Phrasal verbs are action words that are a combination of an action and a preposition (on, in, off, of, out, or up) and sometimes descriptive words, such as good. These types of verbs can be difficult because they vary so much from the root word’s original meaning.

Take for example the word ‚pass‘, which means to walk by or go by, as in passing someone on the Autobahn. Now, look at the term ‚pass up‘ which means to not accept or take something. This can be rather confusing but making associations can help you easily remember these types of words.

For ‚pass up‘, you can think of someone being offered a piece of cake for dessert and “passing up” the delicious treat.  Making associations will not only make learning new vocabulary more memorable but will also make it more fun!  Look up some other phrasal verbs and try using one each day.