Description

A Short Explanation of Phrasal Verbs

A phrasal verb is a grouping of a verb and an adverb, a verb and a preposition, or a verb, an adverb, and a preposition. Phrasal verbs perform semantically as a group, in other words, they have their own meaning, which is normally a modification of the original meaning of the verb. However, the meaning can vary entirely. As an example:

She came across her brother in the gym. (She met her brother in the gym.)

In this example, we blended the verb to come with the preposition across to signify that she unexpectedly met her brother in the gym. Even though the meaning is quite different from the meaning of come, you are able to perceive that the grouping logically shows someone bumping into somebody else, or two itemsobstructing each other in some manner. In ESL programs, teachers are opposed to this intent to recover the new meaning by poking in the roots of the verb, however, I think they are mistaken, and I believe you should do it. This is due to literal versus idiomatic usage. Nevertheless, idiomatic usage always comes from literal usage, and their association isn’t a senseless and ridiculous one. For example, to get over exactly means to climb over something, and when you say She ultimately got over her daughter’s death, offering an idiomatic usage to the phrasal verb, the relation to the literal meaning is unequivocal and obvious: in fact, only if you possess a fresh awareness of its literal usage you’ll be able to feel its complete connotation, the burden over her; the wearing effort that was necessary to get over that phase. Of course, you can not foresee the meaning of a phrasal verb simply by looking at its parts, or that you may develop phrasal verbs by adding particles to verbs by preference, but as soon as you know the meaning of a phrasal verb, attempting to figure out its literal origin is always fascinating.

Note that occasionally, the meaning is modified entirely depending on whether the phrasal verb carries an object or not. For example:

She came across positively in the meeting. (She made a good impact on them.)

In this example, across is used as an adverb, not a preposition, and since the phrasal verb doesn’t take an object, the meaning is different.

To conclude, there are several grammar rules you must learn in regards to phrasal verbs. One of them controls the organization of the particles in the phrase. Let’s check them:

Separable phrasal verbs can be kept united excluding when a pronoun is the object. In this case, the pronoun must go between the verb and the particle. For example:

He gave up that silly occupation = He gave that silly occupation up = He gave it up (OK)
But you should not say He gave up it. (Wrong)

Inseparable phrasal verbs always remain joined, no matter if you utilize a noun, a noun phrase, or a pronoun as an object:

He was looking after her mother = He was looking after her (OK)
He was looking her mother after (Wrong)
He was looking her after (Wrong)

If you’re an ESL student, find more relevant articles in our blog.

If you enjoyed this article, you may post it to your site or blog and forward this link to your friends. Have an awesome day!

English LCI
http://www.englishlci.com
englishlci203@gmail.com