50 Phrasal Verbs commonly Used in Writing and the Singles Words That Can Successfully Replace Them.

The following is a list of commonly deployed phrasal verbs that find one use or another in academic or formal writing. These, and others, can be acceptably used in academic texts. Along with these examples, however, are a number of one-word substitutions to illustrate that in each case the phrasal verb can be easily replaced.

As you look through the substitutions, be aware that phrasal verbs (like other verbs) often have more than one definition and more than one context of proper use.

This flexibility means that although these substitutions work for the examples given, and although the examples are common uses of phrasal verbs, a suggested replacement will not cover every possible use of its phrasal verb.

Separable

Note: If it uses a pronoun, the separable phrasal verb must be separated (e.g. “He added up the number” but “He added it up”).

Phrasal verbs	Example uses	Definitions and Replacements
Add up	James added  up the number of affirmative responses.	calculate
Buy out	The large company bought out the smaller.	purchase (someone’s assets)
Buy up	The business’s assets were  bought up in the auction.	purchase (all of something)
Call off	The order was to call off  the strike immediately.	cancel
Carry on	The meeting will carry on in your absence.	continue
Carry out	Sam carried out the research because Jimmy couldn’t find the time.	execute
Cut out	Because the subsection was not directly relevant to the rest of the paper, Randal had to cut it out.	excise
Find out	The purpose of the literature review is find out what has been said on the topic.	discover
Get (it) over with (must be split)	Isa and the other participants were happy to get the laborious questionnaire over with.	complete
Get across	Lars’s paper has too many grammatical mistakes, meaning he couldn’t get his message across.	communicate
Give up	The outnumbered forces would not give up.	surrender
Hold up	When deadlines approach, a student cannot let anything hold up the completion of an assignment.	delay
Leave out	The witness left out a number of important details.	omit
Make up	We asked participants to make up a scenario in which they would be content.	fabricate
Make out	In the darkness he could not make out the size of the camp.	see
Pass up	We could not pass up this opportunity to collaborate.	forgo
Pass on	The common flu can be passed on through saliva.	transmit
Pass out	Our research assistants passed out four-hundred surveys to a random sample of shoppers.	distribute
Pick up	This study picks  Dekker’s research up where he left it.	resume
Point out	Hendriks (2010) points out that such a study might be useful.	explain
Set up	The equipment’s sensitivity meant we had to set it up with utmost care.	arrange
Turn down	Regretfully, the board must turn down a number of applicants every year.	reject
Use up	The campers were thirsty after they used up the last of the water.	exhaust

Inseparable

Phrasal verbs	Example uses	Definitions and Replacements
Back out of	Several subjects backed out of their treatment.	abandon
Bear on	Foucault’s writings still bear on contemporary thought about prison.	influence
Catch up with	It will take some time for our newer coal mines to catch up with our older ones.	equal
Call on	I call on the work of other contemporary thinkers.	utilize
Call for	The act of aggression called for immediate response.	necessitate
Count on	The question is, should a citizen be able to count on its government to preserve free access to clean water?	rely on
Cut down on	Practiced writers cut down on unnecessary adverbs and adjectives.	reduce
Come up with	Hannah had to come up with a way to isolate the variable.	invent
Fall apart	The board of directors fell apart.	disintegrate
Get away	Several of them sought to get away from the cold winter night.	escape
Get along with	They commonly exaggerated the degree to which the indigenous tribes would not get along with one another.	be friendly with
Give in	After a long pause for thought, he gave in to the demands.	yield
Go on	Bakker went on to win a prestigious award.	continue
Hold on to	Sven tried everything, but could not hold on to his youth.	keep
Hold out	Bram would hold out until morning when the supplies arrived.	wait
Hold out on	Napoleon would not tolerate his generals holding out on him.	hide (something)
Look into	We have a hypothesis, but we must look into other possible explanations for the phenomenon.	research
Look out for	Among 50 respondents who regularly walk home from work in the middle of the night, 45 indicated looking out for criminals.	safeguard against
Make sure of	To print the name of the interviewee, an author must make sure of the interviewee’s consent.	ensure
Pick up on	The data show various relationships that we had not picked up on.	notice
Put up with	The country will put up with a certain number of economic sanctions.	tolerate
See to	The custodian would see to the security of the building.	arrange
Take after	This new state takes after its regional neighbors.	resemble
Touch on	At the beginning of his speech, Finn found it necessary to touch on the circumstances of the event.	mention