The Phrasal Verb 'Deal With' Explained
- 14 hours ago
- 9 min read
An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'deal with' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context
Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native.
This post is all about the phrasal verb 'deal with', which is an intermediate level phrasal verb with a number of different meanings. There are some people who argue that 'deal with' is not a true phrasal verb, however it is commonly listed as one in English dictionaries and regardless of this, it is a very useful piece of vocabulary that will strengthen your English skills if you can use it correctly. In this post, I will therefore explain to you the different ways to use it and will give you lots of example sentences in context for each one. So. let's make a start and see what the phrasal verb 'deal with' is all about....
QUICK ANSWER: What does the phrasal verb 'deal with' mean?The phrasal verb 'deal with' has four main meanings in English....
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TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one)
THE BASICS
DEAL WITH: KEY INFORMATION
Usage | Common |
Number of meanings | 4 |
Past tense forms | Dealt with / Dealt with |
Separable? | No |
The phrasal verb 'deal with' is formed by combining the verb 'to deal' with the particle 'with', so let's first of all consider what these two component words mean on their own as this can often give us some valuable information about the meanings of the phrasal verb....
Deal - The verb 'to deal' is a common verb that is used a lot in the world of business as it primarily means 'to trade business' or 'to handle a situation'. It is an irregular verb that has 'dealt' as both of its past tense forms. Typically, it is usually followed by the word 'with' when stating an object e.g. business or situation and there are some people who argue that because of this, 'deal with' is not a true phrasal verb, however as mentioned earlier it is classed as a phrasal verb by most learner dictionaries.
With - The prepositional particle 'with' is one that you will all know, however you may be surprised to see it in a phrasal verb as it is used in relatively few of them. When used in phrasal verbs 'with' generally adds ideas of involvement, connection and accompaniment.
So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'deal with'....
MEANING 1: To take action about something
CEFR Language Level | B1 - Intermediate |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To take action, to sort out |
Separable? | No |
The first application of the phrasal verb 'deal with' that we will look at is the most common one and therefore the one that you are most likely to hear being used by native speakers, which is 'to take action about something'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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Most commonly, this application of 'deal with' is used to refer to a problem, issue or task that needs to be resolved. If you deal with it, then you take some action to do it or resolve it.
For example, if you receive a complaint email at work, you may need to pass it to your boss who can deal with it and take the necessary action to make the situation better. In that situation you would then say that "your boss is dealing with it". Alternatively, if your kitchen tap starts leaking, you might deal with it by trying to fix it (or like me, you would call in a professional to deal with it for you).
Of course, we don't only use 'deal with' in this way to talk about a problem and we can also simply use it to describe a task or job that needs to be done.
We need to deal with this problem before it gets any worse.
I'll deal with the paperwork after lunch.
The council is struggling to deal with the growing amount of waste.
Alice spent the morning dealing with a mountain of emails.
We still have a few technical issues to deal with.
The government must deal with the housing shortage.
I'll deal with the bills this evening.
Scientists are working to deal with the effects of climate change.
The company has dealt with the software bug and it is running smoothly again now.
The situation is being dealt with by the authorities and we will release more information when we can.
In addition to dealing with issues and tasks that must be addressed, we also use it to talk about situations that cause us psychological or emotional stress or problems. Typically, this is used for things that are likely to cause people to lose control of their emotions or even go a little bit crazy and includes things like hearing bad news about an illness or a death, pressure at work and receiving criticism.
Emma dealt with the bad news remarkably well.
I don't know how my boss deals with so much pressure every day.
John struggled to deal with the stress of his new job.
Madeleine has learned to deal with criticism without taking it personally.
Losing his father was difficult, but Alex eventually found a way to deal with his grief.
The team dealt with the disappointment of defeat and came back stronger the following season.
Staying with this idea, people often use the structure 'can't deal with' in spoken English to talk about something that they are mentally or emotionally not able or willing to withstand. It may be something that you hate so much that you cannot tolerate it or it may be something that distresses you to the point that you can't stay in control of your emotions, meaning that you actively avoid it.
I can't deal with this heat anymore.
Rebecca can't deal with crowds or loud noises, so she usually prefers to stay at home.
Anne can't deal with people who are always late.
I simply can't deal with all the negativity on social media.
I've got a hangover and I can't deal with my parents shouting at me right now.
