Questions tagged [phrasal-verbs]
a combination of a lexical verb and one or two particles having the same form as prepositions or adverbs, employed as a single verb. The term is sometimes reserved for combinations in which the particle may follow the object of the verb and is not fronted with a WH- relative object.
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Hold out for the audiobook
Someone that I admire and that has a solid background has written in a post in relation to a book: "hold out for the audiobook - trust me"
I looked at the dictionary and it says:
Hold out for. ...
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What's [happen to] in this?
I've always thought that [happen to] is the phrasal verb indicating chance, which can be replaced as [by chance] such as...
I happen to have some money in my pocket.
= I have some money in my pocket ...
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What does "take a nap between the snoozing lion and lamb" means?
This phrase is from the below paragraph in the book Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky.
The book has a number of personal roots. One is that, having had
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"curbing out cigarette smoking"
In this sentence "curbing out" reads strange. I can't find much on Google. It doesn't appear to have any meaning beyond "curbing", "inhibiting", and I am not sure the tag-along preposition "out" adds ...
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Meaning of the phrasal verb "turn around" in context
I stumbled upon this in this video. It is at 6 minutes and 16 seconds.
The next type of akwardness is maybe one of the most common and this one that you want to turn around when you don't know what ...
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What does it mean by "my days-of-the-week underwear only go to Thursday" in this context?
Emily: Lorelai? I'm going shopping this afternoon. I thought I'd pick up a few things for Rory.
Lor: I already took care of all that, mom. I got her two skirts and a bunch of tops.
Emily: ...
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Why "Take something with [reflexive pronoun]" is incorrect?
People don't use bring/take/etc (If you know other similar verbs, please tell me) with reflexive pronouns. I heard that from one of my English teachers too. Why?
As I know we need to use objective ...
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Is "draw in electricity/energy" idiomatic?
I googled "the contact draws in electricity" and found 0 result, yet it seems something you would read in an engineering paper or journal. I couldn't find anything. Is there a more idiomatic way of ...
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Why, speaking of a colonoscopy, does it say “they put it UP your bottom”?
This is a piece of dialogue about a colonoscopy from the series "Outnumbered" s03e03:
— Yes, but how does it get inside your insides?
— Well, they put it up your bottom.
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"It goes to something" meaning
On a presidential debate analysis program on KCRW yesterday a guest gave his thoughts on Andrew Yang's sweepstakes pilot and labeled it a ploy. The host then followed by saying:
I think it goes to ...
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What does the phrase "swoop into" mean here?
I am not sure about the meaning of the phrase "swoop into" in the following sentence:
You can use the app’s amazing flight tracking function to perfectly time when the flight will swoop into your ...
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What does the phrase "pinch apart" mean here?
Here is a sentence from a task management app:
The app allows you to add tasks in several ways and in one of them you
can pinch apart two items in order to squeeze a task in between them.
I am ...
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What does the phrase "pull down on" mean here?
Here is a sentence from a task management app:
The app allows you to add tasks in several ways and in one of them you
can pull down on a list to put a task to the top.
I am not sure about the ...
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"Our office was left early" – how do I say this naturally?
Plesase help me with below sentence construction.
Yesterday our office was left early because of heavy rain
Suggest me synonyms for left or any alternative sentence.
I feel use of Past tense ...
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What is the meaning of "blunder down"? [closed]
What is the meaning of "blunder down" in the following sentence?
Sam blundered down the steps.
Does its meaning depend on sentences?
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"It was me who brought it (my puppy) up" or "It was me who brought up it"
I've heard people use "It was me who brought it (my puppy) up" all the time and never heard of anybody use "It was me who brought up it" because when using "object pronouns" with phrasal verbs, we ...
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'look along' the edges Vs 'look around' the edges
I'm staring at a computer screen, looking at the edges of the glass.
I want to say:
"I looked around the edges and the screen looked fine to me."
Is it correct? The phrase, "looked around the ...
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What does the phrase "go over or through their own body" mean here?
I am not sure about the meaning of the phrase "go over or through their own body" in the following sentence:
What makes the game challenging is that the birds can neither move
backwards nor can ...
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What does the phrase "builds on the lore of the game" mean here?
I am not sure about the meaning of the phrase "builds on the lore of the game" in the following sentence:
It’s interesting to see how the community builds on the lore of
game.
The fans are ...
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Can "passed on" be an alternative for "passed since"?
I want to write the following for shortening and for translation accuracy from
Do you know how many years have been passed since your existence?
to
Do you know how many years have been passed ...
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Difference between beat and beat out
I'm wondering what's the difference between beat and beat out?(if there's any)
For example what would be the correct form of using beat in this sentence : 1.She beat her enemy
2.She beat out her enemy
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meaning: work out questions
I saw the following example sentence in a dictionary, and am wondering whether "work out" means "find the answers to" or "prepare." And if it does not mean "find the answers to" here, could it have ...
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What does the phrase "head down the rat's hole" mean here?
Here is a heading of a game app's description:
"Head down the rat's hole"
The game lets you live the life of a rat that lives in a beautiful village. The player interacts with the rat's friends and ...
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What time do you go [in for/at]?
What is the correct way of saying the sentence below?
“What time do you go in for?” OR “What time do you go in at?”
In context I mean like going into work.
I asked my husband what time he had to ...
