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I was practicing with a key word transformation exercise and then I found the following phrasal verb: went on to become

the full sentence is the following one:

she went on to become a successful business woman

My question is: what does the phrasal verb exactly mean ( if that can be considered a phrasal verb ) ? Could you please give me a few examples about this verb's usage? Thanks in advance.

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I'll expand the example sentence you gave to make the explanation easier:

"She graduated from New York University a few years ago. She went on to become a successful business woman."

The phrase "went on to" implies here that after she graduated from college, she later became a successful business woman. In general, "after she did X, she went on to do Y" it is basically just a way of saying "after she did X, she did Y".

However, this construct is not only used in reference to people. For example:

The book began by with an overview of basic English grammar. It then went on to discuss English internet slang.

Here, it is used to refer to the arrangement of a book's contents, rather than the actions/experiences of a person. But the pattern is basically the same. It's essentially just saying "first the book discussed X, then it discussed Y".

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  • Thanks for your reply. The original sentence of the exercise ( the sentence to transform ) was the following one : In the future she became a successful business woman. The " word " given was ' went ' . Does the rule still apply in this case? Sorry if the question sounds dumb...
    – Football Philosopher
    Commented Apr 30, 2018 at 8:29

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