Phrasal verbs are easy!

Help!

A lot of students roll their eyes up to heaven and start shaking when teachers mention the word 'phrasal verb'! There seems to be a fear amongst learners of English that phrasal verbs are simply impossible to understand. Students believe that you can study them for years and years and they will still make no sense!

Well, the good news is that this is not true. Phrasal verbs are easy! I promise!

The problem.

The problem for students is that phrasal verbs all look so similar. To bring in , to bring out, to bring up , to bring down etc. And in this form, it is true. But what if the common thread were the preposition, and not the verb? To get on, to drag on, to go on etc. Now it is easier because if we now introduce a keyword, a word which will explain the real meaning of the preposition then the meaning of the verb will (hopefully!) become obvious. In the above case, the keyword is CONTACT. That means that with all phrasal verbs with on, the meaning is contact. Look at the following sentences:

The bottle is on the table
Peter and Tom get on
The film went on and on

Look at the first sentence. Here, the contact is simply physical: between the bottle and the table. In the second sentence, the contact is between Peter and Tom; it is social contact. If you don't get on with someone, do you have contact with them? No. In the third example, there is too much contact: the film is too long.
Let's go back and start again from the begining.

Are you on for it?

Before we look at any phrasal verb group, we should look at what the preposition means when it is used with the verb to be.
The bottle is on the table
As I have already said, here the contact is simply physical contact between the bottle and the table. But what if I were offering you a coffee? Offering you a coffee is like saying
You-coffee-contact?, or in idiomatic English, 'Are you on for a coffee?'
Similarly, I might ask, 'What are you on for doing this weekend?' (ie with what would you like contact?). So, I'm on for means 'I would like' or 'I want'.
We can use the same 'contact' idea for other idiomatic expressions. If you are intending to treat someone in a restaurant, when the bill arrives, it's 'me-bill-contact', so you can say, 'it's on me!'
So on means contact, whatever the structure and whatever the context. It doesn't have to be a phrasal verb.

Do you get on?

I get on with Tom. There is (good) contact between us. If we don't get on, there is no contact.

Does it go on and on?

Look at these sentences.
The film went on a long time.
The meeting went on and on
Here, there is too much contact. The film and the meeting were both too long. If we want to make the idea even stronger, we could say:
The meeting dragged on and on.
Likewise, if someone talks too much about his car, it is boring; we have too much contact and we can say:
He went on and on about his car.

Am I going on too much?

So now are you beginning to see 'on' in English? It is not just about something lying ON the surface of something else. It is also metaphorical. It is about the contact between people or objects or even concepts.
I've decided to take on the new job.
Here, the contact is between me and RESPONSIBILITY. If I take it on, I accept it. But with take on, it's about responsibility.

Go out and look at the world of ON. When you see a word with ON ask yourself where is the contact? Between what and what?
Good luck and if we meet in a pub...it's on you!