AAAmerican Accent US

look out

No object

This verb takes no object at all.

How to say it

Stress the particle, not the verb: look OUT. Saying “LOOK out” is the clearest learner tell — the verb stays light and the particle carries the beat.

Link across the gap. The final /k/ of “look” moves onto the particle and starts its syllable: “look out” is said “loo-kout”. Pausing between the words is what makes phrasal verbs sound recited rather than spoken.

Verb vs noun

As a noun the stress flips to the front: the verb is look OUT, the noun is LOOKOUT. Same two words, different beat — “to look OUT” is the action, “a lookout” is the thing. Getting this backwards makes the sentence land oddly even when every sound is right.

What it means

  1. To be careful — usually shouted as a warning.

    • “Look out! There's a car coming.”
    • “Look out for ice on the steps.”

    Similar: watch out, be careful

The particle logic

out

Something exits a container, becomes visible, or is exhausted.

Listen + practice

Hear “look out” spoken naturally

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Read the sentence aloud. Keep the stress on the particle and run the two words together — we’ll score every sound and flag what to work on.

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More LOOK phrasal verbs

Compare the whole family →

look up

To search for information in a reference source.

look for

To search for something or someone.

look after

To take care of someone or something.

look forward to

To feel pleased about something that is going to happen. Always followed by a noun or an -ING form, never an infinitive.

look up to

To admire and respect someone.

look down on

To consider someone inferior.

look into

To investigate something.

look over

To examine something fairly quickly.

look through

To examine a collection item by item.

look back

To think about the past.

look out — meaning, examples & how to say it