Phrasal Verbs

If somebody ‘flies into’ an emotional state, they do it very suddenly and without warning.

• He flew into a panic when he heard that the big boss was coming.
• She flew into a rage when she heard that her project had been cancelled.

If you ‘fool someone into’ doing something, you trick them into doing it.

• I fooled him into believing that next Monday was a public holiday.
• She fooled me into thinking that John was Italian.

If you ‘slip into’ a bad state or condition, you gradually start to be that way.

• The economy is slipping into recession.
• He improved for a while but now he’s slipping back into his old habits.

If you ‘run into’ somebody, you meet them by chance.

• I ran into Martin when I was doing some shopping.
• I hope to run into you again one of these days.

If a quantity ‘runs into’ the thousands, it is more than one thousand.

• The money spent on the project must run into the millions.
• The death toll runs into the hundreds.

If you ‘run into difficulties’, you begin to experience them.

• The company ran into difficulties in the 90s when consumer tastes changed.
• We’ll run into problems if we don’t act now.

If you ‘settle into’ a new job, you begin to feel relaxed and at ease.

• How are you settling into your new job?
• I’ve had problems settling into my new company.

If you ‘fling yourself into’ a task, you do it with a lot of energy.

• He’s flung himself into his new job. He’s already made a lot of changes.
• She flings herself into everything she does. She has an amazing amount of energy.

If you ‘sink money into’ a project, you invest it.

• Microsoft have sunk millions into developing their range of products.
• We’d need to sink a lot of money into the factory to turn it around.

If you ‘sink into’ a state, you gradually get worse.

• He’s sunk into a depression over the last few months.
• The company has sunk deeper and deeper into debt.

exercise 1
exercise 2
exercise 3
exercise 4