25 Phrasal Verbs for Work, with Examples
Sound more natural at work. Learn 25 of the most useful phrasal verbs for meetings, projects, problems and emails, each with a clear meaning and example.
26 September 2026 · 6 min read
Native speakers use phrasal verbs all the time at work. Instead of “postpone the meeting”, they say “put off the meeting”. Instead of “investigate the problem”, they say “look into it”. If you learn the most common ones, your English will sound much more natural, and you’ll understand your colleagues more easily.
Here are 25 of the most useful, grouped by situation.
Meetings
| Phrasal verb | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| set up | arrange or organise | Can you set up a meeting with the design team for Friday? |
| bring up | mention a topic | I’d like to bring up the budget before we finish. |
| put off | postpone, move to later | We’ve put off the launch until next month. |
| call off | cancel | The client called off the meeting at the last minute. |
| go over | review or check carefully | Let’s go over the plan one more time. |
Tasks and projects
| Phrasal verb | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| take on | accept a job or responsibility | She took on two new projects this year. |
| carry out | do or complete (a task, plan, survey) | We carried out a survey of 500 customers. |
| come up with | think of (an idea or plan) | The team came up with a great name for the app. |
| hand in | submit (a report, form or work) | Please hand in your reports by Thursday. |
| fill in for | do someone’s job while they’re away | Can you fill in for Tom while he’s on holiday? |
| run out of | have no more of something | We’re running out of time, so let’s decide now. |
Problems
| Phrasal verb | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| look into | investigate | I’ll look into the problem and let you know. |
| sort out | solve or organise | Don’t worry, IT will sort out your laptop. |
| figure out | understand or find the answer | We need to figure out why sales dropped. |
| deal with | take action on a problem or person | He’s great at dealing with difficult customers. |
| work out | find a solution; calculate | We worked out a plan that suits everyone. |
| back up | support someone; copy files for safety | Thanks for backing me up in the meeting. / Always back up your files. |
Emails and communication
| Phrasal verb | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| get back to | reply to someone later | I’ll get back to you by the end of the day. |
| follow up (on) | contact again or continue with something | I’m writing to follow up on our call yesterday. |
| point out | tell someone something important | She pointed out a mistake in the contract. |
| catch up (with) | talk to get the latest news | Let’s catch up after lunch about the project. |
| keep up with | stay at the same level or speed | It’s hard to keep up with all these emails! |
People and jobs
| Phrasal verb | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| turn down | refuse (an offer or request) | He turned down the job because of the long hours. |
| step down | leave an important position | The CEO stepped down after ten years. |
| lay off | end people’s jobs because there isn’t enough work | The factory laid off 200 workers. |
How to learn them
Don’t try to learn all 25 today. Choose five that are useful for your job, and:
- Write your own example sentence about your real work.
- Say each one out loud three times.
- Use one in a real email or meeting this week.
- Review them on day 3 and day 7. Here’s why that works.
Watch out for separable phrasal verbs. With many of them, the object can go in the middle: “set up a meeting” or “set a meeting up”. But if the object is a pronoun, it must go in the middle: “set it up”, not “set up it”.
