El dominio del phrasal verb marca la diferencia entre lo que entendemos como un brillante y mediocre inglés. Sin embargo, estos verbos acompañados de una partícula gramatical (un adverbio o una preposición) son una de las partes más complejas del aprendizaje. Nada de eso, te proponemos que cambies de visión y descubras que experimentar con los phrasal verbs puede convertirse en una de las partes más juguetonas y divertidas de tu estudio.
Tanto si quieres mejorar tus habilidades para la escucha y la comprensión como si quieres hablar el inglés más actual, debes familiarizarte con su significado y uso, compartimos contigo algunos de los más habituales o curiosos. Disfrútalos y no te olvides de practicar con ellos: ya verás cómo te divierten.
1. Argue out → to argue about a problem to find a solution (debatir) If we can’t argue our differences out, I’ll have to speak with your parents
2. Be down → to be depressed (estar deprimido, ‘estar de bajón’) Mary’s been down since his brother went to India
3. Be in → to be at home or at work (estar en casa o en el trabajo) He is never in, he always sleeps in his girlfriend’s house
4. Belong to → to be a member or be connected to a time, place, belief… (ser miembro de o estar conectado a un tiempo, lugar, creencia…) She belongs to a business club
5. Block in → to park a car obstructing another car (bloquear) We couldn’t drive this Saturday because someone had blocked us in.
6. Calm down → to become less excited and tense (calmarse, tranquilizarse) My boss calmed down the meeting
7. Call off → to cancel (cancelar algo) The meeting was called off
8. Call back → to return a phonecall (devolver una llamada) I must call the hotel back to confirm the booking
9. Cut down on → to reduce in size or amount (reducir la cantidad o el consumo de cigarrillos, bebida, producción…) Agatha cut down on smoking
10. Find out → discover (descubrir, averiguar). The boss would be interested in finding out more details about the sell
11. Get away → to escape (escapar, huir) The cat got away when it saw the dog
12. Get over → to recover from something (superar) Mary has got over her Internet addiction
13. Give out → to distribute (distribuir algo entre un grupo de personas) The coach gave out the football balls for the match
14. Go for → to attack (atacar a una persona o animal) The cat went for Peter
15 Lay off → to stop employing (despedir) The company laid off two hundred workers last month
16. Look after → take care (cuidar) Her friend Susan looked after the twins while their mother went to the bank
17. Look for → try to find (buscar) You should look for another way to finance the business
18. Look forward to → to think with pleasure about a future event (esperar con interés) Jimmy is looking forward to the next summer
19. Look into → to investigate (investigar) The police are looking into my company
20. Look over → inspect (revisar, examinar) They came to look the house over with a view to buying it
21. Make up for → to compensate for (compensar) Outsourcing could make up for a lack of human resources
22. Pick up → to collect someone or something (recoger algo o alguien, habitualmente en un vehículo) Peter picked up the dessert from the bakery
23. Put forward → to offer for consideration (ofrecer una propuesta a consideración) We put forward the plan in the annual meeting
24. Put off → to delay (posponer hacer algo durante un determinado tiempo) The new manager put off the meeting until the end of the week
25. Put on → to dress (ponerse, vertir ropa o complementos) Anne put on her new boots
26. Put out → to extinguish (apagar un cigarrillo, un fuego, una luz…) George put out the light (George put the light out) before leaving the room
27. Put through → to connect (conectar una línea telefónica o personas) He put me through to Mr. Pratt
28. Run into → to meet by chance (encontrarse por casualidad) I ran into Mary yesterday night
29. Run out of → to use all of (consumir todo) The car ran out of petrol
30. See off → to say goodbye (despedir a alguien en el lugar desde donde parte de viaje) Billy drove to the airport and saw him off
31. Set off → to start a journey (empezar la jornada) Karen set off at five o’clock
32. Speak up → to speak louder (hablar más alto) The nun said, ‘speak up’
33. Take after → to look or be like an a relative (parecerse o comportarse como un familiar o conocido) My sister takes after my mother
34, Take down → writing (anotar) He took my telephone number down
35. Take over → to assume responsability for (asumir la responsabilidad) When my father died, my oldest brother took over his responsibilities
36. Take up → to begin to study or do something (empezar a estudiar, practicar o hacer algo) He’s taking up a new university career
37. Tear up → to destroy completely (destruir totalmente) Brian tore up all his mother’s letters
38. Tell off → to speak angrily (reprender a alguien) The boss told him off for breaking the agreement
39. Think over → to consider (valorar una propuesta o situación) They are thinking over their next sell
40. Try on: to put on an article to see if it fits (probar ropa) The boy didn’t want to try on the shoes
Don’t wait. Play right now with these phrasal verbs!