Learn the Phrasal Verb TAKE AWAY in English | Meanings & Examples

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]take away.

[00:00:02]In this video, I'll show you how to use the phrasal verb take away.

[00:00:09]To take something away is to remove it, to think something about it, or we use it when a person is institutionalized.

[00:00:22]Here is the simple form, take away.

[00:00:25]The past tense is took away.

[00:00:29]And the past participle is taken away.

[00:00:34]Take away, took away, taken away.

[00:00:43]When you take something away, you think or learn something.

[00:00:49]In this question, what did you take away from the lesson?

[00:00:54]You do need to use this preposition in this case with take away.

[00:01:00]What did you learn from the lesson?

[00:01:06]What did you take away from the lesson?

[00:01:10]When you answer the question, you don't have to use take away. You could just use learn.

[00:01:18]I learned that and then this is the thing that you took away from the lesson or the thing that you learned.

[00:01:36]This is a phrasal verb that can be converted to a noun.

[00:01:41]In this question, what's the takeaway from the experience?

[00:01:48]What is the value of the experience?

[00:01:51]What was the information gained? Or what was the experience gained?

[00:02:04]In this question, take away is a phrasal verb and it's in the past tense.

[00:02:12]What did you take away from the experience?

[00:02:17]Or what's the takeaway from the experience?

[00:02:22]Do you see the difference between these two questions?

[00:02:26]In this question, take away is a noun.

[00:02:31]It's a thing. This is the thing you learned.

[00:02:35]And here, take away is a phrasal verb and this is the experience also. This is the thing that was learned.

[00:02:48]Here's a very common question asked at the end of a learning experience of some kind.

[00:02:55]What can you take away from and then here is a noun or a pronoun. What can you take away from this?

[00:03:07]Or what can you take away from the experience?

[00:03:14]Or what can you take away from the lesson?

[00:03:19]Or from the seminar?

[00:03:24]If it's a fairly lengthy experience, you might use the word seminar. Or if you're in college where lectures are common what can you take away from the lecture?

[00:03:42]You could also replace can with the present tense. What do you take away from this?

[00:03:49]Or the past tense. What did you take away from this? And will is a possibility also. What will you take away from this?

[00:04:00]What is the experience gained that can be applied in new situations?

[00:04:42]To take something away is to remove it.

[00:04:47]The workers took away the garbage.

[00:04:51]This phrasal verb is separable. So, the word garbage could go right here.

[00:04:57]The workers took the garbage away.

[00:05:03]The server took away our plates.

[00:05:06]When you go out to eat and after you've eaten, somebody has to take away your plate.

[00:05:14]The server took away our plates or the server took our plates away.

[00:05:23]And when making a request, please take this away.

[00:05:29]If you use a pronoun, then you must separate this phrasal verb. You would not put away here. Don't say, "Please take away this."

[00:05:39]Please take it away. Please take them away.

[00:05:46]As long as you have something between the two parts of the phrasal verb.

[00:05:53]Medicine takes pain away.

[00:05:55]In this example, you could also put away right after take. Medicine takes away pain. Or medicine takes away the pain.

[00:06:07]Or the doctor in the past tense took the pain away.

[00:06:21]Or right here, you could also use the word procedure.

[00:06:28]Perhaps a surgical procedure.

[00:06:31]The procedure took the pain away.

[00:06:34]Or the procedure took away the pain.

[00:06:43]To take a person away is to put that person into an institution of some kind.

[00:06:51]Like a jail or prison or perhaps even a hospital.

[00:06:56]They took him away.

[00:06:58]In this instance, you actually have to separate take and away whether it's a pronoun or a thing.

[00:07:07]They took John away.

[00:07:11]So, I'm using a name of a person.

[00:07:14]You probably would not say they took away John.

[00:07:19]It sounds much better to say they took John away.

[00:07:24]They put him into an institution. During or after a trial, a judge might order someone to be taken away.

[00:07:34]The judge ordered the defendant to be taken away.

[00:07:40]Here, taken away is in the passive voice. It's in the infinitive passive.

[00:07:47]After to be, then we have the past participle for take, and then away.

[00:07:54]I hope this video helped you learn something new.

[00:08:00]What did you take away from the lesson?

[00:08:04]In the comments, you can tell me what you took away from the lesson.

[00:08:10]And if this video helped you, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to this channel.

[00:08:17]You can also visit my free website at englishfortheplanet.com.

[00:08:24]dot com.