What is a Phrasal Verb?
A phrasal verb is a phrase that consists of a verb with a preposition or an adverb (or both). The meaning of a phrasal verb is different from the meaning of its separate parts.
The most common adverb particles used to form phrasal verbs are around, at, away, down, in, off, on, out, over, round, up.
Difficulties with Phrasal Verbs
When learning any language, we usually look at the meaning of any individual words we don’t understand. This helps us to understand the complete sentence.
Phrasal verbs often have meanings which we cannot easily guess from their individual parts. Read the following sentence:
- Tina has fallen out with her brother again.
This sentence includes a phrasal verb.
The word “fallen” is the past participle of the verb “to fall”.
- fall = to suddenly go down to the ground or towards the ground without intending to, by accident
Example: He bruised his leg when he fell.
The word “out” can be an adverb or a preposition.
- out = used to show movement away from a place or a container
Example(s): Get out! / He leaned out the window.
Referring to the original sentence, we might think that Tina, or her brother have fallen. We might be wondering if they have been injured.
In the sentence no one has accidentally fallen. The meaning is not easily understood.
Phrasal verb using “out”
- fall out (phrasal verb) = something which becomes loose and separates, something which becomes detached
Example sentences:
Her hair has fallen out. This is a side effect of the chemotherapy treatment she is receiving for cancer.
The professional boxer’s tooth fell out during the fight.
Unfortunately, this phrasal verb (fall out) still does not help us to understand the sentence with Tina and her brother.
Confused? Help!
Let’s review the word “fall” again. Read the following:
- Darkness fell as they walked home.
This sentence describes something happening suddenly at a particular time. Light is suddenly dark. The word “fell” expresses this sudden change. This could be rewritten:
- It suddenly became dark as they walked home.
Let’s review the word “out” again. Read the following:
- He lost the game and is out of the competition.
The word “out” can be used to show movement or express a conclusion or an ending. His time in the competition has ended.
This could be rewritten:
- He didn’t win the game and can no longer continue in the competition.
Let’s review our sentence one more time. The phrasal verb in our sentence includes three parts.
- Tina has fallen out with her brother again.
- fall out with = to argue with someone or have a disagreement with someone; stop being friendly with someone; to become detached
There has been a sudden change (fall) resulting in an ending (out) of the relationship between Tina and her brother (with). Our sentence could be rewritten to read:
- Tina isn’t speaking to her brother again.
Phrasal-prepositional verb
- fall (verb) out (particle) with (preposition)
Strictly speaking this is not a phrasal verb. This is grammatically known as a phrasal-prepositional verb. This is quite a mouthful and these phrases are more frequently referred to simply as phrasal verbs.
What is a phrasal-prepositional verb?
These phrases have three parts: a verb, a particle and a preposition. Tina’s brother is the object of the preposition. The particle and the preposition cannot be separated. Many of these phrasal-prepositional verbs are often used in informal contexts. Their meaning is usually more difficult to guess from the individual parts.
Learning Phrasal Verbs
Phrasal verbs take time to master. Your English tutor will provide examples during lessons and explain their meanings in context. This helps increase your English vocabulary and understanding of the language.
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