Idioms and Phrasal Verbs Intermediate PDF

Idioms and Phrasal Verbs is part of the Oxford Word Skills vocabulary series. This series comprises two books designed for students to learn, practice, and review everyday English idioms and phrasal verbs.

Intermediate: Intermediate and upper-intermediate (CEF levels B1 and B2)
Advanced: Advanced (CEF levels C1 and C2)

Each level contains over 1,000 new idioms and phrasal verbs, and all the material can be used in the classroom or for self-study.

How are the books organized?
Each book includes 60 units of vocabulary presentation and practice. Units are either one or two pages long, depending on the topic. New vocabulary is introduced in manageable amounts for learners, with practice exercises immediately following, usually on the same page. The units are thematically grouped in modules of five to nine units. At the end of each module, there are additional practice exercises in the review units, allowing learners to revise and test themselves on the vocabulary they have learned.

What are idioms and phrasal verbs? Why teach them together?
Idioms are typically defined as groups of words whose overall meaning differs from the meanings of the individual words. For example, over the moon has nothing to do with the literal meaning of “the moon”; it means “extremely happy or excited.” When an organization changes hands, it passes from one owner to another; and if you are in someone’s way, you are preventing them from moving or doing something. These examples show that while some idioms are nearly impossible to guess without context, others are more transparent.

Phrasal verbs consist of two, and occasionally three, words: a base verb and at least one particle (preposition or adverb). Many phrasal verbs are idiomatic; in other words, the meaning of the verb and particle together is different from the base verb on its own. For instance, the meanings of give up and give in are quite different from the meaning of give. Like idioms, some phrasal verbs are more transparent than others; for example, stand up and sit down have meanings that are closely related to the base verbs stand and sit. In essence, phrasal verbs can be considered a type of idiom, although they are often given special focus in language-teaching materials.

Combining idioms and phrasal verbs has both a linguistic and pedagogic rationale. A relatively short text passage—a practical necessity in most language-teaching materials—usually does not contain nine or ten naturally occurring phrasal verbs. However, it can easily include that number if both phrasal verbs and idioms are targeted. This approach allows the target language to be presented in continuous text rather than isolated sentences, giving learners more opportunities to see the expressions used naturally.

At the back of each book, you will find:

• An answer key for all the exercises
• An answer key for the review units
• A list of all the idioms and phrasal verbs taught, with unit references to where each item appears
• A separate list of key words with unit references
• A page featuring the histories behind some of the idioms in the book.