20 Phrasal Verbs Related to Work: Meanings and Examples

Key takeaways

• Phrasal verbs combine a verb with a particle (preposition or adverb) to create a meaning that is different from the verb alone. Take on (to accept a responsibility) has nothing to do with the physical action of taking.
• Many work phrasal verbs are separable: the object can go between the verb and particle (hand in the report or hand the report in). When the object is a pronoun, it must go in the middle: hand it in, never hand in it.
• Phrasal verbs sound more natural than formal equivalents in spoken business English: wrap up rather than conclude, put off rather than postpone, call off rather than cancel.
• The 20 phrasal verbs below split into four groups: tasks and deadlines, meetings and communication, career and roles, and time and output.

Work environments run on phrasal verbs. Can you follow up on the client by Friday? The project has fallen through. Let’s wrap up and send out the action points. These phrases appear in meetings, emails, and calls every day, and they don’t appear in most business English courses.

A learner who knows formal workplace vocabulary but can’t parse phrasal verbs in real time will miss key meaning constantly.

This guide covers 20 essential work phrasal verbs grouped into four categories: managing tasks and deadlines, meeting and discussion language, career progression, and time and output. Each verb includes its definition, a natural example sentence, and notes on non-obvious usage.

The gap between recognizing these verbs and using them automatically in a real meeting closes through practice, not study. Find a Business English tutor on italki, a platform that has matched over 10 million learners with teachers since 2007, and use a workplace role-play to put these verbs to work under realistic pressure from the first session.

Tasks and deadlines

Phrasal verb	Meaning	Example
carry out	to perform or complete a task	We need to carry out the audit before the end of quarter.
hand in	to submit work formally	Please hand in the report by five o’clock.
take on	to accept or assume responsibility	She’s taking on the new account from next month.
put off	to delay to a later time	Don’t put off the supplier call — it needs to happen this week.
follow up on	to check on the progress of something	Can you follow up on the delivery status?

Carry out and take on both involve starting or doing a task, but the distinction matters: carry out refers to the execution of something already assigned, while take on refers to agreeing to be responsible for something new.

Put off means to delay, not to cancel. If the call is cancelled entirely, that’s call off (see below). If it’s moved to Thursday, that’s put off.

Meetings and communication

Phrasal verb	Meaning	Example
bring up	to raise a topic in a meeting	I’ll bring up the budget question at the end of the call.
wrap up	to conclude or finish	Let’s wrap up, we’re out of time.
call off	to cancel something entirely	The product launch has been called off.
talk through	to discuss step by step	Can we talk through the proposal before the presentation?
pick up where (we) left off	to continue from a stopping point	Let’s pick up where we left off from last week’s session.

Wrap up appears in almost every work meeting in English. It signals that the meeting is ending and it’s time to summarize and agree on next steps. Knowing it as both a transitive (wrap up the meeting, with an object) and intransitive (let’s wrap up, no object) form is useful.

For learners who also want to understand British workplace vocabulary, the guide to British slang words covers the informal register that appears in UK offices alongside professional vocabulary.

Career and roles

Phrasal verb	Meaning	Example
step down	to resign from a position	The CEO stepped down after the restructure.
take over	to assume control of something	She’s taking over the department from March.
fill in for	to temporarily replace someone	Can you fill in for me while I’m on leave?
move up	to advance in a company or role	He moved up quickly after the merger.
get ahead	to make career progress	Taking on cross-functional projects is one way to get ahead.

Take over and fill in for are often confused. Take over implies a permanent or significant transfer of responsibility. Fill in for is temporary: someone is away, you cover for them, they return.

An English teacher online can role-play common career conversations, including performance reviews, handover briefings, and promotion discussions, where these verbs appear most naturally. italki has 30,000+ teachers across 150+ languages, including qualified English teachers who build professional vocabulary through realistic scenario work.

Time, pace, and output

Phrasal verb	Meaning	Example
cut back on	to reduce	We’re cutting back on external consultants this quarter.
knock off	to stop work for the day	I usually knock off at six.
run out of	to exhaust a supply, including time	We’ve run out of time for the last agenda item.
fall through	to fail to happen (of a plan or deal)	The partnership fell through at the final stage.
log in / log out	to sign in to or out of a system	Log in before the system update runs tonight.

Fall through is inseparable and always refers to a plan, deal, or arrangement that fails to materialize, not to a physical object falling. The contract fell through means the deal didn’t happen.

Knock off is informal and most common in British English, but widely understood. In more formal contexts, finish work or leave the office are the standard equivalents.

Separable vs. inseparable: how to tell

Separable phrasal verbs allow the object to go between verb and particle, and require the object to go there when it is a pronoun.

• hand in the report or hand the report in (both correct)
• hand it in (correct, pronoun must go in the middle)
• hand in it (incorrect)

From the list above: carry out, hand in, take on, put off, bring up, wrap up, call off, cut back on are all separable.

Inseparable phrasal verbs require the object to follow the particle directly. The object can never go between verb and particle.

• follow up on the issue (correct)
• follow the issue up on (incorrect)
• deal with the problem (correct, never deal the problem with)

From the list above: follow up on, pick up where we left off, step down, fill in for, fall through, log in/log out are inseparable or intransitive (no object at all).

Using these verbs in real work conversations

Book a trial lesson today and spend the session doing a project update, a team briefing, or a client call role-play where these 20 verbs come up naturally.

Passive knowledge of phrasal verbs does not transfer to fluency under the speed of a real meeting, and italki’s 30,000+ expert tutors, trusted by over 10 million learners worldwide, include business English teachers who make that transfer happen through exactly this kind of scenario work.

FAQ

Can I use these phrasal verbs in formal writing?

Generally not. Formal written English prefers the single-verb equivalents: submit over hand in, postpone over put off, cancel over call off, conclude over wrap up. In emails between colleagues and in spoken meetings, phrasal verbs are standard and sound natural.

What is the difference between put off and call off?

Put off means to delay to a later time. Call off means to cancel entirely. We put off the meeting until Thursday (it will still happen, just later). We called off the meeting (it is not happening). The distinction matters in professional communication.

Is fall through the same as fall apart?

No. Fall through applies to plans, deals, and arrangements that fail to be completed: The deal fell through. Fall apart refers to something disintegrating or deteriorating: The team fell apart after the manager left, or literally the box fell apart. Both are inseparable.

What is the most common phrasal verb in professional English?

Usage varies by industry, but follow up is consistently among the most frequent in professional communication. It appears in emails (I’ll follow up by Friday), meeting summaries (action: follow up with the legal team), and calls (can you follow up on this?).