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Phrasal verbs can have a literal or a non-literal meaning – a literal phrasal verb describes what is
actually happening, whereas a non-literal meaning is not describing what is actually happening. For
example, the phrasal verb get over is used in both of these sentences: It was difficult to get over the
garden fence and It was difficult to get over my illness. To 'get over' means to climb over something,
so in the first sentence the meaning is literal. However, in the second sentence, the meaning of 'get
over' is equal to 'recover from' or 'to get better'.
These pairs of sentences use the same phrasal verb, but one sentence is literal whereas the other is
non-literal. Select the correct phrasal verb from the box below, and then decide which sentence is
using the phrasal verb literally and which is a non-literal usage.