phrasal verb

A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and a preposition, a verb and an adverb, or a verb with both an adverb and a preposition, any of which are part of the syntax of the sentence, and so are a complete semantic unit. Sentences, however, may contain direct and indirect objects in addition to the phrasal verb.^[1] Phrasal verbs are particularly frequent in the English language. A phrasal verb often has a meaning which is different from the original verb.

According to Tom McArthur:

...the term ‘phrasal verb’ was first used by Logan Pearsall Smith, in “Words and Idioms” (1925), in which he states that the OED Editor Henry Bradley suggested the term to him.

Alternative terms for phrasal verb are ‘compound verb’, ‘verb-adverb combination’, ‘verb-particle construction (VPC)’, AmE “two-part word/verb’ and ‘three-part word/verb’ (depending on the number of particles), and multi-word verb (MWV).^[2]

'Preposition' and 'adverb' as used in a phrasal verb are also called 'particle' in that they do not alter their form through inflections (are therefore uninflected, they do not accept affixes, etc.).

Phrasal verbs in informal speech

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”.

Literal usage

Many verbs in English can be combined with an adverb or a preposition, and readers or listeners will easily understand a phrasal verb used in a literal sense with a preposition:

• "He walked across the square."

Verb and adverb constructions can also easily be understood 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."
• "Work hard, and get your examination over WITH."

The literal meaning of “to get over”, in the sense of “to climb over something to get to the other side”, no longer applies to explain the subject's enduring an operation or the stress of an examination which they have to overcome. It is when the combined meaning of verb plus adverb, or verb plus preposition is totally different from each its component parts, that the semantic content of the phrasal verb cannot be predicted by its constituent parts and so becomes much more difficult for a student learning English to recognise.

Other idiomatic usages of phrasal verbs show a verb + direct object + preposition/adverb + indirect object construction:

In her introduction to "Longman Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs, What this dictionary contains", Rosemary Courtney includes as a third category

3. Idioms which are formed from phrasal verbs, such as let the cat out of the bag. These idioms are printed in heavy type. Idioms have a meaning which is different from the meaning of the single words, and usually have a fixed word order.^[3]

Courtney then cites among many other examples in the dictionary such phrases as "to add insult to injury", "to add fuel to the flames", "to leave someone in the lurch", "to scare someone out of their wits", etc.

"To get over an examination" is not the correct application of the phrasal verb "to get over." The author wants to imply, "to finish," the phrasal verb in this case is "to get over with." To get over the examination means put it in your emotional past.

Phrasal verb patterns

A phrasal verb contains either a preposition or an adverb (or both), and may also combine with one or more nouns or pronouns.

Particle verbs

Phrasal verbs that contain adverbs are sometimes called "particle verbs", and are related to separable verbs in other Germanic languages. There are two main patterns: intransitive and transitive. An intransitive particle verb does not have an object:

• “When I entered the room he looked up.”

A transitive particle verb has a nominal object in addition to the adverb. If the object is an ordinary noun, it can usually appear on either side of the adverb, although very long noun phrases tend to come after the adverb:

• Switch off the light.
• Switch the light off.
• Switch off the lights in the hallway next to the bedroom the president is sleeping in.

With some transitive particle verbs, however, the noun object must come after the adverb. Such examples are said to involve "inseparable" phrasal verbs:

• The gas gave off fumes. (not *The gas gave fumes off.)

Still other transitive particle verbs require the object to precede the adverb:

• They let the man through. (not *They let through the man.)

With all transitive particle verbs, if the object is a pronoun, it must normally precede the adverb:

• Switch it off. (not *Switch off it.)
• The smell put them off. (not *put off them)
• They let him through. (not *they let through him)

Prepositional verbs

Prepositional verbs are phrasal verbs that contain a preposition, which is always followed by its nominal object. They are different from inseparable transitive particle verbs, because the object still follows the preposition if it is a pronoun:

• On Fridays, we look after our grandchildren.
• We look after them. (not *look them after)

The verb can have its own object, which usually precedes the preposition:

• She helped the boy to an extra portion of potatoes.
• with pronouns: She helped him to some.

Prepositional verbs with two prepositions are possible:

• We talked to the minister about the crisis.

Phrasal-prepositional verbs

A phrasal verb can contain an adverb and a preposition at the same time. Again, the verb itself can have a direct object:

• no direct object: The driver got off to a flying start.
• direct object: Onlookers put the accident down to the driver’s loss of concentration.

Phrasal verbs and modifying adverbs

When modifying adverbs are used alongside particle adverbs intransitively (as particle adverbs usually are), the adverbs can appear in any verb/particle/adverb positions:

• “He unhappily looked round.”
• “He looked unhappily round.”
• “He looked round unhappily.”

The particle adverb here is "round" and the modifying adverb is "unhappily". ("Round" is a particle because it is not inflected — does not take affixes and alter its form. "Unhappily" is a modifying adverb because it modifies the verb "look").

With a transitive particle verb, the adverb goes either before the verb or after the object or particle, whichever is last:

• “He cheerfully picked the book up.”
• “He picked up the book cheerfully.” (not *picked cheerfully up the book)
• “He picked the book up cheerfully.”

Prepositional verbs are different from transitive particle verbs, because they allow adverbs to appear between the verb and the preposition:

• “He cheerfully looked after the children.
• “He looked after the children cheerfully.
• “He looked cheerfully after the children.

Phrasal verbs combined with special verb forms and clauses

Rosemary Courtney also includes special verb forms and clauses in phrasal verb constructions.

Phrasal verbs combined with wh-clauses and that-clauses

Sentences which include verb + particle + object(s) + wh-clauses

• “The teacher tried to dictate to his class what is the right thing to do”

= transitive verb + preposition(dictate to) + direct object (his class) + wh-clause (what is the right thing to do).

• “My friends called for me when the time came”

= transitive verb + preposition (called for) + pronoun (me) + wh-clause (when the time came).

• “Watch out that you don’t hit your head on the low beam”

= intransitive verb + adverb (watch out) + that-clause (that you don’t hit your head on the low beam).

Phrasal verbs combined with verb-ing forms

• “You can’t prevent me from seeing her”

= transitive verb + pronoun (prevent me) + preposition (from) + verb-ing form (seeing) + pronoun (her).

Notes

References

• Long, Thomas Hill (Editorial Director), Summers, Della (Managing Editor): "Longman Dictionary of English Idioms", Longman Group Limited, 1979 ISBN 0-582-55524-8
• Oxford Phrasal Verbs Dictionary. Oxford: OUP. 2001. ISBN 0-19-431543-6. 

See also

• Lexical unit
• Compound noun, adjective and verb
• Cliché
• Collocation
• Idiom
• Separable verb

External links

Look up Category:Phrasal verbs in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Complete guide to phrasal verbs and a real help with them.
• English phrasal verbs by categories.
• English phrasal verb dictionary with exercises.
• Distinguishing prepositional and phrasal verbs with examples.
• Explanation, list and exercises of English phrasal verbs.
• Phrasal verb page.
• Ordered list of phrasal verbs.
• List of phrasal verbs. and Grammar exercises.
• The difference between phrasal and prepositional verbs
• Bibliography of phrasal verb literature.
• Phrasal Verbs: The Elephant Is a Whole, Not Its Parts