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Lexique de ‘Phrasal Verbs’  de H au L

Les verbes qui servent de plusieurs mots

'H' Phrasal Verbs

To hand in:  to give something you find to a person in authority

Ex: ‘If you find a badge, you should hand it in to security manager’


To hand out:  to distribute

Ex: Copies of the financial report were handed out before the presentation


To hand over:  to give someone the responsibility of dealing with an important issue or problem

Ex: We handed over this project to our best engineer as it is a very important client


To hang on: to wait

Ex: If you hang on a moment, I’ll find that file you wanted


To hang up: to end a phone call

Ex: He was so annoyed when I told him I was leaving the company that he hung up


'I' Phrasal Verbs

To iron out:  to solve a problem or difficulty during the final stages of a negotiation (FR: aplanir)

Ex: After months of negotiation they are almost ready to sing the contracts so they are meeting tomorrow to iron out any remaining issues

'J' Phrasal Verbs

To jump in:  to interrupt

Ex: I wish he would stop jumping in every time I try to speak in meetings


To jump at:  to be happy to accept (FR: sauter sur)

Ex: When they offered him a job in Paris he jumped at the chance of living in France

'K' Phrasal verbs

To keep on:  to continue doing something (FR: ne pas arrêter de faire quelque chose)

Ex: She kept on trying to convince her colleagues that team building activities were beneficial


To keep out:  to stop somebody or something from entering (FR: empecher d’entrer)

Ex: The bank’s strict security measures are designed to keep out potential robbers


To keep out of:  to not be involved

Ex: The two directors are fighting over the budget but I am keeping out of it and remaining neutral


To keep up with:  to remain in contact with

Ex: In my job it is important I keep up with new developments in technology

'L' Phrasal Verbs

To let down:  to disappoint someone (FR: décevoir)

Ex: A lot of employees felt let down by the company’s decision to declare bankruptcy


To let up:  when an unpleasant continuous process weakens or stops

Ex: After days of rain and wind, the bad weather finally let up and the sun came out


To look after:  to make sure someone or something is in good health, protected and / or in good condition (FR: s’occuper de)

Ex1: I am in charge of looking after new students on their first day; I have to show them the school, explain the rules and answer their questions

Ex2: You can borrow my new laptop but please look after it because it is very expensive


To look back on:  to think about things that happened in the past (FR: revenir sur le passé)

Ex: Looking back, it is easy to identify the mistakes we made


To look down on:  to believe that somebody is inferior (FR: regarder de haut)

Ex: His family looked down on him because he didn’t go to university


To look for:  to search (FR: chercher)

Ex: I couldn’t find an important file so I spent three hours looking for it!


To look forward to:  to be happy because something is going to happen (FR: attendre avec impatience)

Ex: I am really looking forward to my holidays!


To look into:  to investigate; to examine (FR: examiner)

Ex: I told the customer I would look into why his delivery was so late


To look out for:  to pay attention to something so that you know when to happens

Ex: He always looks out for special deals when he goes to the supermarket


To look over:  to look at or read something quickly in order to get the general idea (FR: jeter un coup d’œil à)

Ex: I asked my manager to look over my presentation before the meeting in case I had forgotten any important points


To look up:  to find information about a specific topic in a reference book (FR: chercher)

Ex: If I find a word I don’t know, I look it up in the dictionary


To look up to:  to respect and admire somebody (FR: avoir du respect pour)

Ex:  I really looked up to my first boss; he was a kind and fair and a great businessman