Unit 6

Grammar:                                                                   Phrasal verbs

Phrasal verbs consist of a verb and a particle (preposition, adverb). The particle can change the meaning of the verb completely. For example::

·         look up – consult a reference book (look a word up in a dictionary)

·         look for – seek (look for her ring)

·         look forward – anticipate with pleasure (look forward to meeting someone)

Most commonly used phrasal verbs:

 

( print the list) 

Phrasal verb	Meaning	Example
Become of	Happen to	If she is sent to prison, what will become of her children?
blow up	explode	They tried to blow up the rail road station.
bring up	mention a topic	My mother brought up that little matter of my bad mark  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.
Deal with	take action to do something	I spent the morning dealing with my exercises.
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.
Give up	cease making an effort	The boxer gave up the fight in the middle of round 3
Give up (2)	stop doing something	Tom gave up smoking last year
Have over	Come to visit or stay with	We’re having the Simpsons over for supper on Tuesday evening.
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.
Kick out	to force someone to leave a place or organization	Sonia’s been kicked out of her house.
Look for	search for someone or something	I’m looking for Jim. Have you seen him?
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.
Make out (2)	to write all the necessary information on a document	She made out a cheque and handed it to me.
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 / delay	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 out	Speak loudly	He reads the list of names out.
read over	peruse	I read over the homework, but couldn’t make any sense of it.
Sit up	to go to bed later than usual	We sat up very late yesterday talking
set up	to arrange, begin	My wife set up the living room exactly the way she wanted it.
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.
Take off (2)	copy someone for fun	Beth can take off Mr Bean brilliantly.
Take up	to start doing something as a habit or job	Chris has taken up jogging.
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	to put on a piece of clothing to see how it looks	What a lovely dress! Why don’t you try it on?
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 so that the baby could sleep.
turn off (2)	repulse	It was a disgusting movie. It really turned me off.
turn on	switch on the electricity	Turn on the that TV set please .
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?”‎

Phrasal 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 it go through all his money already?
look after	take care of	My mother promised to look after my cat 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.