Questions tagged [phrasal-verbs]
A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and a preposition, a verb and an adverb, or a verb with both an adverb and a preposition.
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What are the digital versions of "clock/punch in" and "clock/punch out"?
I looked up the phrasal verbs clock in, clock out, punch in and punch out in various British advanced learner's dictionaries and they seem to imply that these verbs concern the analog way of recording ...
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How come "screw over" means "to cheat"?
I looked it up in Wiktionary, and I've found out that the term "screw over" means "to cheat someone, or ruin their chances in a game or other situation."
I want to know how that ...
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What does "be drawn before someone" mean?
In Oxford learner's dictionary, the word "drag", in one sense, means:
a strong-smelling lure drawn before hounds as a substitute for a fox or other hunted animal.
My understand is that &...
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Count with vs count on?
I was reading Rudyard Kipling's "If", and there's this line-
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
It seems to me that here "...
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Talk vs open up
Look at these two newspaper article titles(I know you must be thinking that the first one no journalist would write this way):
1: "Klopp talks about what went wrong with his team".
2: "...
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"Used to play" or "was used to playing"? [closed]
In the answer he says 'used to play' means I played something in the past but not anymore, yet 'was used to playing' means a habitual activity but had changed some way.
For me, as a non-native English ...
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Should I use "I'm noting down ..." or "I'm taking ... to note."?
In this example, I am writing down in my notebook some high-level terms that were used in other people's conversation. I want to tell my friend that I am doing so. In the following two sentences, ...
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What does "to put it up to the favourite" mean?
The sentence is "Ground permitting, he is going to put it up to the favourite."
I looked this up and found that it is mostly used in horse racing contexts. Does it mean to challenge the most ...
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How to describe actions towards realizing a goal
I am struggling to find the right verb to describe taking actions to realize a goal.
Specifically, here is a sentence I am trying to write in an elegant and terse manner :
The government first ...
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"centers around the concept" vs is "based on the concept"? [closed]
I've met a sentence like this in a technical book.
It centers around the concept of [some concept].
I would simply use:
It is based on the concept of [some concept].
I would like to understand the ...
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Grammatical Structure of Complex Sentence
The Sentence in Question
The legal “theories” of democracy that evolved in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were precisely intended to provide such definitions as would link certain actual or ...
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What is the meaning of "bruing/brewing conversation" or "bru/brew some conversation"?
I heard this in a talk show. But I couldn't catch the word. Like the man said -
I can't wait to bru/brew some exciting conversations.
I don't know, what does that mean?
I found on my research that &...
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flung himself off meaning [closed]
Recently, I found this sentence, and I'm not sure the correct meaning of it. Unfortunately, I have neither context nor remember where it came from. Here's the phrase:
He grinned at me and flung ...
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Do break down vs break up (meaning "to divide" something) have the same usage?
According to the Cambridge dictionary (image below), the phrasal verbs "break down" and "break up" share the same meaning, "to divide".
Moreover, according to this answer ...
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Expressing the idea of killing, finishing/knocking someone off with the phrasal verb "to blip off"
Somehow I was in the knowledge of the fact that the phrasal verb "to blip off" could be used to convey the idea of "to bump off", "to kill", "to knock off" and ...
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"hack it" - phrasal verb or prepositional verb? [closed]
I'm trying to understand the difference between particles and prepositions for my
English assignment but specifically I'm trying to identify parts of speech in the sentence "he couldn't hack it ...
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What is the path of the expression "fall out" to mean have a quarrel?
I wonder what would be the logical or historical path that led the phrasal verb "fall out" to mean to have a quarrel? I mean phrasal verbs are not baptized to an action out of the blue, ...
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Usage of "suss out"
Is "suss out" frequently used in Australian context and what's the difference with "figure out"?
I knew it from a youth-related drama, while I rarely heard it from my colleagues; ...
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What's the meaning of "so in"?
I couldn't find anything about "so in" in my research on Google. I heard people say it. And today I saw that on a Facebook post. So here's the context-
You want long hair but short hair is ...
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Is it "come to" vs "come down" to a place?
When asking if they visit the city I live in, What should I say?
Do you come down to xyz often?
or
Do you come to xyz often?
Assume xyz is a name of a city.
When instructing someone to come to a ...
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What does "we were just popping off each other" mean?
In an interview, when Paul McCartney talked about his memory with Michael Jackson:
It was actually upstairs, here. In this office. Michael originally rang me, and said ‘do you want to make some hits?’...
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To remove someone's sins
Is there a phrasal verb or an idiom that people use, especially in religious contexts, to wish that God would remove someone's sins? Something like:
Hassan used to rape girls, but he repented of his ...
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Are "go into," "come into," and "get into" transitive?
As the subject says. Note the following sentences:
"I got into a taxi."
"He came into the room."
"We went into the store."
For some reason, I have always been under the ...
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The phrase "belong to" in a question [duplicate]
Can we separate the words "belong" and "to" in a question like this?
To what language family does English belong?
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In “He is easy to take care of,” is “He” the subject, the object, or both?
This is a passive construction, correct? I feel the missing piece of the puzzle is “He is easy to take care of (by or for babysitters/parents/etc.)”
