A question about phrasal verbs

[Luis Lv]

If you're talking about "cut down" and "cut down on", then no, they don't.

I'm going to cut down that tree. :tick:
I'm going to cut down on that tree. :cross:

He needs to cut down on the fags. :tick:
He needs to cut down the fags. :cross:

(Note: "fags" is slang for "cigarettes".)

He tried to cut down (on) smoking but failed. The sentence is taken from the dictionary.

 

[Luis Lv]

I copied and pasted the sentence. He tried to cut down (on) smoking but failed.

 

[GoesStation]

I copied and pasted the sentence.

The forum's editor software removes some spaces when you paste in text. You can avoid this if you have a "paste as plain text" option in your browser or clipboard. If not, you'll have to carefully type in the missing spaces before posting.