Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs, called also multi-word verbs, compound verbs, are very popular expressions which are used in English. They consist of a verb and another element such as a preposition, as in look after, pick on, run into, take after and particle, as in think over, give in, hang out. Verbs in phrasal verbs can be also used with the combination of a particle and a preposition, as in put up with, look forward to, bear down on, load up on.

Phrasal Verb	Sentence
cook up something	He’s cooked up a good excuse for not attending the meeting.
cool off	He just needs a little time to cool off.
count someone in	Shall we count you in on the plan?
count on somebody	I can always count on my friends.
count someone out	If it costs over one thousand, you can count me out. It’s too expensive for me.
crop up	I’ll see you next week unless something crops up.
cut back on something	We will have to cut back on expenditure.
cut down on something	He’s trying to cut down on smoking.
cut in	I hate when she cuts in.
cut someone off	I was talking to Helen, but then we were cut off.
cut something off	You’d better pay your bills, otherwise they will cut your electricity off.
cut out	The engine in our car keeps cutting out.
cut someone out	Finally they managed to cut out all the competition.
cut something out	If you want to lose weight you should cut out sweets.
cut something out	This essay is far too long. You should cut out at least 2 paragraphs.

Phrasal Verb	Sentence
dash off	After breakfast he dashed off to his office.
dawn on somebody	It dawned on him that his car had been stolen.
deal in	They deal in cars.
deal with something	We deal with many frustrated clients.
deal with something	The film deals with the economic situation in Europe.
deal with somebody	We’ve been dealing with Smith Brothers for over five years.
deal with somebody	How do you deal with difficult customers?
do for somebody	If we don’t get the credit, we’ll be done for.
do somebody out of something	Are you trying to do me out of this job?
do somebody over	He got done over by some hooligans.
do something up	My neighbour is having his house done up.
do something up	Do up your coat before you go out.
do with something	I’m very tired, I could do with a cool drink.
have something to do with something	His work has to do with computer programming.
do without something	I'll have to do without the Internet this week.
draw in	The evenings are drawing in. It will be winter soon.
draw in	The London train drew in five minutes late.
draw somebody in	I managed to avoid getting drawn in.
draw out	As soon as January finishes, the days begin to draw out noticeably.
draw out	We arrived at the stadion just as the train was drawing out.
draw somebody out	He was very shy but his colleagues soon drew him out.
draw something out	I can go to the bank and draw out £100 at a time.
draw something out	Your essay is too short. Can’t you draw it out a bit?
draw something out	He didn’t want to tell us what happened so we had to draw it out of him slowly.
draw up	The taxi drew up in front of the hotel.
draw something up contract, list, plan, report, will	It’s a carefully drawn up report, accurate and to the point.
draw something up chair, stool	Draw the chair up to the bed, will you?
dream something up plan, excuse, explanation	Whatever will they dream up next?
dress up	Is it going to be an informal party or do we need to dress up for it?
dress up	He dressed up as a pirate.
dress something up	Your plan looks interesting. Dress it up and then send it to the boss.
drink something up	Drink up your coffee or it will get cold.
drive at something	I know what you are driving at.
drop by	Could you possibly drop by again tomorrow?
drop something by / in / off / over / round	‘Where did these CDs come from?’ – ‘Peter dropped them by this afternoon.’
drop off	He dropped off in the middle of the lesson.
drop off	But for some reason sales drop off, to 90 per month.
drop somebody off	Ask the driver to drop you off at the cinema.
drop out	She had to drop out and find a job.
drum something up	We met with him when he was trying to drum up support.
dry something up	Could you dry up these plates?
dry up	She keeps talking about her children. I do wish she’d dry up!
dwell on something	There was no sense in dwelling on the past.

Phrasal Verb	Sentence
ease off	It was simply his body telling him to ease off.
ease up on somebody	I think you should ease up on them.
eat into something	The holiday in Greece will eat into our savings.
eat something up	They'll eat up whatever you put in front of them.
egg on	Stop egging him on to drink more!
end up	He ended up working as a teacher after he tried different jobs.

Phrasal Verb	Sentence
face up to something	She will have to face up to many problems.
fall back on something	Fortunately, we’ve got our savings to fall back on.
fall back on somebody	I have nobody to fall back on.
fall behind	The real problem is that Europe continues to fall behind in other areas.
fall for somebody	Finally he has fallen for her.
fall for something	I wish she wouldn’t fall for all these sales tricks.
fall in with somebody	We fell in with some tourists from our hotel.
fall in with something	He fell in with our suggestion to go to Greece.
fall off	Sales fell off after Christmas.
fall off	The service in this restaurants has fallen off.
fall out with somebody	Peter is always falling out with people.
fall through	The holiday plans fell through because of the weather.
fall down	When the woman fall down, the man help her up.
fall apart	She was depressed when her marriage fell apart.
fall over	I fell over while dancing.
feel up to something	I don’t feel up to doing my homework.
fight somebody off	The police tried to fight off the protesters.
fight something off	You should stay in bed and take some medicines to fight off the flu.
fill in something	You should fill in this form.
fill in somebody	Could you fill me in on his qualifications for this job?
fill in for somebody	Will you fill in for me next week?
finish off something	I’m going to finish off the report after lunch.
finish off/up with something	I would like to finish off with a comment on the taxes.
finish with somebody	He has lied to me so I have finished with him.
fit in	The shelf is too small. Our records won’t fit in.
fit in with something	This table doesn’t fit in with the rest of the furniture.
fit somebody in	I hope the dentist can fit me in today.
fit somebody up with something	Could you fit me up with some new tyres?
fit something up with something	The classroom has just been fitted up with new audio equipment.
fix on something	Have you fixed on a date for your wedding yet?
fix somebody up with something	Can you fix me up with any part-time job?
fix something up	Don't worry. Everything is fixed up.
be in a fix	Now we're in a fix!
follow through	I’m determined to follow my plan through.
follow something up	We should follow up his suggestion; it sounds intriguing.
follow up	If they say yes, then you can follow up with more questions.