Phrasal Verbs Essentials

What you'll learn: how phrasal verbs work, why they're essential for natural-sounding Speaking answers, and when to swap them for a formal single-word equivalent in Writing.

What a phrasal verb is, and why you need both forms

A phrasal verb is a verb plus one or two particles (small words like up, off, into, out) whose combined meaning is often different from the verb alone — look into (investigate) has little to do with the physical act of "looking." Native speakers use phrasal verbs constantly in conversation, which makes them essential for natural-sounding Speaking responses. But many phrasal verbs are informal, so formal Writing tasks (like a complaint email) often call for the single-word equivalent instead.

This means you actually need both forms of the same idea: the phrasal verb for natural speech, and the formal equivalent for formal writing.

Separable vs. inseparable

Some phrasal verbs allow the object between the verb and particle (separable): "Please fill out the form" or "Please fill the form out" — both work, but with a pronoun the object must go in the middle: "Please fill it out," not "fill out it." Others are inseparable: "I'm looking into the issue" — never "looking the issue into."

Worked example: speaking vs. writing register

Speaking Task 3 response (natural, phrasal-verb-heavy): "So I was running late, and I couldn't figure out which bus to take, so I ended up just looking up the route on my phone."

The same content, reworked for a formal Writing Task 1 complaint email: "I was unable to determine the correct bus route in time and had to consult the schedule independently." — figure out becomes determine, look up becomes consult. Neither version is wrong; they're matched to their task's register (see Lesson 3).

Phrasal verb word bank with formal equivalents

• find out → discover / determine — "We found out the results yesterday." / "We determined the cause of the delay."
• put off → postpone / defer — "They put off the meeting." / "The meeting was postponed until next week."
• look into → investigate — "The manager is looking into the complaint." / "The complaint is being investigated."
• come up with → devise / develop — "The team came up with a new plan." / "The team developed a new strategy."
• get back to → respond to / follow up with — "I'll get back to you tomorrow." / "I will follow up with you tomorrow."
• carry out → conduct / perform — "They carried out a survey." / "A survey was conducted."

Common mistakes

• Wrong particle changes the meaning entirely — look after (take care of) versus look for (search for) versus look into (investigate) are three completely different verbs; swapping particles is a common, high-impact error.
• Literal translation from another language — many phrasal verbs have no direct word-for-word equivalent elsewhere, so translating literally often produces a combination that isn't standard English.
• Overusing informal phrasal verbs in a formal email — "I'll look into it and get back to you" is fine for a colleague, but a formal complaint benefits from "I will investigate the matter and respond accordingly."
• Separating an inseparable phrasal verb — "run the meeting into" instead of "run into the meeting" style errors happen when learners assume all phrasal verbs behave the same way; check each one individually.

Recap

Phrasal verbs are not optional "extra" vocabulary — they're core to natural spoken English and appear constantly in everyday CELPIP topics. Learn each one as a pair: the phrasal verb for speaking and informal writing, and its single-word formal equivalent for formal writing. Pick three phrasal verbs from the word bank and practice using each one in both a spoken sentence and a formal written sentence.