How do you teach phrasal verbs at school?

Answer 1

It depends on what level you are teaching.

They are hard to teach because phrasal verbs have literal and/or non literal meanings. For example: pick up has the literal meaning - to pick something up of the floor etc and also the non literal meaning - to learn with out much effort.

So the meanings have to be learned because it is hard to guess the meanings of the non literal phrasal verbs from the words used.

They can have past present or future tenses like any other verb - I am picking up Jon after school.

They are common in speech but are often replace by a single word when writing for example give in - yield.

It is probably easier to learn a few at a time. Try gap fill exercises where students choose a phrasal verb from a list to go into the appropriate sentence.

Or maybe sentences where the verb is given but the correct particle has to be chosen. eg

It took them a long time to make ...... after their quarrel. . . off up over

Learn to use them in different tenses not just present simple or past simple.