Introduction to Phrasal Verbs

Level A2 · Verb Patterns

A phrasal verb is a verb combined with a short word like up, off, on, in, or down (called a particle) that together mean something different from the verb alone. Get up and get off are a perfect example. get by itself is vague, but get up means to rise from bed or a sitting position, while get off means to leave a bus, train, or bike — two completely different actions built from the same verb plus a different particle. This is why phrasal verbs have to be learned as whole units, not worked out word by word.

Phrasal verbs for getting around and returning somewhere:

• get up — leave your bed, or move from lying/sitting to standing: I get up at 7 every morning.
• get on / get off — board or leave a bus, train, or plane: We got on the train and got off at Central Station.
• get in / get out (of) — enter or leave a car, not public transport: She got in the car and drove off.
• come back / go back — return to a place: He went back home after work; she came back late.

Phrasal verbs for everyday actions:

• turn on / turn off — start or stop a machine, light, or device: Turn on the lights; turn off the TV before bed.
• put on / take off — put clothing onto your body, or remove it: Put on your coat; take off your shoes at the door.
• sit down / stand up — move into a sitting or standing position: Please sit down; stand up when your name is called.
• wake up — stop sleeping, which is different from get up (physically leaving the bed): I woke up at six but didn't get up until seven.
• pick up — lift something from a surface: He picked up his keys and left.
• wait for / look for — stay somewhere until someone or something arrives, or try to find something: I waited for the bus and looked for my glasses.

Some phrasal verbs can split around their object, and the rule depends on what that object is:

• Separable, with a noun object: the noun can go either after the whole phrase or in the middle — pick up your keys or pick your keys up both work.
• Separable, with a pronoun object: the pronoun must go in the middle — pick them up, never pick up them.
• No object at all: get up, sit down, and wake up don't take an object, so there's nothing to place anywhere.
• Inseparable, object always after: wait for and look for keep their object at the end, even a pronoun — wait for her, look for it, never for her wait or for it look.

The most common mistake is putting a pronoun object after a separable phrasal verb instead of in the middle — pick up it and turn on it are both wrong. With a pronoun, it always goes between the verb and the particle: pick it up, turn it on. A second frequent error is mixing up get on/get off with get in/get out — get on the car and get off the car sound wrong to a native ear, because cars use in and out, while buses, trains, and planes use on and off. A third mistake is confusing wake up with get up — waking up just means your sleep ends, but you can wake up and stay in bed, so I woke up but I didn't get up is a normal, common sentence, not a contradiction.

Look for a common verb — get, turn, put, take, sit, stand, wake, pick, wait, look, come, go — immediately followed by a short particle (up, off, on, in, out, down, away, back, for) that together mean something more specific than the verb alone. Then check the object. A pronoun right after the verb (pick it up) signals a separable phrasal verb, an object stuck firmly at the end (wait for her) signals an inseparable one, and no object at all (get up, sit down) means there's nothing to place.

Practice

What Do They Mean? · Separable, Inseparable & the Object Rule