Phrasal Verbs with UP Exercises

The particle up is one of the most common in English phrasal verbs. It often adds a meaning of completion, increase, or upward movement to a verb. For example, wake up means to stop sleeping, stand up means to rise to your feet, and eat up means to finish all your food. Pick up can mean to lift something from a surface or to collect someone: "I'll pick you up at eight." These are among the first phrasal verbs that learners meet because they appear constantly in everyday English.

Many phrasal verbs with up are separable. This means you can put the object between the verb and up: "Turn the music up" or "Turn up the music" — both are correct. However, when you use a pronoun, you must place it between the verb and up: "Turn it up" — never "turn up it." This pronoun rule applies to all separable phrasal verbs and is a very common test point in Cambridge A2 Key and B1 Preliminary exams. Practise these verbs in full sentences to remember both meaning and word order.