WordieWhat Is a Phrasal Verb?
Phrasal Verb: A verb combined with one or two particles (adverbs or prepositions such as up, out, off or on) that together work as a single unit of meaning, often different from the verb alone, as in give up, look after or put up with.
Also known as: multi-word verb, two-part verb
A phrasal verb is a verb plus a small word like up, out, off or on, where the combination has its own meaning. Give and up are simple, but give up means "stop trying" or "quit." English has thousands of these combinations, and they are everywhere in everyday speech, which makes them one of the biggest vocabulary challenges for learners of English.
The four main types
| Type | Pattern | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Intransitive (no object) | verb + particle | The car broke down. Prices went up. She gave up. |
| Separable | object can go in the middle | turn off the TV / turn the TV off / turn it off |
| Inseparable | object always after the particle | look after the kids, run into an old friend, get over a cold |
| Three-part | verb + two particles | look forward to, put up with, run out of, get away with |
One phrasal verb, many meanings
Phrasal verbs are highly polysemous. Take off alone has several common senses:
- Take off your shoes. (remove)
- The plane took off at noon. (leave the ground)
- Her career really took off. (become successful quickly)
- I'm taking Friday off. (not go to work)
- He can take off his boss perfectly. (imitate, mainly British)
Particles have patterns
Particles are not random. Many carry a recurring meaning that helps you guess new combinations:
| Particle | Common meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| up | completion, increase | eat up, use up, fill up, speed up, turn up the volume |
| out | to the end, discover, disappear | figure out, find out, run out, wear out, sell out |
| off | departure, separation, stop | set off, take off, cut off, call off, switch off |
| down | decrease, failure, record | slow down, break down, turn down, write down |
| back | return, reverse | call back, pay back, give back, hold back |
Why phrasal verbs matter for learners
A small number of phrasal verbs does most of the work. Gardner and Davies (2007) analyzed the British National Corpus and found that about 20 common verbs (such as go, come, take, get and set) combined with a handful of particles account for more than half of all phrasal verb occurrences. That makes them a high-return study target, much like other high-frequency words.
They also matter for register. Learners who avoid phrasal verbs, a well-documented tendency among speakers of languages without them, sound formal and stiff: I will postpone the meeting and investigate the problem instead of I'll put off the meeting and look into the problem. Both are correct; only one sounds natural in conversation.
How to learn phrasal verbs
- Learn them in context, not in alphabetical lists. A list of twenty get verbs is easy to confuse. Save phrasal verbs from what you read and watch, each with its sentence.
- Record the grammar: separable or not, transitive or not, and which preposition follows (run out of).
- Pair them with formal equivalents: put off / postpone, carry out / conduct, find out / discover.
- Group by particle meaning rather than by verb, using the table above.
- Use them. Write or say a sentence about your own life with each new one.
For a full routine, see how to learn phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs are a type of lexical chunk, and many overlap with idioms.
Common mistakes
- Wrong pronoun position: turn off it instead of turn it off.
- Dropping the second particle: I look forward your reply instead of look forward to.
- Choosing the wrong particle: fill out a form (US) or fill in (UK), but not fill on.
Sources: Gardner, D. & Davies, M. (2007), Pointing out frequent phrasal verbs: A corpus-based analysis, TESOL Quarterly.
Frequently asked questions
What is an example of a phrasal verb?
Give up (stop trying), look after (take care of), find out (discover), run out of (have none left) and turn down (refuse) are common phrasal verbs. In each, the particle changes the meaning of the verb.
What is a separable phrasal verb?
A separable phrasal verb lets the object go between the verb and the particle: turn off the light or turn the light off. If the object is a pronoun, it must go in the middle: turn it off, not turn off it.
Why are phrasal verbs so hard?
Their meaning is often idiomatic, many have several unrelated meanings (take off can mean remove, leave the ground or become successful), and word order rules differ between types. Many languages have no equivalent structure.
Are phrasal verbs informal?
Many are neutral and used everywhere (find out, carry out, set up), but phrasal verbs are more common in speech and informal writing. Formal writing often prefers a single Latin-based verb: postpone rather than put off.
Related terms
Idiom
A fixed expression whose overall meaning cannot be worked out from the meanings of its individual words, such as spill the beans (reveal a secret) or under the weather (slightly ill).
Collocation
A combination of words that occur together more often than chance would predict and sound natural to native speakers, such as heavy rain, make a decision or deeply regret.
Lexical Chunk
A group of words that speakers store and retrieve as a single prefabricated unit, such as by the way, as far as I know or I was wondering if you could.
Polysemy
The situation in which a single word has two or more related meanings, such as head (part of the body, leader of a group, front of a line) or run (move fast, manage, operate).
Register
The variety of language a speaker chooses for a particular situation, audience and purpose, especially its level of formality, as in kids (informal), children (neutral) and offspring (formal or technical).
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