Intransitive phrasal verbs are phrasal verbs that are not followed by an object. According to the “Student grammar of spoken and written English” of Longman, conversation and fiction use phrasal verbs much more frequently than news and academic prose do. This difference is especially noteworthy for intransitive phrasal verbs. They are extremely common in conversation and fiction, but extremely rare in news and academic prose. One reason for this difference is that most phrasal verbs are colloquial in tone.
In fact, the most common intransitive phrasal verbs are active verbs that are used as directives. They often occur as imperatives. Since imperative clauses intransitive phrasal verbs are also most common on those registers:
Shut up! Just forget it. (Conversation)
Go off to bed now. (Conversation)
Stand up straight! People are looking! (Fiction)
In declarative clauses, the common intransitive phrasal verbs usually have human subjects (underlined below):
No, he came over to the study. (Conversation)
Crowe sat up and stared at Frederica. (Fiction)
I sat down behind my desk. (Fiction)
The intransitive combination come on in conversation is the most common phrasal verb in any register. This verb has three major functions:
As an exclamation in a call for action:
E.g. Come on, let Andy do it. (Conversation)
As a pre-departure summons to move:
E.g. Come on, we better to go. (Conversation)
As the main verb in a clause, meaning ‘to start’ or ‘become activated’:
E.g. The heating didn’t come on this morning. (Conversation)
The intransitive phrasal verb go on is also extremely common. Go on is similar to come on in having a number different functions. However, unlike come on, go on used often in both written and spoken registers:
As an exclamatory call for action (like come on above):
E.g. It’s alright, rub it in. Go on! (Conversation)
To express continuation:
E.g. I just ignored her and went on. I didn’t have time to talk. (Conversation)
As time we went on, Liebig developed his thesis. (Academic)
To mark continuation of some general action (as a transitive verb with a complement ing- or to-infinitive clause as direct object):
E.g. Labor would go on getting the public’s support by constructing strong unity of purpose. (News)
To mark an unspecified activity, with a meaning similar to ‘happen’:
E.g. Think what’s going on. It’s dreadful. (Fiction)
Here are some other examples of intransitive phrasal verbs:
Father promised that we would never come back to this horrible place.
Charles grew up to be a lot like his father.
He was hit on the head very hard, but after several minutes, he started to come to again.
I woke up when the rooster crowed.
Structure: Verb + Adverb + Preposition