English study with phrasal verb

Adventures Growing Up
I was brought up in a small town in the countryside. Growing up in the countryside offered lots of advantages for young people. The only problem was that we often got into trouble as we made up stories that we acted out around town. I can remember one adventure in particular: One day as we were coming back from school, we came up with the brilliant idea to make out that we were pirates looking for treasure. My best friend Tom said that he made out an enemy ship in the distance. We all ran for cover and picked up a number of rocks to use for ammunition against the ship as we got ready to put together our plan of action. We were ready to set off on our attack, we slowly went along the path until we were face to face with our enemy - the postman's truck! The postman was dropping off a package at Mrs. Brown's house, so we got into his truck. At that point, we really didn't have any idea about what we were going to do next. The radio was playing so we turned down the volume to discuss what we would do next. Jack was all for switching on the motor and getting away with the stolen mail! Of course, we were just children, but the idea of actually making off with a truck was too much for us to believe. We all broke out in nervous laughter at the thought of us driving down the road in this stolen Postal Truck. Luckily for us, the postman came running towards us shouting, "What are you kids up to?!". Of course, we all got out of that truck as quickly as we could and took off down the road.

Phrasal verbs

Two-parts verbs are made up of a verb (turn, go, look) and a particle (down, up, off, on), which changes the meaning of the verb.

In             Ann opened the door of the car and got in.
                I waited outside the house. I didn’t go in.

Out          The car stopped and a woman got out.
                I went to the window and looked out.

On           The bus arrived and I got on.


Off           Don’t fall off.


Up           He stood up and left the room.
                He usually gets up early.   
                We looked up at the stars.

Down       Would you like to sit down?
                The picture fell down.
                Lie down on the floor

Away or off
                 The thief ran away.                                    The thief ran off.
                 Ann got into the car and drove away.         Ann got into the car and drove off.   

Back         We went out for dinner and then went back to our hotel.
                 Go away and don’t come back.

Over         The wall wasn’t very high, so we climbed over.
                 Turn over and look at the next page.

Round or around    Somebody shouted my name, so I looked round.
                              We went for a long walk. After six miles we turned round and went back.

When the object of the two-part verbs is a noun, the noun can come either after the particle or between the verb and the particle.
Put on your coat            Put your coat on
Take off your coat.        Take your coat off.

When the object of the two-part verbs is pronoun, the pronoun can only come between the verb and the particle.
It was cold, so I put on my coat.
Here’s your coat. Put it on.

I’m going to take off my shoes.
Your shoes are dirty. Take them off.