Question 1

What does OUT mean in phrasal verbs?

Accepted Answer

The particle "out" carries several meanings in phrasal verbs. The most common is movement from inside to outside: "go out" (leave a building), "take out" (remove from inside). It can also mean completion or thoroughness: "work out" (solve completely), "sort out" (organise fully), "figure out" (understand completely). A third meaning is distribution: "hand out" (give to everyone), "share out" (divide among a group). Finally, "out" sometimes means extinction or disappearance: "die out" (become extinct), "run out" (use up completely). The meaning often depends on the verb, so learning each phrasal verb as a whole phrase rather than guessing from "out" alone is the most reliable approach.

Question 2

How do I use find out, work out, and figure out correctly?

Accepted Answer

These three phrasal verbs all relate to discovering or understanding something, but they have slightly different uses. "Find out" means to discover a fact or piece of information, often by asking or researching: "I found out that the shop closes at six." "Work out" means to solve a problem through thinking or calculation: "Can you work out how much we owe?" "Figure out" means to understand something after thinking about it carefully: "I can't figure out how this machine works." All three are separable, so with pronouns you say "find it out," "work it out," and "figure it out." In everyday British English, "work out" is the most common of the three for problem-solving.

Question 3

What is the difference between run out and run out of?

Accepted Answer

"Run out" and "run out of" are related but used differently. "Run out" means something finishes or expires, and the thing that finishes is the subject: "Time ran out before I could answer." "Run out of" means you have used all of something, and the person is the subject: "We ran out of milk this morning." Notice the structure difference: with "run out," the resource is the subject; with "run out of," the person is the subject and the resource follows "of." Both are inseparable — you cannot put an object between "run" and "out." This distinction is commonly tested in Cambridge B1 and B2 exams, so practise both forms in context.

Phrasal Verbs with OUT Exercises

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-ed vs -ing Adjectives

Conditionals

Present Perfect

Reported Speech

Passive Voice

Past Simple