Opaque phrasal verbs — the full C2 set

At C1 you owned about twenty opaque phrasal verbs as productive items. At C2 the ceiling lifts: native US speakers — especially journalists, executives, novelists, and TV hosts — draw on a set of roughly fifty fully opaque PVs that are not decomposable, not predictable, and not optional. A C2 candidate does not just understand fly off the handle, go off the rails, jump down someone’s throat, take someone aback; they reach for these PVs at the right register, in the right rhythm, with the right noun complements.

The C2 differentiator is productive opacity. A C1 speaker tends to fall back on a Latinate single verb when the opaque PV does not surface in time: confirm instead of bear out, explain instead of tease out, succeed instead of pull off, escalate instead of ramp up, deescalate instead of wind down, cancel instead of write off, tolerate instead of put up with. None of these are wrong, but every single one of them pushes the speaker half a register higher and one notch less idiomatic. Owning the opaque PV at production speed is owning the conversational-yet-precise register that defines native US English from the New Yorker masthead down to the WeWork conference room.

This lesson groups roughly forty-five opaque PVs by what they do. Each entry gives a definition, two to four real-style US example sentences, separability and pronoun-position notes, and a register tag. Read across the clusters and watch how the same situation (a deal succeeding, a project failing, a meeting calming down) can be told with three or four different PVs whose register and texture differ.

Success, achievement, and the hard pull-off — pull off, pull through, pan out, work out

The verbs of bringing something difficult to completion.

• pull off (separable) — succeed at something difficult or unlikely; bring off against the odds.
  • They pulled off the deal with only forty-eight hours to spare.
  • Nobody thought she could pull it off, but the keynote landed.
  • Can we actually pull this off without involving legal?
  • Register: neutral. Common in business, sports, journalism.
• pull through (intransitive or transitive separable) — survive a crisis, illness, or near-failure.
  • Doctors weren’t sure he’d pull through after the second surgery.
  • The startup pulled through the funding winter with cash to spare.
  • Her family’s steady support pulled her through.
  • Register: neutral. Common in obituaries, recovery narratives, business case studies.
• pan out (intransitive) — develop in a particular way; turn out as expected. Gold-panning metaphor.
  • We had three offers, but none of them panned out.
  • Let’s see how the new role pans out before we move cross-country.
  • The strategy didn’t pan out, so the board pivoted hard.
  • Register: casual-business. Avoid in formal writing.
• work out (separable, multiple senses) — be resolved successfully; calculate; exercise.
  • Things worked out in the end.
  • I worked out the math and the unit economics don’t close.
  • He works out at six every morning.
  • Register: neutral. Polysemous; context disambiguates.

Confirmation, dismissal, and downplaying — bear out, brush aside, brush off, gloss over, write off, wave aside

The verbs of evidence and dismissal — vital for journalism and argumentation.

• bear out (separable) — confirm; support with evidence.
  • The polling data bears out the campaign’s internal sense.
  • Subsequent investigations bore out the whistleblower’s account.
  • Her hypothesis was borne out by the trial results.
  • Register: formal/journalistic. Slightly literary. The past participle borne out is standard.
• brush aside (separable) — dismiss without serious consideration.
  • The CEO brushed aside questions about layoffs.
  • He brushed her concerns aside and kept talking.
  • Don’t brush this aside — it’s a real liability.
  • Register: neutral to journalistic.
• brush off (separable) — dismiss a person, suggestion, or criticism with little attention; treat as unimportant.
  • She brushed off the rumor as gossip.
  • He brushed me off when I asked about the timeline.
  • The committee brushed off the audit findings.
  • Register: neutral.
• gloss over (separable, but typically used with continuation) — treat superficially; mention only to dismiss.
  • The memo glossed over the legal exposure entirely.
  • He glossed over the part where the deal fell apart.
  • Don’t gloss it over; people will notice.
  • Register: journalistic/critical. Almost always carries a negative judgment.
• write off (separable) — give up on; dismiss as worthless; also: deduct as a tax loss.
  • The team was written off by every analyst, then made the playoffs.
  • Don’t write him off yet — he’s not done.
  • We wrote off the bad debt at year-end.
  • Register: business/neutral.

Resolving, working through, drawing out — iron out, hash out, smooth over, sort out, tease out, draw out

The fine-grained register tier on resolution — at C2 you must choose deliberately.

