Phrasal Verbs

What are phrasal verbs?

Phrasal verbs are phrases that indicate actions. They are generally used in spoken English and informal texts. Examples of such verbs include: “turn down”, “come across” and “run into”.

Phrasal verbs consist of a verb and a preposition or an adverb:

Verb	Preposition/adverb
get	up
go	through
write	down
take	after

Sometimes phrasal verbs consist of three elements:

Verb	Preposition adverb 1	Preposition adverb 2
look	forward	to
put	up	with
sit	in	for

When added to the verb, the preposition or adverb may completely change the meaning of the verb. Here are some examples:

Phrasal verb	Meaning
look for	search/seek
look up to	have a great deal of respect for a person
look forward to	to wait eagerly with pleasure
look up	to try to find a piece of information of looking in a book or on a computer

Here are a few pages and worksheets to help you understand how to use them. 😊