Collocations and Phrasal Verbs with GO

Learn and practise important collocations and phrasal verbs with GO with me. What are the typical structures where you can use the verb ‘go’? How does it combine with prepositions and other parts of speech? Let me tell you all about it in this lesson.

Phrases from the lesson:

1) go + preposition
I went to the bank at 12.00.
We go for a swim once a week.

2) go + and + verb (about two closely related actions)
Go and catch your breath!
Let’s go and have a cup of coffee.

3) go + Ving (for leisure activities and sports finishing with -ing)
I am going shopping.
Does he really go sailing?

4) be going to + to V1 (for future plans)
I am going to visit Venice later this year.
What are you going to do?

5) go + adverb (How did it go?)
go well, go badly, go successfully…
That went well. (ironically)
The interview went really badly.

6) go + adjective (about negative changes)
to go bald, to go yellow, to go red, to go numb, to go bad, to go dead
We should eat this fish before it goes bad.
Everybody went silent.

Phrasal Verbs with GO

– to go ahead (to start or progress)

• Go ahead, tell me more!
• There was little hope for success yet we went ahead.

– to go away (to leave the place)

• I want to go away! I hate it here.
• He went away but he promised to come back.

– to go back (to) + place, BUT to go back home (to return)

• When are you going back home?
• Let’s go back to that jazz place. What was its name?

– to go down (to decrease)

• Sales have gone down lately.
• Are we going down? Any chance of saving the company?

– to go in(to) or to go out of + the place

• Are you going in? Or are you staying outside?
• When I last saw him, he was going out of the train.

– to go on (to continue)

• Go on. I want to know all.
• And we are going on… In the next part of my presentation…

– to go on + Ving (to continue doing some action

• Do you really want to go on crying?

– to go on about something (to talk non-stop about something)

• She goes on and on about her boyfriend. It’s impossible!

– to go off (about the alarm or a bomb – to get activated)

• The alarm went off 5 times yesterday – it needs to be fixed.

– to go off (about the food or drink – to be no longer fresh)

• Don’t drink the milk; it’s gone off.
• Do you think this bread has gone off?

– to go over something (to check carefully, step by step)

• Let’s go over the plan one more time.
• What are you doing? – I am going over my calculations again to check the data is correct.

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