Phrasal verbs at work¶
At a glance
Priority: P0 · Complexity: ⅗ · Est. time: 3 h · Phase: 2 · Prereqs: word nuance & register You're done when: you can use 50 of the 80+ phrasal verbs below correctly in context, you know which are separable/inseparable and transitive/intransitive, and you default to them in spoken meetings (where they sound natural) while choosing single-word equivalents in formal writing.
Why it matters¶
Phrasal verbs (verb + particle, e.g., bring up, follow up, roll out) are the backbone of spoken professional English. Native speakers use them constantly in meetings, standups and Slack; avoiding them (saying "investigate" instead of "look into", "postpone" instead of "put off") makes speech sound like a written report - correct, but stiff. The challenge for learners is threefold: the meaning is often non-literal (follow up ≠ "follow" + "up"), the particle changes meaning entirely (look into vs look up vs look after), and the grammar (separable vs inseparable, with pronouns) has real rules. Grouped by theme, because that's how you retrieve them in the moment you need one.
Core concepts¶
Grammar you need¶
- Transitive vs intransitive: some take an object (bring up an issue), some don't (the meeting wrapped up).
- Separable (object can go between verb and particle, and must if the object is a pronoun): "bring it up" (not "bring up it"); "Can you fill me in?"
- Inseparable (object always after the particle): "look into the issue" (not "look the issue into").
- Three-word phrasal verbs are always inseparable: "follow up on it", "come up with a plan", "get away with it".
- Literal vs idiomatic: sit down (literal) vs back down (idiomatic, give up a position). Idiomatic ones need to be learned as whole units.
- Formality: most phrasal verbs are neutral-to-informal, natural in speech and Slack; single-word Latinate equivalents are preferred in formal reports (see word nuance & register).
1. Meetings, communication, information¶
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| bring up (sth) | raise a topic | "I'll bring it up in the retro." (separable) |
| follow up (on sth) | continue/check on something later | "I'll follow up on the ticket tomorrow." |
| loop in (sb) | include someone in communication | "Loop in Security before you ship." (separable: "loop them in") |
| fill in (sb) / fill (sb) in | give someone missing information | "Can you fill me in on what happened?" |
| catch up (with sb / on sth) | get updated, or meet after a gap | "Let's catch up on the roadmap next week." |
| touch on (sth) | mention briefly | "The deck touches on cost but not timeline." |
| point out (sth) | draw attention to a fact | "She pointed out a flaw in the plan." |
| lay out (sth) | present clearly and in order | "He laid out three options." |
| wrap up (sth) | finish/conclude | "Let's wrap up; we're out of time." |
| kick off (sth) | start | "We'll kick off the sprint on Monday." |
| go over (sth) | review | "Let's go over the requirements again." |
| run through (sth) | go through quickly, step by step | "I'll run through the demo script." |
| write up (sth) | produce a written record | "Can you write up the postmortem?" |
| put across / get across (sth) | communicate an idea effectively | "You need to get your point across more clearly." |
| spell out (sth) | explain in detail, very clearly | "The contract spells out the penalties." |
| back up (sb/sth) | support (a person, a claim) or duplicate (data) | "Back up your claim with data." / "Back up the database." |
| chime in | add a comment, often unprompted | "Feel free to chime in if you disagree." |
| weigh in (on sth) | give an opinion on a debated topic | "Legal weighed in on the contract terms." |
2. Delivery, project progress¶
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| roll out (sth) | release/deploy gradually | "We're rolling out the feature to 10% of users." |
| scale up / scale down | increase / decrease capacity | "We scaled up the cluster for Black Friday." |
| sign off (on sth) | give formal approval | "Legal signed off on the vendor contract." |
| carry out (sth) | perform, execute | "We carried out a full audit." |
| set up (sth) | establish, configure | "Set up the CI pipeline before you start." |
| take on (sth) | accept responsibility for | "I'll take on the migration this sprint." |
| hand over (sth) | transfer responsibility | "I'm handing over on-call to Priya." |
| hold off (on sth) | delay, wait before acting | "Let's hold off on the release until QA finishes." |
| push back (sth / on sth) | delay a date, or resist/object | "We pushed the release back a week." / "I pushed back on the scope." |
| move forward (with sth) | proceed | "We're moving forward with option B." |
| fall behind | become late relative to a plan | "We fell behind after the vendor delay." |
| catch up (on work) | make up for lost time | "We need to catch up before the demo." |
