Developer English guide + free exercises
Phrasal Verbs for Developers
October 9, 2026
Phrasal verbs are everywhere in English tech conversations, but they can be hard to learn because their meaning is rarely obvious from the individual words. This guide covers the most common ones in software teams, grouped by the context where you'll hear them — plus 30 free exercises to practice choosing the right particle.
Key Takeaways
- Phrasal verbs cannot be guessed from their individual words: 'roll back' means to revert, not to move backward.
- 'Set up' means to install and configure; 'tear down' means to shut down and remove.
- 'Hand off' transfers responsibility to someone else; 'pick up' means to take on a task someone else left.
- 'Push back' is a professional way to express disagreement or resistance without sounding confrontational.
- 'Walk through' means to explain something step by step, commonly used in code reviews and demos.
Code and development
These phrasal verbs come up when talking about building, configuring, and deploying software.
To install and configure something so it is ready to use.
“Can you set up the local environment before the new developer starts on Monday?”
To revert a deployment or change to a previous working version.
“The release broke the checkout flow, so we had to roll back to last week's build.”
To commit or push code to a shared repository.
“Make sure you check in your changes before the end of the day.”
To include or incorporate a dependency, branch, or change.
“I pulled in the latest changes from main before opening the PR.”
To start or launch an instance, service, or environment.
“We can spin up a new staging environment for the client demo.”
To shut down and remove an environment or infrastructure.
“Remember to tear down the test cluster when you're done — it costs money to run.”
To connect two systems, services, or components together.
“I need to hook up the frontend to the new API endpoint.”
To connect the parts of a system so they work together.
“The components are ready — I just need to wire up the state management.”
To split something complex into smaller, simpler parts.
“Let's break down this epic into smaller stories before sprint planning.”
To finish or bring something to a close.
“I'm wrapping up the refactor today. The PR should be ready for review by 3pm.”
Collaboration and review
You'll hear these in code reviews, standups, and any back-and-forth between teammates.
To transfer responsibility for a task or project to someone else.
“She's handing off the feature to the backend team now that the API is done.”
To take on a task or continue work that someone else left.
“Can someone pick up this ticket? The original dev is out this week.”
To give formal approval for something to proceed.
“We need the product manager to sign off before we deploy to production.”
To check on the progress of something or take further action after an initial step.
“I sent the question to the client on Tuesday — I'll follow up if I don't hear back by Friday.”
To mention or raise a topic in a conversation or meeting.
“I'll bring up the performance issue at the retrospective.”
To draw attention to something, often a problem or detail.
“The reviewer pointed out that the function has no error handling.”
To investigate or research something.
“I'll look into why the tests are failing on the CI server.”
To review or examine something carefully.
“Let's go over the requirements one more time before we start building.”
To explain something step by step.
“Can you walk me through how the authentication flow works?”
To contact someone, especially to ask for help or information.
“If you're blocked, reach out to the platform team — they own that service.”
Projects and progress
Common when discussing timelines, blockers, releases, and how the work is going.
To start a project, sprint, or meeting.
“We're kicking off the new sprint on Monday with a planning session.”
To release or deploy a feature to users.
“The team is aiming to ship out the new onboarding flow before the end of the quarter.”
To resist or delay something, or to disagree with a decision.
“The engineering team pushed back on the timeline — two weeks is not enough for this feature.”
To make slower progress than expected.
“We've fallen behind on the backlog since two developers were out sick.”
To reach the expected level after falling behind.
“We'll need to catch up this sprint to hit the milestone.”
To postpone or delay something.
“We put off the migration until we have a proper rollback plan.”
To increase capacity, infrastructure, or team size to handle more load.
“We'll need to scale up the database cluster before the Black Friday traffic spike.”
To unexpectedly encounter a problem or obstacle.
“We ran into a compatibility issue with the new version of the library.”
To solve a problem or figure out the details of something.
“We need to work out the data model before we start writing any code.”
To stop focusing on something and proceed to the next topic or task.
“We're out of time on this — let's move on and revisit it after the standup.”
English for developers
Practice these phrasal verbs
30 exercises: pick the particle that completes each phrasal verb for its meaning in context.
Code and development
↑ Back to the theoryto set ___
Can you set the local environment before the new developer starts on Monday?
to roll ___
The release broke the checkout flow, so we had to roll to last week's build.
to check ___
Make sure you check your changes before the end of the day.
to pull ___
I pulled the latest changes from main before opening the PR.
to spin ___
We can spin a new staging environment for the client demo.
to tear ___
Remember to tear the test cluster when you're done — it costs money to run.
to hook ___
I need to hook the frontend to the new API endpoint.
to wire ___
The components are ready — I just need to wire the state management.
to break ___
Let's break this epic into smaller stories before sprint planning.
to wrap ___
I'm wrapping the refactor today. The PR should be ready for review by 3pm.
Collaboration and review
↑ Back to the theoryto hand ___
She's handing the feature to the backend team now that the API is done.
to pick ___
Can someone pick this ticket? The original dev is out this week.
to sign ___
We need the product manager to sign before we deploy to production.
to follow ___
I sent the question to the client on Tuesday — I'll follow if I don't hear back by Friday.
to bring ___
I'll bring the performance issue at the retrospective.
to point ___
The reviewer pointed that the function has no error handling.
to look ___
I'll look why the tests are failing on the CI server.
to go ___
Let's go the requirements one more time before we start building.
to walk ___
Can you walk me how the authentication flow works?
to reach ___
If you're blocked, reach to the platform team — they own that service.
Projects and progress
↑ Back to the theoryto kick ___
We're kicking the new sprint on Monday with a planning session.
to ship ___
The team is aiming to ship the new onboarding flow before the end of the quarter.
to push ___
The engineering team pushed on the timeline — two weeks is not enough for this feature.
to fall ___
We've fallen on the backlog since two developers were out sick.
to catch ___
We'll need to catch this sprint to hit the milestone.
to put ___
We put the migration until we have a proper rollback plan.
to scale ___
We'll need to scale the database cluster before the Black Friday traffic spike.
to run ___
We ran a compatibility issue with the new version of the library.
to work ___
We need to work the data model before we start writing any code.
to move ___
We're out of time on this — let's move and revisit it after the standup.
More English for developers
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Written by
Roxana LafuenteLingua-e's founder
Roxana Lafuente is a software engineer with 8+ years of experience. At the beginning of her career, even though she had already passed the First Certificate in English, she still froze every time she had to speak up in the daily standup. That was a gap nobody was fixing. After 2,000+ standups, she figured out what actually builds fluency: practice that looks like your real work. She built Lingua-e so other developers wouldn't have to take the long road to feel confident working in an international development environment.