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.
619
questions
23
votes
5answers
17k views
Burn up or burn down?
What's the difference between "burn up" and "burn down"? Or is there a difference at all?
2
votes
2answers
2k views
The phrase “Check out”
"Check out this article"
Where did this term come from and why those choice of words? I understand it perfectly semantically, but when you think about it it doesn't make sense, check out seems to ...
4
votes
3answers
715 views
Meaning of “run around doing something”
What does run around doing something mean?
For example:
I can't see any reason to run around deleting the recovery partition.
-1
votes
4answers
6k views
Usage of “track down”
I recently read (in a website) the following sentence. (I replaced the usernames with placeholders.)
[username1], if this is still happening, there is a good chance your IP got
blocked due to ...
5
votes
2answers
19k views
What does “scratch below the surface” mean?
In Outlier: The Story of Success Chapter 2 Section 4, there is a sentence saying
Is the ten-thousand-hour rule a general rule of success? If we scratch below the surface of every great achiever, do ...
40
votes
7answers
129k views
Why “go off”, as in “alarm went off”?
I was wondering why does something goes off, when it in fact does the opposite
bomb goes off - it blows up
alarm goes off - it turns on
Why not goes on?
1
vote
2answers
568 views
What's the difference between “shake up” and “shape up”?
What's the difference between these phrasal verbs? Would you say "organization shake up", "organization shape up", either depending on context and desired meaning or neither? How about "documentation" ...
200
votes
5answers
440k views
“log in to” or “log into” or “login to”
When writing an instruction about connecting to a computer using ssh, telnet, etc., I'm not sure what spacing to use in this familiar spoken phrase:
"Log in to host.com"
"Log into host.com"
"Login to ...
1
vote
3answers
3k views
What does “urge to kill” mean?
I've got an answer to my comment at Stack Overflow, and I don't get what it means.
I've googled and looked over several dictionaries with no help. Seems like it is some specific slang/phrasal verb, ...
21
votes
3answers
119k views
4
votes
5answers
11k views
Should we say “borrow from” instead of “borrow off”?
I hear and read the term "borrow off" frequently however I say "borrow from" as that makes more sense to me. Is it grammatically incorrect to say, "may I borrow the book off your friend"? In my mind ...
7
votes
3answers
7k views
Why do we use 'up' as adverbs for verbs?
Why do we use up as adverbs for verbs? For example, 'wake up', 'throw up', etc.
6
votes
2answers
703 views
Which would be correct: “outputs” or “puts out”?
Which word should I use in the following context? Is the required before data?
Any algorithm first reads data, processes (the) data and finally [outputs|puts out] the processed data.
65
votes
5answers
583k views
“Fill out a form” or “fill in a form”
Does one fill out a form or does one fill in a form? I've gotten different answers from the people I've asked.
Google search results:
fill in a form — 14,200,000
fill out a form — 7,000,000
7
votes
4answers
1k views
How can I learn to get collocations right?
I read an article about collocation which includes an example:
We can say highly sophisticated, and we can say extremely happy.
highly happy and extremely sophisticated would be wrong.
How can I ...
20
votes
3answers
189k views
“Differ to”, “differ with” or “differ from”
In what ways are differ to, differ with and differ from different?
Providing examples would be really appreciated.
10
votes
5answers
64k views
Is there any difference between “talk to someone” and “talk with someone”? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
“Speak to” vs. “Speak with”
Well, the question is in the title. I always had the impression that "talk to someone" refers to situations when some ...
47
votes
6answers
514k views
“Speak to” vs. “Speak with”
What are the differences between these two phrasal verbs and what are the best situations to use each?
19
votes
7answers
124k views
How can I explain to people that the phrase “off of ” is grammatically incorrect? [closed]
How can I explain to people that the phrase off of is grammatically incorrect?
I‘ve heard this phrase used a lot, especially by Americans (though they aren't the only ones).
In my understanding, ...
