5 exercises — read real-style user stories and acceptance criteria, identify the phrasal verbs, and understand exactly what each one means in context.
What to look for
A phrasal verb = base verb + particle (preposition or adverb): log in, roll back, spin up, tear down
The particle changes the meaning — "log" ≠ "log in", "roll" ≠ "roll back"
Noun/adjective forms look the same but aren't verbs: "login" (noun), "setup" (noun), "rollback" (noun)
Scan for verb + in/out/up/down/off/on/back/over patterns
0 / 10 completed
1 / 10
Read this user story and identify ALL the phrasal verbs:
"As a user, I want to log in with my OAuth token so that I can set up my profile without having to fill in my details manually. Once logged in, I should be able to opt out of marketing emails at any time."
How many distinct phrasal verbs appear in this user story?
4 phrasal verbs: log in, set up, fill in, opt out.
Each is a verb + particle forming a meaning distinct from the base verb:
log in (/lɒɡ ɪn/) — authenticate and gain access to a system. "Login" (noun) vs "log in" (verb). Equivalent: sign in.
set up (/sɛt ʌp/) — configure or initialise something. "Setup" (noun/adj) vs "set up" (verb).
fill in (/fɪl ɪn/) — complete a form by entering information in blank fields. British English; US English prefers "fill out."
opt out (/ɒpt aʊt/) — choose to remove yourself from something (emails, tracking, features). Opposite: opt in.
Why not 5? "logged in" in "once logged in" is the past participle used as an adjective/adverb — it's part of an adverbial phrase, not a separate new occurrence that adds a fifth phrasal verb. The phrasal verb is still "log in"; "logged in" is the same verb in a different grammatical form.
2 / 10
A product manager shares this user story in a sprint planning meeting:
"As an admin, I want to roll out new feature flags to a subset of users so that I can roll back quickly if something breaks, without having to take down the whole service."
Which of the following best defines "take down" as used in this context?
"Take down" in this context means to bring offline / stop the service — making it temporarily unavailable to users. It implies a complete service interruption (as opposed to a partial or degraded state).
Usage in IT context: • "We'll take down the auth service during the migration window" — stop it entirely • "The deploy took down prod for 4 minutes" — caused unintended downtime • "Don't take down the database — hot-swap the schema" — avoid full stop
Key distinction from similar phrasal verbs: • Scale down — reduce capacity (fewer instances, lower resources) but service stays running • Shut down — very similar to "take down"; "shut down" is slightly more final (end of life); "take down" implies temporary • Turn off — informal equivalent used in everyday speech
In this user story: "without taking down the whole service" = without a full outage. The admin wants feature flag rollbacks that are surgical — not disruptive.
3 / 10
During backlog refinement, the team reads:
"As a billing system, I need to kick off an invoice generation job at 00:00 UTC and send out confirmation emails once all invoices have been processed."
Which answer correctly identifies and defines the phrasal verbs in this story?
"kick off" = start/trigger; "send out" = distribute; "processed" is NOT a phrasal verb.
Why "processed" is not a phrasal verb: A phrasal verb = base verb + particle (preposition or adverb). "Processed" = "process" + "-ed" (past tense suffix). No particle. It is an ordinary transitive verb in the passive voice ("once all invoices have been processed").
Phrasal verb definitions:
kick off (/kɪk ɒf/) — to start or initiate a process, especially a scheduled or significant one. "Kick off the build pipeline," "the sprint kicks off Monday," "kick off a cron job." Originally from football; now standard in IT and project management.
send out (/sɛnd aʊt/) — to distribute to multiple recipients simultaneously. "Send out notifications," "send out the weekly report," "the mailer sends out 50,000 emails per hour." The "out" emphasises dispersion to many.
Tip: When scanning user stories for phrasal verbs, look for verb + adverb/preposition pairs where the combination has a distinct meaning not obvious from the individual words alone.
4 / 10
Read this acceptance criteria from a Jira ticket:
"Given an API key that has expired, when the user tries to call the endpoint, then the system should return a 401 response and prompt the user to sign up for a new key or reach out to support."
Which pair of words from this extract is a phrasal verb?
"sign up" and "reach out" are both phrasal verbs.
sign up (/saɪn ʌp/) — to register for a service or account. Verb + particle (up). "Sign up for a free trial," "require users to sign up," "20,000 users signed up in the first week." Compare: "signup" (noun) vs "sign up" (verb).
reach out (/riːtʃ aʊt/) — to contact someone, especially proactively. "Reach out to support," "I'll reach out to the vendor," "please reach out if you have questions." Verb + particle (out). Very common in US business/tech English; sometimes criticised as overused corporate-speak but still widely accepted.
Why "return" and "prompt" are not phrasal verbs: • "return" — single-word verb, regular usage: "return a value/response" • "prompt" — single-word verb meaning to cause or urge someone to act: "the error prompts the user" Neither has a particle attached that changes the root meaning.