| iron out (sth) | resolve remaining small problems | "We ironed out the edge cases before launch." |
| flesh out (sth) | add detail to a rough idea | "Can you flesh out the proposal before Friday?" |
| build up (sth) | increase gradually | "We're building up test coverage incrementally." |
| phase out (sth) | remove gradually | "We're phasing out the legacy API over two quarters." |
| plough through (sth) (US: plow) | work through something laborious | "I ploughed through 200 review comments." |
3. Problems, escalation, risk¶
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| flag up (sth) | draw attention to a risk/issue | "I want to flag up a dependency risk." |
| look into (sth) | investigate | "We're looking into the root cause." |
| get to the bottom of (sth) | find the real cause | "We need to get to the bottom of this before it recurs." |
| deal with (sth) | handle/address | "We'll deal with the backlog next sprint." |
| sort out (sth) | resolve | "Let's sort out the access issue first." |
| iron out (sth) | see above | |
| blow up | escalate suddenly and badly | "The vendor dispute blew up over the weekend." |
| die down | become less intense | "The alert noise died down after the fix." |
| break down (sth / into sth) | stop working, or split into parts | "The pipeline broke down at 2 a.m." / "Break the task down into subtasks." |
| act up | malfunction (informal) | "The staging environment is acting up again." |
| own up (to sth) | admit responsibility | "He owned up to the config mistake." |
| cover up (sth) | hide a mistake/wrongdoing (negative) | "Never cover up an incident; disclose it." |
| slip through the cracks | be missed by a process | "That ticket slipped through the cracks." (idiom, not strictly phrasal verb, but common in this context) |
| clamp down on (sth) | act strictly to stop something | "We're clamping down on unreviewed merges." |
4. Decisions and negotiation¶
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| come up with (sth) | think of/produce an idea | "The team came up with a clever workaround." |
| go with (sth) | choose | "Let's go with option A." |
| rule out (sth) | eliminate as a possibility | "We've ruled out a hardware fault." |
| hold out (for sth) | refuse to agree until getting what you want | "They're holding out for a discount." |
| back down (on sth) | withdraw a position | "The vendor backed down on the price hike." |
| give in (to sth) | stop resisting, agree | "We shouldn't give in on the SLA." |
| settle on (sth) | decide after considering options | "We settled on a hybrid approach." |
| weigh up (sth) | consider pros and cons | "We weighed up build versus buy." |
| trade off (sth against sth) | balance one thing against another | "We traded off consistency against latency." |
| opt for / opt out (of sth) | choose / decline | "Users can opt out of the beta." |
| get around (sth) | find a way to avoid an obstacle | "We got around the rate limit with batching." |
| work out (sth) | figure out, resolve | "We worked out a plan with Finance." |
5. Team and people¶
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| step up | take on more responsibility | "She stepped up while the lead was on leave." |
| step down | resign from a role | "He stepped down as team lead in March." |
| take over (sth) | assume control/responsibility | "I'll take over the incident from here." |
| back (sb) up | support someone | "I'll back you up in the review." |
| let (sb) down | fail to meet expectations | "We let the client down on the timeline." |
| burn out | become exhausted from overwork | "The on-call rotation is burning people out." |
| bring (sb) up to speed | update someone fully | "Can you bring the new hire up to speed?" |
| show (sb) around | give an orientation tour | "I'll show you around the codebase." |
| team up (with sb) | collaborate | "We teamed up with the SRE team on this." |
| pair up (with sb) | work in pairs | "Let's pair up for this refactor." |
6. Learning, review, and improvement¶
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| look back (on sth) | reflect on the past | "Looking back on the launch, we shipped too fast." |
| review vs. go over | ||
| build on (sth) | use as a foundation for further work | "We built on the existing auth library." |
| break down (sth) | see above | |
| tighten up (sth) | make more rigorous/strict | "We tightened up the review process." |
| firm up (sth) | make more definite | "Let's firm up the dates before the announcement." |
| level up | improve skill/capability significantly (informal) | "This project helped me level up on distributed systems." |
| pick up (sth) | learn quickly, or resume | "She picked up Go quickly." / "Let's pick up where we left off." |
| brush up on (sth) | refresh knowledge | "I need to brush up on SQL before the interview." |
Reference table: same particle, different verbs (pattern recognition)¶
Learning the particle's typical "flavour" helps guess new phrasal verbs.
