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Phrasal verbs para developers

October 9, 2026

Los phrasal verbs están en todas las conversaciones técnicas en inglés, pero pueden ser difíciles de aprender porque su significado rara vez se deduce de las palabras que los forman. Esta guía cubre los más comunes en equipos de software, agrupados por el contexto en el que los escucharás — más 103 ejercicios gratuitos para practicar cómo elegir la partícula correcta.

Código y desarrollo

Estos phrasal verbs aparecen cuando se habla de construir, configurar y desplegar software.

to set up

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 roll back

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 check in

To commit or push code to a shared repository.

“Make sure you check in your changes before the end of the day.”

to pull in

To include or incorporate a dependency, branch, or change.

“I pulled in the latest changes from main before opening the PR.”

to spin up

To start or launch an instance, service, or environment.

“We can spin up a new staging environment for the client demo.”

to tear down

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 hook up

To connect two systems, services, or components together.

“I need to hook up the frontend to the new API endpoint.”

to wire up

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 break down

To split something complex into smaller, simpler parts.

“Let's break down this epic into smaller stories before sprint planning.”

to wrap up

To finish or bring something to a close.

“I'm wrapping up the refactor today. The PR should be ready for review by 3pm.”

Práctica de phrasal verbs: Código y desarrollo

1

Can you set the local environment before the new developer starts on Monday?

2

The release broke the checkout flow, so we had to roll to last week's build.

3

Make sure you check your changes before the end of the day.

4

I pulled the latest changes from main before opening the PR.

5

We can spin a new staging environment for the client demo.

6

Remember to tear the test cluster when you're done — it costs money to run.

7

I need to hook the frontend to the new API endpoint.

8

The components are ready — I just need to wire the state management.

9

Let's break this epic into smaller stories before sprint planning.

10

I'm wrapping the refactor today. The PR should be ready for review by 3pm.

11

Tocá las palabras de arriba en orden

Colaboración y revisión

Los escucharás en code reviews, standups y cualquier comunicación entre compañeros de equipo.

to hand off

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 pick up

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 sign off

To give formal approval for something to proceed.

“We need the product manager to sign off before we deploy to production.”

to follow up

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 bring up

To mention or raise a topic in a conversation or meeting.

“I'll bring up the performance issue at the retrospective.”

to point out

To draw attention to something, often a problem or detail.

“The reviewer pointed out that the function has no error handling.”

to look into

To investigate or research something.

“I'll look into why the tests are failing on the CI server.”

to go over

To review or examine something carefully.

“Let's go over the requirements one more time before we start building.”

to walk through

To explain something step by step.

“Can you walk me through how the authentication flow works?”

to reach out

To contact someone, especially to ask for help or information.

“If you're blocked, reach out to the platform team — they own that service.”

Práctica de phrasal verbs: Colaboración y revisión

1

She's handing the feature to the backend team now that the API is done.

2

Can someone pick this ticket? The original dev is out this week.

3

We need the product manager to sign before we deploy to production.

4

I sent the question to the client on Tuesday — I'll follow if I don't hear back by Friday.

5

I'll bring the performance issue at the retrospective.

6

The reviewer pointed that the function has no error handling.

7

I'll look why the tests are failing on the CI server.

8

Let's go the requirements one more time before we start building.

9

Can you walk me how the authentication flow works?

10

If you're blocked, reach to the platform team — they own that service.

11

Tocá las palabras de arriba en orden

Proyectos y progreso

Comunes al hablar de plazos, bloqueos, lanzamientos y cómo va el trabajo.

to kick off

To start a project, sprint, or meeting.

“We're kicking off the new sprint on Monday with a planning session.”

to ship out

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 push back

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 fall behind

To make slower progress than expected.

“We've fallen behind on the backlog since two developers were out sick.”

to catch up

To reach the expected level after falling behind.

“We'll need to catch up this sprint to hit the milestone.”

to put off

To postpone or delay something.

“We put off the migration until we have a proper rollback plan.”

to scale up

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 run into

To unexpectedly encounter a problem or obstacle.

