Top 10 Mistakes with Phrasal Verbs
- Alex
- Oct 10
- 8 min read
Updated: Oct 27
You can't speak fluent, proficient English without phrasal verbs. English speakers use them all the time, so if you are an English learner, you need to understand and use them. If you are reading this, you are probably already familiar with many phrasal verbs, such as turn on, turn down, wake up, get up, pick up, and so on. Maybe you are even familiar with some phrasal verb forms and rules. Let's review some of them now:
Did you know that most phrasal verbs are separable? They are!
Did you know that you can't use an object pronoun at the end of a two-word phrasal verb? You can't!
Did you know that there are three-word phrasal verbs? There are!
Of course, there is a difference between knowing how to do something and actually doing it. The truth is, it takes consistent, focused practice to get better at something. This is definitely the case with language learning: You need to practice it, and you need to be okay with making mistakes. Why? Because mistakes are just part of the learning process.
And that is the purpose of this page: to help you with the phrasal verb learning process. How do I intend to help you with this process? By sharing the ten most common mistakes that I have heard in my English teaching career, and telling you how to fix them.
Are you ready to improve your English and to learn more about phrasal verbs? Yes? Then follow me!
Top 10 Phrasal Verb Mistakes (and How to Fix Them!)
Take care about --> Take care of
Incorrect: Who will take care about that?
Correct: Who will take care of that?
Sometimes, we just pick the wrong preposition. In this case, the phrasal verb is always take care of. It means that we accept responsibility for caring for something or someone. This mistake is probably made because English speakers do say, "I don't care about that," which is not the same thing as take care of. Here are some more examples:
I'll take care of dinner tonight.
Did you take care of the electricity bill?
Can you take care of Emma for an hour?
You need to take care of your health.
Get over from something --> Get over something
Incorrect: Have you got over from your cold?
Correct: Have you got over your cold?
When you get over something (or someone), you recover from it. We get over bad relationships, depressions, colds, and other sicknesses caused by viruses. Think of the something or someone as a mountain. In a literal sense, we don't say "I got over from the mountain." We say "I got over the mountain." Here are some other examples to help you remember that the correct phrasal verb is get over something or someone.
I'm getting over a cold.
How long does it take to get over the flu?
She's still getting over Tony. (She hasn't fully recovered from the end of her relationship with Tony.)
I was really angry for a day or two, but I got over it.
Pick up me --> Pick me up
Incorrect: Can you pick up me from the airport?
Correct: Can you pick me up from the airport?
You cannot use an object pronoun (me, you, him, her, it, us, them) at the end of a two-word phrasal verb. You need to put it between the verb and the particle, in this case, between pick and up. If you pick someone up, you go to where they are, usually with a car, and bring them somewhere. Pick up also means to acquire, get, or buy something. Grammatically, you can use other nouns after pick up--you just can't use an object pronoun. Here are some examples to illustrate this point:
I'll pick you up after school.
Try some of this pizza. I picked it up downtown. (You can't say, "I picked up it," but you can say, "I picked up some pizza when I was downtown.")
Oh, you're going shopping? Could you pick up some bread? (You can also say, "Could you pick some bread up?" but "Pick up some bread" is more common.)
Could you pick up your mom from the train station? (If your mom was mentioned earlier in the conversation, it's also possible to say, "Could you pick her up from the train station?")
Drop off to a place --> Drop off at a place
Incorrect: He dropped me off to school.
Correct: He dropped me off at school.
You can go to, come to, or move to a place, but you can't drop someone off to a place. When you drop someone or something off, you bring them to a place and leave them there--at a specific point. You use at to talk about specific points. Therefore, because you bring someone to a place and leave them at a specific point, the correct phrase is drop off at. Take a look at some more examples:
Could you drop me off at the library?
She dropped me off at home.
I can drop you off at the café if you want.
He dropped off the cake at the restaurant.
Look forward to do --> Look forward to doing
Incorrect: I'm looking forward to relax this weekend.
Correct: I'm looking forward to relaxing this weekend.
