phrasal verbs

 Most Commonly Used Phrasal Verbs

 

تعتبر الأفعال المركبة جزءًا لا يتجزأ من اللغة الإنجليزية، ومعرفتها أمر بالغ الأهمية للتواصل الواضح والفعال. يقدم هذا المنشور نظرة متعمقة على ماهية الأفعال المركبة وكيفية بنائها واستخدامها باللغة الإنجليزية بشكل صحيح.

تتكون الأفعال المركبة من فعل وجسيم (حرف جر، ظرف). يمكن للحرف أن يغير معنى الفعل بالكامل.

 

For example:

• Break down: يتعطل
• The car broke down on the highway. (The car stopped functioning.)

تعطلت السيارة على الطريق السريع. (توقفت السيارة عن العمل).

• Break up: ينفصل 
• They decided to break up after years of dating. (They ended their romantic relationship.)

قررا الانفصال بعد سنوات من المواعدة. (لقد أنهوا علاقتهم الرومانسية.)

• Break into: يقتحم
• Someone tried to break into our house last night. (Someone attempted to enter the house illegally.)

حاول شخص ما اقتحام منزلنا الليلة الماضية. (حاول شخص دخول المنزل بشكل غير قانوني.)

Types of Phrasal Verbs أنواع الأفعال المركبة

1. Transitive Phrasal Verbs: These phrasal verbs need a direct object to complete their meaning. For example, when you say “turn off the lights,” where “lights” is the direct object influenced by the verb and preposition combination.

1. أفعال الجمل الفعلية المتعدية: هذه الأفعال الفعلية تحتاج إلى مفعول به مباشر لإكمال معناها. على سبيل المثال، عندما تقول "أطفئ الأضواء"، حيث "أضواء" هي المفعول به المباشر متأثرًا بتركيبة الفعل وحرف الجر.

2. Intransitive Phrasal Verbs: These verbs do not require a direct object and can stand alone. For instance, “She woke up early,” where the phrasal verb “woke up” doesn’t need an object to convey its meaning.

2. أفعال الجمل الفعلية اللازمة: هذه الأفعال لا تتطلب مفعول به مباشر ويمكن أن تكون قائمة بذاتها. على سبيل المثال، "لقد استيقظت مبكرًا"، حيث لا يحتاج الفعل المثبت على الجملة "استيقظت" إلى مفعول به لنقل معناه.

3. Separable Phrasal Verbs: In these verbs, the particle can be placed between the main verb and the object or at the end of the sentence. For example, “They called the meeting off” and “They called off the meeting” are both correct.

3. أفعال الجمل الفعلية المنفصلة: في هذه الأفعال، يمكن وضع الجسيم بين الفعل الرئيسي والمفعول به أو في نهاية الجملة. على سبيل المثال، "لقد ألغوا الاجتماع" و"لقد ألغوا الاجتماع" صحيحان.

4. Inseparable Phrasal Verbs: In this case, the particle is always attached to the verb, and the verb and particle cannot be separated. Consider “She takes after her mother” or “He looks up to his older brother.”

4. أفعال الجمل الفعلية غير القابلة للفصل: في هذه الحالة يكون الحرف مرتبطا دائما بالفعل، ولا يمكن الفصل بين الفعل والحرف. فكر في عبارة "إنها تتبنى والدتها" أو "إنه يتطلع إلى أخيه الأكبر".

