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Understanding Phrasal Verbs Explained

A phrasal verb is a verb combined with a preposition and/or adverb that has a meaning not obvious from its individual parts. Phrasal verbs can be intransitive, meaning they have no object, or transitive, meaning they can have an object. For transitive phrasal verbs, if the object is a noun it can follow the verb and adverb, but if the object is a pronoun it must come between the verb and adverb. The verb and adverb elements of intransitive phrasal verbs cannot be separated.

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64 views2 pages

Understanding Phrasal Verbs Explained

A phrasal verb is a verb combined with a preposition and/or adverb that has a meaning not obvious from its individual parts. Phrasal verbs can be intransitive, meaning they have no object, or transitive, meaning they can have an object. For transitive phrasal verbs, if the object is a noun it can follow the verb and adverb, but if the object is a pronoun it must come between the verb and adverb. The verb and adverb elements of intransitive phrasal verbs cannot be separated.

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PHRASAL VERBS  When the door is opened, it sets off an alarm.

 They pulled the house down and redeveloped the site.

A phrasal verb is a verb that is made up of a main verb together with an


adverb or a preposition, or both. Typically, their meaning is not obvious Word order
from the meanings of the individual words themselves. For example:
The verb and adverb elements which make up intransitive phrasal verbs are
 She has always looked down on me. never separated:
 Fighting broke out among a group of 40 men.
✓ We broke up two years ago.
 I’ll see to the animals.
 Don’t put me off, I’m trying to concentrate. ✗ We broke two years ago up.
 The report spelled out the need for more staff.

For instance, in the first example, the phrasal verb ‘to look down on someone’
doesn’t mean that you are looking down from a higher place at someone who The situation is different with transitive verbs, however. If the direct object
is below you; it means that you think that you are better than someone. is a noun, you can say:

✓ They pulled the house down

Transitivity (direct object)

Phrasal verbs can be intransitive (i.e. they have no object): ✓ They pulled down the house.

 We broke up two years ago.


 They set off early to miss the traffic.
If the object is a pronoun (such as it, him, her, them) , then the object
 He pulled up outside the cottage.
always comes between the verb and the adverb:
or transitive (i.e. they can have an object):

 The police were called to break up the fight.


✓ They pulled It down
(direct object)

✗ They pulled down it.

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