How to Teach Phrasal Verbs: 8 ESL Activities (Free PDF)

Your students know postpone, tolerate and investigate. They never say put off, put up with or look into, so their English sounds like a report, and they lose track the moment a native speaker talks to them. Phrasal verbs are how people actually speak, and most courses teach them as a list to memorise.

This post gives you five principles that make phrasal verbs stick, eight activities for adult and teen classes, and a free activity pack with the printables for six of them.

The activities at a glance

#	Activity	Level	Skill
1	Particle sort	B1-B2	Meaning
2	From formal to phrasal	B1-B2	Register
3	Ask and answer cards	B1-B2	Speaking
4	Guess the verb	B1	Speaking
5	Odd one out	B2	Meaning
6	Tick-the-verb talks	B1-B2	Listening
7	Two truths and a phrasal verb	B1-B2	Writing
8	Find them in the wild	B1-C1	Homework

Free · printable PDFPhrasal Verbs Activity PackThe printables for activities 1 to 6 below, numbered like this post: a particle cheat sheet, two messages to rewrite, 24 question cards, an odd-one-out puzzle and talk cards. Answers included.6 activities24 question cardsB1 to B2A4 and LetterDownload the free PDFUS Letter: PDF

How to teach phrasal verbs: five principles

1.Teach them by topic, not by verb

A list of everything with get (get up, get on, get over, get by) is the hardest way in: the verbs look alike and mean nothing alike. Group them by situation instead. A workday gives you log in, look into, catch up on, sign off, and students remember the day, so they remember the verbs.

Free lesson for step 1

Phrasal Verbs for Work follows a corporate workday, from logging in to signing off, with the verbs in real office situations.

Phrasal Verbs for WorkB1B2FreeOpen the free lesson →

2.Show what the small word adds

The particle often carries the meaning. Up can mean finished (use up, eat up), off can mean stopped or delayed (call off, put off), out can mean found or solved (figure out, find out). It is not a rule for every verb, but it turns a list into patterns.

Particles to put on the boardupfinished: use upoffdelayed: put offoutsolved: figure outdownless: cut down

3.Teach the pronoun rule on day one

Most two-part verbs split around a pronoun: put it off, never put off it. Some never split: look into it, count on them. Three-part verbs never split: catch up on it. This one minute of grammar prevents the most common mistake students make with phrasal verbs.

4.Meaning from context first, definition second

Give the verbs inside a short story or a message, and let students guess what they mean before you tell them. A guess they get right is remembered; a definition they copied is not.

5.Six verbs, many times

Six to eight verbs per lesson is enough. Bring them back in the next three lessons, in speaking and not only in gap-fills, because a phrasal verb students have used out loud is one they will use again.

Worksheets for steps 4 and 5

Each worksheet teaches 12 phrasal verbs in context and recycles them across the exercises. Phrasal Verbs for School is free.

Phrasal Verbs for SchoolB1B2FreeWorksheetOpen the free worksheet →Phrasal Verbs for Autumn WeatherB1B2ProWorksheetSee the Pro lesson →

8 activities for teaching phrasal verbs

Activities 1 and 2 build meaning, 3 to 6 get the verbs into speech, and 7 and 8 make students produce them on their own.

1of 8B1-B210 minMeaningFree printable · page 2

Particle sort

How it works

Write 12 phrasal verbs on cards: use up, set off, cut down, figure out, call off, slow down...
Groups sort them by what the small word adds, not by the verb.
Groups explain their piles. Then they check against the particle sheet and place two new verbs.

Why it works

Students stop seeing 12 unrelated verbs and start seeing four patterns. The next time they meet sell out, they have a good guess before you explain it.

Free printable · page 2A one-page sheet of what each particle means, with examples, to check the piles against.Download the free PDFUS Letter: PDF

2of 8B1-B210 minRegisterFree printable · page 3

From formal to phrasal

How it works

Give pairs a short, stiff message: We must postpone the meeting. I will investigate the delay.
They rewrite it as a message to a colleague they know well, using phrasal verbs.
Pairs read both versions aloud. The class votes for the most natural one.

Examplepostponeput offinvestigatelook intotolerateput up withcancelcall off

Why it works

Students already know the formal word, so they are not learning two things at once. They learn when each one fits, which is what real speakers choose every day.

