Phrasal verbs for work and study

A phrasal verb is a verb plus a small word like up, out, off or on. The meaning is often different from the verb alone: put off has nothing to do with putting something somewhere. Native speakers use phrasal verbs constantly, especially in speech and informal writing, so learning the most common ones makes a big difference.

Planning and organizing

• set up: to arrange or organize. Can you set up a meeting with the client for Thursday?
• put off: to delay or postpone. We put off the launch until next month.
• call off: to cancel. The trip was called off because of the storm.
• move up: to change something to an earlier time. They moved the deadline up to Monday.

Doing the work

• carry out: to do or complete a task, often an official one. The team carried out a survey of 500 students.
• figure out: to understand or solve something after thinking about it. I can't figure out why the printer isn't working.
• come up with: to think of an idea or plan. She came up with a brilliant solution.
• work on: to spend time improving or making something. I'm working on my presentation.

Communicating

• follow up on: to find out more or take further action. I'll follow up on this next week.
• point out: to tell someone a fact they should notice. He pointed out a mistake in the report.
• bring up: to start talking about a subject. Don't bring up salary in the first interview.
• get back to: to reply to someone later. Let me check and get back to you.

Can I separate the verb and the particle?

Many phrasal verbs with an object are separable. Both of these are correct:

• We put off the meeting.
• We put the meeting off.

But when the object is a pronoun (it, them, him, her), it must go in the middle:

• Right: We put it off.
• Wrong: We put off it.

Some phrasal verbs can't be separated at all, including come up with, get back to and work on. Say I'm working on it, not I'm working it on.

Formal or informal?

Phrasal verbs are common in conversation and everyday emails. In very formal writing, such as academic essays, a one-word verb often sounds better:

• carry out → conduct
• put off → postpone
• figure out → determine
• come up with → devise

Learning tip: learn phrasal verbs in groups by topic, like the ones on this page, and always learn them with an example sentence. A phrasal verb on its own is hard to remember. A phrasal verb in a sentence is a ready-to-use phrase.