I was reading an article on how to prove my writing and came across these example sentences given which sparked this question in my mind.
The blog says that
"use the word acquire instead of the word get in formal writings."
She acquired English very quickly. She got English very quickly.
Actually I had heard that phrasal verbs sound informal but I didn't know the word get could sound informal too.So does it mean using phrasal verbs almost always sound informal?
Could there some phrasal verbs that do not have exactly one-word synonym
And how about these sentences
She obtained English very quickly?
She picked up English very quickly? ( Is it too informal for an academic writing)
Thank you
Best Answer
"Phrasal verbs" are very common in English and have been around for a long time. Some are very old, some are recent inventions. Each has its own history and usage.
Some of them are entirely acceptable in all registers:
Some are better used only in conversational registers:
And some are found almost exclusively in formal registers.
There's no way of predicting which ones work where; you have to learn each one independently.