Multi-word verbs

There are a group of multi-word verbs made from a verb plus another word or words. Many people refer to all multi-word verbs as phrasal verbs. Here we make a distinction between three types of multi-word verbs: prepositional verbs, phrasal verbs and phrasal-prepositional verbs.
Read these paragraphs and do the exercises at the end.

Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are made of:

verb + adverb

Phrasal verbs can be:

• intransitive (no direct object)
• transitive (direct object)

Here are some examples of phrasal verbs:

	phrasal verbs	meaning	examples
				direct object
intransitive phrasal verbs	get up	rise from bed	I don't like to get up.
	break down	cease to function	He was late because his car broke down.
transitive phrasal verbs	put off	postpone	We will have to put off	the meeting.
	turn down	refuse	They turned down	my offer.

Separable Phrasal Verbs

When phrasal verbs are transitive (that is, they have a direct object), we can usually separate the two parts. For example, "turn down" is a separable phrasal verb. We can say: "turn down my offer" or "turn my offer down".

However, if the direct object is a pronoun, we have no choice. We must separate the phrasal verb and insert the pronoun between the two parts.

direct object pronounsmust go between the two parts of transitive phrasal verbs		John	switched		on	the radio.	These are all possible.
		John	switched	the radio	on.
		John	switched	it	on.
		John	switched		on	it.	This is not possible.

 

Prepositional Verbs

Prepositional verbs are a group of multi-word verbs made from a verb plus another word or words. On this section we look at prepositional verbs.

Prepositional verbs are made of:

verb + preposition

Because a preposition always has an object, all prepositional verbs have direct objects. Here are some examples of prepositional verbs:

prepositional verbs	meaning	examples
			direct object
believe in	have faith in the existence of	I believe in	God.
look after	take care of	He is looking after	the dog.
talk about	discuss	Did you talk about	me?
wait for	await	John is waiting for	Mary.

Prepositional verbs cannot be separated. That means that we cannot put the direct object between the two parts. For example, we must say "look after the baby". We cannot say "look the baby after":

prepositional verbs areinseparable		Who is looking after the baby?	This is possible.
		Who is looking the babyafter?	This is notpossible.

 

Phrasal-prepositional Verbs

Phrasal-prepositional verbs are a small group of multi-word verbs made from a verb plus another word or words:
verb + adverb + preposition
Look at these examples of phrasal-prepositional verbs:

phrasal-prepositional verbs	meaning	examples
			direct object
get on with	have a friendly relationship with	He doesn't get on with	his wife.
put up with	tolerate	I won't put up with	your attitude.
look forward to	anticipate with pleasure	I look forward to	seeing you.
run out of	use up, exhaust	We have run out of	eggs.

Because phrasal-prepositional verbs end with a preposition, there is always a direct object. And, like prepositional verbs, phrasal-prepositional verbs cannot be separated. Look at these examples:

phrasal-prepositional verbs are inseparable		We	ran out of	fuel.
		We	ran out of	it.

• CLICK FOR THE QUIZ
• HWP11: Phrasal verbs