| Particle | Typical flavour | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| up | completion, increase, appearing | wrap up, follow up, build up, scale up, show up, come up (arise) |
| down | decrease, stopping, calming | scale down, back down, die down, break down, step down |
| out | completion, discovery, distribution | figure out, sort out, roll out, point out, rule out, work out |
| into | investigation, collision, transformation | look into, run into (encounter), turn into |
| off | departure, cancellation, completion | put off, call off, sign off, kick off |
| on | continuation | carry on, move on, hold on, follow on |
| over | transfer, review, excess | hand over, go over, take over |
| through | completion despite difficulty | get through, follow through, plough through |
| back | return, reversal, resistance | come back, back down, push back, hold back |
Same verb, different particle = different meaning (danger zone)¶
- look into (investigate) vs look up (search for info) vs look after (take care of) vs look forward to (anticipate) vs look out for (watch for) vs look up to (admire).
- take on (accept a responsibility) vs take over (assume control) vs take up (start a hobby/occupy space/time) vs take off (become successful rapidly, or leave; also literal: a plane) vs take out (remove; informal: destroy) vs take away (remove; food to-go, UK).
- put off (postpone; also: make someone dislike something) vs put up with (tolerate) vs put across (communicate) vs put in (submit, e.g., a request) vs put down (write; or criticise) vs put together (assemble, e.g., a proposal).
- go over (review) vs go through (experience, or examine in detail) vs go with (choose, or match) vs go ahead (proceed) vs go under (fail financially).
- bring up (raise a topic, or raise a child) vs bring in (introduce, hire) vs bring forward (move to an earlier time) vs bring about (cause).
- work out (resolve; exercise; calculate) vs work on (spend effort improving) vs work through (deal with methodically).
Register: when to use vs when to avoid¶
- Meetings, standups, Slack, 1:1s: phrasal verbs are the default and sound natural; avoiding them entirely ("Let us investigate the matter") sounds stiff and odd.
- Formal reports, RFCs, legal/contract text, customer-facing formal comms: prefer the single-word equivalent (investigate not look into, postpone not put off, approve not sign off on) - see the mapping table in word nuance & register.
- Some phrasal verbs are register-neutral and fine everywhere: follow up, set up, carry out, roll out, scale up/down are common even in formal technical writing.
- Avoid mixing register within one sentence: "We shall endeavour to sort out the matter" mixes formal and informal awkwardly.
Resources¶
| Resource | Type | Why this one | Level | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cambridge Dictionary (phrasal verbs) | dictionary | Clear separable/inseparable labels and example sentences. | intermediate | free |
| Oxford Learner's Dictionaries | dictionary | Phrasal verb entries show grammar patterns (transitive/intransitive, separable). | all | free |
| Cambridge English Phrasal Verbs in Use (Advanced) | book | Topic-organised, business-relevant, with exercises and answer keys. | intermediate-advanced | paid |
| BBC Learning English: English at Work | site | Realistic workplace dialogues full of natural phrasal verb use. | intermediate | free |
| YouGlish | tool | Hear each phrasal verb used by real speakers, useful for stress and separability in speech. | all | freemium |
English-Corpora.org (COCA)  |
tool | Check frequency and typical objects/collocates for a phrasal verb. | advanced | freemium |
| Grammarly blog | articles | Accessible explainers on commonly confused phrasal verbs. | beginner-intermediate | free |
| Merriam-Webster | dictionary | Confirms meaning and separability for American usage. | intermediate | free |
Hands-on lab (60 min)¶
- Theme sort. Pick 20 phrasal verbs from the tables that you don't use confidently. Write one real sentence for each about your actual work.
