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I've just had an essay back from my English teacher
she's that it was well researched
but I have lost marks for the register
there were too many informal verbs. You mean phrasal verbs?
Yes, you see
I went to Big Mouth Corner last Thursday and got talking to some exchange students
from England
They said some nice things to me like
you're easy to get on with
and
let's get togther at the weekend
I thought that if I used them in my essay
I'd sound more fluent
Phrasal verbs are great when talking to a friend or some certain types
of informal writing
You mean
writing letters to friends or making comments on Facebook
Yes, when you write essays, reports, or business letters
you should use the academic equivalent
it could be one word or it could be a phrase
instead of "get on with someone"
we would write
"have a good relationship with someone"
instead of "get together with a friend" you could write "meet a friend"
I have seen lists of phrasal verbs in vocabulary books like
"bring up"
"bring about" "bring off"
"bring out" "bring down"
they do my head in!
I just got totally confused and lists are boring anyway
Some people like lists
if you don't, another way of building up your knowledge of phrasal verbs
is to look out for them in the context
if you hear a phrasal verb in a film, say
write it down in a whole sentence
likewise
with newspaper articles you can find phrasal verbs
in the SCMP or The Standard
highlight the whole phrase and see how the words collocate
I know collocate!
It means
match or fit together
but how do I find out the academic equivalent?
Why don't you go back to those exchange friends that you get on so well with,
and pick their brains?