Phrasal verbs: the natural English that lifts your range.
A phrasal verb is a verb plus a small particle (up, out, off, on, down) whose meaning is often nothing like the parts: give up, look after, put off. Used well they are exactly the natural, idiomatic English that lifts Speaking into Band 7+. Used in the wrong place, an over-casual one can pull a Task 2 essay down. The skill is knowing the useful ones, getting the word order right, and judging the register.
Why this matters. The descriptors reward natural, flexible vocabulary, and phrasal verbs are the clearest sign of it in speech: a candidate who says “I had to put off the trip” sounds more native than one who says “I had to postpone the trip”. But there are two traps. The first is word order, “turn off it” for “turn it off”. The second is register: phrasal verbs suit Speaking and informal writing, but a formal Task 2 essay usually wants the single-word equivalent (postpone, not put off). Knowing both, and choosing by context, is itself a Band 8 move.
A verb plus a particle, with a meaning of its own.
A phrasal verb is a verb (give, look, put) joined to a particle (up, after, off). The combination usually means something you could not guess from the parts, so each is learned as a unit. These four points cover what IELTS rewards and what it penalises.
The meaning is not literal
give up · look after · put off · bring up
The particle changes the verb into something new: give up = quit, look after = care for, put off = postpone, bring up = raise (a child, or a topic). Learn the whole unit, not the verb plus a guess.
I gave up coffee and took up running last year.
Separable
turn the light off · turn off the light · turn it off
Many phrasal verbs split: the object can go before or after the particle. But a pronoun object must go in the middle: “turn it off”, never “turn off it”.
Switch it off before you leave, and pick up the others later.
Inseparable
look after them · get on with her · run into him
Others never split: the object always follows the whole verb, pronoun or not. “Look after them”, never “look them after”.
I get on with my colleagues and look after my younger brother.
Register: speaking vs writing
put off → postpone · cut down on → reduce
Phrasal verbs are natural in Speaking and informal writing; a formal Task 2 essay usually prefers the single-word equivalent. Knowing both, and switching by context, is the Band 8 signal.
Speaking: I want to cut down on sugar. Essay: governments should reduce sugar consumption.
The errors that mark you down
Three recur. First, word order with a pronoun: a separable phrasal verb must split around a pronoun, so “turn it off” and “pick them up”, never “turn off it”. Second, the wrong particle, which changes the meaning entirely: give up (quit) is not give in (surrender) or give off (emit). Third, register: an over-casual phrasal verb in a formal essay (“the government should sort out the problem”) reads as too informal; use resolve or address there, and save the phrasal verb for Speaking.
What phrasal-verb control reads like at each band.
At Band 5
Phrasal verbs are mostly avoided in favour of a single plain verb, and when one is attempted the particle is often wrong (give off for give up) or the word order breaks (turn off it). Range looks limited because the natural idiom is missing.
At Band 6
A handful of very common phrasal verbs appear (get up, look for, find out), usually correctly, but the same few recur and the pronoun word order sometimes slips. Register is not yet controlled, so a casual phrasal verb can turn up in a formal essay.
At Band 7
A genuine range of phrasal verbs in Speaking, used naturally and with correct word order (“I had to put it off”, “I get on well with them”). The occasional particle slip survives, and in writing the candidate is starting to prefer the formal equivalent where it fits.
At Band 8+
Phrasal verbs are deployed precisely and idiomatically, with separable and inseparable word order secure, and the register judged for the task: natural phrasal verbs in Speaking, their single-word equivalents (postpone, reduce, tolerate) in a formal essay. Vocabulary reads as flexible and native-like.
The phrasal verb for Speaking, the single word for writing.
The strongest candidates carry both: the natural phrasal verb for an interview, and the formal equivalent for an essay. Learn them as pairs, and you cover range and register at once. (sep = separable, insep = inseparable.)
| Phrasal verb (Speaking) | Formal equivalent (writing) | For example |
|---|---|---|
| put off sep | postpone | They put the meeting off / postponed the meeting. |
| cut down on insep | reduce | Cut down on sugar / reduce sugar consumption. |
| put up with insep | tolerate | Residents put up with the noise / tolerate the noise. |
| bring up sep | raise (a topic) | She brought it up / raised the issue. |
| find out sep | discover, establish | We found out the cause / established the cause. |
| deal with insep | address, handle | Deal with the problem / address the problem. |
| give up sep | quit, abandon | I gave it up / abandoned the plan. |
| look into insep | investigate, examine | Look into the matter / investigate the matter. |
Which to use where. In Speaking, reach for the phrasal verb, it is what natural fluency sounds like. In a formal Task 2 essay, prefer the single-word equivalent, though a well-chosen common phrasal verb is not penalised. For more upgrade pairs by topic and band, see the lexical resource bank →.
Ten to drill.
Choose the right meaning, word order or register for each. Press Check answers for your score and the reason behind each one. Nothing is sent anywhere.
You can read a phrasal-verb list in an afternoon. Reaching for the right one, in the right register, mid-sentence is the work.
Phrasal verbs are where range is won or lost: too few and Speaking sounds flat, the wrong ones and a Task 2 essay sounds too casual.
In a lesson I feed you the phrasal verbs that fit what you actually want to say, fix the word order the moment it slips, and show you when to switch to the formal equivalent for writing. Lessons are £20 for fifty minutes, one to one, in proper British English; the first step is a free 25-minute introduction. This page is adapted from the grammar chapter of the forthcoming Ultimate Guide to IELTS Speaking.