A Concise Explanation of Phrasal Verbs

A Concise Guide to Phrasal Verbs

A phrasal verb is a blend of a verb and an adverb, a verb and a preposition, or a verb, an
adverb, and a preposition. Phrasal verbs perform semantically as a group, this means,
they enclose their own sense, which is normally an alteration of the primary sense of the
verb. Nevertheless, the sense may change totally. As an example:

She came across his sister in the gym. (She met his sister in the gym.)

In this phrase, we blended the verb to come with the preposition across to mean that she
unexpectedly met his sister in the gym. Even though the sense is very different from the
sense of come, you are able to perceive that their blend effortlessly communicates about
someone bumping into another person, or two objectsgetting in the way of each other in
some way. In ESL programs, teachers oppose to this objective to reclaim the new sense
by digging in the roots of the verb, but I think they are mistaken, and I support that you
do it. This is because of literal against idiomatic use. But idiomatic use always comes
from literal use, and their connection isn’t a pointless and ridiculous one. As an
example, to get over exactly means to climb over something, and when you declare She
at length got over her friend’s death, providing an idiomatic use to the phrasal verb, the
relation to the literal sense is unequivocal and evident: in reality, only if you possess a
fresh feeling of its literal use you’ll be able to feel its complete implication, the weight
over her; the exhausting endeavor that was needed to get over that happening.
Obviously you can’t predict the sense of a phrasal verb just by observing its
components, or that you can form phrasal verbs by adding particles to verbs out of
preference, but as soon as you understand the sense of a phrasal verb, seeking to
discover its literal source is always exciting.

Note that sometimes, the sense is modified totally depending on whether the phrasal
verb carries an object or not. As an example:

She came across triumphantly in the meeting. (She made a good impact on them.)

In this phrase, across is used as an adverb, not a preposition, and as the phrasal verb
doesn’t take an object, the sense is different.

Finally, there are some grammar rules you must learn regarding phrasal verbs. One of
them limits the order of the particles in the sentence. Let’s see:

Separable phrasal verbs may remain together except when a pronoun is the object. In
this eventuality, the pronoun must go between the verb and the particle. Like this:

He gave up that silly job = He gave that silly job up = He gave it up (OK)
But you cannot declare He gave up it. (Incorrect)
Inseparable phrasal verbs always remain joined, no matter if you employ a noun, a noun
phrase, or a pronoun as an object:

She was looking after his mother = She was looking after her (OK)
She was looking his mother after (Incorrect)
She was looking her after (Incorrect)

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