.

 

English Phrasal Verbs

Practice your English with Caroline Brown

 

Now let's look at the verb 'to stand. Here are some common expressions using this verb combined with particles:

'to stand around' mean to stand in a place doing very little or waiting for something.

  • We just stood around for half an hour waiting for the concert to begin.
  • Lots of teenagers just stand around on street corners because they have nothing to do.

'to stand aside' means to move to a position where you do not block others.

  • I told everyone to stand aside to let them pass.
  • Everyone stood aside to let the rescue workers pass.

'to stand back' means to move a short distance away from something.

  • Please stand back from the objects. You must not touch them.
  • You can see the paintings better if you stand back a little.

'to stand back' also means to take a bit of distance from a problem in order to understand it

  • It's difficult to stand back and be objective when you are talking about your children.
  • We need to stand back and think about this.

'to stand by' means to be waiting and ready for something.

  • Riot Police were standing by in case the demonstration got out of hand.
  • Ambulance teams were standing by in case any of the participants got into difficulties.

'to stand by' also means to continue to support someone or something.

  • We stand by our decision in spite of the opposition to it.
  • His wife stood by him through the scandal.

'to stand down' mean to leave or resign from an important position.

  • The Prime Minister stood down after the defeat in the elections.
  • Even though he still had the support of the shareholders, he decided to stand down.

'to stand for' means is an abbreviation for.

  • BBC stands for British Broadcasting Corporation.
  • What does PGCE stand for?

'to stand for' can mean to support or represent an idea or attitude.

  • I agree with everything that Greenpeace stand for.
  • The Conservative Party stands for family values.

'to stand for' also means to accept someone's behaviour without complaining.

  • I don't see why I should stand for his bad behaviour.
  • I don't know how she stands for it. He's impossible to live with.

exercise 1

exercise 2

exercise 3

Return to Main Menu

Technical Problems?

Some people have been having problems loading our exercises using the latest version of Internet Explorer. You can solve this by downloading and using Firefox, which is a much better browser anyway. Just click on this link.

 

 

  These exercises are FREE to use. They are all copyright (c) 2005/2006/2007 Caroline Brown, unless otherwise stated. They cannot be reused on any other Web site, be it Internet or Intranet, without Caroline Brown's express permission - caroline@stroppycat.com