A Comprehensive Guide to English Phrasal Verbs
Phrasal Verbs
Common Phrasal Verbs
Turn down: Refuse an invitation
Turn up: Arrive somewhere, especially unexpectedly
Turn on: Suddenly attack someone, physically or with words
Turn out: Have a particular or unexpected result
Turn off: Make somebody decide they don’t like something
Turn away: Refuse someone permission to enter a place
Passive Forms
We use the passive form when we don’t know/ it doesn’t matter/ it’s obvious who does the action.
Use a form of to be + past participle.
Example: A feast will be organised on the last weekend in November.
Passive Reporting Verbs
We can report what people say or believe with verbs such as think, believe, and claim using two structures:
- It + be + verb + that
- Subject + be + reporting verb + present/perfect infinitive
Examples:
- Monkeys are believed to bring wealth.
- It is believed that monkeys bring wealth.
Recommend can be followed by -ing or a clause (that).
Example: I would strongly recommend booking in advance / that you book in advance.
Phrasal Verb Lists by Unit
UNIT ONE
- Show to: Take (Llevar)
· The waiter took his coat and showed him to the table. - Do up: Tie (Atar)
· Your shoelace is undone do it up before you have an accident. - Get up: Get out of bed (Levantarse)
· Please don’t get up. Remain in your seat. - Put out: Switch off (Apagar)
· Some of the lights are still on. Could you put them out when you leave? - Take off: Leave the ground (Despegar)
· The aeroplane took off on time in spite of the fog. - Speed up: Accelerate (Acelerar)
· I could feel the car speeding up as I pressed the accelerator.
UNIT TWO
- Make up: Apply cosmetics to (Maquillarse)
· She had made her eyes up to look larger than they were. - Keep on: Continue (Continue)
· Her doctor told her not to smoke but she kept on doing it. - Wake up: Stop sleeping (Despertarse)
· I think he’s still asleep. I’ll go and wake him up. - Get up: Get out of bed (Levantarse)
· I’m off to bed now, as I have to get up early tomorrow. - See to: Take care of (Controlar)
· A dairy farmer has to see to his cows every morning. - Do up: Fasten (Ponerte)
· You’d better do your coat up. It’s raining.
UNIT THREE
- Be off: Canceled (Cancelado)
· The match was off because there has been an outbreak of ‘flu in the school. - Sort out: Organize (Clasificar)
· He began to unpack his clothes and sort them out. - Make of: Understand (Conclusión)
· It was difficult to make anything of his handwriting. - Think of: Have a bad opinion (Bad opinion)
· I didn’t think much of that film. - Show to: Show the way (Show the way)
· The visiting lecturer was shown to the lecture hall.
UNIT FOUR
- Check in: Register (Chequear)
· He nearly missed the plane because he forgot to check in. - Call out: Announce (Anunciar algo)
· When the nurse called out his name, he went into the surgery. - Look after: Take care of (Vigilar)
· Before he died, her father made her promise to look after her young brother. - Sort out: Resolve (Resolver)
· We’ll have to sort out this problem before it gets worse. - Hold on: Wait (Esperar a)
· The receptionist asked if he would hold on as a manager was busy.
UNIT FIVE
- Make out: To understand clearly (To understand clearly)
· On a cloudy day it is difficult to make things out in the distance. - Go on: Continue (Continue)
· We decided to go on in spite of the train. - Run out of: To finish (To finish)
· Can you give me a light? I’ve run out of matches. - Think of: Dream (Dream)
· What shall we do? I was thinking of going to the cinema. - Give up: To surrender (Darse por vencido)
· I give up. What is the answer?
UNIT SIX
- Be in: At home (At home)
· I was in when Alex phoned. - Pick up: Collect (Recoger)
· I’ll get the car and pick you up at the station. - Slow down: Relax (Relax)
· The car slowed down as it entered the town. - Tire out: Exhaust (Agotar)
· All this running up and down stairs is beginning to tire me out.
UNIT SEVEN
- Wake up to: Become aware of (Consciente de la realidad)
· It’s about time you woke up to the fact that you’ve got a family. - Face up to: Confront (Plantar cara)
· Your wife is seeing another man; why don’t you face up to what she is doing? - Go on: Continue (Continue)
· Why do we always go on making the same mistakes? - Work out: Find a solution (Find a solution)
· It took him an hour to work out how to mend the clock. - Keep up: Maintain (Mantener/ progresar)
· Unless we get a grant, it will be difficult to keep up the Abbey and its gardens. - Cope with: Manage (Sobrellevar)
· As the dogs grew bigger, he found it increasingly difficult to cope with him.
