Particles used to form phrasal verbs

Structure, meaning, problems and usage

One particular aspect of the grammar and vocabulary of English is combination of verbs (e.g. bring, come, take) with adverbial or prepositional particles (e.g. in, out, up), which constitute a single semantic and syntactic meaning. These combinations are called phrasal verbs, and they are extremely popular in English. There is not a universally accepted term for the second (and sometimes third) element of these combinations: in some cases the particle is prepositional, e.g.: come across (find by chance), look after (take care of), and in other cases the particle is adverbial, e.g .: come in (enter), give up (stop doing). Besides, there are the combinations with two particles, such as in: put up with ( tolerate ).

Phrasal verbs are often a great problem for learners of English, and one of them is that in many cases, even though you may know the meaning of the verb and the particle they are composed of, their meaning differs greatly from the meanings of the two words used independently. For example, the meaning of the verbs make, put and the prepositions out, off are well known to all learners of English from the first weeks of learning this language, and yet the meanings of the combinations make out and put off are not related to the meanings of the individual words in the combination. Another problem is in the criteria by which we say whether, for example, the combination of the verb go and particle out is a phrasal verb or a verb and a preposition in sentences 1 and 2: 1. Peter went out. 2. The lamp fell on the ground and went out.

It is sometimes said that phrasal verbs are used in colloquial or informal English and are more appropriate to spoken English than written and even that it is better to avoid them and use their single word equivalents or synonyms. Yet in many cases phrasal verbs and their synonyms have different ranges of use and meaning. Single-word synonyms are often much more formal in style than phrasal verbs, and they seem out of place in many contexts, and the students using them instead of phrasal verbs run the risk of sounding pompous or unnatural.

In recent years phrasal verbs not only have become more numerous, but they are used more and more widely, not only in colloquial English, but also in academic writing, in official documents, in fiction and mass media, and many of them are pushing traditional one-word verbs into second place.

The set of phrasal verbs is constantly growing and changing, new combinations appear and spread. The Collins Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs lists over 3,000 combinations of verbs with adverbs or prepositions, explaining over 5,500 different meanings. These are the combinations which are in everyday use in English. Yet these combinations are rarely made on a random basis, but form patterns which can to some extent be anticipated. Particles often have particular meanings which they contribute to a variety of combinations, and which are productive: that is, these fixed meanings are used in order to create new combinations.

The particles in phrasal verbs are sometimes adverbial and sometimes prepositional. If the particle is a preposition, you need a noun group after it. The noun group is called a prepositional object: do not confuse it with the object of a verb. If the particle is an adverb, there is no noun after it.

Different people have different definitions of phrasal verbs, and different ideas about which particles can be used to form phrasal verbs. The following list contains all the particles (48) which are used to form phrasal verbs (the bold type is used with the particles which are most often used to form phrasal verbs):

aback around between of through

about as beyond off to

above aside by on together

across at down onto toward

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