Everything you need to know about phrasal verbs

Phrasal verbs are very common in English. They are a normal part of speech. You need to learn them in order to understand other English speakers and writers, and also to make your own English sound natural. Although some of them are slightly informal, many are just the neutral, ordinary way to express things in English.

If you are doing English exams, you need to be able to use phrasal verbs. Often, phrasal verbs are much more common than a one-word verb with the same meaning. In some situations, one-word verbs are too formal, so if you use them where they are not appropriate, you will lose marks. For more information on this, see Tolerate or put up with? Why three words are sometimes better than one.

The most important tip is to learn phrasal verbs that are important to you!

For example, make a note of phrasal verbs you find in your reading and listening and try to learn them.

Some course books teach phrasal verbs according to the main verb. We don’t recommend that – it’s just confusing! It’s much better to learn phrasal verbs connected with a particular topic.

It is also important to learn phrasal verbs in natural example sentences. When you see a new phrasal verb, notice the context you find it in and the words and grammar structures around it.

Of course, like any other type of vocabulary, you need to practise phrasal verbs in order to learn them. Our book has lots of simple exercises to check that you have remembered the phrasal verbs you have learned.

For more tips on learning phrasal verbs, see our blogpost Give up and work out: how can I learn phrasal verbs?

No, some phrasal verbs have a verb and two particles. The object always comes after the particles, even when it is a pronoun:

• We are looking forward to the show.
• We are looking forward to it.

Many phrasal verbs can be used either with the verb and particle together, or with them separated. For example, these two sentences are both correct and mean exactly the same:

• Please fill in this form.
• Please fill this form in.

However, others cannot be separated:

• It took a long time for him to get over the illness.

In our book, we make it clear how the verb can be used. For example, in this entry for write off, the explanation makes it clear that the verb and particle can either be used together or separated and the example sentences show this in a natural context:

write off If someone writes off a vehicle, or writes a vehicle off, they damage it so badly that it can’t be repaired.

She wrote her car off by driving into a lamppost.

He wrote off three company cars in less than a year.

Contrast this with the entry for turn against, which cannot be separated:

turn against If one person turns against another, they stop liking them or supporting them.

His colleagues turned against him after his promotion.

When she started talking about politics, she could feel that people in the room were turning against her.

If a phrasal verb is intransitive (doesn’t have an object), then obviously it can’t be separated – because there’s nothing to go between the verb and the particle. Again, you can see here how our book makes this clear:

fall apart If something falls apart, it breaks into pieces, often because it is old or badly made.

This wallet is beginning to fall apart.

Whole sections of the building fell apart in the strong winds.

The most common mistake is word order when you use a pronoun (e.g. it, him, them). If the verb can be separated, the pronoun must go between the verb and the particle, for example “Do the children want a lift? I can drop them off at school.” (Don’t say ‘drop off them’)

Learners of English also make mistakes with omitting particles, using the wrong particles or using phrasal verbs in the wrong contexts. See our blogpost Depend of or depend on? Common mistakes with phrasal verbs for more information on common errors with phrasal verbs and how to avoid them.

Many phrasal verbs are informal. Many are simply the normal way we express particular ideas – they are neither informal nor formal. Some are even quite formal and are suitable for use in formal or academic writing. Examples are: carry out, factor in, bear out.

That’s not something we recommend. For a start, it’s a very boring thing to try to do!  We think it’s better to learn phrasal verbs that are useful to you.  However, after a while, you will notice some patterns with particles and that may help you to understand the meaning of new phrasal verbs. For example, you may notice that the particle off is often used in phrasal verbs connected with separating things, e.g. cut off, break off, fall off.

These patterns may be useful for understanding new phrasal verbs, but we don’t think that’s the best place to start. It’s much better to begin by learning some very common and useful complete phrasal verbs.

In classic phrasal verbs, the object can become before or after the particle. Their particles are adverbs. With prepositional verbs, the particle is a preposition and the object always comes directly after it. Examples of prepositional verbs are: allude to, consist of, rely on.

However, they both consist of a verb and a particle that have to be learned together, and that is the important thing to focus on. That’s why books of phrasal verbs (including ours) usually cover prepositional verbs as well.

A more difficult question is the difference between a prepositional verb and something that is simply a verb plus the normal meaning of a preposition.  For instance, in the sentence ‘We ate in a restaurant.’, nobody would say that ‘eat in’ was a prepositional verb.  However, as with much in English, there are some very fuzzy borders.  For example, in the sentence ‘Get off the bus by the cinema’, is ‘get off’ a prepositional verb or simply the verb ‘get’ with a normal meaning of ‘off’?

Frankly, we don’t think it’s worth worrying too much about this. If the combination is common, as it is in this case, then it’s a good idea to learn it.