This one is a classic. I have talked about it in many places before. The rule is this: A preposition can be followed by a gerund (verb+ing). If you want to mention an action at the end of a phrasal verb, you can't use bare infinitives like go, make, or do. You have to use a gerund instead. Here are some more examples with look forward to, which means to anticipate something or to be excited about something in the future, and which is most commonly used in the present continuous tense:
I'm looking forward to hearing from you.
I was looking forward to seeing that movie.
I always look forward to visiting them.
Are you looking forward to going back to school?
Wake up me --> Wake me up
Incorrect: Alexa, please wake up me at 7 o'clock.
Correct: Alexa, please wake me up at 7 o'clock.
This is the same mistake as number one. Do you remember the rule? That's right. No object pronouns at the end of two-word phrasal verbs, so the correct phrasing here is wake me up. I'm sure you already know that wake up means to stop sleeping and to become awake in the morning, so let's just get to the examples:
What time should I wake her up?
Have you woken him up yet? We're going to be late.
My dad was making noise in the kitchen, and he woke me up.
Go take a nap. I'll wake you up in an hour.
Break with someone --> Break up with someone
Incorrect: He broke with his girlfriend.
Correct: He broke up with his girlfriend.
If you end a romantic relationship with someone, you break up with them. You can say, "I ended the relationship," "I stopped seeing them," or "We had a breakup," but the most common sentence people use when they end a relationship is, "I broke up with [him/her/them]," or "[He/She/They] broke up with me." Remember to use the complete phrase, break up, and not just break. Take a look:
Why did you break up with her?
I think she wants to break up with me.
He broke up with her last week. (You can also say, "They broke up last week.")
Did you hear? Joe and Brenda broke up.
Find out something that is lost --> Find something that is lost
Incorrect: I'm trying to find out my keys.
Correct: I'm trying to find my keys.
In modern English, find out is usually used to mean to learn or discover something. We do not usually use find out when we are talking about locating lost things. This usage is common in old detective novels, as in the sentence, "We must find out the thief!", but it is not common in today's English. When you want to talk about finding something that is lost, just be safe and use find. Here are some more examples of find and find out:
Have you found your phone yet?
I found out about your store online.
I'm trying to find a good place to eat.
How did you find out about your surprise party?
Catch up someone --> Catch up with someone
Incorrect: I want to catch up you.
Correct: I want to catch up with you.
If you want to use an object with catch up, you must add the word with. For example, "I caught up with Tina during lunch." This means, "I talked with Tina and learned what had happened in her life since the last time I saw her." If you catch up with someone, you meet with them and share what is new in your lives. You can also catch up with someone in a physical sense, meaning they are in front of you, and you are trying to catch them (by running, driving, etc.). You can also use catch up to in this case ("He's trying to catch up [with/to] us!"). Finally, you can catch up on something, such as your work, if you have work that you didn't finish and that you should have finished earlier. Here are more examples of these phrasal verbs in action:
Dan and I caught up with each other over coffee yesterday. (You can catch up with someone over something, which means you talked during dinner, coffee, a game, etc.)
They're too far ahead of us. We'll never catch up with them.
Do you want to catch up this weekend? (Remember, you can just use catch up if you don't intend to follow it with an object.)
I need to catch up on some emails. I was sick and didn't come to work yesterday.
Get out from a place, vehicle, or situation / Get out of a place, vehicle, or situation
Incorrect: They got out from the car.
Correct: They got out of the car.
This is another case where people use the wrong preposition. While get out from makes logical sense in some cases, it is not the phrase that English speakers use and accept in these case. Use get out of when you are talking about leaving or exiting a place, vehicle, or situation. Here are some more examples:
He just got out of a bad relationship.
I really need to get out of the house. I've been home all day.
What time did you get out of the club?
We didn't get out of the meeting until lunchtime.
As you can see, mastering phrasal verbs isn’t just about memorizing meanings—it’s about understanding how they work. It’s not only about learning which words to use, but also where those words can go. This kind of knowledge takes time, practice, and patience, but it’s worth the effort. So keep reviewing these mistakes and examples until you have a solid understanding of them. With time, you’ll use these phrasal verbs—and many others!—with fluency and confidence.
Finally, if you found this page helpful, you might enjoy one of my books! Each one is designed to help English learners build confidence and sound more natural in everyday situations. Check them out to keep improving your English step by step.
Until next time, keep learning and keep practicing.
