Phrasal verbs

WHAT IS A PHRASAL VERB?
A phrasal verb is a verb which consists of more than one word. Most phrasal verbs consist of two words: the first word is a verb, the second word is a preposition or an adverb. Examples of common phrasal verbs are get up, put off, turn on, look after, and add to. There are also some three–word phrasal verbs, such as look forward to and get away with.

You can sometimes guess the meaning of a phrasal verb from the meaning of the words it contains, for example come in = come + in. More often, the meaning of the phrasal verb is different – often very different – from the meaning of the verb which forms its first part.

For example put off (=arrange to do something at a later time) has a very different meaning from put (=put something somewhere), and look forward to (=when you feel happy because something is going to happen soon) has a very different meaning from look (=look at something).

Like single–word verbs, some phrasal verbs are ‘transitive’ (they must have an object), and some phrasal verbs are ‘intransitive’ (they do not have an object).

Ex:-take off [phrasal verb transitive] (=remove your shirt, coat etc)
=>She took off her coat and sat down.
-get up [phrasal verb intransitive] (=leave your bed in the morning)
=>I usually get up very early.

Some phrasal verbs can be transitive or intransitive.

join in [phrasal verb intransitive/transitive] (=start taking part in something that other people are already doing, for example a game or song)

Ex:-We all joined in the game.
-I want you all to join in.

WHERE DO YOU PUT THE OBJECT?

With transitive phrasal verbs, you have to decide where to put the object.

•If the phrasal verb ends with a preposition, the preposition must come after the verb, and you cannot split up the phrasal verb.

Ex:-look after sb (=make sure someone is safe and has the things they need)
=>Will you look after the children for me?
-add to sth (=increase an amount that is already large)
=>This will just add to the confusion.

•If the phrasal verb ends with an adverb, there are three possibilities.

1. If you choose a noun phrase as the object, you can put it either before or after the adverb.

call off (=decide that a meeting, party, strike etc should not happen)

Ex:-They’ve called off the strike. OR They’ve called the strike off.

turn on (=make a light, television, radio etc start working)

Ex:-Will you turn on the light? OR Will you turn the light on?


2.If you choose a pronoun (him, her, it, them etc) as the object, you have to put it before the adverb.

turn down (=make a television, radio etc less loud)

Ex:-Can you turn it down? NOT Can you turn down it?

3.If the object is a long phrase, you usually put it at the end after the phrasal verb.

Ex:-They’ve called off the strike that was planned for next week.
-Can you turn down the television in the front room?