Micro-listening
Phrasal verbs with look: meanings and everyday use
What do phrasal verbs with 'look' mean?
Phrasal verbs with 'look' have different meanings: 'look for' means search, 'look after' means care for, and 'look into' means investigate. Other forms express happy anticipation, warnings, finding information or admiration. For example, 'We looked for a quiet place to sit.' Learn each combination as a unit because the following word changes the meaning.
Key points
- 'Look for' describes searching, not finding.
- 'Look after' means caring for someone or taking responsibility for something.
- 'Look forward to' is followed by a noun or an -ing form.
- Put a pronoun between 'looked' and 'up': 'looked it up'.
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Stage 1 of 5
Understand
What it means, when to use it, and mistakes to avoid.
The full explanation
Phrasal verbs with look express distinct daily actions. Look for describes searching for missing objects or people. Look after describes care and ongoing responsibility. Look forward to expresses pleasant anticipation of an upcoming event. Look into means investigating the facts of a problem. Look out functions as a safety warning, while look up means finding information, and look up to means admiring someone.
Marcus is looking for his car keys in the hallway.
Why it works: Looking for indicates an active search for an item that cannot be found.
3 more examples
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Could you look after our puppy while we visit the dentist?
Look after means providing food, attention, and safety to a pet.
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We look forward to welcoming our new team members next Monday.
Look forward to expresses positive feelings about an upcoming plan and uses the -ing form welcoming.
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The technician promised to look into the network disconnection.
Look into means examining a technical issue to determine why it failed.
Read the full guide
Read the combination as one unit
When you see the verb look, always read the small word that follows it. In English, these combinations create completely new meanings that translation dictionaries cannot explain word by word. If you only think about your eyes, you will miss the real message. Decide what action is happening in the whole sentence before you choose a meaning.
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I am looking for my badge, but Sarah is looking after the visitors.
Why it works: Looking for describes a search. Looking after describes care and responsibility.
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We must look into the delay before we speak to the client.
Why it works: Look into means investigate the facts behind a problem.
Your turn
Why should you read the particle after the verb look?
Answer: Because the particle changes the verb into a completely new meaning.
Show the answer
Answer: Because the particle changes the verb into a completely new meaning.
The small word after look creates an idiom with its own specific meaning.
Use look for when searching
Use look for when you want to find a missing person, an object, or an opportunity. You can look for your house keys, search for a new job, or seek a quiet desk in the library. Do not confuse this with finding. Look for describes your active search before you locate the item.
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Marcus is looking for his notebook in the office.
Why it works: Marcus cannot find his notebook, so he is trying to locate it.
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Are you looking for a full-time position this summer?
Why it works: Look for also applies to searching for employment or opportunities.
You can practise this again in Phrasal verbs with break: meanings and everyday use and Phrasal Verbs: Understanding Meaning in Context.
Your turn
Which sentence describes someone searching for a lost item?
Answer: Elena is looking for her phone in the room.
Show the answer
Answer: Elena is looking for her phone in the room.
Look for means try to locate something that is lost or missing.
Use look after for care
Use look after when you take care of someone or assume responsibility for something. You look after children, pets, sick relatives, or office plants while someone is away. Keep look and after together. You cannot separate this phrase with the noun, and it does not mean searching.
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Can you look after my cat while I travel for work?
Why it works: The speaker asks for daily care and feeding of the pet.
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Our receptionist looks after the mail and morning deliveries.
Why it works: Look after refers to managing regular work responsibilities.
Your turn
What does look after mean in everyday conversation?
Answer: Provide care or take responsibility for someone or something.
Show the answer
Answer: Provide care or take responsibility for someone or something.
Look after means to attend to the needs of a person, animal, or duty.
Use look forward to for plans
Use look forward to when you anticipate a future event with pleasure. In this common expression, to is a preposition rather than part of an infinitive. That grammatical structure means you must follow it with a noun phrase or an -ing verb form. Never use a base verb here.
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I look forward to meeting our new manager tomorrow.
Why it works: Meeting uses an -ing form because to functions as a preposition.
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All the staff look forward to the annual holiday dinner.
Why it works: The annual holiday dinner is a noun phrase following to.
Your turn
Which option correctly finishes the sentence: We look forward to...
Answer: hearing your news soon.
Show the answer
Answer: hearing your news soon.
Look forward to requires a noun or an -ing form because to is a preposition.
Use look into to investigate
Use look into when you examine the facts of a situation, a formal complaint, or a technical error. It suggests a serious investigation to discover what happened and why. Unlike quick checks, looking into an issue takes time and careful attention before anyone reaches a final decision.
