Confusable words

Phrasal verbs are an important feature of the English language. The meaning of a phrasal verb often bears no relation to the meaning of either the verb or the particle which is used with it. Many phrasal verbs have several different meanings.

Open into (if a door opens into a place, it opens in its direction)
The bedroom opens into the bathroom.
Open onto (if a door opens onto a place, it opens in that direction)
My bedroom window opens onto a field.
Open out (to unfold something)
Some sofas open out into beds.
Open up (to open the door often by unlocking it)
Open up! We know that you are in the room.
Opt out (to choose not to be part of an activity)
We have decided to opt out of the company’s welfare scheme.
Order around (to tell someone what they should do)
My boss enjoys ordering people around.
Own up (to admit that you have done something wrong)
Own up! Who has been using my mobile phone?
Pace out (to measure a distance by taking steps of equal size across and counting them)
Brenda began to pace out the room to see where the bed could be placed.
Pack away (to put something into a bag)
Pack away all your clothes and leave the house.
Pack in (to stop doing something, especially a job)
It was a boring job so I decided to pack it in.
Pack into (to manage to do a lot of activities in a given time)
We packed a lot of sightseeing into our holiday schedule.
Pack off (to send someone away)
We packed him off to the nearest hospital.
Pack out (to make a place full)
Spectators packed out the stadium to see the cricket match.
Pack up (to collect your things and put them into a bag)
I need some time to pack up my belongings.
Pad out (to make a piece of writing or speech longer by adding more information or words)
If your essay is too short, pad it out with some quotations.
Pair off (If two people pair off, they start a romantic relationship)
After a few months the trainees started pairing off.
Pair off with (to introduce two people to each other, hoping that they will start a romantic relationship)
Sandra was trying to pair me off with her brother.
Pair up (to join another person for a short time to do something)
The students had to pair up with another person for certain activities.
Palm off (to give someone an explanation for something that is not true but you hope it will satisfy them)
The manager felt he had been palmed off with a series of excuses by certain workers.
Palm off as (to try to persuade someone that something has a particular value that it does not have)
The salesman tried to palm it off as an original Parker pen.
Palm off (to give or sell something to someone because you want to get rid of it)
As I have bought a new computer, I want to palm off my old one to someone.
Pan out (to develop or happen in a particular way)
The minister wants to see how things would pan out.
Pander to (To provide what someone wants but you know that it is wrong to do so)
He was not interested in pandering to your fantasies.
Paper over (to hide a disagreement or difficulty and try to make people believe that there is no problem)
Many governments try to paper over their difficulties.
Parcel out (to divide something into several parts and give them to several people)
We divided the contributions and parcelled them out to needy people.
Parcel up (to wrap something and make it into a parcel)
Can you parcel up those items and send them off to me?
Pare down (to reduce the size or amount of something)
During the Covid-19 pandemic many companies pared down their staff to a minimum.
Part with (to give something away)
She wanted to part with some of her old clothes.
Partake of (to have similar qualities to something else)
His novels partake of historical events.
Partition off (to separate one part of a room from another using a thin wall or a piece of glass)
We partitioned off our bedroom to form a study.
Pass around (to offer something to each person in a group of people)
Bring some chocolates to pass around.