Professional English Practice · Phrasal Verbs
29 · Phrasal verbs in speech
Meetings, standups, and calls: where the phrasal verb is the expected choice.
ACCESS
This part of the book is about placement, not decoding. You know the verbs; the question now is when to reach for them. In speech, the phrasal verb is almost always the natural choice. Listen for the one line that sounds wrong, and ask why.
A morning standup. Most of the team speaks the way people actually speak. One new hire does not, yet.
Mara Quick standup, let's kick off. Where are we on the migration?
Sol We ran into a caching bug yesterday, but I worked around it. Back on track.
Mara Nice. Can you run the fix by security before it ships?
Priyanka I shall commence the review and subsequently transmit my observations.
Mara Ha, you can just say you'll go over it and get back to me. We keep it loose in here.
Priyanka Got it. I'll go over it and follow up by noon.
ANALYSIS
ONE QUESTION RUNS THIS WHOLE UNIT
Would you say this out loud?
Everything before this decoded phrasal verbs. This part of the book is the opposite skill: choosing to use them. In speech, the phrasal verb is not merely allowed but expected, and the Latinate twin sounds stiff. Ask this before you open your mouth.
The structure
Everything you've learned so far decodes phrasal verbs. This last part of the book is the opposite skill: choosing to use them, and knowing where. Start with speech, because speech is where the phrasal verb is not just allowed but expected. In a standup, a call, or a hallway, the Latinate verb sounds stiff, distant, even a little pompous.
The reason is rhythm and relationship. Phrasal verbs are short, stressed, and Anglo-Saxon; they land in the ear the way spoken English is built to land. Let's kick off is three quick beats; let us commence is a lecture.
The spoken default
- Form
- short, stressed, Anglo-Saxon, one or two beats
- Meaning
- it lands in the ear the way spoken English is built to land
- Use it to
- sound like a colleague rather than a document
The Latinate twin, spoken
- Form
- a longer borrowed word in a spoken sentence
- Meaning
- the rhythm stalls and the distance opens
- Use it to
- recognize the effect before you produce it
Rhythm and relationship
- Form
- the phrasal verb inside a spoken frame
- Meaning
- the surrounding words are contracted and quick
- Use it to
- match the phrase to the sentence around it
The left column is what people actually say. The right is grammatical, but out loud it sounds like a memo read aloud.
Stiffness is a choice too
The mistake this unit exists to prevent is not grammatical. It is a speaker who has learned a great deal of formal vocabulary and deploys all of it in a hallway.
I will endeavor to ascertain the cause and revert to you is correct English and nobody speaks it. I'll find out what happened and get back to you says the same thing and belongs to the room.
That is why this half of the book comes last. You cannot choose the informal option deliberately until you are certain of the formal one, and by now you are.
The test you can run with no book
Ask: how many beats is it?
Spoken English wants short, stressed units. If your phrase is one long borrowed word where two quick beats would do, you are reaching for the wrong twin.
The check is physical rather than analytical, and that is what makes it usable in real time: say both, and keep the one that does not slow the sentence down.
The mechanical half: contractions and phrasal verbs travel together. If the sentence has we'll and let's in it, a Latinate verb will sound out of place next to them.
Hold one idea: in speech, shorter and stressed wins. Phrasal verbs are built from the oldest, most common words in English, the ones a listener processes without effort. The Latinate twin makes the listener translate, and translation, even for a fraction of a second, reads as distance.
ACTIVATION
Practice choosing the spoken form: convert stiff to natural, hear the register, then say it out loud.
Say it naturally
You're speaking, not writing. Replace the stiff verb with the natural phrasal verb.
Spot the stiff one
Each line has one word too formal for speech. Rewrite it the way you'd actually say it.
1. I'll go over your notes and get back to you by five.
2. We ran into a blocker but handled it.
3. Let's kick off and see where we are.
4. Please send over the deck when it's ready.
5. Let's wrap up here and pick up tomorrow.
Rewrite the memo as speech
Turn each written-formal sentence into what you'd say out loud, using a phrasal verb.
1. I'll look into it and get back to you.
2. We need to cut back this quarter.
3. The team will take over the account.
4. Can we put off the review till Friday?
5. I'll bring this up at the meeting.
Match the halves
Join each spoken opening to the meeting moment it fits.
Meet a Stranger
These three fill real meetings. If you don't know them, reason from the particle, then reveal the key.
1. “Let's take that offline and keep the standup short.”
2. “Can you loop in security before this ships?”
3. “Let's touch base after lunch on the numbers.”
take it offline: to move a side topic out of the group meeting. Offline: off the shared channel.
loop in: to bring someone into the conversation or decision. In: inside the loop.
touch base: to make brief contact to stay aligned. Base: a point you check in at.
Say the natural one
You're speaking in a standup. Choose the phrasal verb; the others are correct but sound stiff out loud.
Vocabulary: meeting-speak
Match each expression to its meaning.
Vocabulary in context
Complete each sentence with an expression from G.