What are phrasal verbs?
Look at the following phrases and think about what they mean:
- Bump into
- Come up with
- Drop by
- Give out
- Run out of
These are phrasal verbsand are created by uniting a verb with a preposition or an adverb.
Just think of the phrasal verb bump into.
If you didn’t know what the two words mean together, you wouldn’t be able to guess the meaning of them just by looking at the words separately.
Now that you know this, let us tell you there is an equivalent of phrasal verbs in Italian too.
Let’s have a look at some of them!
Italian phrasal verbs
Here’s a list of the most common Italian phrasal verbs with their meanings:
- Buttare giù: to get someone sad
- Dare addosso a: to criticize, to pick on
- Essere fuori (di testa): to be crazy
- Fare fuori: to kill, to get rid of, to finish up
- Mettere dentro: to arrest, to jail
- Mettere sotto: to run over, to hit
- Portare avanti: to carry on (with), to develop
- Portare via: to take away
- Tirare su: to raise, to build
- Venire giù: to fall down, to collapse
Italian phrasal verbs: Examples
Let’s now look at some sentences for each of the above phrasal verbs:
Quella notizia mi ha buttata giù.
That news got me sad.
Hanno dato addosso al presidente.
They criticized the president.
La mia amica è proprio fuori.
My friend is really crazy.
I poliziotti hanno fatto fuori il ladro.
The police officers killed the thief.
Hanno messo dentro il mio migliore amico.
They jailed my best friend.
Una macchina stava per mettermi sotto.
A car was about to run over me.
Volete portare avanti il progetto?
Do you want to carry on the project?
Hanno portato via i bambini.
They took the kids away.
Mia mamma mi ha tirato su da sola.
My mom raised me on her own.
C’è stato un terremoto e la casa è venuta giù.
There was an earthquake and the house collapsed.
3 Responses
Grazie per la lezione! Mi piace imparare nuovi phrasal verbs.
Interesante
Ciao Timothy!
🙂