Phrasal Verbs with Take: Meanings Beyond the Literal

On its own, take is simple enough. Attach a particle to it, and the meaning can move far from anything like physically taking something. That is what makes phrasal verbs with take confusing for learners who rely on the base verb: no amount of knowing take prepares you for take after. This guide covers six, using the meanings listed in Cambridge Dictionary, and shows how to tell their different senses apart.

Why the meaning drifts

A phrasal verb is a verb with a particle that together make one unit of meaning, so the particle does not simply modify take the way an adjective modifies a noun. It creates something closer to a new word. Because of this, one phrasal verb can have several unrelated senses. Take up can mean to start a hobby and also to fill space or time. The only way to know which is meant is context.

Take on: accept or begin to have

Cambridge Dictionary gives take on several senses: to accept a particular job or responsibility, to begin to have a particular quality, to employ someone, and to compete against someone.

• "She took on an extra project this month." (accept a responsibility)
• "Her voice took on a troubled tone." (begin to have a quality)
• "The company is taking on twenty new staff." (employ)
• "The local team will take on the champions on Saturday." (compete against)

At work, the first meaning is the most common. Take on suggests voluntarily adding something to your workload: "I cannot take on any more clients." It can be separable when the object is a person or thing: take a new project on or take on a new project, with a pronoun in the middle: take it on.

Take after: resemble a relative

Cambridge Dictionary defines take after as being similar to an older member of your family in appearance or character. "He really takes after his mother." "Most of my children take after my husband." The meaning has drifted a long way from the literal take, and it is always used with family relationships. It is inseparable, so the object always follows: take after her father, never take her father after.

Do not use it for things that merely look alike. You can say a style resembles another, or a person is like another, but take after is for inherited or family likeness.

Take up: start, or fill

Take up has two common, unrelated-sounding uses, and Cambridge Dictionary lists both, along with others. One is to start doing a particular job or activity, and the other is to fill an amount of space or time.

• "She took up painting last year." (start a hobby)
• "He will take up his new post in January." (start an official job)
• "This desk takes up too much room." (fill space)
• "This project is taking up most of my week." (fill time)

A third sense is to discuss or deal with something: "Let me take up that point after the break." Context tells these apart, since nothing in the phrase signals which one is meant. For space and time, the object usually comes in the middle or after: take up space, take up your time. For a hobby, you say take up + noun or gerund: take up running.

Take over: start being responsible, or gain control

Cambridge Dictionary lists several senses of take over: to start doing a job or being responsible for something that someone else did before, to get control of a company by buying enough of its shares, to become more successful or powerful than others in the same activity, and to do something instead of someone else.

• "I will take over the account when Sam leaves." (start being responsible)
• "A larger firm took over the business." (gain control)
• "Online shopping has taken over from the high street." (become dominant)
• "You look tired. Let me take over the driving." (do instead)

Take over can be separable with a pronoun: take it over. As a noun, takeover, written as one word, is common in business news: "a hostile takeover".

Take off: remove, leave the ground or succeed

Cambridge Dictionary gives take off senses including to remove something, especially clothes; to spend time away from your work; for an aircraft, bird or insect to leave the ground and begin to fly; and to suddenly start being successful or popular.

• "Please take off your shoes at the door." (remove)
• "I am taking Friday off." (time away from work)
• "The flight takes off at nine." (leave the ground)
• "Her business really took off last year." (become successful)

That last meaning is useful in business and news: "Sales took off after the launch." Take off is separable when it means remove: take your coat off and take off your coat, with a pronoun, take it off. In its aircraft and success senses, it takes no object. The noun takeoff is the moment a plane leaves the ground.

Take back: return, or admit you were wrong

Cambridge Dictionary lists take back with senses including returning something you bought to a shop, admitting that something you said was wrong, allowing a partner who left to come back, and, when a thing "takes you back", making you remember a period or an event.

• "I need to take this jacket back. It does not fit." (return)
• "I take back what I said about the plan. It was unfair." (retract)
• "That song really takes me back." (bring memories)

It is separable: take it back, take the jacket back. In workplace talk, I take it back is a quick way to withdraw a remark.

How to tell the senses apart

A phrasal verb with several senses is easy to misread, and three questions help. What is the subject: a person, a thing, an aircraft, a business? What is the object: a task, a quality, space, a person, a garment? And what is the situation: work, family, travel, shopping? The answers usually point to one sense at once. When they do not, a dictionary entry with example sentences shows the options.

For example, "The project took up a lot of time" has a thing as the subject and time as the object, so it is the fill sense. "She took up pottery" has a person as subject and an activity as the object, so it is the start sense.

Grammar quick reference

Take after is inseparable: take after her mother. Take on can be separable when it means accept: take a client on or take on a client. Take up is separable, so a pronoun goes in the middle: take it up, though a noun can follow, as in take up painting. Take over and take back are separable: take it over, take it back. Take off is separable when it means remove: take it off. When the object is a pronoun, put it in the middle for separable verbs.

More phrasal verbs with take

Take in (understand, or let someone stay, or deceive), take out (remove, or go out with), take apart (separate into pieces), take down (write notes or lower), take part in (participate), take to (begin to like) and take care of (look after). Each shows how a small particle changes the meaning.

How to learn them

Phrasal verbs are learned best in context. Learn each in a sentence, group the senses together, and practice using each in a sentence of your own. Testing yourself, by covering the meaning and recalling it, is more effective than rereading a list, as active recall versus rereading explains, and spreading your review over days helps, as how spaced repetition works describes. Phrasal verbs with get covers six more.

A practice set

Choose the best phrasal verb. Answers follow.

1. She decided to (take up / take after) yoga in the spring.
2. He (takes after / takes on) his father in both looks and temper.
3. I will (take over / take off) the project when you move to the new team.
4. The shop let me (take back / take up) the shirt and refund me.
5. The plane will (take off / take over) in ten minutes.
6. I (take on / take up) too much room with all my books.

Answers: 1. take up. 2. takes after. 3. take over. 4. take back. 5. take off. 6. take up.

How Wordabulary fits in

Wordabulary shows words with definitions and example sentences, and every word can be heard in British or American English. Phrasal verbs are learned as phrases, so use the example sentences to see how they behave. It works best alongside your own reading and conversation.