Advanced Track
Native speakers reach for phrasal verbs constantly and formal equivalents rarely — this lesson trains your ear for both, and the pronoun placement that trips most learners up.
Part 1
Each pair means the same thing. The phrasal verb is what you'll actually hear in conversation; the formal equivalent is what shows up in writing, reports, and more formal speech.
"Figure out." → "Determine."
"Put off." → "Postpone."
"Give up." → "Abandon."
"Run into." → "Encounter."
"Look into." → "Investigate."
"Come across." → "Discover."
"Get over." → "Recover from."
"Bring up." → "Mention."
Part 2
When the object is a pronoun (it, him, them), a separable phrasal verb has to split — the pronoun goes in the middle, not at the end. "Figure out it" is wrong; "figure it out" is right.
"Figure it out."
"Give it up."
"Look into it."
"Run into it."
Notice "look into it" and "run into it" don't split the same way "figure it out" and "give it up" do — that's the inseparable/separable distinction underneath this, covered live with your instructor.
Part 3
Read aloud as a pair, then swap roles. Six phrasal verbs from Parts 1-2, all in one natural exchange.
Line by Line
Part 4
Try each one yourself first, then press play or check the key to confirm.
Exercise A — Fill in the phrasal verb that fits
1 · Fill in, then check
"I need to ______ the best solution." (determine)
Answer: Revealed
2 · Fill in, then check
"Let's ______ the meeting." (postpone)
Answer: Revealed
3 · Fill in, then check
"I ______ an old photo yesterday." (discovered)
Answer: Revealed
Exercise B — Pronoun word order
Correct the order
| "Figure out it." (wrong) | "Figure it out." |
| "Give up it." (wrong) | "Give it up." |
| "Look it into." (wrong) | "Look into it." |
| "Run it into." (wrong) | "Run into it." |
Live/text exercise — no audio. Reuses the Part 2 clips above to check your answers by ear.
Exercise C · Free Response
Tell a short story (3-4 sentences) about your week using at least three phrasal verbs from this lesson.
Live/text exercise — no audio. Bring it to your next live session.
Part 5
A preview of the final live-conversation format.
1 · Speaking Prompt
"I need to determine whether to postpone the trip. I discovered a problem with the tickets, and I don't want to abandon the plan entirely. Now retell that to me using phrasal verbs instead."
Answer out loud — swap every formal verb for its phrasal-verb equivalent from Part 1.
2 · Speaking Prompt
"Tell me about a time you ran into someone you didn't expect to see."
Answer out loud, live and unscripted.
Pass Standard
To pass Advanced Lesson 6, correctly convert at least four formal verbs to their phrasal-verb equivalents (or back), place a pronoun object correctly in a separable phrasal verb, and use at least two phrasal verbs naturally in live conversation.
Retake Note
Getting the meaning right but the pronoun order wrong is the single most common mistake at this stage — it's a word-order habit, not a vocabulary gap. Go back to Part 2 and say each one out loud several times until "figure it out" comes automatically, without having to think through the rule first.