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B2 · vocabulary

Phrasal Verbs Exercises (B2) — Free

Common phrasal verbs: meaning, particles and word order

A phrasal verb is a verb plus one or two particles (up, off, out, after...), and together they often mean something very different from the verb alone: 'give up' means stop a habit, not give something. Learn them as complete vocabulary items, with their meaning: put off = postpone, look after = take care of, break down = stop working. Some phrasal verbs are separable, so the object can go between the verb and the particle: 'look the word up' or 'look up the word'. When the object is a pronoun, it must go in the middle: 'look it up', never 'look up it'. Others can't be separated (look after the cat, not look the cat after), and three-word phrasal verbs like 'run out of' or 'put up with' always stay together. A common mistake is to forget the second particle: 'We've run out milk' instead of 'We've run out of milk'. In this exercise, the verb and a short definition are given in brackets: write the phrasal verb in the correct form.

  1. Can you my cat while I'm on holiday next week? (look + particle = take care of)

  2. The plane two hours late because of the fog. (take + particle = leave the ground)

  3. Our car on the motorway last night, so we had to call for help. (break + particle = stop working)

  4. If you don't know a word, it in a dictionary. (look + particle = search for information)

  5. We've milk. Can you buy some on your way home? (run + two particles = have none left)

  6. Smoking is really bad for you. You should it . (give + particle = stop a habit)

  7. She the job offer because the salary was too low. (turn + particle = refuse)

  8. The meeting has been until next Friday because the manager is ill. (put + particle = postpone)

  9. She really her grandmother — they have the same eyes and the same laugh. (take + particle = look or behave like an older relative)

  10. I'm really my holiday in Greece next month. (look + two particles = feel excited about something in the future)

  11. Nobody believed his story about the lost wallet — he had the whole thing . (make + particle = invent)

  12. I can't the noise from my neighbours any more. I'm going to complain. (put + two particles = tolerate)

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