Phrasal verbs

English (Précis and Composition) · Vocabulary · Idioms and phrases. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

A phrasal verb is a verb joined to one or two small words, called particles, such as up, off, out, on, down or with. Together they make a new meaning: give is to hand over, but give up is to stop trying, and give in is to surrender.

The paper tests them in two ways. It gives a phrasal verb in a sentence and asks what it means, or it leaves out the particle. In both, the particle decides the meaning, so learn the verb and particle together as one unit.

Many phrasal verbs have several meanings. Put off can mean to postpone or to discourage. The rest of the sentence tells you which one is meant.

Rules to remember

The particle changes the meaning: look after (care for), look into (investigate), look up to (respect), look down on (despise).
turn down = reject; turn up = arrive or appear; turn out = prove to be.
break down = stop working; break out = start suddenly (war, disease, fire); break into = enter by force.
bring up = raise a child, or mention a subject; bring about = cause to happen.
set up = establish; set off = begin a journey; set aside = keep for later, or cancel a court decision.
get over = recover from; get along with = be friendly with; get away with = escape punishment for.
A single-word verb can often replace a phrasal verb: put off = postpone, put out = extinguish.

Common mistake

Candidates guess from the main verb and ignore the particle, so they read turn down as a kind of turning. Treat the pair as one new word and test a single-word verb in its place.

Worked example

The board turned down his request for a loan. As used here, turned down means: A reduced, B rejected, C delayed, D folded.

The object is a request, and a request can be granted or refused.
D takes turn literally, and nothing in the sentence is being folded.
Turn down can mean to lower the volume or heat, but a request is not a sound or a flame, so A does not fit.
Replace it with one verb: the board rejected his request. The sentence keeps its sense.

Answer: B, rejected.

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