Free printable · page 3Two ready messages to rewrite, one to a team and one to a friend, with a word bank and the answers.Download the free PDFUS Letter: PDF

3of 8B1-B215 minSpeakingFree printable · pages 4-5

Ask and answer cards

How it works

Each pair gets a set of question cards, one phrasal verb per card.
One student asks: What do you always put off until the last minute? The partner must answer with the verb.
The asker follows up with the pronoun form: Why do you put it off? Then swap.

Why it works

The question puts the verb in the student's ear, the answer puts it in their mouth, and the follow-up practises the pronoun rule without a single exercise on it.

Free printable · pages 4-5All 24 question cards, sorted into work, home and people, each with the pronoun form.Download the free PDFUS Letter: PDF

4of 8B110 minSpeakingFree printable · pages 4-5

Guess the verb

How it works

Students read only the meaning on a card: say no to an offer.
Their partner names the phrasal verb (turn down) and then answers the question on the card.
Wrong guesses get one more clue: the particle.

Why it works

Going from meaning to verb is the direction students need when they speak, and it is harder than recognising a verb they read.

5of 8B25 minMeaningFree printable · page 6

Odd one out

How it works

Give pairs sets of four phrasal verbs that share the same particle.
In one verb the particle means something different. Pairs find it and explain why.
Ask for one new verb that fits the other three.

Exampleupuse up · eat up · drink up · look upoffcall off · put off · turn off · set off

Why it works

It is a five-minute warm-up that revises the particle meanings, and the explanations are where the real practice happens.

Free printable · page 6Six ready sets with space to explain each answer, and the answers at the foot of the page.Download the free PDFUS Letter: PDF

6of 8B1-B210 minListeningFree printable · page 7

Tick-the-verb talks

How it works

Give each student a topic card with five phrasal verbs. They talk for two minutes about the topic.
The partner listens and ticks each verb they hear used correctly.
Swap cards. The goal is all five, used naturally, not read off the card.

Why it works

The speaker has to plan where the verbs fit, and the listener has a reason to listen closely.

Free printable · page 7Eight topic cards, from your last weekend to a trip that went wrong, each with five verbs to tick.Download the free PDFUS Letter: PDF

7of 8B1-B210 minWritingNo printing

Two truths and a phrasal verb

How it works

Each student writes three sentences about themselves, each with a different phrasal verb. One is false.
Groups read them aloud and ask follow-up questions before guessing the false one.
The questions must reuse the verb: When did you give it up?

Why it works

The sentences are personal, so students care about them, and the questions make everyone use the verbs again, not only the writer.

8of 8B1-C1HomeworkListeningNo printing

Find them in the wild

How it works

Students watch one episode of a series or a podcast they like.
They write down five phrasal verbs they hear, with the full sentence.
In the next lesson, groups share their sentences and guess each verb's meaning from context.

Why it works

It shows students that phrasal verbs are everywhere in real English, and the sentences come from shows they chose, so they remember them.

Phrasal verbs inside a full lesson

October Blues is a B1-B2 reading and speaking lesson about autumn moods, with new phrasal verbs for talking about the season.

October BluesB1B2ProSee the Pro lesson →

Phrasal Verbs Activity PackEverything for activities 1 to 6 in one free PDF, page by page in the order of this post.Download the free PDF

Mistakes your students will make

Teacher's reference

The phrasal verb slips to listen for

Students say	Better	Why
I always put off it.	I always put it off.	With a pronoun, separable verbs split: verb + it + particle.
She let down me.	She let me down.	The same rule with me, you, him, her, them.
I gave up to smoke.	I gave up smoking.	After give up, use the -ing form.
I look forward to meet you.	I look forward to meeting you.	To is a preposition here, so the next verb takes -ing.
We get on well each other.	We get on well with each other.	Get on with needs its with.

Phrasal verb lessons and worksheets

Level	Lesson	What students do
B1-B2	Phrasal Verbs for Work · free	Follow a workday from logging in to signing off
B1-B2	Phrasal Verbs for School · free	12 verbs for studying, deadlines and falling behind
B1-B2	Phrasal Verbs for Autumn Weather	12 verbs for the cold months
B1-B2	October Blues	Talk about autumn moods with new phrasal verbs