Phrasal verb	Meaning	Example
Become of	Happen to	If she is sent to prison, what will become of her children?
blow up	explode	They tried to blow up the railroad station.
bring up	mention a topic	Please fill out this application form and mail it in.
bring up	raise children	It isn’t easy to bring up children nowadays.
call off	Cancel	They called off this afternoon’s meeting
do over	repeat a job	Do this homework over.
Deal with	take action to do something	I spent the morning dealing with my exercises.
fill out	complete a form	make out,
fill up	fill to capacity	She filled up the grocery cart with free food.
find out	discover	My sister found out that her husband had been planning a surprise party for her
give away	give something to someone else for free	The filling station was giving away free gas.
give back	return an object	My brother borrowed my car. I have a feeling he’s not about to give it back.
Give up	cease making an effort	The boxer gave up the fight in the middle of round 3
Give up (2)	stop doing something	Tom gave up smoking last year
Have over	Come to visit or stay with	We’re having the Simpsons over for supper on Tuesday evening.
hand in	submit something (assignment)	The students handed in their papers and left the room.
hang up	put something on-hook or receiver	She hung up the phone before she hung up her clothes.
hold up	delay	I hate to hold up the meeting, but I have to go to the bathroom.
hold up (2)	rob	Three masked gunmen held up the Security Bank this afternoon.
Kick out	to force someone to leave a place or organization	Sonia’s been kicked out of her house.
Look for	search for someone or something	I’m looking for Jim. Have you seen him?
leave out	omit	You left out the part about the police chase down Asylum Avenue.
look over	examine, check	The lawyers looked over the papers carefully before questioning the witness. (They looked them over carefully.)
look up	search in a list	You’ve misspelled this word again. You’d better look it up.
make up	invent a story or lie	She knew she was in trouble, so she made up a story about going to the movies with her friends.
save, or store	hear, understand	He was so far away, that we really couldn’t make out what he was saying.
Make out (2)	to write all the necessary information on a document	She made out a cheque and handed it to me.
pick out	choose	There were three men in the lineup. She picked out the guy she thought had stolen her purse.
pick up	lift something off something else	The crane picked up the entire house. (Watch them pick it up.)
point out	call attention to	As we drove through Paris, Francoise pointed out the major historical sites.
put away	I read over the homework but couldn’t make any sense of it.	We put away money for our retirement / She put away the cereal boxes.
put off	postpone/delay	We asked the boss to put off the meeting until tomorrow. (Please put it off for another day.)
put on	put clothing on the body	I put on a sweater and a jacket. (I put them on quickly.)
put out	extinguish	The firefighters put out the house fire before it could spread. (They put it out quickly.)
Read out	Speak loudly	He reads the list of names out.
read over	peruse	I read over the homework, but couldn’t make any sense of it.
Sit up	to go to bed later than usual	We sat up very late yesterday talking
set up	to arrange, begin	My wife set up the living room exactly the way she wanted it.
take down	make a written note	These are your instructions. Write them down before you forget.
take off	remove clothing	It was so hot that I had to take off my shirt.
Take off (2)	copy someone for fun	Beth can take off Mr. Bean brilliantly.
Take up	to start doing something as a habit or job	Chris has taken up jogging.
talk over	discuss	We have serious problems here. Let’s talk them over like adults.
throw away	discard	That’s a lot of money! Don’t just throw it away.
try on	to put on a piece of clothing to see how it looks	What a lovely dress! Why don’t you try it on?
try out	test	I tried out four cars before I could find one that pleased me.
turn down	lower volume	Your radio is driving me crazy! Please turn it down.
turn down (2)	reject	It was an awful movie. It really turned me off.
turn up	raise the volume	Grandpa couldn’t hear, so he turned up his hearing aid.
turn off	switch off electricity	We turned off the lights so that the baby could sleep.
turn off (2)	repulse	It was an awful movie. It turned me off.
turn on	switch on the electricity	Turn on that TV set, please.
use up	exhaust, use completely	The gang members used up all the money and went out to rob some more banks.

 

Inseparable Phrasal Verbs (Transitive)

With the following phrasal verbs, the lexical part of the verb (the part of the phrasal verb that carries the “‎verb-meaning”) cannot be separated from the prepositions (or other parts) that accompany it: “Who will look after my estate when I’m gone?”‎

Phrasal verb	Meaning	Example
call on	ask to recite in class	The teacher called on students in the back row.
call on (2)	visit	The old minister continued to call on his sick parishioners.
get over	recover from sickness or disappointment	I got over the flu but don’t know if I’ll ever get over my broken heart.
go over	review	The students went over the material before the exam. They should have gone over it twice.
go through	use up; consume	The country went through most of its coal reserves in one year. Did it go through all his money already?
look after	take care of	My mother promised to look after my cat while I was gone.
look into	investigate	The police will look into the possibilities of embezzlement.
run across	find by chance	I ran across my old roommate at the college reunion.
run into	meet	Carlos ran into his English professor in the hallway.
take after	resemble	My second son seems to take after his mother.
wait on	serve	It seemed strange to see my old boss wait on tables.

