English Verbs - Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verb noun - UK /ˌfreɪ.zəl ˈvɜːb/ US /ˌfreɪ.zəl ˈvɝːb/

B1 a phrase that consists of a verb with a preposition or adverb or both, the meaning of which is different
from the meaning of its separate parts:

What is a Phrasal Verb?

A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and preposition, a verb and an adverb, or a verb with both an adverb and a
preposition.

A phrasal verb has a meaning which is different from the original verb. That's what makes them fun, but confusing. You
may need to try to guess the meaning from the context, or, failing that, look it up in a dictionary.

The adverb or preposition that follows the verb is sometimes called a particle. The particle changes the meaning of the
phrasal verb in idiomatic ways.

They are also known as ‘compound verbs’, ‘verb-adverb combinations’, ‘verb-particle’ “constructions", “two-part
words/verbs’ and ‘three-part words/verbs’ (depending on the number of words).

Phrasal verbs are usually used informally in everyday speech as opposed to the more formal Latinate verbs, such as “to
get together” rather than “to congregate”, “to put off” rather than “to postpone”, or “to get out” rather than “to exit”.

They should be avoided in academic writing.

Some linguists differentiate between phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs, while others assume them to be part of
one and the same construction, as both types are phrasal in nature. So, unless you want to become a linguist, don't
worry about it.

Literal usage
Many verbs in English can be combined with an adverb or a preposition, a phrasal verb used in a literal sense with a
preposition is easy to understand.

"He walked across the square.

Verb and adverb constructions are also easy to understand when used literally.

"She opened the shutters and looked outside."

"When he heard the crash, he looked up."

An adverb in a literal phrasal verb modifies the verb it is attached to, and a preposition links the subject to the verb.

Idiomatic usage
It is, however, the figurative or idiomatic application in everyday speech which makes phrasal verbs so important:

"I hope you will get over your operation quickly."

The literal meaning of “to get over”, in the sense of “to climb over something to get to the other side”, is not relevant
here. Here "get over" means "recover from" or "feel better".
Transitive and intransitive phrasal verbs
Phrasal verbs also differ in their transitivity or intransitivity in the same way as normal verbs do. A transitive verb
always has an object.

“Many people walked across the bridge.”

"Across" in this sentence is the preposition to "the bridge".

An intransitive verb does not have an object.

“When I entered the room he looked up.”

"Up" here is an adverb, and does not have an object.

Separable or inseparable phrasal verbs

A further way of considering phrasal verbs is whether they are separable or inseparable.

In inseparable verbs, the object comes after the particle.

"She got on the bus ."

"On weekdays, we look after our grandchildren."

Separable verbs have several ways of separating verb, particle and object. Usually, the object comes between verb
and particle.

"She looked up the word in her dictionary."

"She looked it up in her dictionary."

However, with some separable verbs, the object can come before or after the particle.

"Switch the light off."

"Switch off the light."

"Switch it off."

There is usually no way of telling whether they are separable, inseparable, transitive or intransitive. In most cases you
have to develop a feel for the correct use.

If the direct object is a noun, you can say:

✓ They pulled the house down.

✓ They pulled down the house.

If the object is a pronoun (such as it, him, her, them) , then the object always comes between the verb and the adverb:

✓ They pulled it down.

✗ They pulled down it.

Verbs: multi-word verbs
Multi-word verbs are verbs which consist of a verb and one or two particles or prepositions (e.g. up, over, in, down).
There are three types of multi-word verbs: phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs and phrasal-prepositional verbs.

Phrasal verbs

Phrasal verbs have two parts: a main verb and an adverb particle.

The most common adverb particles used to form phrasal verbs are around, at, away, down, in, off, on, out, over, round,
up.

Formality
Phrasal verbs are often, but not always, less formal than a single word with the same meaning.

phrasal verb more formal single word

We need to sort the problem out. We need to solve/resolve the problem.
The team only had an hour to put the The team only had an hour to erect/construct the
stage up before the concert. stage before the concert.

We can use some phrasal verbs without an object:

Prepositional verbs
Prepositional verbs have two parts: a verb and a preposition which cannot be separated from each other:
Prepositional verbs and objects
Prepositional verbs always have an object, which comes immediately after the preposition. The object (underlined) can
be a noun phrase, a pronoun or the -ing form of a verb:

“Somebody broke into his car and stole his radio.” - “I don’t like this CD. I don’t want to listen to it anymore.” -
“Getting to the final depends on winning the semi-final!” - “Some prepositional verbs take a direct object after the
verb followed by the prepositional phrase.”

“Hannah reminds [DO]me of [PO]a girlfriend of mine.” - “How can we protect [DO]children from [PO]dangerous
material on the Internet?” - “I’d like to thank [DO]everyone for [PO]their kindness.”

With phrasal verbs the object can come before or after the particle if the object is not a pronoun.

With prepositional verbs, the object is always immediately after the preposition.

Phrasal-prepositional verbs
Phrasal-prepositional verbs have three parts:

a verb, a particle and a preposition.

The particle and the preposition cannot be separated. Many of these verbs are often used in informal contexts, and
their meaning is difficult to guess from their individual parts.

Verb + Particle + Preposition

Phrasal-prepositional verbs and objects
The object (underlined below) always comes immediately after the preposition, and not in any other position:

“She was a wonderful teacher. We all looked up to her (respected)”

Some phrasal-prepositional verbs also take a direct object after the verb as well as an object of the preposition:

She fixed [DO] us up with [PO] a violin teacher. We’re really grateful to her. (fixed us up with = arranged for us)

We just put [DO] the accident down to [PO] bad luck; there’s no other reason. (put down to = think the cause or reason
is)