20 frequently used phrasal verbs in English

Key takeaways

• Phrasal verbs are sometimes challenging because learners must learn meaning, particle, object position, and situation together.
• Start with high-frequency verbs such as find out, look up, write down, give up, run out of, pick up, bring up, and go over.
• Separable phrasal verbs need special attention: “turn it off” is natural, but “turn off it” is not.
• Practicing with an English tutor helps you move phrasal verbs from passive recognition to active speaking.

Phrasal verbs in English are verb combinations such as “look up,” “find out,” and “give up” that often have meanings you cannot guess from the individual words. The learner pain point is that a phrasal verb can be easy to recognize but hard to use correctly because meaning, word order, and context all matter.

italki solves this by letting learners practice phrasal verbs in real conversation with English teachers who can correct particles, object placement, and pronunciation. The platform has 30,000+ teachers across 150+ languages, 10M+ learners, and 15+ years of online learning experience since 2007.

What is a phrasal verb in English?

A phrasal verb is a verb plus a preposition, adverb, or both, where the whole expression often has a special meaning. Cambridge Dictionary gives examples such as “pay for,” “work out,” and “make up for,” and notes that the meaning can differ from the separate parts.

This is why phrasal verbs are difficult for learners. You may know “look” and “up,” but “look up a word” means search for information, not look toward the sky.

Phrasal verbs are common in casual and professional English. You will hear them in meetings, interviews, messages, podcasts, TV, and daily conversation.

For grammar foundations, basic English grammar and English verb conjugation can help you connect phrasal verbs to tense, sentence structure, and object placement.

Which phrasal verbs should English learners know first?

English learners should start with phrasal verbs that appear often in everyday conversation. Learn each one with a situation, not only a translation.

Phrasal verb	Meaning	Example
find out	discover information	“I need to find out the meeting time.”
look up	search for information	“Look up the word in a dictionary.”
write down	record in writing	“Write down the address.”
fill out	complete a form	“Please fill out this application.”
give up	stop trying	“Do not give up after one mistake.”
run out of	have no more	“We ran out of coffee.”
turn on	start a machine or light	“Turn on the laptop.”
turn off	stop a machine or light	“Turn off the camera.”
put on	place clothing on your body	“Put on your jacket.”
take off	remove clothing or leave the ground	“Take off your shoes.”
pick up	collect or learn naturally	“I picked up some slang from TV.”
drop off	leave someone or something somewhere	“I will drop off the documents.”
call back	return a phone call	“Can I call you back later?”
hang up	end a phone call	“She hung up too quickly.”
bring up	mention a topic	“Do not bring up salary yet.”
come up with	create an idea	“We came up with a better plan.”
get along with	have a good relationship	“I get along with my coworkers.”
look after	take care of	“She looks after her younger brother.”
go over	review	“Let’s go over the report.”
carry on	continue	“Carry on with the exercise.”

Phrasal verbs for information

“Find out,” “look up,” “write down,” and “go over” are useful for school, work, and self-study.

Examples:

• “I found out that the test is next Friday.”
• “Could we go over this paragraph together?”
• “I wrote down three new words from the lesson.”

Phrasal verbs for daily actions

“Turn on,” “turn off,” “put on,” “take off,” and “pick up” appear in daily routines.

Examples:

• “Turn off your phone before the exam.”
• “I picked up the package after work.”
• “She picked up English quickly because she practiced every day.”

Phrasal verbs for communication

“Call back,” “hang up,” “bring up,” and “come up with” help in phone calls, meetings, and discussions.

Examples:

• “I will call back after lunch.”
• “She brought up a good point.”
• “Can we come up with three options?”

If professional communication is your goal, English for business communication gives you workplace phrases where phrasal verbs often appear.

How do separable and inseparable phrasal verbs work?

Some phrasal verbs can be separated by an object, while others cannot. This grammar point matters because word order can make your sentence sound wrong even when the meaning is clear.

Separable phrasal verbs

With separable phrasal verbs, the object can go between the verb and the particle.

Examples:

• “Turn off the light.”
• “Turn the light off.”
• “Write down the number.”
• “Write the number down.”

But if the object is a pronoun, the pronoun usually goes in the middle:

• Correct: “Turn it off.”
• Incorrect: “Turn off it.”
• Correct: “Write it down.”
• Incorrect: “Write down it.”

Inseparable phrasal verbs

With inseparable phrasal verbs, the object stays after the particle.

Examples:

• “I ran out of coffee.”
• “She looks after her brother.”
• “I get along with my manager.”

Do not say “I ran coffee out of” or “She looks her brother after.”

The Cambridge grammar page on verbs and particles explains that multi-word verbs include phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs, and phrasal-prepositional verbs. Learners do not need all the labels at first, but knowing that word order changes by type prevents many mistakes.

How can you practice phrasal verbs in speaking?

Practice phrasal verbs through small scenes. A list helps recognition, but scenes help production.

Try this practice routine:

Step	Task	Example
1	Choose a situation	phone call, lesson, meeting, travel
2	Pick five phrasal verbs	call back, write down, find out
3	Write a mini-dialogue	“Can I call you back?”
4	Say it out loud	focus on rhythm
5	Get correction	check meaning and word order

Example mini-dialogue:

• A: “Can you find out when the meeting starts?”
• B: “Sure. I will look it up and write it down.”
• A: “Thanks. Could you call me back when you know?”
• B: “Of course. I will go over the details with you.”

For listening practice, phrasal verbs often sound fast because the verb and particle connect naturally. English pronunciation can help you hear connected speech more clearly.

This is where italki solves the learner pain point: phrasal verbs require correction in context. An English language tutor can tell you whether “pick up,” “take off,” or “bring up” fits the situation, and whether your object placement sounds natural. Book a trial lesson today.

Make phrasal verbs part of your active English

Do not try to learn 200 phrasal verbs at once. Start with 20, group them by situation, and use them in short conversations.

Use this weekly plan:

Day	Task
Monday	Learn five information phrasal verbs.
Tuesday	Write one sentence for each.
Wednesday	Learn five daily action phrasal verbs.
Thursday	Record a mini-dialogue.
Friday	Review with a teacher or speaking partner.

With 30,000+ teachers across 150+ languages and 10M+ learners, italki gives you a practical way to move phrasal verbs from passive recognition to active speaking. Book a lesson with an English tutor and ask for three drills: separable object order, mini-dialogues, and correction when you choose the wrong particle.

FAQs

What are phrasal verbs in English?

Phrasal verbs are combinations of a verb and a particle, such as “look up,” “give up,” or “run out of.” The full phrase often has a meaning that is different from the individual words.

Why are phrasal verbs difficult for English learners?

Phrasal verbs are difficult because the meaning may be idiomatic, the particle may change the meaning completely, and the object position may follow special grammar rules.

What phrasal verbs should beginners learn first?

Beginners should start with common phrasal verbs such as find out, look up, write down, fill out, give up, run out of, turn on, turn off, pick up, call back, and go over.

How can I remember phrasal verbs?

Remember phrasal verbs by grouping them by situation and using them in short dialogues. Learning “call back” in a phone-call scene is more useful than memorizing it as an isolated phrase.