Learn 30 phrasal verbs in 30 days!

Jumpstart your vocabulary in 2017.

Today is Day 29 and we're studying phrasal verbs with “write”.

Phrasal verbs with WRITE.

A lot of these are really fun and useful.

To write back is to reply to someone’s communication.

I emailed her last week but she never wrote back.

Of course, now, we more frequently use email back or text back.

I texted him after our date but he didn’t text me back.

Write in: this means to write to an organization or a company.

Not an individual.

I wrote into the paper complaining about their biased reporting.

And we can always drop IN and have it still be grammatically correct:

I wrote to the pa per complaining about their biased reporting.

Write in can also mean to fill in a blank when you’re filling out something like a form or test.

Write in the correct answers.

Or, if the candidate you like isn’t on the ballot, you can write her in.

Did you notice? I used two more phrasal verbs here: fill in, and fill out.

We just use phrasal verbs all the time!

And finally, write in can mean to add something to a story or a play.

I’m going to write in another male character to balance it out.

Write off has a meaning similar to ‘write in’ – to contact a company or organization.

I’m going to write off to the company to ask for a replacement.

But write off also has a meaning that’s totally different,

that has nothing to with writing.

If you write something off or somebody off, then you say, that’s not important, it’s not meaningful.

If you think someone is not taking you or your ideas seriously, you can say, “don’t write me off.”

Or I wrote off my runny nose as allergies.

That means, I didn’t take my runny nose seriously, I didn’t know it meant I was getting the flu.

Also, when you write something off, that means you can count it as a business expense,

and you don’t pay taxes on it.

I can write off my home office.

Or, when I go to LA for VidCon, I write off my flight.

To write out, the opposite of write in, can mean, in writing, to remove something from a story or a play.

She’s bummed because they wrote her character out of the series.

We can also use this term with wills.

She was written out of her grandmother’s will when they had a huge disagreement.

To write something out can also mean to process something by writing the whole story, all the details.

Sometimes with grief, it helps to write out how you’re feeling.

To write up can mean to issue an official warning or notice of wrongdoing

My son misbehaves a lot.

He got written up three times last week at school.

Or, they wrote me up at work for being late.

To write something up also means to publish an article about something.

My mom’s new business was written up in the local paper.

Write up, write down.

To write something down means to make a note of it.

Something you want to remember.

Hold on, I can’t remember all this. Let me write it down.

WRITE. We have a silent W here.

Begin with the R consonant. Rr--

The lips flare and come in, rrr.

The tip of the tongue pulls back and up. Rrrrrr, write.

The AI as in BUY diphthong.

Jaw drops for the beginning of the diphthong and the back of the tongue lifts.

Then the jaw comes up as the front of the tongue arches towards the roof of the mouth.

Wri-, wri-.

And finally, the T sound.

Most Americans will make this a Flap T if the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong.

Write out. Write t- t- write out. Write out.

. Just a quick single bounce of the tongue on the roof of the mouth.

Most Americans will make it a Stop T if the next word begins with a consonant, like in ‘write back’.

Write-- back.

Do you hear the break in sound? The stop?

Write-- back, write back.

Just a quick stop of air before the next word. Write back.

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