A brief description of what a phrasal adverb is and some common phrasal verbs with examples

1. Phrasal Verbs
Workshop Grammar is Fun
Mtra. Patricia Salgado N. Facultad de Lenguas – BUAP Summer 2017

2. Phrasal verbs:
 Are mainly used in spoken English and informal texts. The more formal a
conversation or text is, the less phrasal verbs are found.
 Consist of a verb and a particle (preposition, adverb or both).
 The particle can change the meaning of the verb completely.
For example:
look + up = consult a reference book
look + for = seek
look + forward = anticipate with pleasure

3. Break down
 To stop working (machinery, vehicle).
His car has broken down in the middle of the road.

4. Break in
 To interrupt when someone is talking.
As she was talking, he suddenly broke in, saying, “it’s a lie”.

5. Break up
 To end a relationship or marriage (romance),
 To stop classes and start holidays,
 To stop being heard.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have broken up after having been together for a long
time.

6. Bring up
 To raise a child,
 To start talking about a particular subject,
 To vomit something.
A parents’ responsability is to bring up good humans and citizens.

7. Call out
 To speak loudly,
 To officially order that a military unit become ready for action.
The teacher had to call the students’names out.

8. Come back
 To return to a place
 If a style or a fashion comes back, it becomes popular again after being
unpopular for a period of time
She cried and said: “Please, babe don’t go. Come back”.

9. Do up
 To fasten something or become fastened
 To repair or decorate a building so that it looks attractive
 Wrap something in paper
The little boy is learning to do his shirt up.

10. Fall for
 To suddenly have strong romantic feelings about someone
He fell for her from the very first time he met her.

11. Get off
 To leave a place, usually to start a journey
 To leave work with permission, usually at the end of the day
If we can get off by seven o’clock, the roads will be clearer.

12. Go down
 To move down to a lower level or place
 To reach or go as far as
 When the sun goes down, it moves down in the sky until it cannot be seen
 To be reduce in price, value, amount, quality, level, size
 To be remembered or recorded in a particular way
 To be received in a particular way
The temperature went down to minus ten last night.

13. Keep on
 To continue to talk in an annoying way about something
She kept on at me about the money, even though I told her I hadn’t got it.

14. Look after
 To take care of or be in charge of someone or something
I look after my little niece when her parents go out at night.

15. Make for
 To result in or make posible
Having faster computers would make for a more efficient system.

16. Put on
 To make a device operate, or to cause a device to play something, such as a
CD or DVD, by pressing a switch
 To cover part of the body with clothes, shoes, make-up, or something similar
 If people or animals put weight on, they become heavier
Put your raincoat on before we leave. It’s raining.

17. Run away
 To leave a place or person secretly and suddenly
 To avoid dealing with a problema or difficult situation
They ran away from home when the political situation got worst in the country.

18. Take off
 If an aircraft, bird, or insect takes off, it leaves the ground and begins to fly
 To suddenly start to be successful or popular
The plane took off at 8:30 a.m.

19. Set off
 To start on a trip
 To cause a device to explode or a signal to start
I accidentally set the fire alarm off

20. Some resources:
 https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/phrasal-verbs/list#turn
 https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/phrasal-verbs-list.htm
 https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/grammar/phrasal-verbs
 https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/es/english-grammar/verbs/phrasal-
verbs