Como he dicho en anteriores posts, el examen del FCE require una gran preparación, sobre todo por lo que respecta al vocabulario. Una de los aspectos más recurrentes en el examen del FCE es, sin duda, la frecuente aparición de phrasal verbs. Tanto en los readings, como sobre todo, en los ejercicios de Use of English, se debe demostrar un dominio del inglés como para demostrar que sabemos utilizarlos en diferentes contextos.

Pero vamos por pasos, ¿Qué es un phrasal verb? Pues simplemente un verbo al que se le une una preposición y crea un significado diferente al que tenía sin la preposición.

Por ejemplo:

• Look: mirar

• Look + for: buscar

Como podemos observar en el segundo caso la preposición no actúa de preposición sino que le cambia el significado al verbo y hace referencia a un mismo concepto. En cambio, los verbos preposiciones son verbos que se rigen por una preposición concreta, y donde el significado no cambia.

Por ejemplo:

• Depend: depender

• Depend + on: depender de

Tanto los phrasal verbs, como los verbos preposicionales son esenciales para aprobar el FCE, pero en este post nos vamos a centrar en los phrasal verbs, los más complicados.

Os propongo la siguiente lista:

TURN

• Turn into: convertirse (They want to turn the offices into apartments.)

• Turn up: aparecer (Angela turned up late again)

• Turn out: resultar ser, acabar siendo.. (I’m sure it will all turn out well in the end.)

• Turn on/off: encender y apagar (Can you turn on the heating, please?)

• Turn down: rechazar (The salary was not good, so I turn down the promotion)

• Turn up/down: subir/bajar volumen (I need to focus, can you turn the volume down?)

LOOK

• Look up: buscar información en una fuente (I’ll look that word up in a dictionary)

• Look for: buscar (What are you looking for? -My classes, I can’t find them anywhere)

• Look forward to (+ing): esperar con ganas (I look forward to celebrating my bday)

• Look after: cuidar (Can you look after my plants while I am away on holidays?)

• Look into: investigar (The police are looking into the case)

TAKE

• Take up: empezar a hacer, apuntarse a algo: (Cristina has taken up Pilates)

• Take on: contratar = hire o employ (The company is taking people on)

• Take after: parecerse (You really take after your father)

• Take off: despegar (The plane will take off in 5 minutes, so fasten your seatbelts)

• Take off: quitarse algo de ropa (Can you take your shoes off before you come in?)

• Take in: asimilar, digerir (Don’t ask me to understand. That’s a lot to take in)

CARRY

• Carry on: continuar (We will carry on with the concert unless it rains)

• Carry out: llevar a cabo (She carried out the project)

PICK

• Pick up: recoger (Can you pick me up at 3pm?)

• Pick on: hacer la puñeta (Don’t pick on me, it wasn’t my fault)

RUN

• Run out of: quedarse sin algo (I need to go to the shop, we’ve run out of milk)

• Run into: encontrarse con alguien = bump into (I ran into Maria the other day, she looks amazing)

CUT

• Cut down on: reducir el consumo de algo … (We really need to cut down on the amount of meat we eat)

CALL

• Call off: anular, cancelar : (The meeting was called off because of the rain)

KEEP

• Keep up with: mantenerse informado (You need to keep up with the news)

• Keep off: mantenerse alejado (keep you hands off – it is mine)

• Keep out: no dejar entrar, pasar (the coat keeps out the wind)

COME

• Come across: encontrarse con algo (He came across some old trousers in the closet)

• Come up with: ocurrirse una idea o solución (She came up with the best solution)

PLAN

• Plan ahead: planear con antelación (It is important to plan ahead your holiday)

PUT

• Put on: engordar o ponerse algo de ropa (Which shoes are you going to put on?)

• Put off: posponer (put off a meeting) (The meeting was put off because of the rain)

• Put off: disuadir, echar para atrás (I wanted to buy that phone, but the price put me off)

• Put someone up: hospedar (Can you put us up next week? we have nowhere to go)

BRING

• Bring up: sacar un tema (I will bring the matter up at the next meeting.)

• Bring up: criar (I was brought up in a little village in the North of Spain)

SET

• Set up: fundar o crear una empresa (English Coaching was set up in 2018)

• Set off: partir, ponerse en marcha (We will set off very early to make sure we get there on time)

GIVE

• Give up: rendirse o dejar de hacer algo (I gave up my job last year)

• Give away: regalar (I will give away some of the clothes I don’t use to the charity)

• Give out: repartir, distribuir, entregar (Can you give the exams out, please?)

• Give off: desprender, soltar (un olor, gas) (When they die, plants give off gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.)

FIND/FIGURE

• Figure out: averiguar (I can’t figure out why he said that.)

• Find out: averiguar (We may never find out the truth about what happened.)

CLOSE

• Close down: cerrar (quiebra)= (many shops are closing down because of COVID-19)

WORK

• Work out: hacer deporte, entrenar (I work out twice a week)

• Work out: funcionar, ir bien (I hope your new job works out.)

GET

• Get by: ir tirando, apañárselas (How can he get by on so little money?)

• Get in/out: subir y bajar del coche (Get in the car, it is raining heavily)

• Get on/off: subir y bajar del transporte (bus, metro, tren, avión, etc.) (As soon as I got off the bus and it started to rain)

• Get on with: llevarse bien (I don’t get on well with my sister)

• Get along with: llevarse bien (Angela and her sister don’t get along)

• Get rid of: deshacerse de (We got rid of our unwelcome guests by saying we had to go to bed.)

FALL

• Fall out with: discutir (She left after falling out with her parents)

• Fall behind: quedarse atrás (I’ve fallen behind on the mortgage payments.)

GO

• Go down with: contraer una enfermedad infecciosa (Many people have gone down with COVID-19)

• Go up: subir (The price of the oil has gone up)

• Go down: bajar (The use of plastics is going down lately)

• Go on: continuar (Show must go on)

CATCH

• Catch on: ponerse a la moda: (Flare jeans are really catching on)

• Catch up: ponerse al día (We should grab a coffee some day and catch up)

MAKE:

• Make up: inventarse algo (Did you make that story up? I am sure she didn’t do it)

• Make up for: compensar (We will make up for the classes we missed next month)

PASS

• Pass out: desmayarse (She passed out because of the heat)

• Pass away: morir (Many people passed away because of COVID-19)

SIGN

• Sign in: iniciar sesión (you need to log in on instagram if you want to post a photo)

• Sign up: apuntarse, registrarse (If you don’t sign up you can’t log in)

SHOW

• Show off: fanfarronear (He’s always showing off to his classmates.)

Esto es todo por hoy, espero que os los aprendáis bien, porque así, cuando os encontréis con uno en el Use of English, sabréis detectarlo y utilizarlo.