The English-Learning and Languages Review Æ Homepage
The Truth about
Phrasal Verbs
Amorey Gethin
Contents
How not to learn phrasal verbs
Phrasal verbs are a basic part of
English
Phrasal verbs are not really a
problem
The common method of learning phrasal
verbs is very strange
This strange method is not used for learning
German - so why for learning English?
Never learn phrasal verbs in lists
Learn them as you come to them in
context, like any other word
Don't spend money on phrasal verb
books
How not to learn phrasal verbs
Phrasal
verbs are the
source of one of the greatest and saddest misunderstandings for learners of
English.
There is a strong and widespread tendency for students to try to learn the
meanings of phrasal verbs 'systematically'. That is to say, they take a word
like turn and then try to learn
by heart the meanings of:
turn + about
turn + away
turn + back
turn + down
turn + in
turn + off
turn + on
turn + out
turn + over
turn + round
turn + to
turn + up
Phrasal verbs are a basic part of English
The
result is nearly always the same. The students' heads begin to spin after a
very short time, they become confused and frustrated,
and very soon give up in despair any attempt to master phrasal verbs. This is a
bad mistake. Phrasal verbs are a basic and very important part of normal
English vocabulary. Native English-speakers learn all the more common phrasal
verbs at an early age.
Phrasal verbs are not really a problem
The
situation is all the sadder because in fact there need be no difficulty
whatever. The difficulties are all of the students' own making. Or rather, it
would be truer to say that it is the fault of their teachers, and even more
that of the authors and publishers of text books on English.
The common method of learning
phrasal verbs is very strange
It
seems very unlikely that any students of English set about learning words such
as
abstain
contain
detain
entertain
maintain
obtain
pertain
retain
sustain
by making the following sort of resolution:
"Today
I shall study the -tain verbs. I
shall learn what each of
tain
+ abs
tain + con
tain + de
tain + enter
tain + main
tain + ob
tain + per
tain + re
tain + sus
mean."
I can
imagine even some students who already know these words getting confused merely
by looking at a list of this sort. Yet students who approach phrasal verbs in
the way I have described above are doing exactly the same as learning the -tain verbs in this strange way.
Psychologically
it need make no difference at all that in one case the particle (the 'little'
word) is at the front of the word and attached to it, while in the other it is
at the end and separated. It is pure historical accident that the two parts of
phrasal verbs are not written together and the parts of words like the -tain verbs are.
This strange method is not used for learning German - so why for
learning English?
Anyone
doubtful about this argument should think of German. In German there are what
in effect are phrasal verbs. Take as an example the
verb geben (give). There are:
angeben
aufgeben
ausgeben
begeben
eingeben
hergeben
nachgeben
übergeben
umgeben
vergeben
zugeben
and very possibly others that I do not know of. Yet not only are the
particles (an-, auf-, aus-, ein-, etc.) often separated from their verb
and put after it and after the object; they are frequently
separated from the verb far further than the particles normally are in English
phrasal verbs. For instance (using the 3rd Person Singular Present of ausgeben):
Er gibt für das Auto zu viel
Geld aus.
He gives
for the car too much money out.
(He spends too much money on the car.)
But I
have still not met any students of German as a foreign language who have dreamt
of learning such German verbs by saying to themselves,
for instance:
"Today
I am going to learn all the verbs with geben:
geben + an
geben + auf
geben + aus
geben + be
geben + ein
geben + her etc., etc."
Never learn phrasal verbs in lists
I
think everybody would regard this as a crazy procedure. Yet it is just such a
crazy procedure that students are following if they try to learn lists of all
the phrasal verbs made with turn, with
bring, with put, and so on. It is of course equally
misguided to learn phrasal verbs in lists according to which particle or
preposition they are formed with - at, by, in, out, over,
up etc.
Learn them as you come to them in context, like any other word
Think
instead of phrasal verbs as one word and treat them just like any other
word. Look out for them, certainly. They are very important. But learn them as
you would any other word in English vocabulary - as you come across them, in
context. Thus you may learn exercise,
followed by makeout, followed by
hedgehog, followed by refrain, followed by whistle, followed by putoff, followed by prefer, followed by average, followed by turnup, and so on.
