Few things frustrate English learners like phrasal verbs. You know “get”, you know “up”, and then a native speaker says “something came up, so the meeting got put off” and the sentence dissolves in front of you.
Here is the good news: you do not need to memorise hundreds of them. A fairly small set of phrasal verbs does most of the work in everyday conversation. Learn those well — in real sentences, not as lists — and spoken English suddenly sounds far less mysterious.
This lesson walks you through the phrasal verbs you will hear daily, grouped by situation, with a short quiz at the end to check they have stuck.
Morning and Daily Routine
These are the ones you will use before you have even had breakfast:
wake up — stop sleeping. I woke up late again.
get up — leave your bed. She wakes up at six but doesn’t get up until seven.
put on — dress yourself in something. Put on a jacket — it’s windy.
set off / head out — begin a journey. We set off for school at eight.
run out of — have none left. We’ve run out of milk.
Notice that “wake up” and “get up” are not the same thing — a distinction every snooze-button user understands perfectly.
Plans, People and Problems
Social life in English runs on phrasal verbs. These five appear constantly:
come up — happen unexpectedly. Sorry, something’s come up and I can’t make it tonight.
put off — postpone. They put the trip off until October.
look forward to — feel excited about something in the future. I’m looking forward to the boat party.
get on (with someone) — have a good relationship. I get on really well with my host family.
look after — take care of. Can you look after my bag for a minute?
A word of warning about “look forward to”: the verb that follows takes the -ing form. You look forward to seeing someone, never to see them. It is one of the most common small mistakes in emails, and one of the easiest to fix.
Learning and Working
In the classroom or the office, these do the heavy lifting:
find out — discover information. I found out my level after the placement test.
work out — solve or calculate; also make sense of. We worked out the answer together.
give up — stop trying. Don’t give up — participle clauses confuse everyone at first.
catch up — reach the same point as others. I missed Monday’s class, so I need to catch up.
hand in — submit work. Hand in your writing task before Friday.
Why Phrasal Verbs Feel Hard — and What Actually Helps
The difficulty is rarely the words themselves. It is that the meaning often has little to do with the parts: nothing about “give” plus “up” obviously means surrender. Added to that, some phrasal verbs are separable — turn the music down or turn down the music both work — while others refuse to be split.
Rather than fighting this with grammar tables, do what strong learners do:
Learn them in sentences, never in isolation. Your memory holds stories better than lists.
Learn them by situation — morning verbs, kitchen verbs, office verbs — the way this lesson groups them.
Notice them in the wild. Series, songs and conversations are full of them. When one appears twice in a day, write the sentence down.
Use one new phrasal verb per conversation. One. It will feel deliberate at first; within a week it will feel natural.
Immersion makes this dramatically easier. Students studying with us in Malta hear these verbs at the beach, in cafés and around the school all day long — the repetition does the memorising for you.
Quick Quiz: Choose the Right Phrasal Verb
Fill each gap with one of the phrasal verbs from this lesson. Answers below — no peeking.
Maria’s alarm rang at 6:30, but she stayed in bed until 7:00. She woke up at 6:30 but didn’t ___ until 7:00.
“We can’t have coffee — there’s none left.” In other words, we have ___ coffee.
Tom planned to visit Gozo on Saturday, but a family dinner was arranged for that day, so he moved the trip to Sunday. He ___ the trip ___.
Ana missed two lessons last week and is studying extra this weekend to reach the class’s level again. She is trying to ___.
“My neighbour waters my plants when I travel.” My neighbour ___ my plants.
It is Thursday, and Karl keeps thinking happily about Saturday’s barbecue. He is ___ the barbecue.
Answers
get up · 2. run out of · 3. put off · 4. catch up · 5. looks after · 6. looking forward to
Scored five or six? You are ready to start noticing the next layer — try listening for “pick up”, “drop off” and “sort out” this week. Three or fewer? Re-read one group above and write your own example sentence for each verb; personal sentences stick far better than borrowed ones.
Practise Them Where People Actually Say Them
Phrasal verbs live in conversation, which is why they grow fastest when English surrounds you all day. At Maltalingua in St Julian’s, you will use them in class — a maximum of 12 adults, so everyone speaks — and then again ordering lunch, joining an activity or chatting by the rooftop pool.
Tell us your dates and goals, and we will send a personalised quote for your English course in Malta — free, with no obligation.