12 Phrasal verb snap

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I couldn’t find
I phoned her with I couldn’t sort
I got back to her. an answer to this
an answer. it out.
problem.

I was very patient I dropped the

I put up with her I left them when I
and didn’t complain papers off at
bad behaviour. passed by.
about it. your office.

I found her
I couldn’t put up I talked him
behaviour annoying I explained in detail
with what she through the
and completely how to do things.
was doing. procedures.
unacceptable.

There’s space for you I gave up eating I completely stopped

I can put you up.
to stay in my home. fried food. doing this.

I planned to do it The loud noise It made me feel very

I put it off. but I didn’t do it. put me off negatively towards
(I’ll do it later.) the café. the place.

I encouraged her I criticized her for

I told the
I put her up to it. to do something doing something
child off.
naughty. naughty.

I wanted to call I thought we should

I looked after her. I took care of her. in some get an expert to deal
professional help. with our problem.

Photocopiable Learning Teaching Copyright © Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2011. This page may be photocopied for use in class.

Upper Intermediate Teacher's Notes.indd 24 11/16/10 1:08 PM

 12 Phrasal verb snap
Activity
Pair or groupwork. Students play snap, matching a sentence
with a phrasal verb to a sentence with a similar meaning.

Focus
Vocabulary: phrasal verbs with objects.

Preparation
Photocopy one worksheet for each pair or group of three to
four students. Cut the worksheet up into separate cards.

Procedure
• Explain that students are going to play phrasal verb snap.
They are aiming to match a sentence with a phrasal verb
to another sentence with a similar meaning.
• Divide the class into pairs or groups of three to four
students. Hand out one set of cards to each pair or group,
placed faced down on the desk.
• Explain how to play the game. Students take it in turns to
take a card from the pile and place it face up on the table.
There are two types of card (grey and white) and they
should add each card they turn over to the same type of
card to build up two piles. The two piles should be placed
next to each other.
• When a student places a card, anybody in the group
(including the student who played the card) can call out
Snap if they think that the meaning of the two sentences
(grey and white) is similar. If the other students agree
that they are correct, the student who called Snap picks
up those two cards. Those cards are now owned by that
student and are not used again in the game. (N.B. It’s a
good idea to do a demonstration of this game before
students start playing. Make sure they see an example of
how to make the two piles of cards and understand when
they can call Snap.)
• When all the cards placed face down are used, the two
piles are shuffled into one set and the game starts again.
The game continues until either (a) no more sentences are
possible, (b) all cards have been taken or (c) you stop the
activity.
• Check the correct matching of sentences with the class
and deal with any confusions or problems. The student in
each group with the most cards at the end is the winner.

Notes
• The meanings of the sentences on the grey and white
cards are very close but not absolutely identical. One card
may include some specific details that are not given on
the other card, e.g. I gave up eating fried food matches I
completely stopped doing this. If the same nouns (or other
words) were used in both cards, e.g. I gave up eating
fried food and I completely stopped eating fried food, it
would immediately give away the correct answer without
students having to think about the phrasal verbs.
• The following phrasal verbs are used in this task: get back
to someone, sort something out, put up with something,
drop something off, talk someone through something, put
someone up, give something up, put something off, put off
something, put someone up to something, tell someone off,
look after something, call someone in.

Upper Intermediate Teacher's Notes.indd 25 11/16/10 1:08 PM