inseparable phrasal verb: sleep on

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The phrasal verb for this week is “sleep on”, and it is used when we have to make a big decision about something and we want to think about it overnight. For example:

A: Are you going to take this new job?

B: I don’t know. If I take it, I’ll have to move to London. I need to sleep on it.

We’d like to offer you this job. Please don’t make a decision yet. Just sleep on it, and let us know tomorrow.

A: Have you decided which car you’d like?

B: Not yet. Let me sleep on it, and I’ll tell you tomorrow.

I asked Jennifer to marry me, but she said she needs to sleep on it. That’s not a good sign!

With this phrasal verb, we always use the pronoun “it”. We never use a noun; therefore we do NOT say, “I need to sleep on this decision.”

If we have to make a decision and we say we’re going to “sleep on it”, then it is expected that we will give our decision the next day.

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