Apart
from the special conventions of word order that apply to phrasal verbs, which
are discussed below, there is nothing special about phrasal verbs except
that they are particularly important.
Don't spend money on phrasal verb books
So
never try to learn lists of them. Never waste your money buying special books
about them. A
good dictionary will tell you what they mean if you cannot understand from the
context.
‘No object’ (intransitive) phrasal verbs
There are many phrasal verbs that do not govern objects, so-called
intransitive verbs, such as:
The noise gradually died down.
How are you getting on?
In these verbs the two parts are never separated.
‘Object’ (transitive) phrasal
verbs
There are two different sorts of phrasal verbs that govern
objects, with different conventions of word order.
The two different types can be illustrated with the phrasal verb turn
on, which has several different meanings.
'After-object' (adverbial) phrasal verbs
First let us look at what can be called the 'after-object' type. Turn
on can mean much the same as "switch on":
Shall I turn on the
light?
Or it can be used in the colloquial sense of "make
excited", especially sexually:
She turns on all the
men in the office.
In
both these senses on can be
separated from the verb and put after the object (the light and all
the men in
the office in these examples):
Shall I turn the light
on?
She turns all the men in the office on.
Word order with pronouns
If the
object of the phrasal verb is a pronoun (it and them
in the two following examples), then on
must normally be put after the object:
Shall I turn it on?
She turns them on.
Short and long objects
The
tendency is for the 'little word', on
in our present examples, to go after the object if the object is fairly short:
Shall I turn the
lights in here on? (object = the lights in here)
But
if the object is a long one, it is unlikely for the 'little word' to be put
after the object:
Shall I turn on all
those lights we set up the day before yesterday in the sitting room? (object =
all those lights we set up the day before yesterday in the sitting room)
'Before-object' (or prepositional) phrasal verbs
But turn on has other senses, and in these the on is never put after the object.
This sort of phrasal verb can be called the 'before-object' type.
Turn on can mean something similar to "depend on":
The result will turn
on the weather. (object = the weather)
Or it
can mean "suddenly attack savagely", verbally or physically:
He turns on her if she
dares to express an opinion of her own. (object = her)
Or it
can mean "turn round sharply":
Bill turned on his
heel and walked out. (object = his heel)
Is it ‘before-object’ type
or ‘after-object’ type?
So
when you come across a phrasal verb for the first time, how do you know whether
it is the ‘before-object’ type or the ‘after-object’ type?
The
answer is that you can't know unless you hear or read the verb in a context.
Even then, of course, you have to remember that although the example you come
across may have the 'little word' (on
etc.) before the object, it can still be an ‘after-object’
phrasal verb, as we saw from the first four examples of turn on above.
'Three-word verbs' are always the ‘before-object’ type
There
is, though, one kind of phrasal verb that can only be the ‘before-object’ type. This is
where the verb is combined with two other words - a 'three-word verb':
I'm surprised you put up with
his rudeness.
Shall we drop in on Bill on our way home?
Learn as you listen and read
By
far the best way to learn both the meanings of phrasal verbs and which type
they are, is simply to notice how they work as they
come naturally to your attention as you read or listen - particularly when you
listen, as phrasal verbs are used more in the spoken language than in the
written language.
Revised layout and
slightly revised text April 2010
The Editor welcomes questions and comments on this article. (Your name will not be published without your permission.)
This
article is an expanded extract from
The Art and Science of Learning Languages, by Amorey Gethin and Erik V.
Gunnemark, published by Intellect (http://www.intellectbooks.com)
The English-Learning and Languages Review and its individual
contributors assert their Copyright © on all the material
published in it. Nevertheless, the Review gives permission for unlimited
reproduction of the piece above, The truth about
Phrasal Verbs, or parts of it, on
condition that:
(1) acknowledgement
is made of the source
(2) no
changes are made except with the Review’s
permission
(3) no
restraint is imposed on further reproduction of the material
(4) copies
are not sold
The English-Learning and Languages Review Æ Homepage