English Phrasal Verb: To Look Up

To find a piece of information
To get better

To Look Up

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Example Sentences for the English Phrasal Verb Look Up

1. Things were looking up for Steve. He had gone on his first date since he broke up with his girlfriend.
2. If you ever don't know something, look it up.
3. Smartphones have really made looking up information very easy.
4. After losing his job, things were starting to look up for Eric.
5. Paper dictionaries are used less and less now to look up definitions of words.

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English Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs can be extremely tricky for learners of English. The reason for this is twofold: there are lots of them and their meaning is not always obvious from the words that make them up. To make things even more difficult, phrasal verbs can have multiple meanings, adding to the headache for learners.

A phrasal verb is made up of a main verb with an attached preposition or adverb. An example of a phrasal verb is run into. Where run is the main verb and into is the preposition. Phrasal verbs can be separated into two groups, intransitive and transitive verbs. Intransitive phrasal verbs do not have a direct object: go out, for example, "I want to go out tonight". Transitive phrasal verbs have a direct object and they can be split up into two further categories: separable and inseparable. With separable transitive phrasal verbs, the verb and the preposition can be split up. For example, both “turn off the radio” and “turn the radio off” are both correct. Inseparable phrasal verbs cannot be split up. For example, “I’ll look after you” is correct, but “I’ll look you after” is not.

Using Storyboard That you can prepare a visual dictionary of phrasal verbs quickly and easily. Even better than that, have your students create their own phrasal verb visual definitions.