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 Down
- The cost of flight tickets is going down.
- To Take Up
- We should take this issue up in the meeting tomorrow.
- To Kick Back
- After work, I like to kick back in front of the tv and relax.
- To Watch Out
- Watch out - there's a rattlesnake!
- To Bring Over
- When you visit me, why don't you bring over your son.