Phrasal Verbs

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Phrasal Verbs

• Ed McCorduck
• English 402--Grammar
• SUNY Cortland
• http//mccorduck.cortland.edu

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slide 2 definition of phrasal verbs

• Phrasal verbs are idioms consisting of a verb and
  a particle.
• idiom a phrase that has a meaning different from
  that of the combination of the words that
  comprise it
• particle usually a preposition but sometimes an
  adverb

English 402 Grammar
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slide 3 alternative terms in use for phrasal
verbs

• Phrasal verbs are sometimes called
• prepositional verbs (but not accurate when the
  particle is not a preposition, hence these are
  also known as phrasal/prepositional verbs)
• two-word verbs
• multi-word verbs (because some consist of more
  than two words, e.g., put up with)

English 402 Grammar
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slide 4 examples of phrasal verbs

• examples of phrasal verbs
• speak up
• fill out
• get out
• go down
• get up
• fire away
• put up with
• go out for
• get away with

check out get out give in give up give away fall
through
English 402 Grammar
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slide 5 demonstration of the difference between
a phrasal verb and a verb plus adverb or PP

• compare
• The balloon floated up.
• adverbial of place
• Jack ran up the stairs.
• preposition, head of the PP up
  the stairs
• Jill threw up.
• particle in the phrasal verb throw up (
  vomit)

English 402 Grammar
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slide 6 Reed-Kellogg diagrams of sentences with
phrasal verbs

• In Reed-Kellogg diagrams, the verb and the
  particle(s) of a phrasal verb are put together on
  the main line with no separating line. For
  example, here is the diagram of the sentence The
  food ran out quickly containing the phrasal verb
  run out which means something like become
  exhausted or become depleted

English 402 Grammar
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slide 7 diagrams of sentences with phrasal verbs
compared to those with verbs plus adverbials

• Compare the previous diagram to the following one
  of the sentence The balloon floated up quickly
  which contains the verb run followed by the
  adverb up (actually, this same diagram serves
  also for the sentence The balloon floated quickly
  up, once more illustrating the relative
  flexibility in the positioning of adverbials and
  giving more evidence of the adverbial status of
  up in this use)

English 402 Grammar
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slide 8 the movability test

• To determine if a particle following a verb
  belongs to that verb in a phrasal verb
  combination or whether the particle is an adverb
  or is a preposition heading a following
  prepositional phrase, you can use the so-called
  movability test. To do perform this test, try
  moving the particle and any word or phrase
  following it to the front of the sentence. If the
  resulting sentence is grammatical, you know that
  you have either a verb followed by an adverbial
  or a prepositional phrase if the sentence is
  ungrammatical, this indicates that verb-particle
  combination is in fact a phrasal verb.

English 402 Grammar
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slide 9 the movability test in action

• exx
• The man ran out.
• ? Out the man ran.
• The man ran out the door.
• ? Out the door the man ran.

grammatical, therefore run out is not a phrasal
verb here grammatical, therefore run out is
not a phrasal verb here
English 402 Grammar
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slide 10 examples of the application of the
movability test revealing a phrasal verb

• but
• The money ran out.
• ? Out the money ran.
• The money ran out quickly.
• ? Out quickly the money ran.

ungrammatical, therefore run out is a phrasal
verb here (meaning something like become
exhausted or become gone) ungrammatical,
therefore run out is a phrasal verb here (meaning
something like become exhausted or become
gone)
English 402 Grammar