All phrasal verbs
look
/lʊk/11 phrasal verbsThe plain verb means to direct your eyes or attention.
LOOK is attention, and the particle says what kind. This family is unusually confusable because several members are three words long and differ by a single small word.
Line them up: look up = find information; look up to = admire; look after = care for; look for = search; look into = investigate; look out = be careful. Look up and look up to are separated only by TO, and they mean completely different things — one is a dictionary, the other is respect.
LOOK ends in /k/, so it links onto vowel-initial particles: look after is “loo-kafter”, look into is “loo-kinto”.
Side by side
Every LOOK phrasal verb, with the one line that keeps it apart from its siblings. Tap any one to open it.
| Phrasal verb | Means | How to remember it |
|---|---|---|
| look upSeparable2 meanings | find information in a reference; also, improve | You raise your eyes to the page. |
| look up toInseparable | admire and respect someone | Add TO and it becomes a person, not a fact. |
| look down onInseparable | consider someone inferior | The mirror image of look up to. |
| look forInseparable | search for something | FOR marks the thing you want. |
| look afterInseparable | take care of someone or something | You follow AFTER their needs. |
| look forward toInseparable | anticipate something with pleasure | Always followed by -ING, never the infinitive. |
| look intoInseparable | investigate | You go INTO the matter. |
| look outNo object | be careful — usually a warning | OUT = watch what is coming at you. |
| look overSeparable | examine quickly | OVER = a pass across the surface. |
| look throughInseparable2 meanings | examine item by item; also, ignore someone deliberately | THROUGH = from one end to the other. |
| look backNo object | think about the past | BACK = behind you in time. |