Fill in the Blanks
🔒 Log in to trackPhrasal-verb blanks: verb + particle as one unit
🔒 Log in to trackA phrasal verb is verb + particle(s) whose meaning is not the sum of its parts. Blanks here test whether you own the unit.
| Phrasal verb | Meaning | Sentence cue |
|---|---|---|
| call off | cancel | the strike was called off |
| put up with | tolerate | she cannot put up with noise |
| carry out | perform, execute | carry out orders / a survey |
| break out | begin suddenly | a fire broke out |
| look into | investigate | the panel will look into it |
| turn down | reject | he turned down the offer |
| give in | surrender | the rebels finally gave in |
| run out of | exhaust the stock of | we ran out of time |
| do away with | abolish | the tax was done away with |
| bring about | cause to happen | the reform brought about change |
| cut down on | reduce | cut down on sugar |
| stand by | support; remain loyal | she stood by her friend |
Two shapes of the blank. Sometimes the particle is blanked ('call ___ the merger') and the verb is given; sometimes the whole unit is blanked among look-alike verbs ('___ up with the noise'). In both, the sentence's action decides:
- cancelling → call off;
- enduring → put up with;
- rejecting → turn down;
- abolishing → do away with.
Particles carry direction. off = cancel/away, out = erupt/distribute, up = appear/build, down = reject/reduce, in = surrender/enter. When two particles both look grammatical, this direction sense separates them.
Transitive or not. Put up with needs an object ('put up with the noise'); give in needs none ('the rebels gave in'). If the blank follows a ready object, a transitive unit is the answer; if the sentence ends at the blank, an intransitive one.
Separable units. 'called the meeting off' and 'called off the meeting' are both valid — so if the object sits between the blank's verb and particle, the unit is separable, and only that shape fits. Improvement items exploit this; fill-in items usually keep the unit intact.
One verb, many meanings — the particle is the word
A phrasal verb is verb + particle acting as a single new word. Call off (cancel) has nothing to do with calling; give in (surrender) has nothing to do with giving. The blank is therefore a meaning blank: read the sentence, get the intended sense, then find the verb+particle that carries it.
Same verb, different particles — the favourite frame
- call off cancel; call on urge/appeal to; call for demand/require; call up telephone; call in summon/withdraw.
- look after care for; look into investigate; look forward to anticipate with pleasure; look down upon despise; look up to admire; look for search.
- put off postpone; put up with tolerate; put down suppress/repress; put across communicate; put out extinguish.
- turn down reject; turn up appear; turn out prove to be; turn over hand over.
- give in (to) surrender; give up quit; give away reveal/donate; give off emit.
When the stem repeats one verb across options (call ___ / look ___), the real question is: which sense does THIS sentence need?
The to-trap
Three particles are followed by to + gerund, not to + verb: look forward to meeting, be used to working, object to paying. The to here is a preposition. Papers plant an infinitive decoy; the blank itself may BE the particle: I am looking ___ to hearing from you → forward.
Separable, inseparable, pronominal
- If the object is a pronoun and the phrasal verb is separable, the pronoun moves inside: call the match off → call it off (never call off it).
- Three-part verbs (put up with, look down upon, get away with, run out of) never separate: put up with it, not put with it up.
- When the blank is the particle itself, the verb already in the sentence fixes the answer — read backwards from the sense.
Register
Neutral options beat fancy ones: exam keys prefer come across (find by chance) over encounter when the blank is a phrasal slot. If two options are both real phrasal verbs, only one carries the sentence's meaning — test each in place and let meaning, not familiarity, decide.
Question types you will see
Each type: how to recognise it, the method step by step, and one question to try.
Same verb, four particles
All options share the verb's particle slot around one repeated verb (called ___ / call ___): off, on, for, in, up.
Read the sentence and name the intended sense: cancel? urge? demand?
Match the sense to the particle: cancel → off; urge a person → on; demand → for; summon → in.
Re-read the completed sentence — the particle must make one natural whole.
Why it works: the four particles turn one verb into four unrelated words; the sentence's meaning is the only selector.
The board meeting has been ___ owing to the chairman's indisposition.
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called off — the sense is cancelled; called for would mean 'demanded', called up 'telephoned'.
look-family blanks
The verb look sits before the blank (or the blank is its particle); options are after, into, forward, down, up.
Decide the sense: caring → after; investigating → into; anticipating → forward to; despising → down upon.
If forward is chosen, confirm the sentence carries to + V-ing or a noun after to.
Reject particles that make real words with wrong senses.
Why it works: look is the most examined phrasal verb because its particles fan out into five everyday senses.
A three-member committee will look ___ the ragging complaint.
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look into — investigate; look after would mean the committee will care for the complaint.
put-family and toleration frames
Sentences about postponing, tolerating or enduring; the blank completes put ___ (with), or the options are off / up with / down / across.
Sense: postpone → off; tolerate → up with; communicate → across; suppress → down.
put up with is three parts — check the object sits after with.
Confirm the completed sentence reads as one natural verb.
Why it works: put is the second most-set phrasal verb, and its toleration sense (put up with) is the classic three-part trap.
The workers refused to put ___ the unsafe conditions any longer.
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put up with — tolerate; the three-part verb keeps its object after with.
Mixed high-frequency phrasal verbs
Options are four unrelated phrasal verbs (turned down / turned up / carried out / gave in), each with a different verb; the sentence must accept exactly one.
Paraphrase the sentence's needed sense in plain words: reject? surrender? perform?
Map to the phrasal verb: reject → turn down; surrender (to) → give in to; perform → carry out.
Check the tail: if the sentence continues with 'to', give in fits and give up does not.
Why it works: with unrelated verbs the options cannot be confused by shape — meaning and the surrounding words (a trailing to, an object) decide.
The college turned ___ his application because of the incomplete marks card.
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turned down — rejected; turned up would mean the application appeared by itself.
Shortcuts that save time
Say the sentence's action in one plain word (cancelled, tolerated, abolished), then pick the phrasal unit that translates it. The wrong particles translate other actions.
The company had to call ___ the proposed merger after the audit.
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Action = cancel → call off. Call up telephones, call for demands, call out shouts — different verbs entirely.
Ask what the sentence does to its object — kills it (off/out), raises it (up), lowers it (down), accepts it (in). Match the particle's direction to the verb's fate.
Replace each option with a one-word verb (call off = cancel). The option whose substitution keeps the sentence's meaning is the answer.
Mistakes to avoid
Where most students lose marks on this subtopic.
Choosing the particle that follows the preposition logic of the first language.
Mixing put up with (tolerate) with put off (postpone) because both contain 'put'.
Reading only the clause containing the blank; the actor and time usually sit in the previous clause.
Forgetting that 'break out' (war, fire, disease) has no passive — 'was broken out' is impossible.
Quick revision
Read this the night before the exam.
call off cancel; call on urge; call for demand; put off postpone; put up with tolerate; look into investigate; look after care for; turn down reject; give in to surrender.
The sentence's sense picks the particle; the verb is already given.
look forward TO + V-ing — to is a preposition there.
Pronouns separate two-part verbs (call it off); three-part verbs never separate.
Test every option in place; familiarity is not the test, meaning is.
Practice: 12 questions
Sets of 10, mixed across the question types above. Every answer has a step-by-step explanation.
Topic test · 12 questions
Suggested time 7 min · wrong answers go to your mistake notebook automatically.