In acceptance criteria writing: phrasal verbs like "sign up," "log out," "opt in," "reach out," "kick off" are common and appropriate — they match user mental models.
5 / 10
A developer writes a user story and includes this sentence:
"As a DevOps engineer, I want the pipeline to spin up a fresh container for each test run and automatically tear it down afterwards so that test isolation is guaranteed."
What do "spin up" and "tear down" mean in this context?
"spin up" = create and start a new instance; "tear down" = destroy/remove the instance after use. These are two of the most important phrasal verbs in cloud and containerised infrastructure:
spin up (/spɪn ʌp/) — to create, initialise, and start a new compute resource (container, VM, service, process). The "up" implies bringing something from zero to running state. "Spin up a container," "spin up a new EC2 instance," "the test runner spins up a fresh environment." Origin: from spinning up a hard disk to operating speed.
tear down (/tɛr daʊn/) — to destroy and remove infrastructure cleanly after it's no longer needed. The "down" implies stopping and the "tear" implies complete removal (not just stopping). "Tear down the test environment," "terraform destroy tears down all resources," "the CI job tears down the VM after the build."
In test contexts specifically: "Spin up / tear down" is a core testing pattern for achieving test isolation — each test gets a clean environment with no leftover state from previous tests. This is why the DevOps engineer in this story wants it automated in the pipeline.
6 / 10
A junior developer, Liam, is struggling to explain the concept of 'rollback' to a senior engineer, Sarah. He says, "We need to roll out this new feature flag so that if anything goes wrong, we can roll it back quickly."
Which of the following best describes what Liam is referring to?
Liam is using the phrasal verb 'roll out' to describe deploying a new feature. 'Roll back' refers to reverting changes – this is the core meaning behind the phrase. Options A and C are unrelated, while option D describes testing.
7 / 10
During a Slack channel discussion about debugging an API endpoint, a developer posts: "I'm going to debug this code and see if I can find the root cause of the error."
'Debug' is a phrasal verb meaning 'to systematically investigate and find the cause of an error'. The action described aligns directly with this definition. Options B, C, and D represent different approaches that don't use the specific phrasal verb.
8 / 10
A code reviewer comments on a pull request: "This commit seems to have broken the integration tests. We need to revert this change and investigate further."
'Revert' is a crucial phrasal verb in software development meaning 'to undo or reverse'. It's commonly used in code review contexts when something has gone wrong. The other options represent alternative actions but don't utilize the specific phrasing of 'revert'.
9 / 10
A developer writes a user story for a new feature: "As a system administrator, I want to spin up a temporary database instance when the application needs to perform complex data analysis so that it doesn't impact the production environment."
'Spin up' is a phrasal verb that means 'to create or activate' something quickly. In this context, it refers to the rapid provisioning of a temporary database instance. This aligns with the scenario described in the story.
10 / 10
During a standup meeting, a developer states: "I'm going to triage these bugs and prioritize them based on severity."
'Triage' is a phrasal verb that means 'to assess and prioritize items' – in this case, bugs. It describes the process of determining which issues require immediate attention based on their severity. Options A, C, and D represent different actions within bug management.
What will I practise in "📋 Phrasal Verbs in User Stories"?
This module focuses on Phrasal Verbs — real workplace phrasing you'll use on the job. It contains 10 scenario-based multiple-choice questions with instant feedback.
Is this exercise free to use?
Yes. Every exercise on CoderSlingo, including this one, is free to use with no account or sign-up required.
How many questions does this exercise have?
This module includes 10 questions. Each one gives an immediate right/wrong result plus a full explanation of the correct phrasing.
What happens if I answer a question incorrectly?
You'll see the correct answer highlighted straight away, along with a plain-English explanation of why it's right and why the other options don't fit — mistakes are part of the learning here.
Can I retry the exercise if I want a better score?
Yes — use the 'Try again' button on the results screen to reset your score and go through the questions again. There's no limit on attempts.
Who is this Phrasal Verbs exercise for?
It's aimed at IT professionals with working English who want to sound more natural and precise around phrasal verbs — useful whether you're preparing for real conversations at work or just building confidence with the vocabulary.
Do I need an account to track my progress?
No account is needed. Your progress through the exercise is tracked locally in your browser for the current session, and you can replay the module at any time.
How is this different from reading a blog article?
This exercise is an interactive drill that tests and reinforces specific phrasing through multiple-choice questions with instant feedback, while blog articles explain concepts and vocabulary in prose. The two work well together.
Where can I find more Phrasal Verbs exercises?
See the Phrasal Verbs hub for more modules like this one, or browse the full Exercises page for other IT-English topics.
Can I complete this exercise on my phone?
Yes — every exercise on CoderSlingo is fully responsive and works on phones and tablets, so you can practise anywhere.