Lesson 13. Phrasal verbs.

Hello everybody. Phrasal verbs are usually two-word phrases consisting of verb + adverb or verb + preposition. Think of them as you would any other English vocabulary. Study them as you come across them, rather than trying to memorize many at once. Here you are a table with some phrasal verbs.

VERB	MEANING	EXAMPLE
ASK OUT	INVITE ON A DATE	Brian asked Judy out to dinner and a movie.
add up to	equal	Your purchases add up to $205.32.
blow up	explode	The racing car blew up after it crashed into the fence.
break down	stop functioning (vehicle, machine)	Our car broke down at the side of the highway in the snowstorm.
break in	force entry to a building	Somebody broke in last night and stole our stereo.
break up	end a relationship	My boyfriend and I broke up before I moved to America.
break out	escape	The prisoners broke out of jail when the guards weren't looking.
bring someone down	make unhappy	This sad music is bringing me down.
bring someone up	raise a child	My grandparents brought me up after my parents died.
call something off	cancel	Jason called the wedding off because he wasn't in love with his fiancé.
calm down	relax after being angry	You are still mad. You need to calm down before you drive the car.
Carry out	Complete a plan	The attack was successfully carried out.
Come about	happen	Let me explain how the situation come about .
Come out	appear	All the flowers have come out.
Come up	Occur- a problem	Look, something has come up, and I can’t meet you.
Do away with	Abolish	Dog licences have been done away with.
Draw up	Organise	The contract is being drawn up at the moment.
End up	Finish in a certain way, or place	We ended up staying there for lunch.
Face up to	Have courage to deal with	You have to face up to your responsibilities.
Fall for	Be deceived by	It was an unlikely story but he fell for it.
Feel up to	Feel capable of doing	Old Mr Smith didn’t feel up to walking all that way.
Get across	Be understood	I had the feeling I wasn’t getting the meaning across.
Get down to	Begin to seriously deal with	It’s time we got down to some real work.
Get on	Make progress	Sue is getting on very well in her new job.
Get up to	Do something usually bad when about children.	The children are getting up to something in the garden.
Give away	Betray	His false identity papers gave him away.
Give off	Send off a smell	The cheese had begun to give off a strange smell.
Give out	Be exhausted	When our money gave out we had to borrow some.
Give over	Abandon, devote	The rest of the time was given over to playing cards.
Give up	Surrender	The escaped prisoner gave herself up.
Go off	Become bad	This milk has gone off.
Hold out	Offer	We don’t hold out much hope that the price will fall.
Hold up	Delay	Sorry I´m late, I was held up in the traffic.
Hold with	Agree with	I don’t hold with the idea of using force.
Live down	Suffer a loss of reputation	If City lose, they’ll never live it down.
Look into	Investigate	The police have promised to look into the problem.
Make for	Result in	The power steering makes for easier parking.
Make out	Pretend	Tim made out that he hadn’t seen the no smoking sign.
Make up	Invent	I think you made up the whole story.
Pack in	Stop an activity	John has packed in his job.
Put across	Communicate ideas	Harry is clever but he can’t put his ideas across.
Put off	Discourage, upset	The crowd out the gymnast off, and he fell.
Put up	Offer accommodation	We can put you up for a few days.
Run down	Criticise	She’s always running down her husband.
Set in	Establish itself	I think this rain has set in for the day.
Set out	Give in detail in writing	This document sets out all the Union demands.
Set up	Establish	An inquiry into the accident has been set up.
Take off	Imitate	Dave takes off the Prime Minister really well.
Take over	Gain control of	The army tried to take over the country.
Take up	Time, occupy time	The meeting took up a morning.