Phrasal Verbs

A phrasal verb is a group of words that functions as a verb and is made up of a verb plus a preposition, an adverb, or both.
Phrasal verbs can be said to be formed by the combination of a verb and an adverb or a preposition. In some cases, it is a combination of all the three.
Though each of these parts have different functions, they play the role of the verb when they are put together.
They can also act as a phrase and that is why these verbs are called phrasal verbs.

They are important in English. Here are 3 common phrasal verbs that you may already know:

• check in     Guests cannot check in at the hotel before 4:00 PM.
• give in       The workers’ strike has been going on for weeks, and neither side seems willing to give in.
• look out for   In the winter, drivers need to look out for icy spots on the roads.

It is important to learn phrasal verbs because they are very common in English, and because the meaning of a verb often changes significantly when it is used in a phrasal verb.

For example, the verb grow usually means to become larger or increase in amount, but the phrasal verb grow up means to become an adult or start behaving in a mature way, as shown in these examples:

• She’s letting her hair grow. (grow = increase in length)
• She wants to be a firefighter when she grows up. (grow up = become an adult)
• It’s time for him to grow up and start accepting his responsibilities. (grow up = behave in a mature way)

Phrasal verbs can be divided into four main types or rather two main categories based on how they behave when used in sentences. They are:

• Transitive Phrasal Verbs
• Intransitive Phrasal Verbs
• Separable Phrasal Verbs
• Inseparable Phrasal Verbs

Transitive Phrasal Verbs

Just like normal transitive verbs, a transitive phrasal verb can be identified by its demand for an object.

For example :

• It was not possible for Veena to do away with all of it as they brought back so many memories of the past.
• Can you fill in the required details so that we can move forward with the screening process.

Intransitive Phrasal Verbs

Intransitive phrasal verbs behave exactly like intransitive verbs. They do not require an object to complete the sentence they are used in or make sense of the context.

For example:

• My car broke down all of a sudden while driving through the ghat section.
• It has been years since we met, we should definitely catch up.

Separable Phrasal Verbs

Separable phrasal verbs include transitive phrasal verbs which have the characteristic property of separating the phrasal verb with the object in between. There is, however, a word order which should be taken into account when separating the phrasal verb.

For example:

• I am not the kind of person who holds all of this against you.
• Dhiraj is the one who is taking care of the applications for gold loan. Can you please hand it over to him?

Inseparable Phrasal Verbs

Inseparable phrasal verbs, as the name suggests, cannot be separated from each other and have to be used together, no matter what.

For example:

• You will have to account for all the losses that have been incurred.
• Harish was asked to check out of the hotel before 9 p.m. on Tuesday.

As far as the conjugation part is concerned, all you have to remember is to employ the same rules of conjugation you would if the verb stands by itself. When the phrasal verb is used as a main verb, you have to conjugate the verb alone according to the respective tense and not change the preposition in the phrasal verb.

For example:

• Heera dropped out of school due to her illness. (Drop out)
• My friend, Sharon, had broken up with her boyfriend last month. (Break up)
• The security guard asked around the whole building to know whose car was parked right in front of the gate. (Ask around)
• I hung out with my friends after the wedding reception. (Hang out)

Note that, in the above sentences, the prepositions remain the same whereas the verbs ‘dropped’, ‘asked’ and ‘hung’ have been conjugated in the simple past form and the verb ‘broken’ has been conjugated in the past participle form. Keep in mind that irregular verbs take the same spellings as they do when used as normal verbs conjugated in the different forms.

Phrasal verbs are most often a topic that confuses a lot of people, especially second language learners and new learners of the language. Since the multiple words used in a phrasal verb have different meanings and have a completely different meaning when used together, they end up being a slightly puzzling topic for some.

Phrasal verbs can be conjugated to suit the tense of the sentence and can be used like a normal verb. Here are a few examples of phrasal verbs. Identify how many of them you know and how often you use them in your regular communication.

Give up – combination of a verb (give) and a preposition (up)

Individually, the verb ‘give’ means to give something to someone and the preposition ‘up’ shows the position of some object. The magic happens or the confusion begins when both the verb and the preposition are used together. The phrasal ‘give up’ means to surrender or to stop making an effort in doing something.

Let us look at how the phrasal verb ‘give up’ can be conjugated to represent the different verb forms in English.

• Simple Past Form

The captain gave up at the last quarter.

• Infinitive Form

It was not easy for the coach to give up trying to encourage the team even in such a hopeless situation.

• Gerund Form

Giving up is not the solution to the problem, it is just the easiest choice.

• Past Participle Form

I have given up on them.