Understanding English Grammar – run part 1

Let’s now have a look at the verb ‘to run’ combined with particles. Here are some of the most common expressions:

‘to run across someone’ means to meet them by accident.

  • I hadn’t seen Gloria for ages when I ran across her in the supermarket.
  • I ran across an old friend in town today. I hadn’t seen him for ages.

‘to run around’ means to be very busy doing lots of things.

  • I’m always running around trying to get everything done on time.
  • I spent all morning running around trying to find the things you needed.

‘to run away’ means to leave, often secretly, because you’re unhappy.

  • He was very unhappy in boarding school and ran away twice.
  • She ran away from home at sixteen and went to live with a friend in London.

‘to run down’ means to move quickly to a place in a lower position.

  • When I called her, she ran down so fast she nearly fell.
  • When I heard the news I ran down the street to tell Lily who lives at the bottom.

‘to run down’ also means to deliberately reduce the size of something, for example stock.

  • Stock is very expensive. We’re trying to run it down to a minimum.
  • They are running the company down by not replacing people who leave.

‘to run someone down’ means to hit a person when driving your car.

  • I was crossing the road when a car nearly ran me down.
  • She’s in hospital after being run down by a car on Market Street.

‘to run into’ problems means to meet or encounter difficulties.

  • We ran into huge financial difficulties when the construction went over budget.
  • The company has run into difficulties since the introduction of the euro.

‘to run into’ something when you’re driving means to hit something.

  • When I was parking, I ran into a post.
  • I didn’t brake quickly enough and ran into the car in front.

‘to run off’ means to escape or leave a place quickly.

  • The boys took some sweets from the shop and ran off laughing.
  • She waved goodbye and ran off to play with her friends.

‘to run off with’ something is to steal it.

  • They hit the man and ran off with his wallet and mobile phone.
  • The financial manager ran off with half a million of the company’s money.

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exercise 2

exercise 3

32 thoughts on “Understanding English Grammar – run part 1”

  4. thank you so much sir,you have been helping me lot,just one doubt,past continous and past perfect continous looks simlar almost but iam finding it difficult in framing the past perfect continous tense sentencess[duration of time]i could not catch properly.will you help me out.
    thanks a lot

    1. I was having a bath when the phone rang.

      You were doing something and something else happened.

      I had been working all day so I decided to go and have a bath.

      You did something and then you did something else.

  9. I am realy happy at the english grammer run part 1. I look for the futher to learn more & to get pritable materials. Thakyou.

  10. Thanks for sent me some phrasal verbs for study everyday.
    I’ll try my best to learn them.
    I wish you good luck and success in your work.
    God bless you!^0^

  11. hello.i wanted to thank the head manager of this website for sending me english grammar lessons.they are really helpful and practical.i hope i can get more and more of these interesting lessons day by day.
    i wish you the best.
    with many thanks ,maryam.

  15. Dear Sir,
    All of your lessons are really very nice and valuable. They are proving to be a good source of improving my English. Thanks a lot. Regards.

  16. Excellent job, sir! You have been doing a great social work for the spread of English. We are grateful enough to you for enabling us strengthening our English and speaking with confidence. These phrases help us more in framing correct and meaningful sentences. Thanks again, sir.

  20. hi
    i live in iran in my country dont speak and dont use english in conversation between people and also i go to english class and i have a good vocabstore in my mind i want to improve my speaking and want to have fluent accent how can i do that?
    and my books in english class are interchange whats your idea about it?

  22. I really enjoy these lessons, and get much benefit from them. many thanks,and appreciate your help. My question is about the opening sentence mentioned in the begining of this lesson ( to run across someone ) means to meet them by chance. We used someone and them , is it right to say (to run across someone means to meet him by chance). thanks again

    1. That’s a bit old-fashioned. If you don’t know the sex of a person, it’s better to use ‘them’. Some people disagree with this but you can find examples going back to Shakespeare and Jane Austin.

  23. I try to improve my english by myself without don’t go to any english course so your lessons is very important for me. All the knowledges that you sent or published in your site are very vey useful an valuable. I appreciate your help.Thank you so much.

  26. I really appreciate what you have done to us!! many thanks to mr & ms.”Grammar Teacher”!!!=]
    by the way, I’m a little confused about the possessive form of the word ” children”. Do we use “‘s” or just an apostrophe in this case ( eg: children’s clothes or children’ clothes) ? could you help me, please!

  27. i have a Request.
    would you tell me more about “would”
    in which situations or statements sentences we can use “would”except 1-conditional sentences (if i had money i would buy a car) and formal or polite sentences(would you mind,…)

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