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Formal or academic alternatives to phrasal verbs

What’s a formal alternative to ‘go up’?

As a formal alternative to ‘go up’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalent ‘rise’ or ‘increase’.

For example: Noise and pollution increased as a result of urbanization.

Want more examples of the use of ‘rise’ and ‘increase’ in academic sentences? Use Writefull’s Language Search.

What’s a formal alternative to ‘go down’?

As a formal alternative to ‘go down’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalent ‘decrease’.

For example: The risk of cardiovascular disease decreased after the treatment.

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What’s a formal alternative to ‘cut down’?

As a formal alternative to ‘cut down’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalent ‘reduce’.

For example: The primary aim of the government was to reduce costs.

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What’s a formal alternative to ‘look into’?

As a formal alternative to ‘look into’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalents ‘explore’ or ‘investigate’.

For example: This study explores the link between cognitive ability and academic performance.

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What’s a formal alternative to ‘work out’?

As a formal alternative to ‘work out’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalents ‘calculate’ or ‘compute’.

For example: This method was used to calculate humidity profiles of the atmosphere.

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What’s a formal alternative to ‘come out’?

As a formal alternative to ‘come out’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalent ‘emerge’.

For example: Growing evidence emerged over the years.

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What’s a formal alternative to ‘keep up’?

As a formal alternative to ‘keep up’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalent ‘maintain’.

For example: The government’s priority was to maintain peace and social order.

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What’s a formal alternative to ‘pull out’?

As a formal alternative to ‘pull out’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalent ‘extract’.

For example: 3D information was easily extracted through that method.

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What’s a formal alternative to ‘bring up’?

As a formal alternative to ‘bring up’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalent ‘mention’.

For example: The rationale for choosing this approach is mentioned in Chapter 3.

Want more examples of the use of ‘mention’ in academic sentences? Use Writefull’s Language Search.

What’s a formal alternative to ‘figure out’?

As a formal alternative to ‘figure out’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalents ‘solve’ or ‘determine’.

For example: Antiglobulin tests were performed to determine the best course of treatment.

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What’s a formal alternative to ‘leave out’?

As a formal alternative to ‘leave out’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalents ‘omit’ or ‘discard’.

For example: In such cases, a cancer diagnosis may be discarded.

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What’s a formal alternative to ‘carry on’?

As a formal alternative to ‘carry on’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalents ‘continue’ or ‘proceed’.

For example: The authors proceeded to measure the absorption of gamma rays by certain liquids.

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What’s a formal alternative to ‘come about’?

As a formal alternative to ‘come about’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalent ‘happen’ or ‘occur’.

For example: The event occurred at the turn of the 19th century.

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What’s a formal alternative to ‘hand out’?

As a formal alternative to ‘hand out’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalent ‘distribute’.

For example: The aim was to distribute the substances in a carefully controlled manner.

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What’s a formal alternative to ‘pick out’?

As a formal alternative to ‘pick out’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalent ‘choose’ or ‘select’.

For example: We selected 124 participants from 16 countries across a wide age range.

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What’s a formal alternative to ‘talk about’?

As a formal alternative to ‘talk about’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalent ‘discuss’.

For example: In this paper, we discuss the use of the tangent vector in calculus.

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What’s a formal alternative to ‘put forward’?

As a formal alternative to ‘put forward’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalent ‘propose’.

For example: The authors propose that clinical guidelines be changed.

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What’s a formal alternative to ‘turn down’?

As a formal alternative to ‘turn down’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalent ‘discard’ or ‘reject’.

For example: The committee proceeded to reject the Cabinet decision.

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What’s a formal alternative to ‘come up (with something)’?

As a formal alternative to ‘come up (with)’ for your academic text, consider the single-verb equivalent ‘suggest’ or ‘invent’.

For example: He invented the theory of duality in linear programming.

Want more examples of the use of ‘suggest’ and ‘invent’ in academic sentences? Use Writefull’s Language Search.