Developer Daily Work Phrasal Verbs

Correct: look into — investigate or examine carefully

look into means to investigate or research something in depth. It is one of the most common phrasal verbs in technical work, especially in bug reports and code reviews.

In developer contexts:

• "I'll look into why the memory isn't being released." ✓
• "Can you look into the latency spike we saw overnight?" ✓
• "The team is looking into the root cause of the regression." ✓

Why the others are wrong:

• look out: means to be careful or watch for danger — "Look out for breaking changes in the API." Not used for investigation.
• look over: means to review quickly or skim — "Can you look over my PR?" It implies a lighter review, not deep investigation.
• look down on: means to regard someone/something with contempt — nothing to do with investigation.

Ticket and code review phrases:

• "I'll look into this and update the ticket."
• "Still looking into the root cause — will post findings EOD."
• "Could someone look into why the tests are flaky in CI?"

Correct: break down — decompose into smaller, manageable parts

break down means to analyse or separate something complex into its component parts. It is essential vocabulary in sprint planning, estimation, and requirements gathering.

In agile and planning contexts:

• "Let's break down this epic into individual stories." ✓
• "Can you break down the requirements into frontend and backend tasks?" ✓
• "We need to break this ticket down — it's too large to estimate." ✓

Why the others are wrong:

• break off: means to stop or detach something — "The negotiations broke off." Not used for decomposing requirements.
• break out: means to escape or appear suddenly — "A fire broke out." or "Bugs break out in production." Not about decomposing.
• break up: means to end a relationship or split a group — "They broke up the team." While close, "break down" is the idiomatic choice for decomposing tasks or requirements.

Sprint planning phrases:

• "Let's break down the user story into tasks."
• "The ticket needs to be broken down before we can point it."
• "Can we break this down further? It feels too vague."

Correct: set up — configure, install, or establish something

set up means to configure or prepare something for use. It is arguably the most common phrasal verb in developer onboarding and infrastructure work.

In developer and DevOps contexts:

• "I'll set up a Docker environment so you can run it locally." ✓
• "We need to set up the CI pipeline before the first release." ✓
• "Can you help me set up the database migrations?" ✓
• "The repo README explains how to set up your dev environment." ✓

Why the others are wrong:

• set out: means to begin a journey or explain a plan — "The document sets out our approach." Not used for configuring environments.
• set aside: means to reserve for later or ignore temporarily — "Set aside that issue for now." Not about installation.
• set back: means to delay progress — "The outage set us back two days." It is the opposite of progress, not a setup action.

Setup and configuration phrases:

• "I'll set up a staging environment for the QA team."
• "The onboarding doc walks you through setting up everything."
• "We need to set up monitoring before we go live."

Correct: worked out — figured out or solved

work out means to figure something out, solve a problem, or understand how something works. It is widely used in debugging and troubleshooting conversations.

Important double meaning: "work out" also means physical exercise — context always determines which meaning is intended. In a technical conversation, it clearly means "figure out."

In debugging and troubleshooting:

• "I've worked out why the cache isn't invalidating." ✓
• "Did you work out what was causing the timeout?" ✓
• "Let me work out the logic before I write the code." ✓

Why the others are wrong:

• worked over: informal for examined closely or, more commonly, for roughing someone up — not used in technical contexts for solving problems.
• worked through: means to progress step by step through something — "I worked through the documentation" = I read it systematically. It doesn't mean "figured out."
• worked up: means to become anxious or excited — "Don't get worked up about the deadline." Not used for problem-solving.

Debugging vocabulary:

• "I've worked out the root cause — it's a race condition."
• "I'm still trying to work out why the build is failing."
• "Once we work out the logic, implementation will be straightforward."

Correct: push through — get something done despite resistance or obstacles

push through means to make something happen despite delays, resistance, or difficulties. It is common in code review culture and release management when things are stuck.

In code review and release contexts:

• "We need to push through these PRs before the freeze." ✓
• "Can you help push this through review? It's been waiting two weeks." ✓
• "The team pushed through the migration despite the tight deadline." ✓

Why the others are wrong in this context:

• push back: means to postpone or express resistance — "Can we push back the release?" or "The client pushed back on the design." Using it here would mean delaying the review, the opposite of what's wanted.
• push off: informal for postponing or departing — "Let's push off the discussion until Friday." Not used for getting something merged.
• push out: means to release or deploy — "We push out a new version every two weeks." It's about releasing software, not about getting a PR reviewed.

Code review culture phrases:

• "Could you push this through? It's blocking QA."
• "We need to push through the backlog of open PRs."
• "I'll push back on the scope — this is too large for one PR."
• "We're ready to push out the release once the PR merges."