62 Multi-word verbs Form ‘A multi-word verb is made up of a main verb plus one or more particles ( prepositions or adverbs). This meat smells as if i's gone off. ‘Some common particles off, on, out, in, over, through, sith, around, acsay, bach, dovon, up, about, to, at, for, ‘into, round, together Some common verbs come, get, go, look, make, Puts take ‘A multi-word verb can be: ‘Transitive (fe it takes an object). ‘Hozo do we get through so much milk? Tran into Jed this morning. Intransitive (ie it doesn’t need an object). A police officer grabbed him, but he got aroay. Their eater gave out s200 days ago. ‘Many verbs can be used both transitively and intransitively. Filing up the theatre and see when the shoro finishes. ‘She rang up yesterday to make an appointment. Word order with transitive verbs ‘Normally, the particle will come either before or after the direct object. Lack of parking space was putting off potential customers. Lack of parking space was putting potential customers off If the object is a pronoun, it must come in front of the particle. Lach of parking space was puting them off X Lack of parking space was putting off them. Inseparable transitive verbs Some verbs (known as prepositional verbs) are inseparable ie the direct object cannot come between main verb and particle, Teame across a word I'd never seen before. X Teame a word across Td never seen before. Don's pretty upset, but he'll get over it X Don's pretey upset, but he'll get it over,62 Multzword verbs Three-word verbs ‘Verbs made up of a main verb with both an adverb and a preposition are known as phrasal-prepositional verbs. I decided I must face up to the truth, Till not put up with your bad behaviour any longer! ‘Not all verb + small word combinations are multi-word verbs. In the following, examples, the underlined single word verb is complete in its own right.,The ‘word that follows it tells us something extra about the direction or nature of the action, but is not a core part of the verb structure. He walked through a wooden gate into the field. Terned over and went back to sleep. Topened my exes and looked around me. Presentation Text | Atthe meeting Kamal brought up the fact that we had a new competitor Samm pointed out that in Fact we knew almost incthing about thew! The CEO said that we needed to find out a lot move — and quickly. So | said | would ask around. Mary promised to look up veferences ch the Intemet. We decided to put off our product launch until later in the month in case Some important new information tumed up. Text 2 At the meeting Kamal wentioned the fact that we had a new competitor. Sava explained that in fact we knew almost nothing about ‘thew! The CEO said that we needed to diccover a lot mare — and quickly. So | said | would ack questions in different places. Mary promised to try to find information from references on the Internet. We decided to postpone our product launch until later in the month in case some important new information unexpectedly appeared. 1) Prepare a short text with between six and ten phrasal verbs in it (IVé decided 10 put off our product launch). 2) Rewrite the text replacing each phrasal verb with a different underlined verb or phrase (We decided 10 postpone our product launch). 3) In class, write up or show a copy of Text 2 to students. On the board, write these words: find put bring turn look ask point and underneath them write: out off around up.4) Work through the text with students. For each underlined verb or phrase, as if students can suggest a two-word combination that could replace it (replac: explained with pointed out). In each case they will need to combine one main verb and one particle. They will also need to make sure that the tense ! adjusted where necessary. Blicit ideas from the class, give them feedback an help them create a version of Text 1. Variation Do the same task in the other direction ie from phrasal verbs to other ways of saying the ideas. Practice Call my bluff ‘Make small groups. Hand out 4 or 5 sentences with a phrasal verb (The mills = gone off. Can you put me up tonight?) to each group and ask them to keep them secret from other groups. For cach phrasal verb, the groups should prepare tr definitions — two of which are untrue and one of which is true (‘gone off = (2) been spilled (2) become bad (3) been stolen by someone). When students — ready, groups read out their sentence and each of their definitions. Students ¥<- for which one they think is the correct definition. The group wins one point {- every student who votes for one of the wrong definitions. Finding interesting collocations Choose an interesting set of suitable phrasal verbs (give up, get over, look tp, up). Ask students to think of a funny or unexpected collocation for use each (give up mountaineering) and then use it in an amusing sentence (My 80-year grandma finally gave up mountaineering last summer) Pelmanism Prepare one set of cards for cach group. Half the cards have sentences with phrasal verbs on them (The oven blew up) and half have synonyms that don’ ‘epeat nouns from the original sentence (It exploded). Students sit in groups with the cards laid face down on the table. One player turns over two cards =~ sees if they make a match (phrasal verb and correct synonym). If they do, the can keep the cards, If they don’t, they should replace the cards face down (b- everyone will try to remember where they are). The next student then tries t- find two cards that match. The winner is the person who has the most cards = the end of the game. Phrasal verb story Dictate a list of about ten phrasal verbs (get up, put on, turn on, drop in, give b: Ask students to work together to create a story using as many of the verbs as ‘can. To make it harder, you could ask them to use the verbs in exactly the oré. dictated.62 Multhword verbs Noughts and crosses Select nine phrasal verbs that all have the same particle (give up, look up, rake np clean up). Divide the clas in two ~ X and O. Draw a large 3 x3 grid on the ‘heard and write a phrasal verb in each of the nine squares. Teams take turns 0 tty to make a good sentence using one of the phrasal verbs. If you agree that it ie a good, grammatically accurate sentence, they ‘Win’ che square and write their {ymbol. The winning team is the one that makes a line of three symbols. Literal and idiomatic Make a list with pairs of sentences where Sentence A has a literal meaning and Sentence B has a harder-to-guess idiomatic meaning (a) He took af his dirty shoes before going in tothe house (b) The plane took off Leave the first two sentences 35 examples but, after that, delete one sentence in each pair. Pairs see if they can think of sentences to replace the missing ones. At the end, compare with your original list. Meaning and use “A:multi-word verb expresses a complete meaning.’The main verb on its owe srould not express the whole meaning, The meaning will often not be guessable from the sum of its parts, For example, a learner might understand the separate reanings of gave and up ~ but sil not be able to work out the meaning of He agave up his job. ‘Mulki-word verbs are normal everyday language. Generally speaking they are not slang, colloquial or lazy English (though a few verbs such as shut up are}. In many cases an equivalent single word verb may sound over-formal when compared to the normal phrasal verb. ‘They put out the fire. They extinguished the fire. Watch out for these problems . * Students choose the wrong particle: X I turned cout his invitation (= turned down) 4s Students put a pronoun after a particle: X They looked up it in the library. Tee useful to ask form-related questions when working with multi-word verbs (Can I put the pronoun here?) to focus students on the different rules, «Students use a transitive verb without an object: X We were looking oreeard to the party but they decided to put off ill next eveek.