What are Phrasal Verbs?
Phrasal verb is the name given to an English verb which is composed of two or three words. One verb is combined with a preposition (like on, in, under) or an adverb (like up, down, away). Sometimes a phrasal verb can have a meaning that is very different to the meaning of at least one of those two or three words separately. Some text books call these verbs multi-word verbs. Phrasal verbs are used more frequently in everyday speech than in formal, official writing or speaking.
Here are some examples:
- To Go Back
- When are you going back to your house?
- To Carry On With
- I want you to carry on with the project while I am out of town.
- To Have On
- Do you have your hiking boots on?
- To Wait Up For
- Let's wait up for Mary to see how her date went.
- To Vouch For
- The coach vouched for the rookie player’s abilities to the rest of his players.