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What does “to shout over” mean, particularly as it has been used in a particular passage I’ve read with curious sytnax?
I don’t understand the meaning of shout over as it has been used
in the following passage
from Patricia Highsmith’s novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley:
A well-dressed Italian greeted ...
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"Get along", "Compromise", "Put up" and "Cope with"
I wonder which choice works in my sentence and which one doesn't and why?
I never forget the time Sam fought the BBC's reporter when he offended Sam by saying those words! I think as a diplomat, he ...
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"Plugged in" or "Plugged in in"
Where's the charger? It's not plugged in in the usual place.
Where's the charger? It's not plugged in the usual place.
I'm a native English speaker, but I've realised I'm not sure which of the ...
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Go around doing something
As far as I understand, "going around doing something" means doing something again and again. I have two questions:
a- Can this phrase be used with positive situations as in the sentence 3. Does it ...
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Difference between put up/ put on
I was looking for the meaning of "put up" and came across this explanation in a dictionary : " [put up something] to make a particular effort in order to achieve or prevent something :
For example :...
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What does the phrase "run on to" mean here?
Here is a sentence from a text describing a football match:
You can play the ball along the floor for your winger to run on to.
Any suggestions on the meaning of the phrase "to run on to" here?
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Does "Process up" exist in English?
I will leave her alone for now so that she can process things up.
I think for a sentence like this one, "process up" makes a suitable fit. I assume it means "absorb", but I didn't find it used ...
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<Get beaten up> or <get beaten badly>
Beat up as a transitive verb means: "to give a severe beating to, etc."
Example: I got beaten up by thugs on my way home.
Also, Cambridge says:
Beat up: to hurt someone badly by hitting or ...
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What does it mean when you say someone "got it all figured out"
I was watching the TED video Refusing to Settle, and the speaker mentioned a friend who had a great job and life, and said: "He got this amazing job at one of the top corporate firms, making well over ...
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Phrasal Verbs, how is it work?
Her hair peeked out under the brim.
Why it is wrong if I leave out from that sentence?
She walked along the bank
Why it is wrong if I say "she walked on the bank"?
As an English learner, what is ...
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"time passed" vs "time passed by"?
Time ________ and they still hadn't heard anything from their son.
A. Passed
B. Passed by
C. Went
D. Went on
I think it can't be C or D. But I also don't know if it's A or B.
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To be seen in something
What does this phrase mean? Is it a phrasal verb?
Saturn is seen in Leo.
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When you move towards someone or something
Editted:
When someone comes up to you, they approach you while they are moving towards you. But what (phrasal) verb is used in an opposite case?
For instance, you say:
The small girl came up ...
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"Head to" vs. "head down to". What is the difference?
I have a sentence in a book:
During the summers, Noel and the children headed down to Boca Raton, Florida, where Elizabeth’s aunt and uncle owned a condo with a beautiful view of the Intracoastal ...
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Which expressions, verbs, vocabulary... Should I use in the writing for the B2?
I'm going to take an exam of the B2, and I wanted to know, what is the vocabulary, the expressions... Etc... That they want?
Because all I can find in every website is "complex expressions... ...
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Why "coming up"? Why not simply "coming"?
I'd like to know the difference between the usage of coming up and coming.
For example, the Pink's song says: "I'm coming up so you better get this party started".
If someone removes the "up", would ...
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Put up a picture
I was wondering about when to use this phrasal verb ‘put up’
As far as I know, if someone says they’re putting up a picture, It means they’re displaying it on their wall, but could it mean they post ...
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"Best return on your money" vs "Best return for your money"
I am confused which preposition is correct in the statement:
Best return on your money.
or
Best return for your money.
?
Which do you think is correct? Please explain.
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Why is "more than meets the eye" grammatical in some cases?
I find this idiom very interesting, idiomatic and intuitive but not that grammatical to me. Why should we use meets, the third-person singular simple present sense? Can I change it to any other senses?...
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How do you carry out your task
I want to understand how to use the phrasal verb "carry out"
So my question is, Can I ask
How do you carry out your task? Which tools do you use?
and can I ask:
Do you still carry out your ...
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Meaning of the phrasal verb draw up
Meaning of the phrasal verb draw up is to come to a halt and it is used the following way
The train drew up at the station.
He drew up his car outside my house.
But I found a sentence in ...
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When you help someone escape from a place
The phrasal verb get somebody out means: "to help someone escape from or leave a place." I hvae heard get someone "away" is used in this sense too, but I couldn't find any reliable dictionary which ...
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"To lift something and carry" in this context
I just saw a sentence in a BBC English learning video:
Did you carry the bike up with you?
To mean: Lift the bike and carry.
As a basic learner carry sth up seems to carry sth upward to me.
Is ...
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How to find proper phrasal verbs or idioms for the sentence you're translating?
Let's assume you're translating a sentence. You can translate everything in English but sometimes there are idioms and phrasal verbs that you can use to make your sentnce more clear and compact. e.g., ...
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How do you use "scoop up"?
I am wondering if you can use the verbal phrase "scoop up" without clarifying what you are scooping up and just mentioning from what container you are scooping up.
For example:
She scooped up an ...
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"To be back to/at work", which preposition is the correct one?
I am studying with the book "Grammar in Use" by Raymond Murphy (2019 ed.), going through phrasal verbs. I found this example at pag. 275.
My holidays are nearly over. Next week I'll be back ...
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