• iron out (separable) — resolve small problems or wrinkles.
  • We still need to iron out a few issues before launch.
  • Let me iron it out with the vendor.
• hash out (separable) — discuss thoroughly and at length until a resolution is reached; often heated.
  • The two sides hashed out the contract over the weekend.
  • They’re still hashing it out behind closed doors.
  • We hashed everything out at the offsite.
  • Register: business/journalistic. Implies effort and back-and-forth.
• smooth over (separable) — resolve or minimize a conflict or awkwardness, often by tactful action or language.
  • She smoothed things over with the client after the bad demo.
  • He tried to smooth it over with an apology.
  • Register: neutral. Often interpersonal/diplomatic.
• sort out (separable) — resolve, organize, or fix (general-purpose).
  • Let me sort out the schedule and circle back.
  • We need to sort this out before Monday.
• tease out (separable) — extract carefully (a fact, distinction, implication) from complex material.
  • The reporter teased out the contradiction in the senator’s account.
  • Let me tease out what you’re saying from what the data says.
  • Register: journalistic/scholarly.
• draw out (separable) — elicit; cause to be expressed; also: prolong.
  • A good interviewer draws out the subject’s actual views.
  • Don’t draw out the meeting any longer than it has to be.
  • Register: literary/journalistic.

Anger, eruption, and going off — fly off the handle, go off the rails, lash out, jump down someone’s throat, blow up at

The cluster of emotional eruption. All vivid, all metaphorical, all near-mandatory at C2.

• fly off the handle (intransitive — fixed expression) — lose one’s temper suddenly and disproportionately.
  • He flies off the handle every time the topic comes up.
  • Don’t fly off the handle — let me explain.
  • Register: informal. Strongly idiomatic; almost a cliché but still alive in speech.
• go off the rails (intransitive — fixed expression) — collapse into chaos, lose control of direction; also of a person, descend into self-destruction.
  • The project went off the rails in Q3.
  • He went off the rails in his thirties and disappeared for a decade.
  • Register: journalistic/neutral. Common in obituaries, business retrospectives.
• lash out (intransitive, often with at) — attack verbally or physically and suddenly.
  • The candidate lashed out at the moderator.
  • She lashed out when the criticism finally landed.
  • Register: journalistic. Very common in political coverage.
• jump down someone’s throat (transitive — fixed expression) — respond to a person with sudden, disproportionate anger.
  • Don’t jump down my throat — I just asked a question.
  • He jumps down everyone’s throat in meetings.
  • Register: informal/spoken. Strongly idiomatic.
• talk back to (inseparable three-part) — answer back disrespectfully (especially to an authority figure).
  • Kids who talk back to their parents.
  • Nobody talked back to my grandmother.
  • Register: informal/conversational.

Calming, defusing, and winding down — simmer down, smooth over, tone down, wind down, level off, talk down

The opposite cluster: bringing emotional or operational temperature back to normal.

• simmer down (intransitive — usually imperative) — calm down; reduce intensity.
  • Everybody simmer down — let me finish.
  • Once tempers simmered down, the meeting got productive.
  • Register: informal. Stove metaphor.
• tone down (separable) — reduce in intensity, volume, or aggression (of speech, criticism, design, color).
  • The press secretary asked him to tone down the rhetoric.
  • Could you tone it down a bit? We’re in a library.
  • She toned down the marketing copy after legal review.
  • Register: neutral.
• wind down (intransitive or separable) — gradually slow or relax (of activity, person, business).
  • The week is finally winding down.
  • They wound down the program over six months.
  • I need an hour to wind down before bed.
  • Register: neutral.
• level off (intransitive) — stop rising or falling and become steady.
  • Inflation has begun to level off.
  • Cases leveled off in late February.
  • Register: journalistic/business.
• talk down (separable, two senses) — (1) calm someone in crisis; (2) belittle or speak condescendingly to.
  • Negotiators talked the suspect down over six hours.
  • Don’t talk down to me — I have the same degree.
  • Register: neutral (sense 1); negative (sense 2).

Speaking publicly, holding forth, weighing in — hold forth, weigh in, push back, set forth, speak up

The cluster of public expression — discourse, op-ed, panel, hearing.

• hold forth (intransitive, often with on) — speak at length and with confidence, sometimes pompously.
  • He held forth on monetary policy for forty minutes.
  • Whenever the topic comes up, she holds forth like she invented it.
  • Register: literary/critical. Often mildly disapproving.
• weigh in (intransitive, often with on) — contribute one’s opinion to a discussion or debate.
  • The Treasury Secretary weighed in on the bank rescue.
  • Let me weigh in here before we move on.
  • Register: journalistic/business.
• push back (intransitive, often with on/against; also separable as transitive) — resist or challenge (a claim, decision, request).
  • The board pushed back hard on the timeline.
  • I’d push back on that framing.
  • Register: business/journalistic. The most-used PV in US corporate English.
• set forth (separable, formal) — present or state formally; also: begin a journey.
  • The brief sets forth the plaintiff’s three main claims.
  • They set forth at dawn.
  • Register: formal/legal/literary.
• stand by (intransitive or transitive inseparable) — (1) remain loyal to (a person, claim, decision); (2) be ready.
  • I stand by every word of that article.
  • Stand by for further instructions.
  • Register: neutral.

Scaling, escalating, and ramping — ramp up, scale back, crack down on, mop up, top off, throw in

Operational verbs of intensity and finishing.

