Everyday phrasal verbs

Understand and use the phrasal verbs natives use all day. Lesson 29 of 58: Conversation, CEFR B1.

Why they matter

• Natives use phrasal verbs (a verb + a small word) constantly in speech, where a learner uses a formal word: “find out” rather than “discover”, “put off” rather than “postpone”. Using them makes you sound natural; understanding them is essential.
• Let’s put the meeting off until Friday. (postpone)
• I need to figure out what went wrong. (understand / solve)
• We’ve run out of milk. (have no more)

Twenty you will hear every day

• find out (discover), look into (investigate), come up with (think of), get on with (have a good relationship / continue), put off (postpone), set up (arrange / establish), carry on (continue), turn down (refuse), bring up (mention), call off (cancel), follow up (check later), go over (review), sort out (fix), catch up (talk after time apart / reach the same level), figure out (understand), run out of (have none left), look forward to (be excited about), give up (stop trying), point out (show / mention), back up (support / copy).
• Can we go over the numbers again? (review)
• They turned down our offer. (refused)
• I’ll follow up with an email.
• I look forward to hearing from you. (“to” + -ing)

Where the object goes

• Many can split: “put the meeting off” or “put off the meeting”. But with a pronoun it must go in the middle: “put it off”, never “put off it”.
• Can you turn it down? (Not “turn down it”)
• Let’s call it off.
• Tip: Learn phrasal verbs in a whole sentence, not as a list. The sentence is what you will remember.

Lines to have ready

• I’ll look into it. (Promising to investigate)
• Let’s catch up next week. (Arranging a chat)
• Could you go over that again? (Asking for a repeat)
• I’ll follow up by email. (At the end of a meeting)
• I look forward to hearing from you. (Ending an email or call)

Your turn to speak

• Describe a problem you solved at work or at home using at least six phrasal verbs: how you found out about it, looked into it, came up with a solution and sorted it out.
• I used six phrasal verbs
• I put pronouns in the middle
• I told it in order

Related

• Lesson 28: Opinions, agreeing and disagreeing
• Lesson 30: Collocations: words that go together
• The whole English course

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