How to Translate English Phrasal Verbs into French

Quick Answer

In English, the term phrasal verb (verbe à particule) refers to a verb combined with one or more prepositions and/or adverbs to form a new verb.

For example, verbs like bring up, get along, and back up are phrasal verbs. English phrasal verbs can be translated into French as non-pronominal verbs, pronominal verbs, or verb phrases.

English Phrasal Verb	French Translation	French Verb Type
bring up	mentionner	non-pronominal verb
get along	s'entendre	pronominal verb
back up	faire une sauvegarde de	verb phrase

Questions This Article Answers

What is a phrasal verb in English?

How do you translate phrasal verbs from English into French?

What are some common equivalents of English phrasal verbs in French?

What Is a Phrasal Verb in English?

In English, a phrasal verb is a combination of a base verb plus one or more particles (prepositions or adverbs). These combinations create a phrasal verb with a new meaning. Check out the examples in the table below!

Base Verb	Particle(s)	Phrasal Verb	French Translation
get	up	get up	se lever
move	forward	move forward	avancer
take	up, with	take up with	discuter avec

From Base Verb to Phrasal Verb

As mentioned above, adding one or more particles to a base verb creates a new phrasal verb with a new meaning. Check out the table below to see how the meaning of the English verb go changes as particles are added to it to make new phrasal verbs!

English	French
go	aller
go up	monter
go up to	aborder, s'approcher de

Translating Phrasal Verbs from English to French

An English phrasal verb can be translated into French in three main ways:

as a non-pronominal verb
as a pronominal verb
as a verb phrase

Let's start by taking a look at some common English phrasal verbs that are translated as non-pronominal verbs in French.

English Phrasal Verbs Translated into French as Non-Pronominal Verbs

The English phrasal verbs in the table below can be translated into French using a non-pronominal verb.

English Phrasal Verb	French Translation	English Example	French Example
breathe in	inspirer	Relax and breathe in slowly.	Détends-toi et inspire lentement.
breathe out	expirer	Now breathe out through your mouth.	Maintenant, expire par la bouche.
bring back	rapporter	Can you bring back my book tomorrow?	Peux-tu me rapporter mon livre demain ?
bring up	soulever	She brought up an interesting point.	Elle a soulevé un point intéressant.
call back	rappeler	I'll call you back after lunch.	Je vais te rappeler après le déjeuner.
call off	annuler	They called off the game because of rain.	Ils ont annulé le match à cause de la pluie.
check out	regarder	Check out this new website I found.	Regarde ce nouveau site que j’ai trouvé.
come back	revenir	He came back late from work.	Il est revenu tard du travail.
come in	entrer	Please come in and have a seat.	Veuillez entrer et vous asseoir.
come over	venir	Do you want to come over to my house later?	Tu veux venir chez moi plus tard ?
cross off	rayer	You can cross off that item on the list.	Tu peux rayer cet élément de la liste.
cross out	barrer	He crossed out the wrong answer.	Il a barré la mauvaise réponse.
cross over	traverser	We crossed over to the other side of the street.	Nous avons traversé pour passer de l’autre côté de la rue.
drop by	passer	I'll drop by your office this afternoon.	Je vais passer à ton bureau cet après-midi.
drop off	déposer	Can you drop me off at the station?	Tu peux me déposer à la gare ?
fill out	remplir	Please fill out this form.	Veuillez remplir ce formulaire.
find out	découvrir	She found out the truth.	Elle a découvert la vérité.
give in	céder	He finally gave in to the pressure.	Il a finalement cédé à la pression.
give out	distribuer	The teacher gave out the papers.	Le professeur a distribué les copies.
go off	sonner	The alarm went off at 6 a.m.	Le réveil a sonné à 6 heures.
go on with	continuer	Please go on with your story.	S’il te plaît, continue ton histoire.
go out	sortir	We went out for dinner.	Nous sommes sortis dîner.
hand in	rendre	Don't forget to hand in your homework.	N'oublie pas de rendre ton devoir.
hand out	distribuer	She handed out the flyers at the door.	Elle a distribué les tracts à l’entrée.
hang up	raccrocher	He hung up without saying goodbye.	Il a raccroché sans dire au revoir.
hold out	tendre	She held out her hand to help me.	Elle a tendu la main pour m’aider.
knock over	renverser	He knocked over the glass of water.	Il a renversé le verre d’eau.
leave out	oublier	You left out an important detail.	Tu as oublié un détail important.
lift off	décoller	The rocket lifted off successfully.	La fusée a décollé avec succès.
look at	regarder	She looked at the painting carefully.	Elle a regardé le tableau attentivement.
look for	chercher	I'm looking for my keys.	Je cherche mes clés.
look up	chercher	Look up the word in the dictionary.	Cherche le mot dans le dictionnaire.
move forward	avancer	We can’t move forward without a strategy.	Nous ne pouvons pas avancer sans stratégie.
move in	emménager	They moved in last week.	Ils ont emménagé la semaine dernière.
move out	déménager	She moved out after the summer.	Elle a déménagé après l’été.
note down	noter	Note down the important points.	Note les points importants.
pass on	transmettre	Please pass this on to your manager.	Transmets cela à ton responsable, s’il te plaît.
pass out	distribuer	He passed out the tests to the class.	Il a distribué les tests à la classe.
pay back	rembourser	I’ll pay you back tomorrow.	Je vais te rembourser demain.
pay for	payer	Who is going to pay for dinner?	Qui va payer le dîner ?
pick up	ramasser	Can you pick up the toys?	Tu peux ramasser les jouets ?
plug in	brancher	Don't forget to plug in your laptop.	N’oublie pas de brancher ton ordinateur.
put off	remettre	We put off the meeting until Friday.	Nous avons remis la réunion à vendredi.
show up	arriver	He finally showed up at the party.	Il est finalement arrivé à la fête.
turn off	éteindre	Turn off the lights before you leave.	Éteins les lumières avant de partir.
turn on	allumer	She turned on the heater.	Elle a allumé le chauffage.

