Phrasal verbs en inglés

Hay miles de phrasal verbs en inglés; los usamos todo el tiempo. Aquí sugerimos unas oraciones con phrasal verbs que resultarán prácticas en un contexto de negocios.

A
• Account for: explicar, dar un motivo.”Can you account for the difference in sales figures for the last two months?”
• Aim at: apuntar en una dirección. “We’re aiming at a 30% improvement.”
• Allow for: teneren cuenta. “They should allow for a fall in demand owing to the summer break.”
B
• Beef up: reforzar. “Could you beef up your report with a few statistics?”
• Boil down to: se puede resumir en. “The problems boil down to our lack of investment last year.”
• Brush up on: refrezcar conocimientos propios. “I need to brush up on my English.”
• Bump into: encontrarse poraccidente. “Guess who I bumped into today!”
C
• Call off: cancelar. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to call the meeting off/call off the meeting.”
• Carry out: hacer algo como se indicó o planeó. “They need to carry out the survey and then we’ll look at the results.”
• Clam up: negarse a hablar. “When their manager arrived, they clammed up!”
• Come across: encontrar porcasualidad. “I came across these files – are they what you were looking for?”
• Come up against: encontrar. “He’s come up against a lot of criticism in his new job.”
• Cut down on: reducir en cantidad o tamaño. “We need to cut down on the number of business trips we make abroad.”
D

• Die down: disminuir. “We will wait for all the fuss to die down before starting to contact ourcustomers.”
• Do without: arreglárselas sin algo. “Can you do without coffee today? I’m afraid our machine is broken.”
• Draw up: escribir (documento oficial). “We can start production as soon as the contract has been drawn up.”
F
• Fall through: no concretarse. “My trip to Europe fell through because of the air traffic controllers’ strike.”
G

• Get at: insinuar. “What are yougetting at? What are you really saying?”
• Get on: progresar. “How are you getting on with your new sales manager?”
• Get out of: no hacer algo. “Is there any way I can get out of attending the meeting?”
• Get over: recuperarse. “We need to get over this disappointing piece of news and plan for the future.”
• Get rid of: deshacerse de. “Have you got rid of that faultymachinery yet?”
• Give up: dejar de hacer algo. “If we seriously want to reduce costs, we should give up expensive business lunches.”
H

• Hit upon: encontrar (por lo general una idea). “While I was driving to work, I hit upon a fantastic idea!”
I

• Iron out: resolver. “We can sign the contract as soon as we have ironed out the few remaining questions.”
J
• Jot down:anotar. “I will just quickly jot your address down so we can stay in touch.”
K

• Keep up with: seguir el ritmo. “She talks so fast it’s difficult to keep up.”
• Kick off: comenzar. “Let’s kick off with a quick word from our French colleagues.”
L
• Leave out: omitir. “I’m afraid you’ll have to write it again – you left out the most important part!”
• Let down: defraudar.“Our American sales figures let us down last month.”
• Look after: encargarse. “Who is looking after the American account?”
M

• Make do with: aceptar si no hay alternativa. “We have not yet received the delivery of new computers, so we will have to make do with our old ones until they arrive.”
• Make up: inventar. “Did you make up these sales figures? They are too good to be true!”• Mix up: confundir. “I’m sorry, I mixed up the internal and external presentations.”
N

• Nail down: definir o concretar algo. “We need to nail it down and get the contract signed as soon as possible.”
• Nod off: quedarse dormido (no en la cama a la noche). “That meeting was so boring, I nodded off!”
• Nose out: averiguar la verdad. “He’s good at nosing out the...