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Have you got a favourite technique or activity that you like to use with your students for teaching or practising phrasal verbs?

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Phil, France
It's important that teachers remember which phrasals have been taught and then keep using them during 'uncontrolled' practice i.e. conversation. Just drop them in from time to time - repetition aids familiarity. Students then hear them in various contexts, get the hang of them and start using them naturally. Easier done with one-to-one.

Nasif, Sudan
Phrasal verbs are useful , and should be taught in away that a student could easily practice them. They have different meanings depending on the particle. I would like to thank the BBC Learning English for their fruitful efforts.

Mery, Uruguay
Well, actually I don't have any special technique to teach phrasal verbs but by experience I can tell that the best way is to ask the students to put the new phrasal verb into a meaningful sentence for them. TRUE MEANING!!!

Kristana, France
You have to learn them by heart in a whole sentence. e.g "I don't speak English fluently but I get by."

Carmen, Malaga
A clear understanding of phrasal verbs is very difficult. I use them with funny stories and paper cartoons.

Carlos, Colombia
I do agree with those who say the key point when teaching phrasal verbs is to set them into a clear and well-defined context. That has always been essential. On the other hand, I have never used their synonims as a strategy as Ferhat suggests... I would like to know how exactly this is done as it might be either a very efficient way or turn into something confusing.

Resul, Azerbaijan
I think if we understand the exact meaning of the particle which is joined to the main verb, we will be able to understand the meaning of phrasal verbs.

Shakeel Amjad, Pakistan
For phrasal verb, if you give a clear understanding of different aspects of prepositions, you will find that students develop better understanding of phrasal verbs. In fact,in many cases the verb is known to have a certain meaning and the particle refers back to a certain verb. For example, let's take hurry on. Hurry usually has up and on refers back to move. So actually the phrase was in my opinion was hurry up and move on. Knowing prepositions can make great difference.

Ella, Georgia
Phrasal verbs are difficult to learn - but if you choose a particular subject it can be a lot easier. For example, the subject can be driving, therefore you could teach drop off, pull over, draw up, etc.

Saeed, Iran
the teacher could prepare reading texts in which PVs are presented and ask them to guess the meaning getting hand of the words surrounding the meaning would be fixed in the students long term memory

Lucia, Italy
I often try to avoid a grammatical lesson on phrasal verbs! I hate them too! Unless one is mother- tongue or lives in the foreign country for a while, it is very difficult either to teach or to study them in an abstract way. Help! Can anybody give me some pracical tips? Thanks.

Mahmoud, Syria
First, I try to write a list of the phrasal verbs I am going to teach the students on the board. Then, I explain the meaning of each one and the tricky use of it. After that, I write some exercises on the board and let the students match the suitable ones.

Minou, Italy
Phrasal verbs are difficult to learn - but if you choose a particular subject it can be a lot easier. For example, the subject can be driving, therefore you could teach drop off, pull over, draw up, etc.

John Goodhew, United Kindom
In reply to Elza, Brazil who talks about phrasal verbs as if they are a waste of time. I should like to point out that yes they do have rules to follow. Furthermore, they are an essential part of spoken English.

Ferhat, Türkiye
Actually it is too difficult to learn phrasal verbs for learners. I try to teach phrasal verbs in terms of the context... but it is not easy for learners to keep their meanings on their minds... And then I decided to give phrasal verbs with their synonyms. I realized that it worked better than other techniques that I had applied before. I advise you all to teach PV with their synonyms.

Susana Gilmore, Argentina
First, asking my students to match the phrasal verb with their meaning, and then personalise the exercise by using each phrasal verb in sentences that are true for them . Using the language in interesting contexts of their own reality helps student to remember vocabulary better

Marcus Carvalho, Brazil
I like to have them join two pieces of paper, one with the verb and other with the particle, and use the found phrasal verb to complete some phrases. I usually start with simple examples and gradually move up to the most difficult ones. I also like to bring them some lyrics with phrasal verbs missing, so that they have to listen to the song and fill in the blanks. I think this is a motivating and interesting way to make students learn such a difficult grammar topic.