• ramp up (separable) — increase in intensity, scale, or rate.
  • We’re ramping up production for the holiday quarter.
  • They’ve ramped up enforcement at the border.
• scale back (separable) — reduce in scope or intensity.
  • The agency scaled back its ambitions after the audit.
  • We had to scale it back due to budget cuts.
• crack down on (inseparable three-part) — enforce strictly against; suppress.
  • The city is cracking down on illegal short-term rentals.
  • Regulators cracked down on the firm after the disclosure.
  • Register: journalistic.
• mop up (separable) — finish dealing with remaining tasks or opponents; clean up.
  • We’re mopping up the last few bugs before release.
  • Forces mopped up the remaining resistance over the weekend.
  • Register: military-origin; now business and journalism.
• top off (separable) — fill to the top; complete with a final addition.
  • Top off your coffee?
  • She topped off the speech with a personal anecdote.
  • Register: neutral.
• throw in (separable) — add as an extra or bonus.
  • They threw in floor mats with the car.
  • Let me throw in one more point.
  • Register: neutral.

Surprising, tipping off, and tripping up — take aback, tip off, trip up, conjure up, dive into, drag out

A miscellany of high-frequency opaque PVs.

• take aback (separable — usually passive be taken aback) — shock or surprise mildly.
  • I was taken aback by her bluntness.
  • The question seemed to take him aback.
  • Register: neutral/slightly literary. Almost always passive.
• tip off (separable) — secretly warn or inform.
  • An anonymous source tipped off the reporter.
  • Somebody must have tipped them off.
  • Register: journalistic.
• trip up (separable) — cause to make a mistake; catch in an error.
  • The cross-examination tripped him up on the dates.
  • That clause trips up a lot of native speakers too.
  • Register: neutral.
• conjure up (separable) — produce as if by magic; evoke vividly.
  • He conjured up a venue at the last minute.
  • The song conjures up a Vermont summer.
• dive into (inseparable two-part) — begin enthusiastically and deeply.
  • Let’s dive into the data.
  • She dove into the new project the day she started.
  • Register: business/neutral.
• drag out (separable) — prolong unnecessarily.
  • Don’t drag out the meeting.
  • The trial dragged on for months. (note: drag on is the intransitive sibling)

Productive vs recognition

Register matrix

Common Russian-speaker mistakes

1. Defaulting to Latinate verbs. Confirm instead of bear out, escalate instead of ramp up, resolve instead of iron out, retract instead of walk back. None are wrong, but every substitution stiffens the register. At C2 the goal is to reach for the PV first and the Latinate second.
2. Wrong preposition on opaque PVs. Lash out on (correct: lash out at); crack down to (correct: crack down on); weigh in to (correct: weigh in on); push back to (correct: push back on/against). The prepositions are fixed and non-negotiable.
3. Separating inseparable PVs. Crack down them on is wrong — crack down on is a three-part inseparable PV; pronoun goes at the end: crack down on them. Same for dive into it, stand by it, talk back to her.
4. Treating take aback as active. He took me aback is grammatical but rare; the natural form is the passive I was taken aback (by his bluntness). Russian-speakers often produce the active form and sound off.
5. Confusing write off (dismiss) with write down (depreciate). Both are accounting terms; in spoken business English they diverge. Write off a bad debt entirely. Write down the value to a lower carrying amount.
6. Overusing fly off the handle and go off the rails. Both are vivid clichés. Native speakers deploy them sparingly. Pair them with a quieter alternative (lose his temper, collapse into chaos) and rotate.
7. Mixing up talk down senses. Talked the suspect down (de-escalated) vs talked down to me (condescended). The first is positive; the second is hostile. The preposition (to) is the marker for the second.
8. Saying stand by you when you mean stand up for you. Stand by = remain loyal (a stance); stand up for = actively defend in the moment. I stand by my friend (general loyalty) vs I stood up for my friend at the meeting (acted in the moment).

Summary

• C2 productive opacity covers roughly forty-five PVs across success/failure, confirmation/dismissal, resolution, anger, calming, public expression, scaling, and miscellaneous registers.
• The C2 differentiator is reaching for the opaque PV before the Latinate verb — bear out over confirm, pan out over succeed, push back over resist, gloss over over minimize.
• Register is non-negotiable. Set forth and bear out are formal-legal-literary; fly off the handle and simmer down are informal-spoken; push back and hash out are corporate-neutral.
• Prepositions are fixed: lash out at, crack down on, weigh in on, push back on/against, talk back to, talk down to.
• Recognition-only items at C2 production: set forth (legal only), hold forth (mildly disapproving), jump down someone’s throat (peer-only informal).
• The Russian-speaker tells are: Latinate defaults, wrong prepositions, active take aback, and overuse of vivid clichés. All correctable through deliberate substitution drills.

Next lesson: Legal and political phrasal verbs — back down, climb down, hand over, lay down, stand down, step down, throw out, walk back, weigh in on — the cluster that dominates US political journalism and Supreme Court reporting.