In offices where English is the working language, people rarely say postpone, investigate or contact. They say push back, look into and reach out. These phrasal verbs for work are short, a little less formal than their Latin-based twins, and used constantly in meetings, calls and emails. Below are 40, grouped by situation, each with a meaning and an example you could hear in a Tashkent office on a Monday morning.
Start with three today: follow up (check on something later), push back (move to a later time) and look into (investigate). They cover a surprising number of work conversations.
The "Where" column shows where each verb is most common: M = meetings and calls, E = emails and chats, M/E = both.
Running a meeting (1–10)
| # | Phrasal verb | Meaning | Example | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | set up | arrange (a meeting, a system) | Can you set up a call with the supplier for Thursday? | M/E |
| 2 | kick off | start | Let's kick off with a quick update from sales. | M |
| 3 | bring up | mention a topic | I'd like to bring up the delivery delays. | M |
| 4 | put forward | propose (an idea, a plan) | Nodira put forward a plan to cut printing costs. | M/E |
| 5 | go ahead (with) | proceed, start doing | If there are no objections, we'll go ahead with the new schedule. | M/E |
| 6 | move on (to) | change to the next point | Let's move on to the budget. | M |
| 7 | walk (someone) through | explain step by step | Could you walk us through the new reporting tool? | M |
| 8 | run over | take more time than planned | Sorry, we're running over. Let's stop at 11:10. | M |
| 9 | sum up | give a short summary | To sum up, we need two more testers by May. | M/E |
| 10 | wrap up | finish | Let's wrap up here and continue tomorrow. | M |
Tasks, people and deadlines (11–20)
| # | Phrasal verb | Meaning | Example | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | push back | move to a later time | The launch has been pushed back to June. | M/E |
| 12 | bring forward | move to an earlier time | Can we bring the review forward to Tuesday? | M/E |
| 13 | fall behind (with) | be slower than planned | We've fallen behind with the translations. | M/E |
| 14 | take on | accept (work, responsibility); hire | I can't take on another project this month. | M/E |
| 15 | hand over | give responsibility to someone | I'll hand over the client to Sardor before my leave. | M/E |
| 16 | carry out | do (a task, a survey, a test) | The IT team will carry out the update on Saturday night. | M/E |
| 17 | draw up | prepare a document | Legal will draw up the contract by Friday. | M/E |
| 18 | stand in for | replace someone temporarily | Dilshod is standing in for me while I'm away. | M/E |
| 19 | chase up | remind someone about something overdue | Could you chase up the invoice from the courier? | M/E |
| 20 | stay behind | stay after others leave | A few of us stayed behind to finish the slides. | M |
Emails and messages (21–30)
| # | Phrasal verb | Meaning | Example | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | follow up (on) | check or add to something later | I'm following up on my email from last week. | E |
| 22 | get back to | reply later | I'll get back to you by the end of the day. | M/E |
| 23 | reach out (to) | contact | Feel free to reach out if you have questions. | E |
| 24 | loop in | include someone in the conversation | I've looped in Kamola from finance. | E |
| 25 | fill (someone) in | give someone missing information | Can you fill me in on yesterday's call? | M/E |
| 26 | send over | send (a file, a document) | I'll send over the draft this afternoon. | E |
| 27 | pass on | give a message or information to another person | I'll pass on your comments to the designer. | M/E |
| 28 | run (something) by | ask someone's opinion before deciding | Can I run an idea by you before the meeting? | M/E |
| 29 | flag up | draw attention to a problem | I just wanted to flag up a mistake in the price list. | E |
| 30 | write up | turn notes into a proper document | Aziz will write up the minutes and share them. | M/E |
Problems and decisions (31–40)
| # | Phrasal verb | Meaning | Example | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 | look into | investigate | We're looking into why the payments failed. | M/E |
| 32 | deal with | handle, take care of | Who's dealing with the customer complaint? | M/E |
| 33 | sort out | solve, organise | The access problem has been sorted out. | M/E |
| 34 | iron out | solve small remaining problems | We still need to iron out a few details in the contract. | M/E |
| 35 | come up with | think of (an idea, a solution) | We need to come up with a cheaper option. | M |
| 36 | work out | calculate; find a solution | Let's work out how many licences we need. | M/E |
| 37 | fall through | fail to happen | The deal with the Kazakh distributor fell through. | M/E |
| 38 | pull out (of) | withdraw from an agreement or event | One sponsor has pulled out of the conference. | M/E |
| 39 | turn down | refuse (an offer, a request) | She turned down the offer from the other bank. | M/E |
| 40 | back (someone) up | support | If the client complains, I'll back you up. | M |
One email, eight phrasal verbs
Here is how several of them sit together in a normal work email:
Hi Jamshid,
I'm just following up on Tuesday's meeting. We've decided to push the launch back by two weeks, because the payment team is still looking into the error we flagged up.
