In your common life you might have encountered some words that have different meanings by themselves but when put together with some words they have different meanings than usual. For example, the verb “take” has different meanings in “take off”, “take over”, or “take care of.” Understanding phrasal verbs help you get a grasp of the meaning of the sentence much more clearly. In this blog post we will talk about phrasal verbs that could help you in your daily life.
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What Is a Phrasal Verb?
A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and preposition or an adverb that together creates a new meaning different from the original verb. Down below we gave useful phrasal verbs that will be useful in your life.
Phrasal Verbs with “Go”
Let’s start off with “go”. Down below you will find phrasal verbs used with it. You will be surprised how much we use these words in our daily lives.
| Phrasal Verb | Meanings |
|---|---|
| Go on | To continue doing something |
| Go out | To leave home for social activities or entertainment |
| Go back | To return to a place |
| Go over | To review or examine something carefully |
| Go off | To make a loud noise or explode |
| Go through | To experience something difficult or unpleasant |
| Go along with | To agree with someone or something |
| Go ahead | To start or proceed with something |
| Go after | To chase or try to achieve something |
| Go without | To manage without something |
The teacher told us to go on with our work.
We decided to go out for dinner.
She had to go back to her hometown.
Let’s go over the notes before the exam.
The alarm went off at 7 a.m.
He went through a tough time last year.
I don’t really go along with his opinion.
You can go ahead and open the file.
He went after his dreams and became a pilot.
During the trip, we had to go without electricity.
Phrasal Verbs with “Make”
Moving on with phrasal verbs with “make”. Let’s look at the meanings and their purpose in a sentence.
| Phrasal Verb | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Make up | To invent a story or excuse; to reconcile after an argument |
| Make out | To understand or see something clearly |
| Make for | To move toward a place |
| Make off | To escape or leave quickly, often after doing something wrong |
| Make into | To change something into a different form or purpose |
| Make over | To give control or ownership of something to someone else |
| Make up for | To compensate for something lost or missed |
| Make of | To have an opinion about something or someone |
| Make away with | To steal or take something secretly |
| Make do with | To manage with something that is not ideal or enough |
She made up an excuse for being late.
I couldn’t make out what he was saying.
They made for the exit quickly.
The thief made off with the money.
They made the old warehouse into a café.
He made over the property to his children.
I’ll make up for missing your birthday.
What do you make of this situation?
Someone made away with my bicycle.
We had to make do with cushions.
Phrasal Verbs with “Take”
Next up we have phrasal words with “take”. Let’s look at the meanings and their purpose in a sentence.
| Phrasal Verb | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Take off | To remove something; or when an aircraft leaves the ground |
| Take up | To start a new activity or hobby |
| Take over | To gain control or responsibility for something |
| Take after | To resemble a family member in appearance or behavior |
| Take back | To return something; or to withdraw a statement |
| Take in | To understand something fully; or to allow someone to stay in your home |
| Take out | To remove something from a place; or to invite someone out (e.g., to dinner) |
| Take on | To accept a challenge, responsibility, or job |
| Take down | To write something; or to remove something from a higher place |
| Take apart | To separate something into its pieces |
The plane took off on time.
I took up painting last month.
She will take over the company next year.
He takes after his father in looks.
I need to take back the book to the library.
It’s hard to take in all the information at once.
He took out his wallet to pay.
She took on the role of team leader.
I took down notes during the lecture.
He took apart the machine to fix it.
Phrasal Verbs with “Set”
Moving on to the phrasal verbs with “set”. Let’s look at the meanings and their purpose in a sentence.
| Phrasal Verb | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Set up | To establish or arrange something (like a business or meeting) |
| Set off | To begin a journey; or to cause something (like an alarm) to start |
| Set out | To start a journey or to explain something in detail |
| Set in | To begin and seem likely to continue (often used for weather or moods) |
| Set aside | To save something for a specific purpose |
| Set back | To delay the progress of something |
| Set about | To start doing something in an organized or determined way |
| Set forth | To present or explain an idea clearly |
| Set against | To compare or contrast one thing with another |
| Set down | To write or record something officially |
They set up a new company last year.
We set off early to avoid traffic.
He set out on his trip at dawn.
The rain has set in for the day.
I set aside some money for emergencies.
The delay set back the project by a week.
She set about organizing the party.
The professor set forth his ideas in the lecture.
He set the two friends against each other.
