What are phrasal verbs?

Phrasal verbs are very commonly used in the English language, especially in spoken English. Simply put, they are actions words or phrases. These are a special kind of verb that have a meaning entirely different from the meanings of the individual words composing them. For instance:

The government should not put up with that kind of nonsense.

Here, the individual word put means to place something in a specific location. Up means towards an elevated or raised position. But together, put up means tolerate.

Then why should we have phrasal verbs at all?

This has been a part of the English language all along. So, this question doesn’t have any relevance.

10 sample Intransitive Phrasal Verbs

Literal and figurative meanings

Sometimes we can easily understand the meaning. For example,

I looked across the room.

This is very clear – I was at one end of the room, and looked towards the other end. But,

I won’t put up with this nonsense.

Here, “put up” means tolerate. But, these words together don’t mean the same as the words individually.

Separable or non-separable

There are broadly two kinds of phrasal verbs:

1. 1. 1. one that can be split
      2. ones which cannot be split.

10 sample separable phrasal verbs

Ones that can be split

a. Look at the phrasal verb “back up”. It can be used together or we can place a noun in between. For instance:

• • • I backed up the files.
    • I backed the files up.

b. When we use a pronoun, like I, you, he, she, we, they, or it, we have to split the phrasal verb. Thus, we can say:

I backed it up.

BUT, we can’t say:

I backed up it.

Ones that can’t be split

For example, we can’t split the phrasal verb, “call for”. Thus, we can say:

The situation called for more stringent measures.

But, we can’t say:

The situation called more stringent measures for.

10 sample non-separable phrasal verbs

A point on splitting

In some cases, although separable phrasal verbs can be split, it would do better not to do so, to keep the comprehensibility of the sentence intact. Take for instance the phrasal verb “cross out”. It means to eliminate. We can say:

We crossed out candidates with criminal cases pending against them.

It can be legitimately split thus:

                    We crossed candidates with criminal cases pending against them out.

But, the distance between the verb and its particle is so huge that the comprehensibility takes an inordinately long time. So, we advise against such long phrases between the two parts of any phrasal verb.

Click here to read part 2.