Position of adverbial phrasal verbs (verb + adverb)

The position of adverbial phrasal verbs has no relationship with their meaning (normal or idiomatic meaning)

Without an object
Since these phrasal verbs dont take an object, we do not separate the adverbial particle from the verb. E.g.: The oil tank blew up. (exploded) We decided to carry on. (continue) The two girls fell out. (quarreled) My car has broken down. (stalled) The children are growing up fast. (becoming adults)

Phrasal verbs with an object

If the object is a noun phrase, you have two positions for the object: 1. You may place the object after the phrasal verb Shes bringing up three children. (rearing) Dont give away all my secrets. (reveal) Can you fill in this form, please? (complete) 2. You may place the object after the verb and before the adverbial particle: Shes bringing three children up. (rearing) Dont give all my secrets away. (reveal) Can you fill this form in, please? (complete) However, when the object is long (a long noun phrase or a clause), we never separate the verb + adverb construction: Try to find out whether hes coming. (discover) He attempted to give up all the bad habits and attitudes that made his first wife put him down. (abandon) 3. When the object of an adverbial phrasal verb is a pronoun, we always place it before the adverbial particle: I didnt know that meaning. I had to look it up. Give it away now! (Red Hot Chili Peppers song) No, I couldnt fill it out. The form asked for a lot of unfamiliar information to me. 4. When we have a three-word verb (verb + adverb + preposition) we prefer not to separate the parts of that phrasal verb: I need to catch up on that old office work. (overtake, start again) Ive got a bad cold. Youd better keep away from me. (avoid) Dont worry about that problem. Ill stand up for you. (defend) Our office needs to cut down on these expenses. Theyre out of the budget. (reduce)

Position of prepositional phrasal verbs (verb + preposition)

Since the preposition is closely related to the noun phrase or pronoun that goes after it1, its impossible to separate the construction verb + preposition: Look at that window. (not: look that window at) Im looking for my keys. I guess I lost them. What are you listening to? Im listening to the news on the radio. Sometimes, a verb can only take one specific preposition when followed by a noun phrase or a pronoun. These are fixed forms, and changing them produces a mistake in form or meaning: Some of these are: Add to Agree with Aim at / for Allow for Apply for Approve of Ask for Attend to Believe in Belong to Call for / on Care for Consent on Deal with Decide on Hope for Insist on Listen to Live on Long for Look after Look at Look for Object to Pay for Pray for Refer to Rely on Run for Stand for Take after / to Wish for

These verb + preposition constructions express a single idea, and they together may form an IDIOM (idiomatic expression) and have a fixed meaning when working together. She takes after her grandmother. (resembles) Weve asked for help. (requested) I have to look after my house. (take care of) Im looking for my keys. Have you seen them? (seek)

A noun, noun phrase or a pronoun typically follows a preposition, so we can say that a preposition always has an object. An easy way to tell adverbs from prepositions is the following: A preposition always has an object. An adverb never does.