“We ran into a compatibility issue with the new version of the library.”

to work out

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 move on

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.”

Práctica de phrasal verbs: Proyectos y progreso

1

We're kicking the new sprint on Monday with a planning session.

2

The team is aiming to ship the new onboarding flow before the end of the quarter.

3

The engineering team pushed on the timeline — two weeks is not enough for this feature.

4

We've fallen on the backlog since two developers were out sick.

5

We'll need to catch this sprint to hit the milestone.

6

We put the migration until we have a proper rollback plan.

7

We'll need to scale the database cluster before the Black Friday traffic spike.

8

We ran a compatibility issue with the new version of the library.

9

We need to work the data model before we start writing any code.

10

We're out of time on this — let's move and revisit it after the standup.

11

Tocá las palabras de arriba en orden

Mismo verbo, distinta partícula

Estos phrasal verbs comparten un verbo base pero significan algo completamente distinto según la partícula. El verbo base no da ninguna pista sobre cuál es la correcta, así que confundirlos es un error fácil de cometer. Así se distingue cada familia.

to look (LOOK)

to look up

To search for or check a piece of information, like in a dictionary, documentation, or a database.

“I had to look up the correct flag for this CLI command.”

to look into

To investigate or research a problem.

“I'll look into why the build is failing intermittently.”

to look over

To review something quickly, often without going too deep.

“Could you look over my PR before I merge it?”

Practicar este verbo →

to check (CHECK)

to check in

To commit or push code to a shared repository.

“Make sure you check in your changes before you leave for the day.”

to check out

To switch to a different branch, or to take a look at something new.

“Check out the feature branch and try to reproduce the bug.”

to check off

To mark an item as done, usually on a list or checklist.

“Check off each task on the migration checklist as you finish it.”

Practicar este verbo →

to run (RUN)

to run into

To unexpectedly encounter a problem or obstacle.

“We ran into a weird edge case with timezones.”

to run through

To go through something step by step, or to execute it.

“Let's run through the deployment steps one more time before we go live.”

to run out

To deplete or exhaust a resource.

“The staging server ran out of disk space overnight.”

Practicar este verbo →

to set (SET)

to set up

To install and configure something so it is ready to use.

“Can you set up the staging environment for QA?”

to set back

To delay progress on something.

“The outage set back our release by two days.”

to set off

To trigger a chain of events, like an alert or a cascade of failures.

“That config change set off a cascade of failing tests.”

Practicar este verbo →

to break (BREAK)

to break down

To split something complex into smaller parts, or to stop working.

“Let's break down this epic into smaller stories.”

to break into

To gain unauthorized access to a system.

“An attacker tried to break into the admin panel using brute force.”

to break out

To extract part of something into its own separate piece, like a function or module.

“We should break out this logic into its own utility function.”

Practicar este verbo →

Inglés para developers

Practica estos phrasal verbs

Elige la partícula que completa cada phrasal verb según su significado en contexto.

to look ___

I had to look the correct flag for this CLI command.

to look ___

She looked the error code in the documentation before asking for help.

to look ___

I'll look why the build is failing intermittently.

to look ___

Can you look the memory leak reported in production?

to look ___

Could you look my PR before I merge it?

to look ___

He looked the design doc and left a few comments.

to check ___

Make sure you check your changes before you leave for the day.

to check ___

I always check my work at the end of the sprint, even if it's not finished.

to check ___

Check the feature branch and try to reproduce the bug.

to check ___

You should check this new testing library the team is considering.

to check ___

Check each task on the migration checklist as you finish it.

to check ___

We checked every item before declaring the rollout complete.

to run ___

We ran a weird edge case with timezones.

to run ___

The team ran some unexpected CORS issues while integrating the new API.

to run ___

Let's run the deployment steps one more time before we go live.

to run ___

Can you run the test suite locally before you open the PR?

to run ___

The staging server ran of disk space overnight.

to run ___

We ran of API quota before the demo even started.

to set ___

Can you set the staging environment for QA?

to set ___

It took an hour to set the new CI pipeline.

to set ___

The outage set our release by two days.

to set ___

This bug set the whole team by a full sprint.

to set ___

That config change set a cascade of failing tests.

to set ___

The bad deploy set a flood of error alerts.

to break ___

Let's break this epic into smaller stories.

to break ___

The build server keeps breaking under heavy load.

to break ___

An attacker tried to break the admin panel using brute force.

to break ___

The pentest report showed how someone could break our API with a weak token.

to break ___

We should break this logic into its own utility function.

to break ___

Let's break the shared styles into a separate component.

