Phrasal Verbs 1

ABIDE BY: To obey the law, a decision or a rule.

  • If you want to stay in this school, you must abide by its rules.
  • In a monarchy everyone has to abide by the decision of the king.
  • To abide by the code of conduct is your only option.
  • If you don’t abide by the rules of the club, your membership will be cancelled.
  • While driving, we should abide by the traffic rules for our own safety.

ACCOUNT FOR: Explain, give a reason.

  • I hope that you can account for the money you have spent.
  • How can we account for our overnight success?
  • The employee was fired because he could not account for all the email’s sent from his computer.
  • Who is going to account for all the corruption in your government?
  • The captain of the Indian cricket team should account for the recent losses.

ACHE FOR: Want something or someone very badly.

  • He was so lonely that he ached for the sound of a human voice.
  • Not getting an inhaler even after aching for it for hours, led him to death.
  • His aching for money without caring of the means, landed him in prison.
  • The father was aching for his son, who lived abroad.
  • The child was aching for a playstation as his birthday gift.

ACT ON: To take action as a result of something.

  • I acted on a complaint that I received.
  • We should act on our mistake by boldly accepting it , instead of trying to hide it.
  • To accept and act on our mistakes, is being a man .
  • To reduce the rate of growing death in road accidents, the Govt. of India acted on by making airbags compulsory in all the cars.
  • The parents acted on the poor performance of their kid in exams, by reducing the playing hours.

TO ACT UP: Something that causes pain or annoyance by functioning badly.

  • My grandmother’s poor knee is acting up again.
  • Slow internet connection is something which acts up the most .
  • Poor T V signals acted up the whole football match .
  • His vintage car always acts up.
  • His teeth filling is acting up again.

ADD UP: Make sense, seem reasonable

  • His story just doesn’t add up.
  • He is so intelligent, that he says nothing which doesn’t add up.
  • His busy schedule adds up for his absence from the parties.
  • Why don’t your reasons ever add up?
  • Don’t try to add up when your reasons actually don’t do so.

ADHERE TO: Support, follow, act in accordance with.

  • All contestants must adhere to the rules.
  • In life, u may not adhere to the rules while making your decisions, but act according to the need of the situation.
  • We must adhere to the guidelines of road safety.
  • All the countries of the United Nations must adhere to the rules laid by it.
  • We must adhere to a noble cause.

ADVICE AGAINST: Recommend not doing something.

  • The doctor advised him against carrying heavy loads.
  • I advised him against taking bribe, which earned him a lot of respect in the future.
  • We advised him against smoking, which he didn’t follow and died of cancer.
  • Everyone advised the man against crossing the rail track.
  • He advised me against consulting a local doctor, for which i thanked him later.

AGREE WITH: To have the same opinion as someone else.

  • I agree with you that he deserves to know about the report.
  • The whole office agreed with the proposal of Mr Gaurav.
  • Very few people agree with you when you think of something innovative.
  • Even if no one agrees with you, do what seems right to you.
  • Ladies and gentlemen, do you agree with me ?

AIM AT: To direct towards a target.

  • The policeman aimed his gun towards the thief.
  • To achieve a goal, you must aim at it and strive hard to achieve it.
  • Aim at becoming the best, and no one can stop you.
  • John aimed at achieving the scholarship, and he finally made it.
  • Aim at your shot, before you shoot.