English Phrasal Verbs Translated into French as Pronominal Verbs

French pronominal verbs (verbs that are used with pronouns like se) can also be used to translate English phrasal verbs. Let's take a look at a few examples!

English Phrasal Verb	French Translation	English Example	French Example
cloud over	se couvrir	The sky started to cloud over just before the storm.	Le ciel a commencé à se couvrir juste avant l’orage.
come off	se détacher	The label came off the bottle once it was in the water.	L’étiquette s’est détachée de la bouteille une fois dans l’eau.
fall apart	s'effondrer	After the news, she completely fell apart.	Après la nouvelle, elle s’est complètement effondrée.
fight back	se défendre	He fought back when they attacked him.	Il s’est défendu quand ils l’ont attaqué.
fly away	s'envoler	The birds flew away when they heard the noise.	Les oiseaux se sont envolés en entendant le bruit.
get along	s'entendre	Do you get along well with your neighbors?	Tu t’entends bien avec tes voisins ?
get away	s'enfuir	The thief got away before the police arrived.	Le voleur s’est enfui avant que la police n’arrive.
lean over	se pencher	She leaned over to tie her shoes.	Elle s’est penchée pour lacer ses chaussures.
log in	se connecter	Please log in with your username and password.	Veuillez vous connecter avec votre identifiant et mot de passe.
log on	se connecter	I logged on to check my messages.	Je me suis connecté pour vérifier mes messages.
make up	se réconcilier	They argued but later made up.	Ils se sont disputés mais ils se sont réconciliés plus tard.
show up	se présenter	He didn’t show up for the interview.	Il ne s’est pas présenté à l’entretien.
wake up	se réveiller	I usually wake up at 7 a.m.	Je me réveille en général à 7 heures.

English Phrasal Verbs Translated Into French as Verb Phrases

In some cases, English phrasal verbs are translated into French as a verb phrase. Sometimes, these verb phrases are the combination of a verb and a preposition and look a lot like an English phrasal verb! Other times, a longer phrase that includes a noun is used. Check out a few examples in the table below.

English Phrasal Verb	French Translation	English Example	French Example
call on	rendre visite à	I will call on my friend tomorrow.	Je vais rendre visite à mon ami demain.
care for	s'occuper de	She cares for her elderly parents.	Elle s'occupe de ses parents âgés.
climb over	passer par-dessus	We had to climb over the fence to get in.	Nous avons dû passer par-dessus la clôture pour entrer.
end up	finir par	I didn't plan to stay, but I ended up staying all night.	Je n'avais pas prévu de rester, mais j'ai fini par rester toute la nuit.
let in	laisser entrer	He refused to let me in his house.	Il a refusé de me laisser entrer chez lui.
look forward to	attendre avec impatience	I look forward to this trip every year.	J'attends ce voyage avec impatience chaque année.
look out for	faire attention à	You need to look out for traffic when crossing the street.	Tu dois faire attention à la circulation en traversant la rue.
look out on	donner sur	The window looks out on a beautiful garden.	La fenêtre donne sur un joli jardin.
look through	fouiller dans	She looked through the papers on the desk.	Elle a fouillé dans les papiers sur le bureau.

Phrasal Verbs Can Have Many Meanings

A single English phrasal verb can have several meanings. Often, the meanings range from literal to idiomatic. For example, the English phrasal verb bring up has both literal and idiomatic meanings, as shown in the table below.

French Translations of Bring Up	English Example	French Example
élever	I brought my children up in the countryside.	J’ai élevé mes enfants à la campagne.
emmener	If you're ready, I'll bring you up to your room.	Si tu es prête, je vais t’emmener dans ta chambre.
mentionner	Don't bring that topic up in front of George.	Ne mentionne pas ce sujet devant George.
monter	Bring the boxes up to the attic.	Monte les cartons au grenier.
soulever	That's a great question to bring up in class tomorrow.	C’est une excellente question à soulever en classe demain.
vomir	The cat brought up that new food you gave him.	Le chat a vomi la nouvelle nourriture que tu lui as donnée.

Elsewhere in this article, we've only provided one French translation per English phrasal verb, but it's important to keep in mind that a given English phrasal verb may have more than one French translation!

Learn more about French verbs in these articles!