Most common phrasal verbs in Cambridge exams

We all know that Phrasal Verbs are a bit of a headache when trying to learn English. Using them correctly sometimes takes up 🙂 a lot of processing time whenever we are writing or speaking. In this post we are going to show you three ways you can learn the most common phrasal verbs faster and use them correctly in your Cambridge exams. Apps, techniques and your willingness are all you need. Don’t forget to check out our 3 things to do to prepare for a Cambridge exam. It’ll help you set up the correct mindset for the exams.

But, before we go on to explain the methods to learn Phrasal Verbs faster, we would like to tell you two things. The first one that we have made a list of the 10 most common phrasal verbs used in Cambridge exams. You can download the list here. We have come up with this list after analysing over 200 Cambridge exams and noting the amount of times each phrasal verb appeared. We hope you like it. The second thing is that we needed to remind you when and why Phrasal Verbs are important. Phrasal verbs are important in English because they are commonly used when speaking. The reason is because it makes your speech sound much more natural. This means that you won’t find many phrasal verbs in formal texts or documents.

And now, let’s move on to see how to remember them:

Learn the meaning not the phrasal verb itself

It’s essential that you know what you want to say when using a phrasal verb. Although this may seem quite obvious, it’s very important you understand what this really means. Many teachers suggest studying phrasal verbs by word groups (mind maps). This is great to learn the key verbs, let’s say, give and then just adding particles to it. Give in, give out, give up, and so on. This might seem like a good idea to remember the phrasal verb on its own. However it’s fairly easy to mix them up and you might end up using them incorrectly when taking a Cambridge exam.

So, our suggestion is to focus on meaning. For example, we’re sure you know the word appear, but for variety’s sake in your speech or because it came up in your Cambridge exam, you need to use a phrasal verb. You need to remember that appear is the same as show up, which is one of the most common phrasal verbs in Cambridge exams. The next thing we recommend doing is writing two sentences, which are the same one with each of the verbs. One with appear and the other one with show up (in the correct form if possible). Here’s an example:

Nathan appeared at the wedding wearing a great suit.

Nathan showed up at the wedding wearing a great suit.

We’re sure that by carrying out this process just once a day, the probability of you remembering this particular phrasal verbs is very high.

Read a blog post or an article

Just like this one. In fact in this blog post we have included a few phrasal verbs. Have you noticed? They are all in bold. Look for them and make sentences just like we suggested before.

Here’s another example we took from a blog we love to read.

When a friend introduced Borja to the courses offered through Google Actívate, the future suddenly looked brighter. “When I found out about Actívate, I just knew I had to do something in the online world,” says Borja. “It didn’t just give me the tools I needed; it inspired me to move forward professionally and personally, to pursue my passion, to dare.”

Borja finished the courses determined to set up his own online business. Thanks to the skills he gained through Actívate, including SEO and search engine marketing, he launched his e-commerce site Huerta Tropical, which sells tropical fruit grown in Spain.

Read the full article here. Just in these few lines there are three phrasal verbs. So, as you can see reading will help you come across great phrasal verbs. All you need to do is follow recommendation #1.

Make your own list of phrasal verbs and practise them

Although making your list of anything takes time, we are sure that this will help you consolidate the use and meaning of your favourite phrasal verbs. Try to make a list of the phrasal verbs that are the most natural to your way of speaking and writing. What we mean, is that remembering something that you will hardly ever use, will take you double the effort and time. Whereas remembering something you tend to use in your own language might prove to be a bit easier.

So, make a list of the verbs you know you are using and write them in the form of a phrasal verb.

You can take a look at our editable list of phrasal verbs here. It’s on a spreadsheet format which you can download or save in your own cloud storage system. Like this you can keep it always handy on your phone, tablet or computer.

We have created a really interesting quiz exercise for you to learn them quicker. Access it here.

We hope you can make use of the tools we have included in this post. Please do let us know in a comment what you has worked for you and what hasn’t. Don’t forget, when learning phrasal verbs you need to #beagogetter.