Phrasal Verbs and Prepositions

Phrasal verbs are combinations of a verb and one or more prepositions or adverbs that create a meaning different from the verb alone. "Look" is one thing; "look after," "look into," "look forward to," and "look up" are entirely different meanings. Prepositions are small words that show relationships in time, space, direction, and other connections between elements in a sentence. Together, phrasal verbs and prepositions create much of the flexibility and expressiveness of English. They're essential for fluent speech and writing, yet they're notoriously difficult for non-native speakers because their meanings often can't be predicted from their component parts.

Understanding Phrasal Verbs: Form and Meaning

A phrasal verb consists of a verb + adverb or preposition, and sometimes both. Common patterns include:

• Verb + adverb: "give up" (surrender), "put off" (postpone), "look into" (investigate)
• Verb + preposition: "look after" (care for), "run into" (encounter), "get through" (complete, survive)
• Verb + adverb + preposition: "get along with" (have a good relationship with), "look forward to" (anticipate), "put up with" (tolerate)

What makes phrasal verbs challenging is that their meaning is often non-compositional—you can't guess the meaning from knowing the verb and the preposition separately. "Catch" means to seize; "up" means upward; but "catch up" means to reach someone who is ahead of you. The phrasal verb's meaning is completely different from the sum of its parts.

This non-compositionality is why phrasal verbs must be learned individually. You can't predict that "look" + "forward" + "to" means "anticipate." You simply have to learn it through exposure and use.

Common Phrasal Verbs by Category

Phrasal verbs of movement and position:

• Come up, go down, turn around, move away, put away

Phrasal verbs of stopping or pausing:

• Give up, cut off, turn off, pull over, hang on

Phrasal verbs of beginning or increasing:

• Start off, set up, take on, pick up, scale up

Phrasal verbs of discovering or investigating:

• Find out, look into, track down, dig up, uncover

Phrasal verbs of finishing or reducing:

• Wind up, wrap up, cut back, trim down, scale back

Understanding these categories can help you remember phrasal verbs, though the meanings still must be learned individually.

Prepositions: Small Words with Big Responsibilities

Prepositions show relationships between nouns and other words in a sentence. They indicate:

Space and position: in, on, under, behind, between, among

• "The book is on the table"
• "She sat between her parents"

Direction and movement: to, from, into, out of, through, across

• "He walked into the room"
• "They traveled across the country"

Time: in, on, at, during, since, until, before, after

• "I'll see you in an hour"
• "We met before the meeting"
• "She's been working since morning"

Relationship and association: of, with, about, for, by, against

• "The color of the house" (possession)
• "She agreed with him" (agreement)
• "The book is about history" (topic)
• "She worked for the company" (employment)

Abstract relationships: according to, because of, in spite of, due to, due to

• "According to the plan..."
• "In spite of difficulties, they succeeded"

Particles as Part of Phrasal Verbs

In phrasal verbs, the preposition or adverb is called a particle. Some particles are more common than others:

• Up: Stand up, give up, look up, set up, put up with
• Out: Find out, work out, figure out, carry out, make out
• Off: Turn off, put off, call off, fall off
• Down: Put down, break down, bring down, cut down
• On: Turn on, put on, carry on, go on, take on

Seeing particles as patterns can help you recognize and remember phrasal verbs, though you still need to learn their specific meanings.

Separable and Inseparable Phrasal Verbs

Some phrasal verbs are separable, meaning the object can go between the verb and particle:

• "Put off the meeting" or "Put the meeting off"
• "Look up the word" or "Look the word up"

Other phrasal verbs are inseparable, meaning the particle must follow the verb:

• "Look after the children" (not "Look the children after")
• "Run into an old friend" (not "Run an old friend into")

When the object is a pronoun, separable phrasal verbs usually require separation:

• "Look it up" (not "Look up it")
• "Put it off" (not "Put off it")

Knowing which phrasal verbs are separable and which are inseparable helps you avoid awkward or incorrect constructions.

Prepositions at the End of Sentences

In formal English, it's supposedly incorrect to end a sentence with a preposition. Yet in natural English speech and contemporary writing, this "rule" is often broken: "Who are you talking to?" is more natural than "To whom are you talking?"

The prescriptive rule against final prepositions comes from Latin grammar and doesn't reflect how English actually works. While you might avoid them in very formal writing (academic papers, formal letters), in speech and contemporary writing, they're completely acceptable.

Common Mistakes and Confusion

• Confusing similar phrasal verbs: "Get up" (wake, rise) vs. "Get on" (board) vs. "Get along" (have good relations)
• Translating from other languages: If your native language doesn't have phrasal verbs, you might translate literally, creating nonsense: "Look up the information" is not about looking upward; it means "search for"
• Forgetting separability rules: Using "Look up the word" instead of "Look the word up" with a pronoun object
• Overusing phrasal verbs: In formal writing, single-word verbs are sometimes more appropriate: "research" is more formal than "look into"

Related Concepts

Precision-in-Expression • Grammatical-Relationships

Socratic Questions

1. Why are phrasal verb meanings often unpredictable from their component parts? What does this tell us about how language develops?

1. If you wanted to learn phrasal verbs, would it be better to memorize them or to encounter them repeatedly in context? Why are they so difficult for non-native speakers?

1. The "rule" against ending sentences with prepositions is often broken in contemporary English. Should such rules be followed or ignored? How do prescriptive rules differ from how language actually works?

1. Prepositions show small but important relationships in meaning. How would communication change if prepositions were missing from English?

1. In your native language or another language you know, does the concept of phrasal verbs exist? How are similar meanings expressed differently across languages?