Phrasal Verbs Lesson 2

Common Phrasal Verbs

These phrasal verbs are commonly used in more complex conversations, writing, and workplace situations.

Word	Meaning	Sample Sentence
Account for	explain or give a reason	She couldn’t account for the missing documents.
Act on	take action based on advice or information	The manager acted on the complaints immediately.
Add up	make sense or result in a total	His story doesn’t add up; I think he’s lying.
Back out	withdraw from a commitment	She backed out of the agreement at the last minute.
Bring about	cause something to happen	The new law brought about major changes.
Bring up	mention a topic or raise a child	She brought up an important issue in the meeting.
Brush up on	refresh knowledge or skills	I need to brush up on my Spanish before my trip.
Call off	cancel something	They called off the wedding.
Carry out	perform or complete a task	The scientist carried out an experiment.
Catch up with	reach the same level as	She worked hard to catch up with her classmates.
Come across	find something unexpectedly	I came across an old photo in my drawer.
Come down with	become sick	He came down with the flu.
Come up with	think of an idea or solution	She came up with a great marketing strategy.
Cut back on	reduce the amount of something	I need to cut back on caffeine.
Cut off	stop or disconnect	The power was cut off during the storm.
Do away with	eliminate or remove	The company did away with old policies.
Drop by	visit briefly	I’ll drop by your office later.
End up	finally be in a situation	She ended up getting the job.
Figure out	understand or solve something	She figured out the math problem.
Get along with	have a good relationship	She gets along with everyone at work.
Get over	recover from illness or pain	She took weeks to get over her cold.
Get rid of	remove or dispose of something	She wants to get rid of old clothes.
Give in	surrender or accept defeat	After arguing for hours, he finally gave in.
Give up on	stop believing in or trying	She never gave up on her dreams.
Go after	pursue or chase something	She is going after her dream job.
Go against	oppose or resist	His decision goes against company rules.
Go along with	agree or follow a plan	She decided to go along with the idea.
Go over	review or examine carefully	Let’s go over the report before submitting it.
Grow out of	become too old for something	She grew out of her childhood hobbies.
Hand in	submit something	She handed in her resignation letter.
Hand out	distribute something	The teacher handed out the test papers.
Hold back	restrain or prevent	She held back her tears during the speech.
Keep up with	stay at the same level	She works hard to keep up with her studies.
Lay off	dismiss from a job	The company laid off many employees.
Look down on	think someone is inferior	She looks down on people who are different.
Look forward to	anticipate with excitement	She looks forward to her vacation.
Look out for	watch for danger	Always look out for traffic before crossing.
Look up to	admire or respect	She looks up to her older sister.
Make up for	compensate for something	She made up for her mistake by working harder.
Move on	accept change and continue	She needs to move on from the past.
Pass up	decline an opportunity	She passed up a great job offer.
Pay off	succeed after effort	Her hard work paid off in the end.
Pull off	succeed despite difficulties	She pulled off an amazing performance.
Put off	postpone something	She put off her dentist appointment.
Put up with	tolerate something	She puts up with her noisy neighbors.
Run into	meet unexpectedly	She ran into an old friend at the mall.
Run out of	use all of something	She ran out of money before payday.
Show off	boast or display something	She showed off her new dress.
Take over	gain control or responsibility	She took over the family business.
Turn down	reject an offer	She turned down the job offer.