Wikipedia:Simple talk/Archive 9 Writing Simple English: Monosyllablism?
I have learnt English as a foreign language myself. In my opinion, it is best to avoid such 'phrasal verbs'. Not olny are they hard to understand for most learners, they have several meanings. Phrasal verbs tend to have a life of their own. This is something which precludes them to be the tool of the foreign language learner. My personal opinion is to tell things as clearly as possible. Perhaps add another sentence or two explaining difficult passages where they can not be avoided. And avoid the situation that the reader feels belittled. The readers might be very bright people, whose only problem is that they can not speak or understand English well.