Phrasal Verb Fun

point out
'The idea in boxing,' said the champ, 'is to hurt him more than he hurts
me. I just wanted to point that out.'
(He just wanted to indicate it
out
to the world.)
Separable two-word verb
Be careful.

---

pull
(pull, pulled, pulled)
This is when you move something a little heavy or difficult towards you. It
is the opposite of
push
.
pull ahead
In any race, the person, horse or car in front of the others, is
ahead
. Think
of
get ahead
or
stay ahead
.
Maybe the horse race is very close with no clear winner yet, but now
Mighty Wonder is pulling ahead of the rest.
It is as if he was pulling the winning post towards him.
This means exactly the same as
push ahead
.
Two-word verb without an object
No problem.
pull away
Pull away means exactly the same as
pull ahead
. If you watch horse
racing you will hear this a lot. (By the way, listening to horse racing is a
wonderful idea for improving your listening in general. The commentators
talk really really fast. Ten minutes is worth an hour of an action film with
explosions, for example. And if you put money on it, it will keep your
attention.)
Two-word verb without an object
No problem.
pull back
Back
, after a verb, almost always has the sense of 'return'
An army pulls back to its previous position. It retreats. The general is
pulling his army back to its previous position.
Usually a two-word verb without an object
, so no problem. But it
can be a separable two-word verb

Be careful.
pull off
Off
frequently means a change of state or position (like
go off
,
take off
).
When you pull something off, you have taken it away.
By extension, when you pull off a project, you also complete it. When do
you complete a project? When it is finished.

---

When you pull off a project, it is a success. Always.
Compare this with
bring off
and
carry off
. Also, a project can
come off
.
They all mean exactly the same.
Daisy pulls it off.
Daisy succeeds in something difficult. Well done, Daisy!
Usually a fixed expression.
Separable two-word verb
Be careful.
pull through
The doctors told us that she could die, but she pulled through.
Through
means movement from outside something, in to it, and then
outside it again. Often this is difficult. For example -
break through
,
get
through
something, and
think through
a hard problem..
Pull through is a crisis. If you pull through an illness, or an ordeal, it
means that you survive it. It didn't kill you. We typically think of this as a
medical or an emotional drama. Something - or Someone - is pulling you
through this crisis.
Two-word verb without an object
No problem.
push
(push, pushed, pushed)
This is when you move something a little heavy or difficult away from you.
It is the opposite of
pull
.
push ahead
In any race, the person, horse or car in front of the others, is
ahead
. Think
of get ahead or stay ahead.
Maybe the race is very close with no clear winner yet, but now Mighty
Wonder is pushing ahead of the rest.
It is as if he is making a special effort pushing against the ground
It means exactly the same as
pull ahead
.
Two-word verb without an object
No problem.
push around
If you put big boys and little boys together in the same playground, the
little ones soon get pushed around.
If you can push somebody
around
the place, he or she is weak and easy

---

to dominate. (This person is also known as a 'pushover'.)
Separable two-word verb
Careful.
push for
One of the commonest meanings of
for
is a reason to do something. Such
as
go for
,
look for
, or
stand for
for Parliament.
If you work in a big organisation, and you want something important to
happen, you want something done, you have to push for it. You have to
push through much resistance (also known as your colleagues and your
boss) for your project.
Inseparable two-word verb
No problem.
push off
This is an inelegant way of telling somebody to go away. There are other,
ruder, ways of saying the same thing using taboo verbs and
off
. But not in
this book.
Fixed expression. No problem.
put
(put, put, put)
Put means 'to place', 'to position'. It must always have a preposition after
it. You put something somewhere. Otherwise it makes no sense.