Phrasal Verbs – Look

Phrasal Verbs

A phrasal verb is a verb combined with one or more particles. The meaning is often different from the original verb (and can even be idiomatic), so you can't always guess the meaning from the individual words. It's best to learn them as one complete expression, just as you would with a new piece of vocabulary. 

Look at the examples:

• Please look after my dog.
  → "look" does not mean "see" here. It means take care of.
• I need to look up this word.
  → Here "look up" means search for information, not that you literally look upwards.
• The meeting was put off.
  → "put off" means postpone, not simply "put".

A phrasal verb is usually formed with a verb + particle, either:

• verb + adverb:
  get up, sit down
• verb + preposition:
  look after, listen to
• verb + adverb + preposition:
  get along with, look forward to

Common phrasal verbs

Many phrasal verbs are formed with common verbs such as put, take, look, get and go. Notice how adding a particle changes the meaning:

• put
  • It's cold. Put on your jacket.
  • Please put away your books after class.
  • They had to put off the meeting until next week.
• take
  • Please take off your shoes before you come in.
  • Emma takes after her mother. They look very similar.
  • He took up tennis last year.
• look
  • I'm looking for my phone. Have you seen it?
  • Can you look after my dog this weekend?
  • I looked the word up in the dictionary.
• get
  • I usually get up at 6:30.
  • She got over the flu very quickly.
  • Do you get along with your neighbours?
• go
• We often go out on Friday evenings.
• I'll go back home after work.
• He went through a difficult time after losing his job.