A beleza dos phrasal verbs 😍 (e o pesadelo 👻 dos estudantes de inglês)

The other day I was looking through some old books 📚 and I came across a dictionary of phrasal verbs. When this edition came out, there were already 12,000 phrasal verbs from English and American usage. Then the memories began coming back to me about where this book had come from and how I had started my long career as an English teacher 🤓🎓.

At that time, I was a young teacher in my first job, working for an Irishman who I had come upon by coincidence in a bar.

This is how I got this first job. A friend of mine was going to a new bar in Paris and didn’t want to go alone so she asked me to come along. We were amongst the first to arrive, ourselves and this Irish guy, so we began chatting and he came up with the idea (after a few Guinness 🍺 – don’t forget he was Irish 😊) of me working for him in his language school!

He had a teacher who was expecting a baby, and he didn’t think she was coming back afterwards, so he suggested that I come in to replace her. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea, I had no experience and was very young, but I finally came around to the idea. I didn’t even know if he would remember our discussion the next day but a week later, he came through with his promise. We had a long collaboration, and I learnt so much with him.

📕 Anyway, let’s come back to the book! At that time, I had an elderly student who came around to the language centre practically every day. He loved English and he spoke very well, having worked in a giant multinational and having travelled extensively. He also loved the English language, especially phrasal verbs. He said they were more nuanced. He gave me the dictionary of phrasal verbs as a present 🎁😊.

I had never thought about the beauty of phrasal verbs before as for me they just came out naturally and we native speakers use them so frequently. But it’s true that for a word in French that covers a range of possibilities we can come up with 3 or 4 words in English.

Explicações em português

👉 Como você pôde ver na minha história sobre meus primeiros passos como professora de inglês 🤓🎓, os phrasal verbs aparecem naturalmente tanto na fala quanto na escrita. Cada phrasal verb costuma ter um equivalente mais “formal”, mas no dia a dia usamos muito mais as formas com partícula.

Eles são formados por um verbo + uma partícula, e essa pequena palavra muda totalmente o significado. É isso que os torna complicados: um detalhe mínimo pode transformar completamente a frase!

Vamos pegar o verbo to come. Dependendo da partícula que o acompanha, pode significar: voltar, visitar, inventar, criar, encontrar, recuperar-se…

👌 Você entendeu o significado dos phrasal verbs na história pelo contexto ?

Se não, aqui vai a lista com uma definição para cada um (e um quiz de bônus 🎁).

1. come across → encontrar por acaso.
   I came across a dictionary of phrasal verbs.

2. come out → sair, ser publicado.
   When this edition came out...

3. come back → voltar ou voltar à memória.
   The memories began coming back...

4. come from → vir de, ter origem.
   Where this book had come from.

5. come upon → deparar-se com, encontrar por acaso.
   I had come upon [the Irishman] in a bar.

6. come along → acompanhar alguém.
   She asked me to come along.

7. come up with → inventar, propor uma ideia.
   He came up with the idea...

8. come in → intervir, participar, desempenhar um papel.
   He suggested that I come in to replace her.

9. come around →

   • mudar de opinião. I finally came around to the idea.

   • visitar, passar por um lugar. He came around to the language centre every day.

10. come through → cumprir, conseguir, ter sucesso.
    He came through with his promise.

11. come out (naturally) → surgir naturalmente, aparecer.
    Phrasal verbs came out naturally for me.

12. come up with (bis) → produzir, criar.
    We can come up with 3 or 4 words in English...

📝 Mini Quiz: Phrasal verbs com ‘come’

Choose the correct meaning of the phrasal verb in bold.

1. I came across a really interesting article yesterday.
   a) I searched for it carefully
   b) I found it by chance
   c) I bought it in a shop

2. After a week in bed, she finally came around.
   a) She regained consciousness / recovered
   b) She changed her mind about something
   c) Both a and b are possible, depending on the context

3. He always comes back to the same argument in meetings.
   a) He forgets it
   b) He repeats it
   c) He avoids it

4. The manager came up with a new idea for the project.
   a) He copied it
   b) He invented it
   c) He rejected it

5. Don’t worry, she always comes through in the end.
   a) She disappoints people
   b) She keeps her promises / succeeds
   c) She arrives late

👉 Respostas: 1 → b / 2 → c / 3 → b / 4 → b / 5 → b

👋 Por final...

Os phrasal verbs com come estão em toda parte no inglês — seja para voltar, descobrir, inventar ou simplesmente visitar. Aprendendo-os no contexto e praticando com exemplos reais, você começará a usá-los naturalmente nas suas conversas. Fique de olho ​​​​​​​​👀​ em come across, come up with, come around quando estiver lendo, ouvindo ou falando. Com um pouco de prática, essas expressões versáteis logo se tornarão naturais para você!