MEANING 2: To interact with someone
CEFR Language Level | B1 - Intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To interact |
Separable? | No |
For our next application of the phrasal verb 'deal with', we are focussing specifically on people as this one means 'to interact with someone.'
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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At its most general level, this application of 'deal with' is used to talk about how a person interacts with people in general in their lives, rather than specific individuals. This is often in reference to how fairly a person treats the people in their lives.
You should note however that it is rarely used in such a broad, generic way and instead is mainly used to talk about communicating with and handling people in a business, commercial or professional context. When used this way, it can be to refer to people in general or specific groups of people like customers, students or colleagues, especially if they are difficult to handle in some way.
I would say that most of the time when this application of 'deal with' is used in reference to customers and clients, it is in a positive sense and it is typically found in collocation with adverbs like professionally, directly and calmly.
Maria deals with customers every day.
I usually deal with new clients during their first meeting.
Who will deal with the suppliers while you're away?
The headteacher usually deals with parents rather than students.
The lawyer dealt directly with the witnesses.
Wendy's very good at dealing with children.
My job involves dealing with people from all over the world.
The police dealt with the protesters calmly and professionally.
Abigail is excellent at dealing with complaints.
MEANING 3: To do business
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To trade, to do business with |
Separable? | No |
We are going to stay in the world of professional and business English for our third application of the phrasal verb 'deal with' as this one means 'to do business with someone'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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Firstly, let me clarify what I mean by 'do business with someone', which is to buy goods or a service from a company / person and have a commercial relationship with them. Note that we do not say "make business with someone".
I am sure that many of you will know what is meant by a business deal. If not, then this is when two or more people or companies reach an agreement or consensus to trade goods or services in exchange for money. If we then transfer this noun into a verb to describe this action, we arrive at the verb 'to deal' and then we simply need to add the prepositional particle 'with' in order to specify the other person or company involved in the transaction, giving us the a literal meaning of the two words combined.
So, to sum up this application, if a person or company deals with another, they do business and have a commercial relationship with them. The focus on this one is purely on commercial relationships and not on interacting with people (unless the business is a sole trader).
We deal with suppliers from all over Europe.
The company deals directly with manufacturers.
We only deal with trusted partners.
Our business deals with clients in more than 30 countries.
They no longer deal with that supplier because of quality issues.
This bank deals with both personal and business customers.
The firm deals mainly with small and medium-sized businesses.
We have been dealing with most of our major suppliers for more than 10 years.
MEANING 4: To be the subject of something
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To be concerned with |
Separable? | No |
We are now onto our fourth and final meaning of the phrasal verb 'deal with', which is perhaps the one that is the least well known and means 'to be the subject of something'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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As you will note from the list of commonly used nouns above, this application is used with things that people create in order to entertain, inform or educate other people. We use 'deal with' here to specify what the subject of something is. For example, a university history professor may give a speech that deals with the American civil war or a famous person's auto-biography would deal with the story of a person's life up until the point of publication.
Most of the time, particularly in informal everyday conversations, native speakers would use 'be about' rather than 'deal with'. We tend to use 'deal with' in more formal or culturally elevated situations as it often implies that the medium (book, movie etc) examines the subject in a lot of depth or from an intellectual or educated perspective.
The book deals with the history of the Roman Empire.
This documentary deals with the effects of climate change.
Her latest novel deals with the themes of love and forgiveness.
The report deals with the causes of the recent economic slowdown.
This chapter deals with English phrasal verbs.
The article deals with the challenges of working from home.
The film deals with life during the Second World War.
His speech dealt with the importance of international cooperation.
We have now reached the end of this post and I hope that you have found it useful and that it has helped you to understand how to use the phrasal verb 'deal with' more confidently and naturally.
Feel free to leave any comments, feedback or your own sentences using 'deal with' in the section below. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media.
Do you want to improve your phrasal verb skills?Now that you have read the article, I hope you've learned something new. However, reading is only the first step to mastering phrasal verbs: the key is practice and repetition. That's why I've created a series of PDF workbooks with clear explanations, natural example sentences, exercises, speaking questions and answer keys. This will help you understand and remember common English phrasal verbs and use them confidently in real-life situations. Browse the workbooks here and start improving your phrasal verbs skills today.... |
Thanks so much for reading and see you next time! James 😊
THE END
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