Literal and non-literal meanings

Literal and non-literal meanings There are hundreds of phrasal verbs in English. Some of them have a literal meaning, which means that the meaning can be guessed from the words themselves. Some phrasal verbs have a non-literal meaning, which means it is much more difficult to guess the meaning, unless the context is very clear. An example is given below.

• He looked up and saw the plane overhead. (Here the meanings of the verb and ‘up’ have not changed – the meaning of the phrasal verb is literal).
• He looked up all the words he didn’t know in his new dictionary. (Here the meaning has changed. ‘Look up’ means to seek information in a reference book. 

Activity 1: Literal or non-literal? Look at the phrasal verbs in the sentences below. Decide if they are literal (L) or non-literal (NL).
1. He ran out of the building to catch the bus.
2. We’ve run out of bread. Shall I go to the shops?
3. She looked through the window to see if he was home.
4. She put her books on the desk.
5. The police are looking into who committed the crime.
6. She put the television on to watch the weather.
7. Would you mind looking through my work to check if it’s correct?
 8. I looked into his room but couldn’t find him.
 9. Can you go over the instructions again please?
10. The ball went over the wall into neighbour’s garden.