Grammar Focus

Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are idiomatic expressions combining verbs and prepositions to make new verbs whose meaning is often not obvious from the dictionary definitions of the individual words.

Review: Verbs are the action words in a sentence. Prepositions are usually short words that show show the relationship of one word to other words in the sentence.

Phrasal Verbs

English speakers use phrasal verbs a lot when they speak, but not as much when they write, especially not in business writing.

There are hundreds of these phrasal verbs, but you are probably already familiar with some of them.

Phrasal VerbsA phrasal verb is a normal verb plus one or two prepositions:

Verb + Preposition = Phrasal Verb

Call + Back = Call back

Call back means to return a phone call later.

Please leave a message and I will call back as soon as I can.

Give + Up = Give up

Give up means to stop trying to do something or to stop using something.

Many people give up candy and soda to try to lose weight.

Look + Up = Look up

Look up means to find something in a reference like a phone book or the Internet.

I need to look up that new word in my dictionary.

Phrasal VerbsHere are some examples of phrasal verbs from the readings:

Phrasal Verb Meaning

Account for To explain

Lower wages and longer hours accounted for cheaper cotton manufacturing in the South.

Look forward to To wait for or anticipate something good

Many children looked forward to becoming of age to work in the mill.

Take care of 1) To provide care for

The babysitter takes care of my children when I go to work.

Take care of 2) To pay a bill

The children were allowed to keep maybe twenty-five cents of their wages after household expenses were taken care of.

Phrasal VerbsSometimes we put another word in between the two parts of a phrasal verb:

Verb + Preposition = Phrasal Verb

Call + Back = Call back

I did not call her back because I lost her phone number.

Give + Up = Give up

My doctor says I should give candy up to be more healthy.

Look + Up = Look up

When I do not know the meaning of a word, I look it up in the dictionary.

Phrasal Verbs

For websites with more about phrasal verbs, follow these links: http://www.eslcafe.com/pv/http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/phrasal-verbs/http://www.phrasalverbdemon.com/http://www.carolinebrownenglishlessons.com/or do an Internet search for “phrasal verbs”.

Now, get more practice by trying the grammar focus activity.