They’re one of the trickier parts of the English language to grasp, yet we use them all the time and they’re an important part of speech if you want to achieve fluency. Yes, I’m talking about phrasal verbs. A phrasal verb is a pairing of a preposition + verb to describe a particular action different from what the two words mean on their own. Let’s look at one example of the phrasal verb ‘take off...’

Take [teyk]
- to get into one's hold or possession
- to hold, grasp, or grip
- to receive or be the recipient of

Off [ɒf]
- no longer to be supported by, attached to, on, resting on, or unified with

But when we pair these two words together, their meanings change:

Take + off = When an aeroplane leaves the ground to start its journey.

e.g. We were meant to take off at 11 am, but because of runway traffic, it was more like 12 pm.

They don’t just change the meaning of the words either; phrasal verbs can have multiple meanings too - Phew! Still with me? They’re tricky I know, which is why I’ve split this series into manageable chunks alphabetically.

This is not an exhaustive list. There are other, more exhaustive lists out there like this one, but I haven’t used all of the examples given. Some are more common in American English and aren’t used in the UK. I’ve cherry-picked the phrases I believe are most commonly used in day-to-day British English, because after all, they do say you should write what you know.