Could you draw up a new timeline and send it over by Thursday? I've looped in Malika, who is standing in for Timur this week.
If anything is unclear, feel free to reach out.
Best regards,
Dilnoza
Notice the tone: friendly and efficient. For very formal letters (to a ministry or a new partner), replace some of them: reach out → contact, send over → send, loop in → copy. More email structure is in business email phrases.
The same verbs in a meeting
A: Right, let's kick off. First, the website. Where are we?
B: We've fallen a bit behind. The designer pulled out last week, so we're looking for someone new.
A: Okay. Can you come up with a shortlist by Friday?
B: Sure. And I'd like to bring up one more thing: can we push the review back to the 20th?
A: Fine by me. Let's move on to marketing, and we'll wrap up by eleven.
Grammar and tone notes
- Separable verbs take pronouns in the middle. Push the meeting back / push it back, never push back it. The same with hand over, set up, sum up, fill in, write up, turn down, back up.
- Some never separate: look into it, deal with it, fall behind with it, stand in for her.
- Three-word verbs keep their preposition: follow up on, come up with, get back to, run it by you. I'll get back you is a very common slip; the to stays.
- Watch the noun forms. Several have a one-word noun used in offices: a follow-up, a handover, a setup, a write-up, a kick-off meeting, a backup plan.
For Uzbek and Russian speakers the biggest trap is translating the parts: push back has nothing to do with pushing, and turn down with turning. Learn each verb as one unit with one sentence from your own job. If you need the everyday ones too (find out, put off, run out of), see the common phrasal verbs list. Other workplace slips that sound odd to colleagues are in English mistakes at work, and meeting phrases explained in Uzbek are in meeting iboralari.
Exercise: complete with a phrasal verb
Use the correct form: get back to, look into, push back, fill in, hand over, run over, turn down, come up with, loop in, chase up, sum up, fall through.
- I don't know the answer yet. Can I ___ you tomorrow?
- The client hasn't paid for two months. Could you ___ the payment?
- I missed the call. Can you ___ me ___?
- The supplier ___ our request for a discount.
- Sorry, we're ___. Let's finish the last point by email.
- We've had three complaints about the app. Can the tech team ___ it?
- The deal ___ because the bank didn't approve the loan.
- So, to ___: the budget is approved and the launch is in May.
- The deadline has been ___ to 15 March because the designer is ill.
- Before I go on leave, I'll ___ my accounts to Nodir.
- I've ___ Sherzod, because he knows the contract better than me.
- We need to ___ a new name for the product by Friday.
Answers
- get back to. Get back to someone = reply later; keep to.
- chase up. Remind about something overdue.
- fill (me) in. Separable: the pronoun goes in the middle.
- turned down. Past simple; refused.
- running over. Taking more time than planned.
- look into. Investigate; look into it, never look it into.
- fell through. Past of fall; the deal didn't happen.
- sum up. To sum up is a fixed way to start a summary.
- pushed back. Passive: has been pushed back.
- hand over. Give responsibility.
- looped in. Included him in the email thread; informal but common in offices.
- come up with. Think of an idea.
Saying them in a real conversation
Phrasal verbs only feel natural once you've said them under a little pressure. In BandMate you can role-play a meeting or a call with a colleague by voice with Bandi and try to use five verbs from this page; the feedback points out where a phrasal verb would sound more natural and where a pronoun ended up in the wrong place. Use it to rehearse, then try the verbs in your next real meeting.
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