Three-part phrasal verbs (B2 Vocabulary)

Each of these three-part verbs carries its own meaning, but they share one word-order rule. To come up with something is to invent or produce an idea or solution. To get away with something is to do something wrong and escape being caught or punished. To look forward to something is to feel pleased and excited about it before it happens. In all three, the parts stay together and the thing that follows lands after the last particle, never in the middle, so you come up with a plan, never "come a plan up with." (A few three-part verbs do take the object earlier, put it down to, take it out on, so check each verb as you learn it.) These phrasal verbs are neutral, everyday English; they sound more natural in speech and informal writing than their formal one-word cousins (devise, evade, anticipate).

Thinking things up

Tolerating and keeping pace

These three-part verbs describe coping and limits. To put up with something is to tolerate it without complaining. To keep up with something is to move fast enough not to fall behind it. To run out of something is to use it all up so that none is left. Whatever follows goes after the last particle — even a short pronoun like it — so you put up with it, never "put up it with." These three are neutral to informal; the single-word equivalents (tolerate, exhaust) feel more formal. That is true of these particular verbs rather than of phrasal verbs generally, since plenty of them (carry out, give rise to) belong to formal writing.