Ø
A phrasal verb is a verb followed by an adverb
or preposition.
·
run away (verb + adverb)
·
look after (verb + preposition)
Ø
The adverb or preposition in a phrasal verb is
also called the particle.
Ø
A phrasal verb can also be a verb followed by an
adverb and a preposition.
· get on
with, run out
of
Ø
Some people also call phrasal verbs ‘multiword
verbs’ or ‘prepositional verbs’ or group verbs’.
Ø Intransitive
phrasal verbs
Some phrasal verbs are
intransitive and some are transitive. Here is an example of an intransitive
phrasal verb, (one not needing an object).
run
out I went to see if there was any milk left
in the fridge but found that we
had
run out (= there
was no milk left in the fridge).
Ø Transitive
phrasal verbs
Here is an example of a
transitive phrasal verb (one needing an object).
run
sth up
Tanjil ran up huge
debts by borrowing money to try to keep the company going. (= he
spent so much that he had very large debts).
In the dictionary we show
transitive phrasal verbs by writing the phrasal verb with ‘sb’
(short for ‘somebody’) or ‘sth’ (short for
‘something’). This shows that the phrasal verb has to have an object. In the
example above,we show ‘run sth
up’because you can only ‘run something up’, you
can’t just ‘run up’. If a phrasal verb can be transitive and intransitive,we
show it like this: light (sth)
up. The bracketed (sth)
shows that something can ‘light up’ or it can ‘light something up’.
Moving
the object with a transitive phrasal verb
If a phrasal verb is
transitive, you need to know if you can put an object between the verb and the
particle. For example, you can do this with take off but not
with look after.
Take
your coat off.
✓ Look
after yourself. ✓
Take
off your coat. ✓ Look
yourself after.
✗
[For knowing the position of object, see Word order with phrasal
verbs]