Listen to the author reading this blog post:
I recently published an article on the word ‘sleep’ and its related collocations and idioms. Continuing the theme, this week’s post looks at the range of alternatives to the word ‘sleep’ and the phrase ‘fall asleep’. As you might expect, it includes a good number of phrasal verbs. Continue reading “Dropping off and snoozing (Talking about sleep, Part 2)”
This is the second of two posts on the theme of showing and not showing emotions. The words and phrases in Part 1 focused on adjectives and verbs. Today’s post looks at idioms and phrasal verbs in this area. Continue reading “Pouring your heart out and bottling it up (Showing and not showing emotions, Part 2)”
by Liz Walter
This post looks at words and phrases connected with the question of trust. I’ll start with ways of talking about people you are certain will keep their promises. You can depend on, rely on or count on them to do what they say they will do:
I know I can depend on Patrick to keep the business running while I’m away.
If you stand for election, you can count on me to support you! Continue reading “As good as your word: Talking about trust and loyalty”
In these troubled times, I thought you might enjoy a post with a positive subject matter so today I’ll be looking at words and phrases around the subject of making friends and being friendly. You’ll notice there are several phrasal verbs in the post.
Starting with a phrasal verb, if you begin a friendship with someone, you can say that you strike up a friendship:
He’d struck up a friendship with an older guy on his course.
If you are friendly towards a stranger, often in order to help them, you might say you befriend them:
Luckily, I was befriended by an elderly man who showed me where to get a cup of coffee.
If two people like each other and get on well as soon as they meet, you can say, informally, that they hit it off:
We met at Lucy’s party and hit it off immediately.
I didn’t really hit it off with his mother.
The verb click has a similar meaning, with the additional suggestion that the people understand each other and think in a similar way:
We met at a work party and clicked right away.
If two people develop a friendly or loving connection with each other, you can say they bond:
She didn’t really bond with the other team members.
If people become friends because of a shared interest, you might say they bond over that thing:
We bonded over our love of birds and vegan cake.
Someone who makes an effort to be friends with a person or group, often because it will give them an advantage, may be said to get in with them:
She tried to get in with the cool kids at school.
Something, (often a bad thing), that causes people to become friends may be said to bring them together:
As so often happens, the disaster brought the whole community together.
Of course, relationships may end as well as start. If two people stop being friends after an argument, you can say, informally, that they fall out:
Unfortunately, the sisters fell out over money.
If a friendship between two people gradually ends over time, you might say the people drift apart:
You know how it goes – our lives took different directions and we just drifted apart.
If someone suddenly ends a friendship with someone, you can use the slightly informal verb drop:
I don’t know what I did to offend her, but she just dropped me.
Finally, to end on a more cheerful note, if you start to be friends with someone that you used to know well in the past, you may be said to rekindle the friendship:
I was glad of the opportunity to rekindle an old friendship.
by Liz Walter
In an earlier post, I looked at phrasal verbs connected with children’s bad behaviour and with some general adult bad behaviour. In this post, I will cover phrasal verbs connected with bullying, violent and dishonest behaviour.
by Liz Walter
It struck me recently that there are rather a lot of phrasal verbs connected with people behaving badly so I thought this might be a useful topic. In fact, there are so many of them that there will be two posts: this one on children’s behaviour and general bad behaviour and one on more serious wrongdoing such as violence, bullying and dishonesty.
by Liz Walter
My colleague Kate Woodford and I have written many posts about phrasal verbs because students find them difficult but know they need to learn them. These posts often include prepositional verbs, and readers sometimes ask about this. Continue reading “Let down and look after: the difference between phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs”
It’s sometimes said that it’s better to give than to receive. Whether or not you like the act of giving, we hope you’ll enjoy reading about all the different ways to talk about giving. As you might imagine, there are a great number of synonyms and near-synonyms for ‘give’, so this is the first of two posts. Here, we’ll look at the many ‘give’ phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs and their specific meanings. Continue reading “Handing down and passing on (Phrasal verbs that mean ‘give’)”
by Liz Walter
My last two posts looked at phrasal verbs to describe a range of specific emotions, so I thought it would be nice to round the topic off by covering some phrasal verbs for talking about emotions in a more general way.
If someone shows a very strong negative emotion such as fear or anger, we can say informally that they freak out.
He freaked out when he saw the size of the waves Continue reading “Freaking out or shrugging it off? Phrasal verbs to express emotions (3)”
by Liz Walter
My last post was about phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs connected to sadness and happiness. This post will look at some other emotions.
Let’s start with anger. If someone suddenly becomes angry, we can say that they flare up. Blow up is similar and often describes an even angrier outburst. We use the preposition at if that anger is directed at a particular person: Continue reading “Flaring up or bubbling over? Phrasal verbs to express emotions, part 2.”