Literal phrasal verbs
Some of the most common phrasal verbs have an obvious meaning (a literal meaning) which you can guess from the two parts. You should understand these examples if you know each individual word:
I ran out of the room.
I put my keys in my bag. Then I took them out again.
You could argue that these shouldn't be called phrasal verbs - they are simply a verb with a place or direction.
Idiomatic phrasal verbs
Phrasal verbs also have idiomatic meanings - meanings that are less obvious or impossible to guess from the individual words (but you might be able to guess from the context). Can you guess what these mean?
Oh no! We've run out of milk.
My boss expects me to put in 10 hours a day.
It's important to take out holiday insurance before you travel.
Practice 1: learn the meanings (literal or idiomatic)
Click on the flashcard to see the definition. If it's easy, remove it from the flashcards. If it's hard, click needs more practice and you can try it again.
Example / definition:
Practice 2: remember the phrasal verbs
How many phrasal verbs can you remember from the examples? Click on the question to see the answer. If it was easy, you can remove it from the set of cards, otherwise click needs more practice to save it and see the next one. Keep going until there are no questions left.
You'll probably remember these better if you have a break now or study something different. Come back tomorrow and try the next set of flashcard questions for these phrasal verbs.
Practice 3: test yourself - same verbs, new questions
Now test your understanding with these examples. What's the best phrasal verb to complete these sentences?
Here is a summary of the verbs studied in this lesson. **Note sb = somebody, sth = something.
Literal | Idiomatic |
---|---|
He put too much milk in my coffee. |
I'm having a new dishwasher put in this weekend. My boss expects me to put in at least 10 hours a day! |
He opened the envelope and took out the letter. (remove sth/sb from somewhere) |
You should take him out to the new Chinese restaurant. I had to take out a loan to pay for my new car. |
She stood at the window and looked out at the garden. |
Look out! The lion has escaped! I always look out for my younger sister. |
The professor held up the picture so everyone could see it. |
These are really old shoes, but they're holding up quite well. We were held up by heavy traffic. |
He heard a noise and looked back at the house, but there was no one there. |
Looking back on those days, we had a very happy life. |
They had a big fight and he ran out of the room. |
Oh no! We've run out of chocolate! |
*These phrasal verbs and questions are adapted from the PHaVE list, from research by Garnier, M. & Schmitt, N. (2014). The PHaVE List: A pedagogical list of phrasal verbs and their most frequent meaning senses. Language Teaching Research, 19(6), 645–666. DOI: 10.1177/1362168814559798