What Are Phrasal Verbs?
A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and one or two particles (prepositions or adverbs) that creates a meaning different from the individual words. "Follow up" means to check on the progress of something — you cannot guess this from "follow" + "up" alone.
For Indian professionals, phrasal verbs are often the missing piece in sounding natural at work. You might use "postpone" (correct but formal) when a native speaker would say "push back" or "put off." This guide covers the 30 most common phrasal verbs used in Indian offices.
Native English speakers use an average of 25 phrasal verbs per 1,000 words in casual conversation, but only 10 per 1,000 in formal writing. In office conversations and meetings, the rate is about 15-18 — making phrasal verbs essential for professional spoken English.
Communication Phrasal Verbs (1-10)
10 Communication Phrasal Verbs
- 1. Follow up — To check on progress or take further action. "I will follow up with the vendor on the delivery timeline."
- 2. Bring up — To mention or introduce a topic. "I would like to bring up the budget issue in today's meeting."
- 3. Point out — To draw attention to something. "She pointed out a critical bug in the code review."
- 4. Reach out — To contact someone. "I will reach out to the marketing team for their input."
- 5. Get back to — To respond or return with an answer. "Let me check with my manager and get back to you."
- 6. Fill in — To provide someone with information. "Can you fill me in on what happened in the meeting?"
- 7. Run by / Run past — To present an idea for opinion. "I want to run this proposal by you before sending it."
- 8. Wrap up — To finish or conclude. "Let us wrap up the meeting — we are running over time."
- 9. Go over — To review or examine. "Let us go over the requirements one more time."
- 10. Speak up — To express your opinion. "If you have concerns, please speak up during the meeting."
Task and Project Phrasal Verbs (11-20)
10 Task and Project Phrasal Verbs
- 11. Take on — To accept a task or responsibility. "She took on the role of scrum master."
- 12. Hand over / Hand off — To transfer responsibility. "I will hand over the project to Ravi before my leave."
- 13. Roll out — To launch or introduce something new. "We are rolling out the new feature next Monday."
- 14. Set up — To arrange or establish. "Can you set up a meeting for tomorrow?"
- 15. Put off — To postpone or delay. "Let us not put off this decision any longer."
- 16. Call off — To cancel. "The 3 PM meeting has been called off."
- 17. Sort out — To resolve or organise. "We need to sort out the deployment issues before release."
- 18. Carry out — To perform or complete a task. "The QA team will carry out the regression testing."
- 19. Figure out — To solve or understand something. "I need to figure out why the API is returning errors."
- 20. Keep up with — To stay at the same pace or stay informed. "It is hard to keep up with all the changes in the codebase."
Decision and Problem-Solving Phrasal Verbs (21-30)
10 Decision and Problem-Solving Phrasal Verbs
- 21. Look into — To investigate. "I will look into the performance issue and report back."
- 22. Come up with — To think of an idea. "We need to come up with a plan B."
- 23. Turn down — To reject or refuse. "The client turned down our revised quote."
- 24. Weigh in — To give your opinion. "Could the design team weigh in on this layout?"
- 25. Back up — To support someone or copy data. "Can you back up your claim with data?"
- 26. Rule out — To exclude a possibility. "We cannot rule out a server issue yet."
- 27. Break down — To divide into smaller parts, or to stop working. "Can you break down the costs by department?"
- 28. Pull off — To succeed in something difficult. "The team pulled off the migration with zero downtime."
- 29. Hold off — To delay or wait. "Let us hold off on hiring until Q3 budget is approved."
- 30. Step up — To take action when needed. "Someone needs to step up and lead this initiative."
Phrasal Verbs in Context: A Meeting Simulation
Here is a realistic office meeting conversation using 10 phrasal verbs from this guide:
Manager: "Good morning, team. Let us go over the sprint status. Priya, any updates?"
Priya: "I wanted to bring up a dependency issue. The API team has not shared the endpoints yet. I need to follow up with them."
Manager: "Please reach out to Amit directly. If they cannot deliver by Wednesday, we may need to put off the integration testing."
Dev Lead: "I would like to point out that we already postponed this once. Can we come up with an alternative?"
Manager: "Good point. Let us look into using mock APIs for now. Rahul, can you take on that task?"
Rahul: "Sure, I will set up the mock endpoints by tomorrow morning."
Manager: "Great. Let us wrap up and sync again tomorrow."
Building a strong vocabulary — including phrasal verbs — is a skill that improves with structured practice. For students and young professionals building foundational English skills, PenLeap offers gamified vocabulary drills that help make these words stick.
Practise Phrasal Verbs
Reading a list of phrasal verbs helps you recognise them, but the real fluency comes from using them in conversation. The gap between understanding "follow up" and naturally saying "I will follow up with the team" is closed through practice.
Practise Office Phrasal Verbs with AI
Simulate real office conversations with TalkDrill's AI characters. Practise using phrasal verbs in team meetings, one-on-ones, email discussions, and stand-ups. Get instant feedback on whether your usage sounds natural and contextually appropriate.
Start Free Phrasal Verb Practice →