What is a phrasal verb?

A phrasal verb is a verb combined with a small particle such as up, off or out, where the combination means something different from the verb alone. 'Look' means to direct your eyes; 'look after' means to care for someone.

How many phrasal verbs do I need to know?

For everyday conversation, a few dozen of the most common ones will take you a long way. Learning them in groups by situation — travel, study, friendships — is far more effective than working through an alphabetical list.

Which phrasal verbs can be separated?

Separable verbs such as turn off, pick up and throw away allow the object either after the particle or between the two parts. When the object is a pronoun, it must go in the middle: 'pick it up'. Inseparable verbs such as look after and run into never split.

Should I use phrasal verbs in an IELTS essay?

Sparingly. In speaking they make you sound natural and are rewarded. In academic writing, a single formal verb such as postpone, discover or increase usually reads better than put off, find out or go up.

Why do phrasal verbs sound so difficult?

Because the meaning is rarely in the words themselves, and one combination can have several meanings. The fastest way through is exposure — listening to real English and noting whole sentences rather than isolated definitions. Living in an English-speaking city speeds this up more than any book.

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Phrasal verbs in English

Phrasal verbs are the reason a learner can know a great deal of grammar and still miss half of a conversation. 'Give up', 'put off', 'get on with' — ordinary little words that together mean something new. This guide explains how they work, which ones matter most, and how to learn them without memorising endless lists.

Level: A2 to C28 minute readFree to use

What a phrasal verb is

A phrasal verb is a verb plus a particle — a small word such as up, off, on, out, in, down, over or away — where the combination has a meaning of its own.

'Look' means to direct your eyes. 'Look after' means to care for. 'Look up' means to find information. 'Look into' means to investigate. The verb has not changed; the particle has done all the work.

I gave up sugar in January.

Gave up — stopped doing something.

We put the meeting off until Friday.

Put off — postponed.

She gets on well with her host family.

Get on with — have a good relationship.

Separable and inseparable

Some phrasal verbs can be split by their object, and some cannot. This is the part that causes most of the errors.

With separable verbs, the object can sit after the particle or between the two parts: 'Turn off the light' or 'Turn the light off'. But when the object is a pronoun, it must go in the middle: 'Turn it off', never 'Turn off it'.

Inseparable verbs never split: 'I ran into an old friend', never 'I ran an old friend into'. 'Look after the children' and 'look after them' both keep the verb together.

Separable: turn off, pick up, put on, throw away, fill in, switch on.
Inseparable: look after, run into, get over, look for, deal with, come across.
With a pronoun object, separable verbs always split: pick it up, throw them away, fill it in.

Phrasal verbs you will hear every day in Britain

You do not need hundreds. A few dozen cover most ordinary conversation, and these are the ones our students hear in their first week in Brighton.

Get up — leave your bed. 'I get up at seven.'
Set off — begin a journey. 'We set off at eight for the London trip.'
Sort out — fix or organise. 'I need to sort out my bus pass.'
Find out — discover. 'I found out that the museum is free.'
Carry on — continue. 'Carry on reading, I will be back in a minute.'
Turn up — arrive, often unexpectedly or late. 'He turned up an hour late.'
Work out — calculate, or exercise. 'I cannot work out the price.'
Pick up — collect, or learn informally. 'I picked up a lot of English in the kitchen.'

Formal writing prefers the one-word verb

Phrasal verbs are the natural choice in speech and friendly writing. In an essay, a formal letter or an exam task that asks for formal English, a single Latin-based verb usually sounds better.

Knowing both versions of a pair is genuinely useful: it lets you change register deliberately rather than by accident.

put off → postpone

'The meeting was postponed' for formal writing.

find out → discover

'Researchers discovered that...'

go up → increase

'Prices increased last year.'

set up → establish

'The centre was established in 1979.'

How to learn them without drowning in lists

Learning phrasal verbs alphabetically almost never works. What does work is learning them in small groups that share a situation, and recording a whole sentence rather than a bare definition.

Group by topic, not by particle: travel (set off, check in, get in), study (catch up, hand in, go over), friendship (get on, fall out, make up).
Write down the full sentence you heard it in, with the object in place — that teaches you the grammar at the same time as the meaning.
Learn one meaning at a time. 'Take off' has several; the aeroplane one is enough to begin with.
Say them out loud. The stress normally falls on the particle — 'give UP', 'turn it OFF' — and that rhythm is part of sounding natural.

Practice

Try it yourself

Five quick questions. You get the answer straight away, with a short explanation.

Score: 0 / 5

1.Which is correct?
2.Complete: 'Could you ___ the children this evening?'
3.'We set off at eight' means we...
4.Which is the formal equivalent of 'put off'?
5.Which phrasal verb cannot be separated?

Mistakes our teachers hear most often

Please turn off it.

Please turn it off.

Pronoun objects sit between the verb and the particle.

I am looking forward to see you.

I am looking forward to seeing you.

Here 'to' is a preposition, so the verb after it takes -ing.

I ran an old friend into yesterday.

I ran into an old friend yesterday.

'Run into' is inseparable and never splits.

He gave up to smoke.

He gave up smoking.

'Give up' is followed by the -ing form, not the infinitive.

The prices went up of the tickets.

The ticket prices went up.

'Go up' has no object, so nothing can follow the particle.

I will pick up you at seven.

I will pick you up at seven.

Again, the pronoun goes in the middle.

Questions students ask

What is a phrasal verb?: A phrasal verb is a verb combined with a small particle such as up, off or out, where the combination means something different from the verb alone. 'Look' means to direct your eyes; 'look after' means to care for someone.
How many phrasal verbs do I need to know?: For everyday conversation, a few dozen of the most common ones will take you a long way. Learning them in groups by situation — travel, study, friendships — is far more effective than working through an alphabetical list.
Which phrasal verbs can be separated?: Separable verbs such as turn off, pick up and throw away allow the object either after the particle or between the two parts. When the object is a pronoun, it must go in the middle: 'pick it up'. Inseparable verbs such as look after and run into never split.
Should I use phrasal verbs in an IELTS essay?: Sparingly. In speaking they make you sound natural and are rewarded. In academic writing, a single formal verb such as postpone, discover or increase usually reads better than put off, find out or go up.
Why do phrasal verbs sound so difficult?: Because the meaning is rarely in the words themselves, and one combination can have several meanings. The fastest way through is exposure — listening to real English and noting whole sentences rather than isolated definitions. Living in an English-speaking city speeds this up more than any book.

Practise this with a teacher

Reading about grammar helps. Using it every day with a teacher who corrects you helps far more. We are a small, not-for-profit English school in Brighton with a maximum of 14 adults in a class.

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