💬 IT Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are multi-word verbs combining a base verb with one or more particles (prepositions or adverbs) that create a new meaning. In IT, they appear constantly in meetings, code reviews, and documentation — 'spin up a server', 'roll back the deployment', 'push through a change'. Non-native speakers often struggle because the meaning cannot be guessed from the individual words.

The most-used developer phrasal verbs include: set up (configure/install), look into (investigate), break down (decompose into parts), work out (solve/figure out), push through (implement despite resistance), pull in (include/import), check in / check out (version control), and hand off (transfer responsibility). Each appears in daily standups, Jira tickets, and code reviews.

Many IT phrasal verbs have technical meanings different from everyday usage: 'spin up' means start a server (not gymnastics), 'tear down' means remove infrastructure, 'roll back' means revert code. Additionally, IT has created new contexts for existing verbs — 'scale out', 'cut over', 'phase out a service' — that only make sense in technical environments.

The phrasal verbs section contains 15+ exercise sets covering core IT verbs, DevOps operations, meetings and communication, debugging, documentation, career development, and a dedicated phrasebook reference with 60+ verbs organised by domain.

The Phrasebook is a structured reference with 60+ IT phrasal verbs organised by domain: Git & Version Control, DevOps & Deployment, Meetings & Communication, User & System Actions, and Debugging & Problem-Solving. Each entry includes definition, example sentence, and common mistakes to avoid.

Roll out means to deploy or release to users — "We're rolling out the new feature to 10% of users." Roll back means to revert to a previous version — "The deployment caused issues; we rolled back." Both are core DevOps terms but mean opposite things — a common source of confusion in incident response conversations.

'Push back' in a meeting has two meanings: (1) postpone — "Can we push back the retrospective to Thursday?" and (2) express resistance — "The team pushed back on the proposed architecture." Context determines which meaning is intended, but both are essential for professional IT English.

Starting: kick off (begin a project/meeting), spin up (start infrastructure), roll out (launch a feature), set up (configure). Ending: wrap up (conclude a meeting), tear down (remove infrastructure), shut down (stop a service), phase out (gradually discontinue), sunset (end a product).

Yes — these exercises are designed for non-native IT professionals at B2 (upper intermediate) level and above. Each exercise includes a detailed explanation covering the correct verb, why the distractors are wrong, and real examples from code reviews, Jira tickets, and team meetings.

Phrasal verbs pair well with: Idioms & Slang (startup and GitHub culture), Collocations (word combinations like 'raise a ticket'), Meetings (professional communication), and Email (written phrasal verb usage in correspondence).