Phrasal verbs

Excerpt from: Prof. Kev Nair's Fluency Development Course -- http://www.fluentzy.com

Here's one of the most important things you should do when you're trying to develop your vocabulary from the fluency building angle: Try and gain mastery over phrasal verbs.

You see. when you're trying to achieve a high level of fluency in spoken English, the vocabulary items you must learn are not words like 'discern', 'eschew', or 'disdain', etc. No. Words like these are not normally used in spoken English. So in place of these words, you must learn to use multi-word verbs like these:

'see through (=discern), 'give up' (eschew), 'look down on' ( = disdain).

Phrases like 'see through', 'look down on' and 'give up' are known as phrasal verbs.

Now understand this: A major proportion of spoken English vocabulary is made up of 'phrasal verbs' like these.

Many books on vocabulary development mislead you. Those books teach you a large number of words like 'discern', 'disdain',  'eschew' etc, but don't tell you that those words are not part of the spoken English vocabulary. The result is this: You spend hours and hours learning words like these, and yet find that your spoken English fluency has not gone up. No wonder! The vocabulary you've been mastering hasn't been spoken English vocabulary.

But phrasal verbs won't fail you: Each phrasal verb you learn will advance your practical word power a little bit. Yes, each of them.