WHAT IS A PHRASAL VERB?

A phrasal verb (or simply "phrasal") is a combination of a verb and an adverb or preposition (or both an adverb and a preposition) which together have a single meaning.

The meanings of some phrasal verbs can be understood by adding together the meanings of the separate parts:

Junk food eaters are more likely to put on weight than vegetarians.

But others have meanings which are quite different from the individual parts:

My father won't put up with bad table manners.

Check now these examples of phrasal verbs together with their meaning:

put off                 >>  postpone
put away            >>  place something tidily in its proper place
put out                >>  extinguish (a fire)
put through       >>  connect (by phone)
put aside            >>  reserve
put up                 >>  raise
put in for            >>  apply for
put up with        >>  tolerate

SOME HELP WITH ADVERBS AND PREPOSITIONS

The following useful tips will help you to work out the meanings of some phrasal verbs:

PHRASAL VERBS WITH 'UP'

'Up' may add one of these meanings to a verb:
higher: go up, look up, put up
completion: eat up, use up
more intense, louder, stronger: hurry up, speak up, turn up (the volume) into pieces: break up, cut up

PHRASAL VERBS WITH 'DOWN'

'Down' may add one of these meanings to a verb:
lower: go down, look down
weaker: turn down (the volume)
destruction: break down, cut down, pull down

PHRASAL VERBS WITH 'OFF' AND 'OUT'

'Out' may add one of these meanings to a verb:
sudden appearance: break out, come out
absence: keep out, leave out
clearness: find out, make out, stand out, work out
loudness: cry out, speak out
completion: carry out, wear out

'Out' and 'off' may both mean leaving or disappearing: take off, wear off, set off, set out, pass out. 'Off' also emphasises separation: break off, cut off

PHRASAL VERBS WITH 'IN' AND 'ON'

Many verbs with 'in' have the idea of entering or staying inside: break in, bring in, call in, join in, let in.

Many verbs with 'on' have the idea of going towards a destination, or continuity or connection: carry on, get on, go on, hand on, hang on, keep on, pass on.

KINDS OF PHRASAL VERBS

The position of the object of a phrasal verb depends on what kind of phrasal verb it is. Phrasal verbs can be divided into three kinds:

1) INTRANSITIVE PHRASAL VERBS

These verbs do not have an object, so there is no word order problem.

The milk has gone off.

2) SEPARABLE PHRASAL VERBS

These are made up of verb + adverb. A noun object may come either before or after the adverb:

Junk food eaters put on weight.
Junk food eaters put weight on.

But when the object is a pronoun, it comes before the adverb:

Junk food eaters put it on.

3) INSEPARABLE PHRASAL VERBS

These are made up of verb + preposition, or verb + adverb + preposition.

In this case, both noun and pronoun objects come after the preposition:

She asked for a vegetarian dish.
She asked for it.

My father won't put up with bad table manners.
My father won't put up with them.

IMPORTANT

Among others, there are verbs like ACCELERATE which -- although having their respective German and Latin equivalents -- in casual conversation it is usually preferred the Germanic equivalent (SPEED UP) and in scientific and legal contexts, its Latin equivalent (ACCELERATE) .