use of phrasal verb

Go ahead! (Phrasal verbs with ‘go’)

Every few weeks, we focus on phrasal verbs that are formed with a particular verb. This week, we’re looking at phrasal verbs that start with the verb ‘go’. As ever, we present a range of the most useful and common phrasal verbs.

Some of the most common ‘go’ phrasal verbs are easy to understand because the ‘go’ part of the phrase has its usual meaning, which is ‘to move or travel somewhere’. When ‘go’ in a phrasal verb has its usual meaning, the other part, which is the particle, (away, off, out, etc.) also has its regular meaning. For this set of phrasal verbs, it is easy to work out what they mean:

She go away (= left) for a few days.

When are you going back (=returning) to Paris?

A pink sports car went by (=passed).

I looked in the shop window but I didn’t actually go in (= enter).

Helena went off (= left) about an hour ago.

Are you going out (= leaving your home to go somewhere else)?

However, many important ‘go’ phrasal verbs have meanings which are not so easy to guess. For example, if a piece of work goes ahead, it starts or happens: If the project goes ahead, we’ll need more staff. If something stops or disappears, it may be said to go away: That nasty smell seems to have gone away. We say that time goes by, meaning that it passes: Four or five days went by and still we didn’t hear from her. If the level of something increases, it is often said to go up: Food prices are going up all the time.

Of course, another feature of phrasal verbs is that they often have more than one meaning and this is true for ‘go’. Some ‘go’ phrasal verbs have two or more important meanings. For example, we may say that a bomb goes off, meaning that it explodes: The bomb went off in a crowded marketplace. We may also say that food or drink goes off, meaning that it stops being good to eat because it is too old: The milk’s gone off – it smells horrible! We also talk about a light or a machine going off, meaning that it stops working: The heating just went off.

Go on also has more than one important meaning. Something that goes on continues: The party was still going on at 3 o’clock this morning. Meanwhile, someone might ask ‘What’s going on?’ meaning, ‘what is happening?’: What’s going on? Why all the noise?

Finally, if you go through a difficult time, you suffer during it: He’s going through a hard time at work. If you go through a group of items, you look carefully through them, usually in order to find something: I went through all my papers but I couldn’t find the letter. Meanwhile, to go through a supply of something is to use it all: We’ve gone through three litres of milk today!
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phrasal verb ‘take’.

Continuing with our occasional series on the subject of phrasal verbs, we look this week at ones formed with the verb ‘take’.

Phrasal verbs are extremely common in English. That is why teachers are so keen to teach them even to beginners. One of the first phrasal verbs that students of English learn is take off, meaning ‘to remove something, often a piece of clothing’:

I was hot so I took my jacket off.

Students also learn early on the aeroplane sense of the same phrasal verb, meaning ‘to begin to fly’:

Twenty minutes later, the plane took off.

Note that this sense is intransitive, meaning that it has no object.

Like many phrasal verbs, take off has several meanings. Another sense that is used a lot is ‘to spend time away from your work’:

I took three days off to move house.

This sense, like the ‘remove clothes’ sense is transitive, meaning that it needs an object.

A helpful feature of some very common ‘take’ phrasal verbs is that they use the verb with its most basic meaning, ‘to get and carry something with you when you go somewhere’. This means that it is easier to guess their meaning when you hear them for the first time. It is true for the useful phrasal verb take back, meaning ‘to return something that you have bought to a shop’:

If the sweater is too small he can always take it back and get a refund.

The same also applies to the phrasal verb take away, meaning ‘to remove something from a place’:

Someone needs to come and take the old bed away.

And finally, the phrasal verb take out, meaning ‘to go somewhere and do something with someone, usually paying for them’:

Our boss is taking us out for a meal to celebrate.

Other ‘take’ phrasal verbs have meanings that are not so easy to guess, but they are still very common and worth making an effort to learn. Here are a few:

If you take after an older person in your family, you are similar to them in some way:

Peter is very tall. He takes after his father.

If a person is taken in by someone else, they are tricked or deceived by them:

They took the victims’ bank details and promised to send them money. I can’t believe anyone was taken in by them!

At work, if you take over from someone else, you start being responsible for something that someone else did before:

Helen took over as manager last month.

If you take up a hobby or activity, you start doing it:

My brother has recently taken up cycling.

And finally, if you are wondering what the meaning is of take it away! in the title of this blog, it is used to tell someone to start to perform.