How do you feel about phrasal verbs? I know a lot of English learners hate them! They can be difficult to learn and remember. And even worse, one phrasal verb can have different meanings, depending on the context. Today’s blog post will give you a few common phrasal verbs and their different meanings. Back up 1. To support If you back somebody up, you say that they are telling the truth My Mum didn’t believe me when I said I’d finished my homework but my dad backed me up. 2. To make a copy If you back up computer files it means you make a copy so that if the original is lost, you have another copy. Don’t forget to back up your essay before you turn the computer off. 3. To block If traffic backs up, it means the road is blocked. If the toilet or drains backs up, it means it’s blocked and the water won’t flow. The traffic was backed up for miles and it took me ages to get home. Bring up 1. To raise children When you bring up children, you look after them, teach them right and wrong and so on. Her parents died when she was young so she was brought up by her grandparents. 2. To mention a topic When you bring something up, you introduce a topic into the conversation and start talking about it. If you’re not happy about this, why don’t you bring it up at the next staff meeting? Go off 1. To explode Fortunately, nobody was in the building when the bomb went off. I couldn’t sleep with the sound of fireworks going off. 2. To make a noise to tell you or warn you about something What do you do when your alarm clock goes off in the morning? Do you hit snooze, or do you jump out of bed? 3. To start to dislike We used to be great friends but I went off him when he started lying to me. I used to drink a glass of milk before bed but I went off it completely after I was ill. 4. To go bad When food goes off, it means it goes bad. We usually use this for food like meat, fish or dairy. I think this milk has gone off. It doesn’t smell right. 5. To stop working The heating comes on at 6 o’clock and goes off at 8. We had a power cut and all the lights went off suddenly. Hang up 1. To end a phone call Sorry, I’ve got to go! I’m hanging up now! I’ll speak to you again tomorrow. 2. To put your clothes onto a coat hanger or a peg Please will you hang your coat up instead of leaving it on the floor like that! Take off 1. To leave the ground When an aeroplane or other aircraft takes off, it leaves the ground at the start of its flight. The plane took off ten minutes late but we arrived on time. 2. To remove something This most often means to take off your clothes, shoes, jewellery or makeup, but it can be used in other contexts too. Do you take your shoes off when you go into the house? Take your feet off the table! He took £5 off the bill. 3. To increase suddenly When something takes off, it suddenly increases in success or popularity. When I started posting daily, my Facebook page really took off! 4. To take time away from work You can take time off for a holiday or sickness I had a horrible cold all last week but I only took a couple of days off. Quiz Complete the sentences below using the correct form of the phrasal verbs: back up, bring up, go off, hang up, take off.
The answers are at the bottom of this post! But first, if you look these phrasal verbs up in a good dictionary, you’ll find more meanings that I decided not to mention and more examples. I’ve tried to give you the most common and useful meanings here. Look at this post to find out which dictionaries I recommend: https://www.learnenglishwithkatie.co.uk/blog/using-a-dictionary And look at this post if you’d like to learn about the different meanings of “pick up”: https://www.learnenglishwithkatie.co.uk/blog/phrasal-verb-lesson-pick-up Now here are the answers:
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