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Essential English Phrasal Verbs You'll Hear Every Day

Phrasal verbs show up constantly in everyday spoken English, and their meanings are usually impossible to guess from the individual words alone. Here are eight of the most common ones.

Give up — to stop trying or quit

"I won't give up on this project, even though it's difficult." The combined meaning has nothing literally to do with giving or with up — it simply means to stop an effort or abandon something.

Figure out — to understand or solve something

"Let me figure out how this machine works before we start." Used constantly for working through a problem or piece of information until it makes sense.

Look forward to — to feel excited about something upcoming

"I look forward to seeing you next week." This one is followed by a noun or an -ing verb form, never a plain base verb — "look forward to see you" is a common learner mistake.

Run into — to meet unexpectedly, or hit a problem

"I ran into an old friend at the store" or "we ran into a scheduling problem." The same phrase covers both an unplanned encounter with a person and an unplanned obstacle.

Put off — to postpone something

"Don't put off your homework until the last minute." A separable phrasal verb — you can also say "put your homework off," splitting the verb and the particle around the object.

Bring up — to mention a topic, or to raise a child

"She brought up an interesting point in the meeting" or "he was brought up by his grandparents." The same phrase covers introducing a subject in conversation and the separate meaning of raising a child.

Get along with — to have a friendly relationship with someone

"He gets along with almost everyone at work." A three-word phrasal verb that cannot be separated — the person always comes after "with," not in the middle of the phrase.

Come across — to find by chance, or to give an impression

"I came across an old photo while cleaning" describes a chance discovery, while "he came across as confident" describes the impression someone gave — two related but distinct meanings of the same phrase.

Why phrasal verbs trip up learners

The combined meaning of a phrasal verb is often unrelated to what the individual words mean on their own — "give up" has nothing literally to do with giving or up — so they generally have to be learned and remembered as whole chunks of meaning rather than decoded word by word.

Separable vs. inseparable word order

Some phrasal verbs allow an object to split the verb and its particle, like "look it up" or "look up the word," while others, like "get along with," never allow that separation. Getting this word order wrong is one of the most common mistakes even for advanced non-native speakers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are phrasal verbs mostly used in casual, spoken English?

Generally yes — they are extremely common in everyday spoken and informal written English, while more formal writing often favors a single-word equivalent instead, such as "postpone" in place of "put off."

What's the best way to memorize phrasal verbs?

Learning them inside full example sentences, rather than as isolated dictionary definitions, tends to work better, since the specific particle used with a verb often cannot be predicted or guessed from the base verb alone.