She set down the rules clearly.
Phrasal Verbs with “Look”
coming up next we have phrasal verbs with “look”. Let’s look at the meanings and their purpose in a sentence.
| Phrasal Verb | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Look after | To take care of someone or something |
| Look for | To search for something or someone |
| Look forward to | To be excited or eager about something that will happen |
| Look up | To search for information (e.g., in a book or online) |
| Look out | To be careful or watchful for danger |
| Look into | To investigate or examine something carefully |
| Look over | To review or check something quickly |
| Look down on | To think that you are better than someone else |
| Look up to | To admire or respect someone |
| Look back on | To think about or reflect on something from the past |
She looks after her little brother.
I’m looking for my keys.
I look forward to meeting you.
Can you look up the address online?
Look out! There’s a car coming.
The police will look into the complaint.
I’ll look over your essay before class.
Don’t look down on anyone.
I really look up to my teacher.
I often look back on my childhood memories.
Phrasal Verbs with “Get”
Furthermore we have phrasal verbs with “get”. Let’s look at the meanings and their purpose in a sentence.
| Phrasal Verb | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Get up | To rise from bed or a sitting position |
| Get on | To board a vehicle; or to have a good relationship with someone |
| Get off | To leave a vehicle or stop working on something |
| Get along | To have a friendly relationship with someone |
| Get over | To recover from an illness, shock, or difficulty |
| Get by | To manage or survive, usually with difficulty |
| Get back | To return to a place or regain something |
| Get together | To meet or gather socially with others |
| Get rid of | To remove or dispose of something unwanted |
| Get through | To successfully complete something; or to contact someone |
I get up at 7 a.m. every day.
We get on well with our neighbors.
She got off the bus at the wrong stop.
I get along with all my classmates.
He got over his cold quickly.
We can get by with what we have.
I’ll get back to you later.
Let’s get together this weekend.
I need to get rid of these old clothes.
I finally got through the difficult exam.
Phrasal Verbs with “Kick”
To add on we have phrasal verbs with “kick”. Let’s look at the meanings and their purpose in a sentence.
| Phrasal Verb | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Kick off | To start an event, activity, or game |
| Kick out | To force someone to leave a place |
| Kick back | To relax or take it easy |
| Kick in | To start to take effect (often used for medicine or influence) |
| Kick around | To discuss or consider ideas informally |
| Kick up | To create or cause a commotion, dust, or trouble |
| Kick about | To move or toss something casually or without purpose |
| Kick up a fuss | To complain loudly or protest strongly |
| Kick the habit | To stop a bad habit |
| Kick off with | To begin something with a particular action or event |
The game will kick off at 6 p.m.
He was kicked out of the club.
I like to kick back on Sundays.
The medicine kicked in after an hour.
We kicked around some ideas for the project.
The children kicked up a lot of dust while playing.
He kicked about the ball in the yard.
She kicked up a fuss about the delay.
He finally kicked the habit of smoking.
The meeting kicked off with a welcome speech.
Phrasal Verbs with “Begin”
Lastly we have phrasal verbs with “begin”. Let’s look at the meanings and their purpose in a sentence.
| Phrasal Verb | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Begin with | To start something with a particular action, idea, or item |
| Begin again | To start over or restart something |
| Begin to do | To start performing an action |
| Begin by doing | To start a process or activity by doing a specific step |
| Begin from scratch | To start something completely from the beginning without any preparation |
Let’s begin with the first question.
We need to begin again after the interruption.
I began to understand the problem.
She began by explaining the rules.
They began from scratch and built the business successfully.
Frequently Asked Questions About Phrasal Verbs
Now that we know the phrasal verbs let’s look at some questions about them.
What is a key verb phrase?
A key verb phrase is a combination of a main verb and any helping verbs (also called auxiliary verbs) that work together to express an action, state, or condition in a sentence. It’s called “key” because it’s essential to the meaning of the sentence without it, the sentence often wouldn’t make sense.
What is an adverb phrase?
Adverbial phrases are a group of two or more words which act together like an adverb to add further detail to a verb, adjective, or other adverbs in a sentence.
How do I identify a phrase?
A phrase is a group of words that work together as a unit but do not have both a subject and a verb, so they cannot stand alone as a complete sentence. For example: After the long day.
How many phrasal verbs do we have in English?
There are over 10000 phrasal verbs in English.
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