The 50 Most Useful English Phrasal Verbs (with Real Sentences)
A no-affiliate reference list of the phrasal verbs that show up most in everyday spoken English. Separable / inseparable notes included so you do not put the object in the wrong place.
Phrasal verbs are the part of English that adult learners hate most and that native speakers use most. There are roughly 5,000 phrasal verbs in modern English, but the top 50 cover the vast majority of what you actually hear in everyday conversation.
This list is curated from the spoken English component of the British National Corpus and the Corpus of Contemporary American English, cross-checked against teaching notes from certified ESL tutors. Every entry includes at least one full sentence so you can see the verb in context, plus a separable / inseparable note so you know whether the object can go between the verb and the particle.
Quick refresher: separable vs inseparable
A separable phrasal verb lets the object sit between the verb and the particle. "Turn the lights off" or "Turn off the lights", both work. With pronouns the object must sit in the middle: "Turn them off", never "Turn off them".
An inseparable phrasal verb keeps the verb and particle together. "Look after the children" works. "Look the children after" does not.
A few common ones (take off, turn up, check out) work both ways depending on meaning. The list below flags those.
The 50 most useful phrasal verbs
| Phrasal verb | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| pick up | collect, fetch, learn casually | Can you pick the kids up after school? She picked up French in three months. |
| put off | postpone | I keep putting off this dentist appointment. |
| turn up | arrive, increase volume | He turned up two hours late. Can you turn the music up? |
| turn down | refuse, lower volume | They turned down my offer. Please turn the heater down. |
| get up | rise from bed | I get up at six on workdays. |
| get on | have a good relationship, board (UK) | I get on really well with my new colleague. |
| get off | leave a vehicle | Get off at the next stop. |
| get over | recover from | It took me two weeks to get over the flu. |
| get along (with) | have a friendly relationship | Do you get along with your boss? |
| look after | take care of | Could you look after my dog this weekend? |
| look for | search for | I am looking for my keys. |
| look forward to | anticipate with pleasure | I am looking forward to seeing you. |
| look up | search a reference (dictionary, etc) | Look this word up in the dictionary. |
| figure out | understand, solve | I cannot figure out how this app works. |
| find out | discover information | I just found out we have a meeting at 4. |
| work out | exercise, calculate, end well | She works out three times a week. It worked out fine in the end. |
| come up with | invent, think of | He came up with a great idea. |
| come across | meet or find by chance, give an impression | I came across an old photo. He comes across as quite shy. |
| come back | return | Come back when you are ready. |
| come over | visit someone at their place | Come over for dinner on Friday. |
| go on | continue, happen | What is going on here? |
| go through | experience, examine | She is going through a hard time. Can you go through this report? |
| go off | explode, ring (alarm), spoil (food) | My alarm went off at five. The milk has gone off. |
| give up | quit, stop trying | He gave up smoking last year. |
| give back | return something | Give me my phone back. |
| take off | remove, depart (aircraft), become successful | Take your shoes off. The plane took off on time. The new product really took off. |
| take over | assume control | A new manager is taking over next month. |
| take after | resemble (a relative) | He takes after his father. |
| take up | start a new activity, occupy time/space | I took up running last year. This sofa takes up too much space. |
| set up | establish, arrange | They set up the company in 2019. |
| put up with | tolerate | I cannot put up with this noise any longer. |
| put on | wear, gain (weight) | Put on a coat, it is cold. He put on five kilos over winter. |
| put away | return to its place | Please put your toys away. |
| run out (of) | exhaust supply | We have run out of milk. |
| run into | meet by chance, encounter (problem) | I ran into my old teacher at the supermarket. We ran into a few problems. |
| break down | stop working (machine), lose control emotionally | My car broke down on the motorway. |
| break up | end a relationship, separate | They broke up last summer. |
| break in | enter illegally | Someone broke in last night. |
| turn out | happen in the end, prove to be | It turned out to be a great evening. |
| turn into | transform into | The caterpillar turns into a butterfly. |
| show up | arrive (often unexpectedly) | He showed up at midnight without warning. |
| hang out | spend time casually | We hung out at the beach all afternoon. |
| hang on | wait, hold tightly | Hang on a second. |
| fill in / fill out | complete (a form) | Please fill in this form. |
| sign up (for) | register, enrol | I signed up for a yoga class. |
| check in | register on arrival | We checked in at the hotel at 3. |
| check out | leave a hotel, look at, investigate | Check out at 11. Check out this video. |
| cut down (on) | reduce | I am trying to cut down on sugar. |
| bring up | mention, raise (a child) | Do not bring that up at dinner. They were brought up in Spain. |
| make up | invent (a story), reconcile, constitute | He made up an excuse. They argued but made up by morning. Women make up half the team. |
How to actually learn these
Reading a list once and moving on does almost nothing for retention. The fastest way to internalise phrasal verbs is to use the same five each day in your own sentences for a week, then move to the next five.
Three things make this stick:
- Make personal sentences. "I always put off doing my taxes" beats "She put off the meeting" because the personal version touches your real life and is easier to recall.
- Say them out loud. Phrasal verbs live in spoken English. Reading them silently is half the work.
- Use them in conversation within 48 hours. If you do not, they decay fast. A tutor session, a language exchange, a voice message to a friend, all work.
Common mistakes
- Putting the pronoun in the wrong place. "Turn off it" is wrong; "Turn it off" is right. Pronouns always go in the middle of separable phrasal verbs.
- Using the literal verb when a phrasal verb is more natural. "I will return your book" is grammatical, "I will give your book back" is what a native speaker actually says in casual conversation.
- Avoiding phrasal verbs in writing. Formal academic writing prefers single-word verbs ("postpone" over "put off"), but business emails, blogs and most professional writing use phrasal verbs naturally. Avoiding them entirely makes your English sound stilted.
Sources
- British National Corpus, spoken English subset.
- Corpus of Contemporary American English, Mark Davies, Brigham Young University.
- Cambridge Phrasal Verbs Dictionary, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press.
- Macmillan Phrasal Verbs Plus, Michael Rundell.
This article contains no affiliate links. It is a vocabulary reference maintained by the editorial team and updated when usage patterns shift.
