THE ULTIMATE PHRASAL VERB BOOK - Noel's ESL eBook Library

10. Everyone in town knows that Jake has been ________ ________ his wife for years.
11. I'm not sure if there will be time to meet with you today, but I'll try to ________ it
12. The invasion was so sudden that there was no way to ________ ________.
13. The cashier________________our stuff and said, "That comes to $142.56."
14. Bob's not in a good mood today. He just ________ ________ that he needs surgery.
15. It was fun to visit my hometown, but I was sad to see that my old house was being
16. I need to buy a new 100-watt bulb; this one ________ ________ yesterday.
10. FOCUS ON: phrasal verbs used as nouns, 1
Many two-word phrasal verbs can be used as nouns. All the verbs in this section have a noun
form. Notice that the two-word noun is sometimes written with a hyphen:
verb: go ahead
noun: go-ahead
and sometimes as one word:
verb: lay off
noun: layoff
Unfortunately, there is no rule that will help you to always know which form to use. Also, not
everyone agrees which nouns should be hyphenated and which should be written as one word,
so you will occasionally see a noun written both ways.
Infinitive
present tense -ing form past tense past participle
fall off
fall off & falls off falling off fell off fallen off
1. fall off p.v. When people or things drop to a lower level from a higher place, they fall off
the place where they were.
The dish fell off the table and broke.
Be careful you don't fall off your bicycle.
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2. fall off p.v. When the quality, degree, or frequency of something decreases, it falls
off.
Sales of fountain pens fell off after the ballpoint pen was invented.
The quality of his work has fallen off as he has gotten older.
falloff n. A decrease in the quality, degree, or frequency of something is a falloff.
The chairman was asked to explain the falloff in the company's sales.
Egypt experienced a big falloff in tourism after several terrorist incidents.
Infinitive