Professional English Practice · Phrasal Verbs
9 · OFF: separation, departure, and cancellation
Ending things, leaving rooms, and taking plans off the calendar.
ACCESS
Read the scene and notice the moves in bold. One of them, peel off, is never taught in this book. Before you read on, let the particle show you what it means.
A law firm's deal team, the night before a signing that may not happen.
Nadia The seller wants to call off tomorrow's signing until the financing clears.
Theo If we put it off a third time, the buyer walks.
Ruiz And if the talks break off tonight, there's nothing left to sign at all.
Nadia Then peel off the disputed warranties into a side letter and sign the core deal on time.
Theo Their lead counsel already took off for the night. We can't reach him.
Nadia Then head off to his office at eight, before he sets off for the airport. We settle this in person.
ANALYSIS
ONE QUESTION RUNS THIS WHOLE UNIT
What comes away from what?
Off is one picture: away from a surface. Name the surface and the thing that leaves it, and the sense follows: a part off a whole, a person off a place, a plan off the calendar.
The structure
Off is the mirror of on, and its hub is just as physical: away from a surface. Take a lid off a jar. A plane lifts off the runway. Every abstract sense in this unit is that one separation applied to something you cannot literally peel.
In the separation sense, a part detaches from a whole: talks break off, a supply is cut off. In the departure sense, something leaves under its own power: people take off, head off, set off. In the cancellation sense, a plan is lifted off the calendar: you call off an event.
Separation
- Sense
- a part detaches from a whole
- How you know
- the whole is still there after the part goes
- Use it to
- report a piece being taken out of an arrangement
Departure
- Sense
- something leaves under its own power
- How you know
- the thing that goes is the one that moved
- Use it to
- report a departure, with the leaving as the news
Cancellation
- Sense
- a plan is lifted off the calendar
- How you know
- there was a date, and now there is not
- Use it to
- say a thing will not happen, rather than that it failed
The literal sense sits at the top. Everything under it is that same movement applied to something you cannot touch.
Off the surface, and on it
Off is the mirror of on, and the pair is the fastest way to feel what either one is doing.
Put off a meeting and it comes away from the date it was sitting on. Take on a task and it comes to rest on you. Same surface, opposite directions, and neither has to be learned as an idiom once you can see the surface.
This is also why call off and put off are not the same. Call off takes the thing off the calendar and does not put it back. Put off moves it to another square.
The test you can run with no book
Ask: what is the surface, and what leaves it?
A part leaving a whole is separation. A person or vehicle leaving a place is departure. A plan leaving a date is cancellation.
If you cannot name a surface, the particle is probably not off. That is the check that stops the common error of reaching for it whenever something ends: ending is up, and leaving is off.
The mechanical half: departure takes no object. They took off; she headed off. The moment there is a thing being taken off something else, you are in separation or cancellation instead.
One idea covers them all: off means away from the surface, and the only question is what comes away. A part breaks off, a person takes off, or a plan is lifted off the calendar. This is also why call off feels final and put off feels temporary: one lifts the event off the calendar for good; the other slides it to a later square.
ACTIVATION
Work down the page: the form first, then the strangers, then the particle choices, then the words, then say one out loud.
Complete the form
Use the verb in brackets plus off, in the correct form.
Spot and fix the error
Each sentence has one mistake. Rewrite it correctly.
1. The talks broke off the moment the buyer chose to walk out.
2. Can you put off the client until next week?
3. We had to put the launch off until the third quarter.
4. Their CFO took off before the vote.
5. Two directors backed down from the earnout this morning.
Rewrite with a phrasal verb
Replace the formal verb with a verb plus off that carries the same meaning.
1. The board may call off the merger.
2. We can't put off the vote again.
3. The talks broke off at midnight.
4. Their counsel took off before we finished.
5. Let's split off the disputed clauses into a side letter.
Match the halves
Join each opening to the ending that completes it.
Meet a Stranger
These three are not taught anywhere in this book. Reason from the particle, then reveal the key.
1. “The group plans to hive off its logistics arm into a separate company.”
2. “Their analyst ran off to catch a flight before we could get a signature.”
3. “A short extension staved off the lawsuit for another quarter.”
hive off: to separate a part of a business into its own entity. Separation sense.
run off: to leave hurriedly. Departure sense.
stave off: to hold a threat or a deadline away for a while. Cancellation sense, with the sense of keeping it off.
Particle swap
Same verb, three particles, one right answer. Choose the particle the situation needs.
Vocabulary: ending and delaying
Match each expression to its meaning.
Vocabulary in context
Complete each sentence with an expression from G.