Examen final: todos los phrasal verbs

40 ejercicios, uno por cada phrasal verb de esta página, en orden mixto y sin pistas sobre cuál necesita cada oración.

1

New hires get walked the deployment process on day one.

2

QA pushed on releasing without more test coverage.

3

He looked the API reference to confirm the parameter order.

4

DevOps spun three new containers for the load test.

5

I ran a race condition while testing concurrency.

6

I'll follow with the vendor if we don't hear back.

7

The audit checked whether anyone could break the VPN.

8

The deploy caused errors, so we rolled to the previous version.

9

We worked the caching strategy during the design review.

10

IT set a new laptop for the incoming intern.

11

Let's go the incident timeline before the postmortem.

12

Could you look this config before I apply it?

13

I can pick that bug since I'm already in that file.

14

A null pointer exception set a chain of retries.

15

Reach to support if the issue isn't resolved by tonight.

16

They put the refactor to focus on the launch first.

17

He pulled a bugfix from another branch before testing.

18

Check main and rebase your branch on top of it.

19

We shipped the hotfix within the hour.

20

We broke the validation logic into a shared helper.

21

We still need to hook the payment service to checkout.

22

Let's run the rollback plan before we deploy.

23

She brought a concern about test coverage in standup.

24

Support asked us to look a spike in failed logins.

25

The CI job keeps breaking at the install step.

26

The team fell after losing two engineers last month.

27

The designer handed the mockups to the frontend team.

28

We checked the last item on the launch checklist.

29

Let's table this discussion and move to the next topic.

30

Once the UI is done, we'll wire the backend calls.

31

We ran of budget for the load testing tool.

32

The linter pointed an unused import in the file.

33

We had to scale quickly when traffic spiked overnight.

34

Legal still needs to sign on the new terms page.

35

Remember to check before the branch freeze tonight.

36

We stayed late to catch on the backlog.

37

The dependency conflict set the sprint by a day.

38

Don't forget to tear the temporary resources after the demo.

39

Let's wrap this meeting, we're almost out of time.

40

The retro kicked with a quick round of feedback.

Puntos clave

  • Los phrasal verbs no se pueden deducir de sus palabras individuales: 'roll back' significa revertir, no retroceder.
  • 'Set up' significa instalar y configurar; 'tear down' significa apagar y eliminar.
  • 'Hand off' transfiere la responsabilidad a otra persona; 'pick up' significa tomar una tarea que otra persona dejó.
  • 'Push back' es una forma profesional de expresar desacuerdo o resistencia sin sonar confrontacional.
  • 'Walk through' significa explicar algo paso a paso, común en code reviews y demos.
  • El verbo base nunca indica el significado: 'check in' (subir código), 'check out' (cambiar de branch) y 'check off' (marcar como hecho) comparten verbo pero no tienen nada más en común.

More English for developers

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Roxana Lafuente

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Roxana Lafuente

Fundadora de Lingua-e

Roxana Lafuente es ingeniera de software con más de 8 años de experiencia. Al comienzo de su carrera, aunque ya había aprobado el First Certificate in English, se bloqueaba cada vez que tenía que hablar en el standup diario. Era un problema que nadie estaba resolviendo. Después de más de 2.000 standups, descubrió qué es lo que realmente construye la fluidez: practicar situaciones que se parecen a tu trabajo real. Creó Lingua-e para que otros developers no tuvieran que tomar el camino largo para sentirse seguros trabajando en un entorno de desarrollo internacional.