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Our supervisor promised to look into the billing mistake.
Why it works: The supervisor will investigate why the invoice has an incorrect charge.
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The technician is looking into the server outage right now.
Why it works: The technician is actively investigating the technical malfunction.
Your turn
When a manager says they will look into a customer complaint, what will they do?
Answer: They will investigate the facts and find the cause of the problem.
Show the answer
Answer: They will investigate the facts and find the cause of the problem.
Look into means examine a situation closely to find out what happened.
Use look out to give warnings
Use look out to warn someone about immediate danger or unexpected trouble. By itself, it functions as a short shout when an accident might happen. When you add the preposition for, the phrase means pay close attention so you notice a possible hazard, person, or specific road sign.
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Look out! The kitchen floor is wet and slippery.
Why it works: The speaker gives an urgent warning about an immediate slip hazard.
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Please look out for cyclists when you open your car door.
Why it works: Look out for tells the driver to watch carefully for bicycles.
Your turn
Which phrase should you shout if a box is falling from a shelf?
Answer: Look out!
Show the answer
Answer: Look out!
Look out is an immediate exclamation used to warn people of danger.
Use look up for facts
Use look up when you search for specific information in a dictionary, timetable, directory, or search engine. This phrasal verb can separate when the object is a noun. However, if you replace the noun with a pronoun such as it or them, you must place the pronoun in the middle.
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You can look up the definition in an online dictionary.
Why it works: The noun phrase the definition can follow the particle up.
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I did not know the office address, so I looked it up.
Why it works: The pronoun it must go between looked and up.
Your turn
Which sentence shows the correct word order with a pronoun?
Answer: I did not know the word, so I looked it up.
Show the answer
Answer: I did not know the word, so I looked it up.
When using a pronoun object with look up, place the pronoun between the verb and particle.
Use look up to for admiration
Use look up to when you admire and respect an older person, a teacher, or a skilled colleague. This three-part verb never separates. The person you admire always follows the preposition to. Do not confuse this with looking up at the ceiling, which describes literal eye movement.
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Many junior nurses look up to Sister Jackson for guidance.
Why it works: The nurses respect Sister Jackson and view her as a role model.
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David looks up to his uncle because of his honesty in business.
Why it works: Look up to expresses personal admiration for someone's character.
Your turn
What does it mean if you look up to someone?
Answer: You admire and respect their character or achievements.
Show the answer
Answer: You admire and respect their character or achievements.
Look up to means to respect someone as a positive role model.
Common mistakes
What learners often say, what to say instead, and why.
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Not this:
I look forward to visit the museum.Say: I look forward to visiting the museum.
In 'look forward to', 'to' is a preposition, so it takes a noun or an -ing form.
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Not this:
I looked up it in the guidebook.Say: I looked it up in the guidebook.
A pronoun object must go between 'looked' and 'up'.
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Not this:
They looked the complaint into.Say: They looked into the complaint.
'Look into' stays together before its object and cannot be separated.
Questions about "Phrasal verbs with look: meanings and everyday use"
Why do we say look forward to seeing you instead of look forward to see you?
In the phrase look forward to, the word to is a preposition, not part of an infinitive verb like to see. Prepositions in English must be followed by nouns, pronouns, or gerunds (-ing forms). Because of this rule, you must say look forward to seeing you, look forward to meeting the team, or look forward to our vacation.
I look forward to visiting your new home next weekend.
We all look forward to our summer holiday.
What is the difference between look for and look after?
Look for means you are actively searching for an object, person, or piece of information that is missing. Look after means you are caring for someone or taking responsibility for their well-being, such as feeding a pet or watching a child.
I am looking for my car keys on the kitchen table.
My brother looks after our grandmother on Sunday mornings.
Can I say I looked up it when finding a word in a dictionary?
No. When look up takes a pronoun object such as it, them, or her, the pronoun must sit between the verb and the particle up. You can say look up the word or look the word up with a noun, but with a pronoun you must say look it up.
If you do not know the address, please look it up online.
Those phone numbers are hard to remember, so I will look them up.
When should I use look out by itself instead of look out for?
Use look out alone as a short exclamation when someone faces immediate physical danger. Use look out for when you want someone to stay alert and pay attention to a specific potential hazard, person, or sign over a period of time.
Look out! That ladder is wobbling.
Look out for deer when driving through the forest at night.
Before you go
Remember this
Choose the right look phrase based on the specific action you want to describe. Use look for when searching, look after for caring, look into for investigating, and look out for immediate warnings. Remember to place pronouns between look and up, and always use an -ing verb or noun after look forward to. Checking these small patterns ensures your English sounds natural and accurate.
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