Can you back your hard drive up? Or must you back up your hard drive? Can you calm yourself down? Or must you calm down yourself? Can you blow balloons up? Or must you blow up balloons? Can you hang ...

"Turn off the TV" is an example of a phrasal verb, which is a verb that has a base verb and one or two particles. Credit: MikeSleigh/Getty Images A ‘phrasal verb’ is a verb that has a base verb and ...

Enter or enter into — A few days ago, a reader said that President Pranab Mukherjee, while addressing the gathering at the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly has used ...

I have a friend who uses “hark back” a lot in conversation. She harks back to past news events. She harks back to old times. She harks back to something I told her last month or last year. My first ...

Phrasal verbs represent a practically limitless group of verbs that can be combined with short adverbs or prepositions to produce new meanings. Here are some examples: Phrasal verbs are ubiquitous in ...

A FOLLOWER of my Facebook page for Jose Carillo’s English Forum, Maria Fernandez, told me in a post a few weeks ago that she finds phrasal verbs deceiving: “I get confused trying to distinguish them ...

Most young learners of English are unsure as to what kind of language they are supposed to write. Should strong and impressive words be constantly and consciously added for a grandiloquent effect? Or ...

Sometimes you can guess the meaning of a phrasal verb because it is related to the main verb. Look at this example again. Shall we give away all the old books in the office? The meaning is clearly ...

In these examples, down and back are not prepositions but function as adverbs to extend or change the meaning of the verb. This combination of verb and adverb is always known as a phrasal verb. Note ...

A guide to multi-word verbs and prepositions that can change the meaning of phrasal verbs. Visit our website ️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish Follow us ️ ...