why she sorted all the details out.
Speak up	Intransitive	Speak up! There is a lot of noise.
Split up	Intransitive	Can we split up the bill please?
Stand by	Intransitive	I will stand by if you phone me.
Take after	Transitive separable	Many people say that my sister takes after me.
Take down	Transitive separable	He took down all the details.
Take in	Transitive separable	He is always taking in you. It's very funny.
Take off	Intransitive	The plane took off just on time.
Take on	Transitive separable	You don't need to worry. I will take on everything.
Take out	Transitive separable	He took her out and she couldn't believe it.
Tell off	Transitive separable	My dad told me off a lot of times when I didn't search for a job.
Think over	Transitive separable	You think over the offer and let me know your choice.
Throw away	Transitive separable	They want to throw these tables away because they don't use them anymore.
Try on	Transitive separable	You should try the dress on before you buy it.
Try out	Transitive separable	You should try the sushi out. I love it!
Turn around	Intransitive	Turn around carefully and check the table in front of us, is he your exboyfriend?
Turn up	Intransitive	Don't worry, I'm sure your wallet will turn up.
Wear off	Intransitive	The effect of the anesthetic will wear off in a couple of hours.
Work out	Intransitive / transitive separable	We are going to work out today.