Noé A. WOROU, Bénin
As far as I am concerned, one of the reliabe techniques which help students to grasp quickly and correctly the meanings of phrasal verbs is funny stories or anecdotes. When the subjects you want to teach are tricky as phrasal verbs, it is bettter to use funny tools, games etc.

Georgia, Greece
I usually teach the phrasal verbs in terms of the text that we have to study or comment on... We encounter the PVs in the companion as well where we have a more general aspect of what each one means. It's even better if we follow a guide which presents the PVs more analytically, along with some examples..Whenever students read the PVs in the examples is much easier for them to understand and absorb their meaning. Teachers of course have to empasize that they have multiple meanings depending each time on the text or the topic of the discussion..What is more is even better to stress the difference between the PVs and the other regular verbs; PVs are informal (and we use them on our daily lives) whereas the regular verbs are more formal and it's better to use them when we want to write a more formal essay.

Elza, Brazil
Phrasal verbs are so useless and honestly speaking, it should be banned. It is a waste of time to try teach someone something that makes no sense, have no rules, and the usage of it keeps changing. Lets convey meaning in a more rational and logical way. Sorry if there is someone that doesn't agree with me, but nothing is perfect, not even phrasal verbs.

Sanket, India
The beauty of the phrasal verbs is that they make the language the meaning quite different from the actual verb. But i find it difficult to guess from the context, the actual meaning of the phrasal verb even if i know the meaning of the verb. It is quite different and unpredictable from the actual verb.

Marija Liudvika Rutkauskaite, Lithuania
I used to select extracts from William Sommerset Maugham's stories, delete the phrasal verbs and ask the students to fill in the blanks. This exercise is fair with advanced or at least intermediate students. It is too difficult for junior students. But when the students are strong enough in English to do it, it makes sense and is interesting.

J. Praveen Paul Joseph, India
Hi,Let me share my ideas. As far as I am concerned, phrasal verbs play a key role in promoting the speakers intention to convey meaning while speaking with a novel and stylish approach.By making use of phrasal verbs, people share their feelings and thoughts in a different way in which case only learned scholars and people with the background of English knowledge will be able to comprehend.Phrasal verb is something, students like to learn more, because it sounds trendy. I feel that the usage keeps changing. I also feel, it has got multiple meanings, otherwise called as poly semis.

Mahmoud satari , Iran
To teach your students the phrasals , you must give them a figurative sense of the phrasals.

Raquel, Argentina
I usually work with a topic-based syllabus and I try to include as many phrasal verbs as possible (always related to the topic). I find that the best way to study phrasal verbs because students find it easy to remember the vocabulary area to which each phrasal belongs.

Samira,Azerbaijan
The best way to comprehend phrasal verbs is to use it in sentences..more sentences will help every student to learn them easily... and to make dialogues using those phrazal verbs..and to think,trying to write diary using them..

Newtonedge,france
The most important is to practice, again and again!Giving responsibilities to small groups of students,make them working and searching together...

Sayan, India
plenty of practice with the phrasal verbs in context gradually building up to the more difficult ones.

Rassem, Syria
even kings to grammar bow.I am toward the belief that the first step is to make students grasp the grammer through explaining the differents aspects of the phrasal verbs.It is the skelton that the students should flesh it through practicing and training how to use them correctly.

Chris Gimpel, Italy
Plenty of practice with the simpler phrasal verbs in context, gradually building up to the more difficult ones.

Ghanieh Ameripour
The teacher can divide the students into groups. Each team would be responsible to prepare a booklet in which the PVs are presented with some funny pictures or drawings.

Selin, Turkey
I generally want my students to repeat until the structures and meanings have an automatic system in the brain. After several repetitions, the structures are coded into the brain. And they can use them in articles and speeches easily with minimum effort

Ghanieh Ameripour
When I used to work as a teacher, I asked my students to make sentences or anecdotes with the PVs.