This document provides definitions for common phrasal verbs used in secondary school English. It defines 15 phrasal verbs including "ask someone out", "break down", and "call up". Each definition is accompanied by an example sentence to illustrate its meaning. The phrasal verbs cover a variety of meanings involving movement, emotions, discovery, relationships and more.

1. BASIC
PHRASAL
VERBS
Students have to know at
secondary school

2. • ASK S/O OUT: invite on a date
• My boyfriend invited me out to dinner last
weekend
• BREAK DOWN: stop functioning,
vehicle,machine.
• Yesterday morning the car broke down, so we
couldn´t visit grandma.
• BRING UP: raise a child
• Grandma brough me up, as my mom and dad
were always working

3. • CALL UP: phone
• Call me up, please, when you are in town
• CALM DOWN: relax after being angry
• Calm down, it´s not a problem, we´ll find a
solution.
• FIND OUT: discover
• The police has to find out how things
happened.

4. • GET UP: get out of bed
• Hurry up, Peter, get up, it´s seven and you´ll be late for
school
• GIVE UP: stop trying, quit a habit
• Chinese was such a difficult language that I gave up
studying it.
• LOOK AFTER: take care of
• I´m sorry, I can´t go to the party, my mom works that
evening and I have to look after my younger sister.
• LOOK FOR: try to find
• I´m looking for my new T-shirt, but I can´t find it

5. • GET OVER: recover from illness,etc
• Peter is coming back to school tomorrow , he got
over his smallpox.
• GO OUT WITH: date
• Did you know that Richard is going out with Mary
again?
• LET DOWN : disappoint, fail to support or help
• Hi, kids, study for your next exam, don´t let me
down, please !

6. • LOOK FORWARD TO: be excited about the
future
• I´m looking forward to my summer break
• MAKE UP: invent, lie about something
• Tell me the truth,please. Don´t make up more
silly stories, I don´t believe you.
• TURN ON: start the energy, switch on
• Can I turn on the lights please?.It´s getting dark.
• TURN OFF: stop the energy flow,switch off
• I´m turning the music off. It´s too loud, and you
aren´t listening to it.