Phrasal Verbs

A phrasal verb is a verb plus a particle that together mean something new. Learn the whole unit, because the verb alone tells you almost nothing.

1. One verb, many meanings. put off (postpone), put on (wear), put up with (tolerate), put down (suppress, or write down), put forward (propose). The same happens with take, get, come and give.
2. The exam favourites. call off (cancel), carry out (execute), bring about (cause), break out (start suddenly, of war or disease), give in (surrender), take after (resemble a parent), look into (investigate), run out of (exhaust the stock), turn down (reject), do away with (abolish).
3. Separable or not. With a separable phrasal verb, a pronoun object must sit in the middle: "switch it off", never "switch off it". With an inseparable one the parts never come apart: "look after him", never "look him after".
4. The formal single-word equivalent. Papers often ask you to swap one for the other: put off = postpone, do away with = abolish, look into = investigate.

The single most common mistake is guessing from the verb — assuming "come across" has to do with coming, when it means to meet or find by chance, or that "make out" involves making. The particle is doing the work.

How to check: substitute the plain single-word meaning and read the sentence. "The match was cancelled because of rain" makes sense, so "called off" is right; "called up" would mean telephoned, which rain cannot cause.

Learn verb + particle as one unit · put off = postpone, call off = cancel, look into = investigate, take after = resemble, do away with = abolish, break out = start suddenly · pronoun object goes in the middle: switch it off · look after him never splits

Fill in the blank: "The final match was called ____ because of heavy rain." Options: up / off / on / for. → off. "Call off" means to cancel, which is what rain causes. Sanity check: test the rivals — "call up" is to telephone, "call on" is to pay a visit, and "call for" is to demand or require; none of the three can be brought about by rain, so only one particle survives.