 

Three-Word Phrasal Verbs (Transitive)

With the following phrasal verbs, you will find three parts: “My brother dropped out of school before he could graduate.”

Phrasal verb	Meaning	Example
break in on	interrupt (a conversation)	I was talking to Mom on the phone when the operator broke in on our call.
catch up with	keep abreast	After our month-long trip, it was time to catch up with the neighbors and the news around town.
check up on	examine, investigate	The boys promised to check up on the condition of the summer
come up with	to contribute (suggestion, money)	The old lady came up with a thousand-dollar donation
cut down on	curtail (expenses)	We tried to cut down on the money we were spending on Entertainment.
drop out of	leave school	I hope none of my students drop out of school this semester.
get along with	have a good relationship with	First-graders look up to their teachers.
get away with	escape blame	Janis cheated on the exam and then tried to get away with it.
get rid of	eliminate	The citizens tried to get rid of their corrupt mayor in the recent election
get through with	finish	When will you ever get through with that program?
keep up with	maintain pace with	It’s hard to keep up with the Joneses when you lose your job!
look forward to	anticipate with pleasure	I always look forward to the beginning of a new semester.
look down on	despise	They looked down on him because of his shabby clothes
look in on	visit (somebody)	We were going to look in on my brother-in-law, but he wasn’t home.
look out for	be careful, anticipate	Good instructors will look out for early signs of failure in their students
look up to	respect	The teacher had to put up with a lot of nonsense from the new students.
make sure of	verify	Make sure of the student’s identity before you let him into the classroom.
put up with	tolerate	The teacher had to put up with a great deal of nonsense from the new students.
run out of	exhaust/supply	The runners ran out of energy before the end of the race.
take care of	be responsible for	My sister used to take care of me when my mother was out.
talk back to	answer impolitely	The star player talked back to the coach and was thrown off the team.
think back on	recall	I often think back on my childhood with great pleasure.
walk out on	abandon	Her husband walked out on her and their three children.

 

Intransitive Phrasal Verbs

The following phrasal verbs are not followed by an object: “Once you leave home, you can never really go back again.”

Phrasal verb	Meaning	Example
break down	stop functioning	The children promised to come over, but they never did.
catch on	become popular	Popular songs seem to catch on in California first and then spread Eastward.
come back	return to a place	Father promised that we would never come back to this horrible place.
come in	enter	They tried to come in through the back door, but it was locked.
come to	regain consciousness	He was hit on the head very hard, but after several minutes, he started to come to again.
come over	to visit	We used to drop by, but they were never home, so we stopped doing that.
drop by	visit without an appointment	Grandmother tried to get up, but the couch was too low, and she couldn’t make it alone.
eat out	dine in a restaurant	When we visited Paris, we loved eating out in the sidewalk cafes.
get by	survive	Uncle Heine didn’t have much money, but he always seemed to get bywithout borrowing money from relatives
get up	arise	He would finish one Dickens novel and then go on to the next.
go back	return to a place	It’s hard to imagine that we will never go back to visit this place.
go on	continue	He would finish one Dickens novel and then just go on to the next.
go on (2)	happen	The cops heard all the noise and stopped to see what was going on.
grow up	get older	Charles grew up to be a lot like his father.
keep away	remain at a distance	The judge warned the stalker to keep away from his victim’s home.
keep on	continue with the same	He tried to keep on singing long after his voice was ruined.
pass out	lose consciousness, faint	he passed out for 15 minutes after his car hit the tree.
show off	demonstrate haughtily or arrogantly	after he bought that car, he was always showing off.
show up	arrive	Day after day, The student showed up for class twenty minutes late.
wake up	arouse from sleep	I woke up when the rooster crowed.