My brain is doing a bit of a loop because ...
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Is "looks up" a correct phrase when referring to a computer searching for information?
Is the following sentence grammatically correct?
The computer looks up the email address provided.
Guess it's just my brain, but "looks up" didn't have a familiar ring to it when I read ...
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What is the meaning of "He scowled ahead of him"?
Reading Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, I just found the expression “He scowled ahead of him” and it struck me as something I'd never heard or read before. The context is that this guy is sitting ...
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What is the grammar of "I'm home"? [duplicate]
Why do we often say "I'm home" rather than "I'm at home"? How is the former even grammatically correct? Should this be thought of as a use of a "phrasal verb", "to ...
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Exact difference between "Take up sth" and "Take to sth" [closed]
I just came across two phrasal verbs "Take up sth" and "Take to sth" and both mean to start.
Dug deeper, I found that "Take to" means start often, while "Take up&...
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Which one is correct - run off or run off from? [closed]
They ran off the burning car before it exploded.
or
They ran off from the burning car before it exploded.
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Phrasal verbs and the position of object [duplicate]
Is there any difference in the following sentences?
They passed me over.
They passed over me.
If yes, how, and please can anyone tell some similar examples?
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A single-word synonym for the phrasal verb "to look in(to)" used literally?
I am seeking a single-word transitive verb that is a synonym of the phrasal verb "to look in" or "to look into", used literally (as in "to look in the mirror") rather ...
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Should I use a phrasal verb here or just a verb? [closed]
Is there any rule for when to use and when not to use phrasal verbs?
E.g.,
A1) Humans tend to pass information to others.
A2) Humans tend to pass on information to others.
B1) He drank the glass of ...
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To come down this way
This is from the movie Clean (2022)
The rush of violence is better than dope. Better than blow, better than base. Meth. Crack. If you're lucky it'll let you come down this way.
I don't understand ...
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Unsplit phrasal verbs with two particles?
In English, the following phrase would sound unnatural:
*/? You can change the brightness settings, adjust the volume, and turn on or off subtitles.
However, if we split the phrase at the end, it ...
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"Check with" or "check in with"
"check" in the meaning: to look at something or ask somebody to find out if something/somebody is present, correct or true or if something is how you think it is
(source: Oxford Learner's ...
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"Check on" or "check in on"
"check on" in the meaning: to make sure that there is nothing wrong with somebody/something
(source: Oxford Learner's Dictionaries)
I'll just go and check on the children.
"check in ...
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"Check" or "check in on"
This verb, "to check", really confused me. Here's what I have found so far:
"check" in the meaning: to examine something to see if it is correct, safe or acceptable
(source: ...
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Phrasal verb "sort out" used in a different way?
So, I was reading an article, and just saw this sentence here:
I figured I'd sort out the train into the city instead of hopping in a cab.
Is that a common usage of "sort out"? It seems like ...
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Can the word "cater" be followed by an object before a preposition?
Just as the question title says, can the word "cater" be followed by an object?
I know what the word means and the prepositions that typically follow it. I just want to know if the ...
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In what sense is the “call" in “call for" intransitive
Oxford English Dictionary (www.oed.com) lists “call for" as an intransitive phrasal verb, while other dictionaries such as Macmillan and Longman list it as a transitive phrasal verb. I see that “...
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Is "to calm down someone" acceptable? [duplicate]
I just came across an ESL student writing "to calm down your followers". I much prefer "to calm your followers down". Does anyone agree? If so, why? "Calm down" is ...
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Any difference between "testing out" and "testing"? [closed]
Is there a difference (in the meaning) between
I've been testing out cameras...
and
"I've been testing cameras..."
How (if at all) does the word "out" change the meaning of the ...
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What is right: "get something back" or "get back something"?
For example:
The service was very bad, so I want to get back a part of my money.
The service was very bad, so I want to get a part of my money back.
What case is right and why?
Google Translator ...
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Put his hand to/on
I wonder what's the correct way to say-
I put my hand to my head.
Or:
I put my hand on my head.
If both are correct, what's the difference between them? Are they completely interchangeable?
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"Swap out with" or "Swap out for"? Also, can you specify a location after the word "out"?
I've read articles online that use "swap out with," but many dictionaries seem to prefer "swap out for." Do they differ in meaning? Also, can you specify a location after the word &...
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Intransitive use of "to wake" vs. "to wake up" [closed]
He woke in bed.
He woke up in bed.
Is there a difference between the two? How does the lack/addition of "up" affect the connotation, if at all? Is one preferred over the other depending on ...
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"Watch" vs. "Watch as"
He watched them run.
He watched as they ran.
What's the exact difference, in terms of the information/scene conveyed? He was watching the runners in both cases. Do they have different connotations? ...
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The meaning of "account for" in a specific context
A colleague of mine wrote something today that is still boggling my mind.
Os delays video when a headset is present to account for the latency
Is "account for" the synonym for "take ...
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She ended up (being??) a rich woman
Somehow they all ended up at my house. ("end up" + prepositional phrase)
Well, grades ended up to be unimportant after all as my first job after graduating ended up in a private school with ...
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