UNIT EIGHT
- Clear up: Tidy, organize (Limpiar, organizar)
· You clear up a mess or a misunderstanding. When a storm is over and the clouds go away you can say: ‘It’s clearing up’. - Come across: Encounter (Cruzarse con…)
· You come across things or people when you find them by chance. - Get down to: Start doing something (Start doing something)
· You get down to work, or doing your work, when you start to concentrate on it. - Carry out: Put something into practice (Put something into practice)
· You carry out a plan or test.
UNIT NINE
- See off: Say goodbye (Despedir)
· You see someone off at the start of a journey. - Look round: Visit (Visiting)
· You look round a shop before you buy anything. You can also look round a city. - Pick up: Learn (Learn, coger)
· Edoardo picked up a lot of English by listening to people. - Know of: Be aware of (Conocer, saber)
· Edoardo’s father knew of a good teacher although he had never met him.
UNIT ELEVEN
- Get rid of: Dispose of (Liberarse o deshacerse de algo)
· You get rid of a car when you no longer want it. - Wait for: Await (Esperar a)
· You wait for a bus or a person. - Make up: Invent (Inventar)
· You make up a story or a recipe which did not exist before. - Put up with: Tolerate (Tolerar)
· If you can’t get rid of a cold you have to put up with it.
UNIT TWELVE
- Give up: Abandon (Abandonar algo o dejar de hacer algo)
· You give up something when you let someone else have it. - Strike as: Seem (Sorprender)
· A curious event could strike you as funny, or as being funny. - Hear of: Know about (Saber algo de oídas)
· This is almost always used in the past tense, e.g. ‘I had heard of him before I met him’. - Go on: Happen (Suceder)
· Something funny is going on. - Ring up: Call (Llamar)
· You can ring a person up.
UNIT THIRTEEN
- Go ahead: Proceed (Seguir)
· This is often used to give permission e.g. ‘Can I smoke? Yes, go ahead’. - Look into: Investigate (Investigar o analizar)
· You can look into a problem or a situation that needs resolving. - Be all for: Support (A favor de algo)
· You are all for nuclear disarmament if you support the cause enthusiastically. - Do without: Manage without (Vivir sin algo)
· We could all do without higher prices.
UNIT FOURTEEN
- Put up: Accommodate (Te da cama)
· They put Alec and Marjory up overnight. - Live up to: Meet expectations (Como lo esperabas)
· A thing or a person can live up to some kind of expectation. - Cut off from: Isolate (No contact)
· A person cuts himself off from his friends if he stops seeing them. - Get hold of: Obtain (Mantenerlo, reservarlo)
· They got hold of the cottage by managing to book it. You can get hold of someone by telephone.
UNIT FIFTEEN
- Go through: Examine (Repasar)
· You go through various possible courses of action, trying to find the best. - Deal with: Handle (Sobrellevar)
· You deal with a problem or with a person who has a problem. - Wear out: Become unusable (Desgastadas)
· You wear out clothes by wearing them a lot. - Get on: Board (Montar)
· You get on a bus, a horse…
UNIT SIXTEEN
- Speak out: Speak in public, aloud, clearly (Speak in public, aloud, clearly)
· I didn’t want to accuse him, but I couldn’t restrain myself. I had to speak out. - Find out: Discover (Learn to know)
· You find out what time it is by looking at your watch. - Lie behind: Explain (To explain, to get an explanation)
· An explanation of some kind lies behind something confusing. - Send away: Order (Ask for somebody to send you something/ Lo que veo en un anuncio lo quiero y lo compro)
· You send away for something you see advertised in a magazine.
UNIT SEVENTEEN
- Drop in: Visit (Go to a place)
· If you visit someone, you drop in. You drop in at someone’s home to visit him. - Look for: Search (Try to find something)
· You look for someone when you want to find him. - Hurry up: Come on (Come on)
· This is usually used in conversation, e.g. Hurry up or we’ll miss the bus. - Set off: Leave (Leave)
· At the beginning of a journey you set off.
UNIT EIGHTEEN
- Carry on: Continue (Continue)
· You can carry on. - Run over: Hit with a vehicle (Atropellar)
· You run over a pedestrian or an animal. - Turn off: Switch off (Apagar)
· You turn off the light. - Do with: Want (Estaría bien)
· On a hot day you could say ‘I could do with a cold drink’.
UNIT NINETEEN
- Break off: Stop (Stop to do something)
· In the middle of his lecture he broke off to drink some water. - Hang up: End a phone call (Colgar)
· At the end of a telephone conversation you hang up. - Mistake for: Confuse (Confundir con algo/ alguien)
· You can mistake one thing or person for another. - Point out: Indicate (Señalar, recalcar)
· You point out something to someone who has not seen it.