- Separability check. For 10 verbs, write the sentence twice: once with a full noun object, once with a pronoun ("bring up the issue" / "bring it up"), to lock in the separable pattern.
- Same-particle drill. Take up, out, down and write three sentences each using different verbs with that particle.
- Danger-zone drill. For look, take, put, go, work, write one sentence for each of that verb's 3-4 different particle meanings.
- Register swap. Take a Slack message full of phrasal verbs and rewrite it formally with single-word equivalents; then take a stiff formal paragraph and rewrite it with natural phrasal verbs for a standup.
- Speak it. Record a 90-second project update using at least eight phrasal verbs naturally.
Questions¶
L1 - Recall¶
Q1. Is \"bring up\" separable or inseparable? Show both a full-noun and a pronoun example.
Answer
Separable. "I'll bring up the issue in the retro." / "I'll bring it up in the retro." With a pronoun object, it must go between verb and particle: "bring it up", not "bring up it".
Q2. Distinguish \"look into\", \"look up\", and \"look after\".
Answer
Look into = investigate ("look into the root cause"). Look up = search for information ("look up the API docs"). Look after = take care of ("look after the on-call rotation this week").
Q3. What is the difference between \"take on\" and \"take over\"?
Answer
Take on = accept/agree to do something new ("I'll take on the migration"). Take over = assume control of something already in progress, often from someone else ("I'll take over the incident from here").
Q4. Give the single-word (formal) equivalent for: sort out, put off, carry out, sign off on.
Answer
sort out = resolve; put off = postpone; carry out = perform/execute; sign off on = approve.
L2 - Apply¶
Q5. Fill the gap with the right phrasal verb: (a) \"We ___ the release until QA finishes.\" (hold off / go over) (b) \"Can you ___ the new hire ___ speed on the codebase?\" (bring...up to / catch...up) © \"The vendor ___ on the price increase after we pushed back.\" (backed down / gave in)
Answer
(a) held off; (b) bring...up to; © backed down (both "backed down" and "gave in" work grammatically, but "backed down" fits best after "we pushed back" - it shows a reversal in response to resistance).
Q6. Rewrite formally (single-word equivalents) for a written RFC: \"We need to sort out the access issue, then roll out the fix, and sign off on the change before we wrap up.\"
Answer
"We need to resolve the access issue, then deploy the fix, and approve the change before we conclude." (Roll out and sign off on are common enough to keep even in formal technical writing, but for maximally formal register, replace as shown.)
Q7. Choose the correct particle: \"Let's break ___ the task into smaller pieces.\" \"The pipeline broke ___ at 2 a.m.\" \"We need to get ___ the bottom of this.\"
Answer
break down (into smaller pieces); broke down (stopped working); get to the bottom of (find the real cause - note this uses "to", not a bare particle).
Q8. Correct the separability error: \"Can you fill in me on what happened?\" \"Loop in they before you ship.\"
Answer
"Can you fill me in on what happened?" (pronoun must go between verb and particle). "Loop them in before you ship." (same rule).
L3 - Judge and choose¶
Q9. In a written incident postmortem (formal document), would you write \"we looked into the root cause\" or \"we investigated the root cause\"? Does it matter?
Answer
Both are acceptable; "looked into" is common even in fairly formal technical writing and reads naturally. "Investigated" is very slightly more formal and precise. Neither is wrong - the real register question is whether the rest of the document is consistently formal or informal; don't mix "we investigated" in one sentence with "we sorted it out" in the next.
Q10. A colleague says in a design review: \"Let's not put off this decision - we need to settle on an approach today.\" What's being communicated, and is the phrasing appropriate for the setting?
Answer
They're pushing for a decision now rather than deferring it. The phrasing is appropriate and natural for a spoken design review - both "put off" and "settle on" are neutral-informal and common in meetings; using formal equivalents ("Let's not postpone... we need to determine...") would sound oddly stiff in spoken discussion.
