Thomas was also known for 16 holiday season appearances on “Late Night with David Letterman,” during which he’d relate what Letterman called “the single greatest talk show story ever,” about the late “The Lone Ranger” star Clayton Moore.Some examples include turn on, go up, and sit down. Remember that phrasal verbs consist of a main verb followed by a preposition. Phrasal verbs should never contain hyphens. Other examples include state-of-the-art, on-campus, and sugar-free.įollow up, however, does not contain a hyphen. The hyphen, or lack thereof, can help you remember which pair of words is the verb and which isn’t.įollow-up contains a hyphen, which is common with compound adjectives and compound nouns. It is common in business contexts as a polite and appropriate way to ask someone to check with someone else about an issue. To follow up with is another expression that means to check with a person about something. I need you to follow up on that as soon as possible. The party is tomorrow afternoon but you still haven’t ordered the food.The journalist decided to follow up on the rumours by doing some initial investigative work to discover if the claims were true or false.When to use follow up: Follow up, without the hyphen, is a phrasal verb that means to pursue an issue through a subsequent action. It is common for many companies to schedule interviews with a large pool of applicants, and then only invite the most qualified ones back for a follow-up interview.įollow-up occurs most frequently in the context of (and collocations with) appointments, discussions, interviews, assessments, reports, studies, question, call, email, or medical procedures.The doctor asked the patient to come back for a follow-up appointment to look into the matter more closely once the tests came back. The doctor found some troubling signs during his patient’s physical exam and took some tests.When to use follow-up: Follow-up can act as either a noun or an adjective that describes an event or action that is subsequent to a prior event or action. Let’s practice a few ways you can use these words correctly in English. The reporter followed up on her lead to find the source of corruption.We’d like to schedule you for a follow-up interview.įollow up is a verb that means to pursue a solution closely. Follow-up can be either a noun or an adjective that refers to a second meeting or other action that follows the first.