Guida pratica ai phrasal verbs inglesi: significati e utilizzi comuni

Definizione di act up

• to act up: to function irregularly or imperfectly, usually in reference to machines or parts of the body.

Esempio: my computer is acting up – just when I need it most or my back is acting up (per ragioni sconosciuti fa male);
• to account for: to explain, to rationalize.

Esempio: how do you account for these interesting results? (come spieghi questi interessanti risultati);

Utilizzo di add up

• to add up:

◦ to find the sum/total of.

Esempio: could you add up these figures (numeri/cifre)?;

◦ to be logical/make sense.

Esempio: his argument did not add up so I disagreed with his point of view;
• Be in on something: to be involved in.

Esempio: Dr Jones wants to be in on the proposed research (vuole far parte della ricerca proposta);

Ridurre e riassumere

• to boil something down/boil down something: to decrease in size, to summarize.

Esempio: the first copy of your article is too long, we’ll have to boil it down or it will take me all week to boil my thesis down to a two-page summary;
• to break down: to deconstruct (dividere una situazione complicata in parti più piccole), to fail, referred to both machines and people.

Esempio: this machine han broken down or we’ll have to break the operation down into separate phases.

È diventato anche un sostantivo=breakdown. Esempio: she has a nervous breakdown.