Q11. \"The vendor gave in\" vs \"the vendor backed down\" vs \"the vendor compromised\": what's the nuance difference?
Answer
Gave in suggests they stopped resisting under pressure (slightly one-sided, they lost). Backed down similarly implies retreat from a position, often after pushback. Compromised is neutral and implies mutual give-and-take. In a summary to your own leadership about a win, "backed down" or "gave in" signals you won; "compromised" is safer/more diplomatic if you want to preserve the relationship narrative.
Q12. Should you use \"burn out\" (as in \"the team is burning out\") in a message to your own leadership? What are the risks and how would you phrase it?
Answer
The phrasal verb itself is fine and clear, but the framing matters more: stating it as an observation with evidence lands better than a vague complaint. "Three engineers have worked weekends for the last four sprints; I'm concerned we're heading toward burnout if we don't rebalance the on-call rotation." Pairing the phrasal verb with concrete data avoids sounding like a complaint and makes it actionable.
L4 - Real-world decisions¶
Q13. You're onboarding a new engineer who is a strong writer in English but freezes in meetings. Diagnose the likely gap and give a specific practice plan.
Answer
Likely gap: reliance on formal/Latinate vocabulary learned from writing, with little exposure to the phrasal-verb-heavy spoken register used in real-time meetings ("let's touch base", "can you loop me in", "we're going to hold off"). Plan: have them shadow 3 recorded meetings noting every phrasal verb, build a personal top-30 list from real usage (not a textbook), and rehearse short spoken responses using them ("I'll follow up on that and get back to you") until the retrieval is automatic, not translated in their head.
Q14. In a cross-cultural team, a colleague uses \"we're going to have to take a hit on this\" and another colleague, less fluent, looks confused. How do you handle it live, without embarrassing anyone?
Answer
Briefly restate in plain language as part of the natural conversation, not as a correction: "Right - so we'll accept a cost or delay here to protect the launch date. Does that work for everyone?" This clarifies for the less-fluent colleague while modelling both idiomatic and plain phrasing, without singling anyone out or drawing attention to the confusion.
Q15. You need to write both an internal Slack update and a customer-facing summary about the same delay caused by a vendor. Draft the phrasal-verb-heavy internal version and the plain formal external version.
Answer
Internal: "Heads up - we're going to have to push back the integration by two weeks. The vendor's API isn't ready and we can't work around it. I'll follow up with them and keep you posted." External: "We regret to inform you that the integration timeline will be delayed by two weeks due to a dependency on our vendor's API readiness. We will provide an update on the revised schedule by [date]." Same facts, phrasal-verb-natural internally, plain and formal externally - matching the register guidance in word nuance & register.
Real-world use cases¶
- Standups: "I'm following up on the ticket", "I'll loop in Security", "we hit a blocker".
- Design reviews: "let's weigh up the options", "we ruled out the hardware fault", "can you flesh this out".
- Incident calls: "we're looking into it", "the pipeline broke down", "we're rolling back".
- 1:1s: "I want to flag up a concern", "you've really stepped up this quarter", "let's not let this slip through the cracks".
- Negotiation: "they're holding out for more", "let's see if we can work something out".
Pitfalls & anti-patterns¶
- Confusing near-identical phrasal verbs with different particles (take on vs take over, look into vs look after).
- Getting separability wrong with pronouns ("bring up it", "loop in they").
- Using only formal single-word verbs in speech, sounding stiff and distant.
- Using only phrasal verbs in formal written documents where precision matters more than naturalness.
- Learning phrasal verbs from an alphabetical list instead of by theme and real usage - low retention.
- Missing the idiomatic (non-literal) meaning and taking it literally (sit down is literal; back down is not).
- Mixing formal and informal phrasal/single-word verbs within the same sentence.
Checklist¶
- I can use at least 50 of the phrasal verbs above correctly and know their separability.
- I can distinguish the different meanings of look, take, put, go, work + particle.
- I default to phrasal verbs in speech and single-word equivalents in formal writing.
- I practiced at least 15 with a pronoun object to lock in separable word order.
- I answered all L3 questions out loud in under 3 minutes each.