Phrasal Verb - Examples

Examples

One can discern at least three main types of phrasal verb constructions depending upon whether the verb combines with a preposition, a particle, or both. The words constituting the phrasal verb constructions in the following examples are in bold:

Verb + preposition (prepositional phrasal verbs)

a. Who is looking after the kids?

b. They pick on Billy.

c. I ran into an old friend.

d. She takes after her mother.

e. Sam passes for a linguist.

f. You should stand by your friend.

Verb + particle (particle phrasal verbs)

a. They brought that up twice.

b. You should think it over.

c. Why does he always dress down?

d. You should not give in so quickly.

e. Where do they want to hang out?

f. She handed it in.

Verb + particle + preposition (particle-prepositional phrasal verbs)

a. Who can put up with that?

b. She is looking forward to a rest.

c. The other tanks were bearing down on my panther.

d. They were really teeing off on me.

e. We loaded up on Mountain Dew and chips.

f. Susan has been sitting in for me. - in is a particle and for is a preposition.

The difference between these types of phrasal verbs lies with the status of the element(s) that appear in addition to the verb. When the element is a preposition, it is the head of a full prepositional phrase and the phrasal verb is a thus a prepositional phrasal verb. When the element is a particle, it can not (or no longer) be construed as a preposition, but rather it is a particle by virtue of the fact that it does not take a complement. Finally, many phrasal verbs are combined with both a preposition and a particle.

The aspect of these types of phrasal verbs that unifies them under the single banner phrasal verb is the fact that their meaning cannot be understood based upon the meaning of their parts taken in isolation. When one picks on someone, one is not selecting that person for something, but rather one is harassing them. When one hangs out, one is in no way actually hanging from anything. The meaning of the two or more words together is often drastically different from what one might guess it to be based upon the meanings of the individual parts in isolation.

As a class, particle phrasal verbs belong to the same category as the so-called separable verbs of other Germanic languages. They are commonly found in everyday, informal speech as opposed to more formal English and Latinate verbs, such as to get together rather than to congregate, to put off rather than to postpone (or to deter), or to do up rather than to fasten.