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 103 free exercises to practice choosing the right particle.
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.”
Code and development phrasal verb practice
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
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.”
Collaboration and review phrasal verb practice
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
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.”
Projects and progress phrasal verb practice
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
Same Verb, Different Particle
These phrasal verbs share a base verb but mean something completely different depending on the particle. The base verb gives no clue which one is right, so mixing them up is an easy mistake. Here's how to tell each family apart.
to look (LOOK)
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 investigate or research a problem.
“I'll look into why the build is failing intermittently.”
To review something quickly, often without going too deep.
“Could you look over my PR before I merge it?”
to check (CHECK)
To commit or push code to a shared repository.
“Make sure you check in your changes before you leave for the day.”
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 mark an item as done, usually on a list or checklist.
“Check off each task on the migration checklist as you finish it.”
to run (RUN)
To unexpectedly encounter a problem or obstacle.
“We ran into a weird edge case with timezones.”
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 deplete or exhaust a resource.
“The staging server ran out of disk space overnight.”
to set (SET)
To install and configure something so it is ready to use.
“Can you set up the staging environment for QA?”
To delay progress on something.
“The outage set back our release by two days.”
To trigger a chain of events, like an alert or a cascade of failures.
“That config change set off a cascade of failing tests.”
to break (BREAK)
To split something complex into smaller parts, or to stop working.
“Let's break down this epic into smaller stories.”
To gain unauthorized access to a system.
“An attacker tried to break into the admin panel using brute force.”
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.”
English for developers
Practice these phrasal verbs
Pick the particle that completes each phrasal verb for its meaning in context.
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.
CHECK
↑ Back to the theoryto 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.
BREAK
↑ Back to the theoryto 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.
Final Exam: All the Phrasal Verbs
40 exercises, one for every phrasal verb on this page, in mixed order with no hints about which one each sentence needs.
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.
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.
- The base verb never tells you the meaning: 'check in' (commit code), 'check out' (switch branches), and 'check off' (mark as done) share a verb but have nothing in common beyond that.
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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.