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English grammar

CEFR B1

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Phrasal Verbs with Take: 12 Meanings You Actually Need

Take is the verb of : your hand closes on something and it goes somewhere else. The phrasal verbs keep that idea and stretch it. Take off removes clothes from a body, or a plane from the ground. Take over moves control from one owner to another. Take up moves a new hobby into your life, and take up space moves everything else out of the way.

The twelve below are the ones worth learning properly. Unlike the get family, most of these are separable, so watch the last column.

The 12 phrasal verbs with take

If you are not sure what the separable column means, the separable phrasal verbs guide explains the rule and its one trap: a pronoun must go in the middle (take it off, never take off it).

Phrasal verbMeaningExampleSeparable?
take off ; ( ) Take your shoes off at the door.
take on ; She took on too much work this month.
take up hobby; He took up running last year.
take out; The dentist took the tooth out.
take over A bigger firm took the company over.
take after She takes after her mother.
take back ; I take back what I said.
take in ; It was too much news to take in.
take down ; I took down her number.
take away The waiter took our plates away.
take to I took to her at once.
take apart He took the radio apart.

The three you must know

. Three meanings, and all three are everywhere. First, clothes: take off your coat, take your shoes off. Second, planes: the flight takes off at nine. Third, success, which grows straight out of the plane picture: a business or an idea takes off when it suddenly rises: Her online shop really took off last year. Only the clothes meaning takes an object, and that one is separable.

. The meaning to learn first is starting a hobby: take up the guitar, take up swimming, take up photography. It is the natural verb for new-year plans and small talk about free time. The second meaning, to fill space or time, is just as common and often carries a complaint: The sofa takes up half the room. Meetings took up my whole day.

. You look like, or behave like, an older member of your family: He takes after his grandfather; both are stubborn. Two things make this one special. It is inseparable, and it only works upwards through the family: a child takes after a parent, never the other way round. Nothing about the words take and after tells you any of that, which is why phrasal verbs are learned as whole units.

British and American differences

  • takeaway / takeout. Food you carry home is a takeaway in Britain and takeout in America. The verb underneath works in both places: to take food away.
  • / . The phrasal verb is shared; only the noun changes.
  • meaning to deceive (I was completely taken in by his story) is understood everywhere but sounds slightly more British; American English often prefers fooled.

Common mistakes

  1. Take off it. Wrong order. With a pronoun, separable verbs must split: take it off, take them apart, take it back.
  2. Take after used for friends. It only describes family resemblance. For friends who behave alike, say they are similar or alike.
  3. Take up to do something. After take up, an activity takes -ing: she took up painting, never took up to paint. See gerund and infinitive.
  4. Mixing take over and overtake. Take over is about control of a company or a job. Overtake is one car passing another. Swapping them produces strange sentences in both directions.

More phrasal verb families

The rules behind this page live in the phrasal verbs guide, with many more sentences in the phrasal verbs examples list.

Practise: test yourself

Pick the right one

0/6

Choose the correct particle to complete each phrasal verb with take.

  1. The plane could not take in the storm.

  2. She has taken tennis to keep fit.

  3. He takes his father; they have the same laugh.

  4. Do not take more work than you can finish.

  5. The jumper was too big, so I took it to the shop.

  6. A French company has taken the factory.

Fill in the blank

0/5

Write the missing word to complete each phrasal verb.

  1. Take your boots before you come in.

  2. There was so much news that I could not take it all .

  3. That is unfair. Take it !

  4. He took the engine to find the fault.

  5. She did not take city life; she moved home within a year.

Matching

0/6

Match each phrasal verb to its meaning.

Frequently asked questions

What are the most common phrasal verbs with take?
The everyday ones are take off (a plane leaves the ground, or you remove clothes), take up (start a hobby), take after (look like an older relative), take over (take control), take back (return something to a shop) and take out (remove, or invite someone out). Those six do most of the work in real conversation.
Is take after separable?
No. The object always follows the particle: she takes after her mother, never she takes her mother after. Take after and take to are the two inseparable ones on this page; almost all the other take phrasal verbs are separable.
What does take up mean?
Its most useful meaning is to start a new hobby or activity: he took up running last year. It also means to fill time or space: the piano takes up half the room, and the meeting took up my whole morning.
What is the difference between takeaway and takeout?
They are the same thing: food you buy from a restaurant and carry home. Takeaway is the British word and takeout is the American one. Both come from the phrasal verb take away or take out, meaning to remove something from a place.