Phrasal Verbs With Take at B1: Take After, Take Over, Take Back and More
Take off is one of the first phrasal verbs most learners meet, because planes do it and so do coats. At B1 the take family becomes more interesting: you take after a parent, take over a job, take back something you said and take in a friend who needs a bed. Several of them have two meanings, and the sentence decides which one you need.
Take on its own already has many uses: take a bus, take a photo, take a break. Those are collocations, fixed partners for the verb, and they are a different topic from phrasal verbs. Here we look at take plus a small word such as off, over or after, where the pair means something new.
Each verb below is marked A2 or B1, and you will find them in our B1 phrasal verbs list and the A2 list. If you are looking for take a break or take a shower, the article on collocations with take, get and have covers those.
The A2 base: removing and leaving
The simplest take phrasal verbs are about removing something or moving it away. They keep the physical meaning of take, so they are easy to picture.
| Phrasal verb | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| take off (clothes) | remove clothing | Please take your shoes off at the door. |
| take off (a plane) | leave the ground | The plane took off an hour late. |
| take out | remove something from inside | She took her phone out of her bag. |
| take down | remove something from a wall | We took the old posters down. |
| take away | move something to another place | The waiter took our plates away. |
The B1 set
These are less physical and much more common in conversation about people, work and relationships.
| Phrasal verb | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| take after | look or behave like an older family member | He takes after his father. They both love cooking. |
| take over | start doing a job someone else was doing | Anna will take over when I go on holiday. |
| take over | take control of a company or situation | A bigger company took the shop over last year. |
| take back | admit that something you said was wrong | I am sorry. I take it back. |
| take in | let someone stay in your home | They took in a student from Spain. |
| take out | go somewhere with someone and pay for it | He took her out for dinner on her birthday. |
| take care of | look after someone, or deal with a task | Do not worry about the tickets. I will take care of it. |
| take advantage of | make good use of an opportunity | Take advantage of the sale before it ends. |
One verb, two meanings
Several take phrasal verbs change meaning with the object, and this is where B1 learners get confused. Take off with clothes means to remove them; take off with a plane means to leave the ground. Take out with a thing means to remove it from a bag or a box; take out with a person means to go on a date or an evening out and usually pay.
Take back works the same way. Take back a jacket to a shop means to return it. Take back what you said means to admit it was wrong. The object tells you which meaning is meant, so always read the whole sentence before you decide.
Where does the object go?
Most take phrasal verbs in this article are separable. With a noun, both orders are fine: take off your shoes, or take your shoes off. With a pronoun, the pronoun must go in the middle: take them off, never take off them.
Take after is not separable. The person always comes after the whole verb: she takes after her mother, never she takes her mother after. Take care of and take advantage of are not separable either, because they end with the preposition of.
| Correct | Wrong |
|---|---|
| Take it off, please. | Take off it, please. |
| I take it back. | I take back it. |
| She takes after her mother. | She takes her mother after. |
Take after or look like?
Take after and look like can both describe family resemblance, but they are not the same. Look like is only about appearance, and it works for anyone: you can look like a film star. Take after is only for an older relative, and it can be about character as well as looks. You take after your grandmother if you share her stubborn streak, even if you look nothing like her.
How to learn them
Start with the three you will use most: take after, take over and take care of. Write one sentence for each about a real person in your life, then test yourself again over the next few days, leaving a longer gap each time.
When those feel easy, learn the double meanings of take off and take out as pairs, so that each meaning reminds you of the other. The B1 phrasal verbs list has the other verbs at this level, and you can see how put works at B1 for a family with the same separable pattern.