Phrasal verbs with get

There are a lot of phrasal verbs with get. Here are a couple of exercises with 24 of them. They are taken from a previous post on various meanings of get and idioms with get, linked to below.

Phrasal verb or multi-word verb? Is there any difference?

I have to confess I'm a bit old-fashioned and resistant to change. Like a lot of students, I'm used to calling those special (and problematic) verbs consisting of a verb and a particle phrasal verbs. This is how they are referred to in dictionaries and in many grammar books and practice books dedicated to the subject.

A lot of course books and some websites, however, are now referring to multi-word or multi-part verbs instead.

One advantage of this new system is meant to be that we know that the category now known as prepositional verbs always take an object. On the other hand, I'm not sure how lumping Type 1 and Type 2 together makes anything easier. I also find it rather confusing that in this system the term, phrasal verb is still used but only refers to what I would call Type 1 and Type 2 phrasal verbs, and not to Types 3 or 4.

The new terms haven't had much effect on the Internet yet, where phrasal verb is overwhelmingly how all these verbs are referred to. Google Search brings up 2,870,000 hits for "phrasal verbs", 31,700 for "multi-word verbs", and 82,600 for "multi-part verbs". At Google Books the story is the same, with 82,700 hits for "phrasal verbs", only 2,770 for "multi-word verbs" and virtually nothing for "multi-part verbs".

But we can't turn the clock back; the term multi-word verbs, (or multi-part verbs) is apparently here to stay, so in this post I want to look at how the two systems currently being used in EFL/ESL teaching compare.

To separate or not? (2) - a little experiment

As you know, there are many phrasal verbs which can take a direct object, and where that direct object can come between the verb and the particle or after the particle. These are often known as seperable phrasal verbs:

• He took his hat off
• He took off his hat

We know that if the direct object is a pronoun we need to separate, but what about if it's a noun. Do native speakers usually separate or not? We'll look at some possible reasons for separating after the exercise.

So I thought I'd do a little experiment and see what Google came up with: how are separable phrasal verbs being used on the web? What I want you to do is decide which of each pair you think is more natural, and then we'll compare the results with the relative numbers of Google hits. All the sentences are grammatically possible, so there aren't really any wrong answers. Just compare your answers with what happens on the Internet.

To separate or not? (1) - get something across

I was recently doing some material in class on phrasal verbs. We were using a CAE course book, which told the students they needed to know whether a phrasal verb is transitive or intransitive (does it take an object or not). And if it's transitive, they should know whether it's separable or inseparable.

Personally I'm not so convinced students need to know the grammatical properties of each phrasal verb so much as seeing them in context and getting practice in using them. But that's another story.

Phrasal verbs that are always separated

There are a few phrasal verbs that take an object where that object must go between the verb and the particle, and not after the particle. The idea of this post is to try and list all of these, or at least as many as I know about.

I've taken the verbs from various sources, but mainly from English Phrasal Verbs in Use, published by Cambridge University Press. There are some verbs where not everybody agrees that they must be separated; these I've marked with ???. For example, English Phrasal Verbs in Use has ask out sb or ask sb out, where some websites have it as only being separated.

Clicking on most verbs will take you to a definition at the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

If you know of any I've missed, please let me know in the comments.

How I dealt to checking a New Zealand idiom

The prepositions that most commonly follow the verb deal are with and in, depending on meaning. In fact these collocations are so common, that deal with and deal in are often treated as phrasal verbs (or sometimes, prepositional verbs), for example at the OALD (scroll down to Phrasal Verbs). But it appears that in one corner of the English-speaking world, at least, deal with has a competitor.

A commenter on the language blog Pain in the English had noticed this sentence in the New Zealand Herald:

“Perhaps it’s time to deal to the ads that are just plain downers?”

Of course, there's no logical reason why deal should be followed by with. After all, we have the very similar expression see to - If you deal with the soup, I'll see to the main course. But with is what we're used to, so anything else sounds a bit odd.

Phrasal verbs based on give

Word image made with Wordle

There are relatively few phrasal verbs based on the verb give, but some of them have more than one meaning. Test your knowledge with these exercises. If you get stuck, you can check their meanings at the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary linked to below (scroll down to Phrasal verbs).

Phrasal verbs based on take

We use phrasal verbs based on the verb take quite often. Test your knowledge with these exercises. Have a look at the table and try working out their meanings and doing the exercises without looking them up first. But if you get stuck, you can quickly check their meanings at the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary or one of the other websites linked to below.

Phrasal verbs based on take can have a physical sense - take something back somewhere implying that you physically move something or accompany somebody somewhere. They can also have a more metaphorical sense, but still implying this movement - This music takes me back to my childhood, or a completely non-literal sense - She has taken up jogging.

Random quiz - Phrasal verbs

Multifunctional quiz based on a 'bank' of about 500 phrasal verbs in example sentences. View by verb, particle or topic. Or just go for a random selection.

This is a work in progress, I will be adding more verbs in the near future.

Prepositional verbs revisited

This post is a fairly detailed, and for me at least quite technical, discussion / exploration aimed mainly at teachers and possibly grammar freaks, and is a continuation of an earlier discussion / rant I had at When is a phrasal verb not a phrasal verb?.

If you were looking for some exercises with prepositional verbs, you could try my earlier posts, Lesson on prepositional verbs and Random stories - Prepositional verbs

In a lesson post on prepositional verbs, I stressed that their definition seemed to be somewhat elastic. Having learnt from Language Leader Advanced, Market Leader Advanced and other sources, however, that prepositional verbs appeared to be more or less the same as good old fashioned Type 3 phrasal verbs, I accordingly based my lesson on that idea in good faith.

I have now discovered a rather different story in The Teacher's Grammar of English, written by Ron Cowan and published in 2008 by Cambridge, who call it – 'a comprehensive resource text designed to help ESL/EFL teachers understand and teach American English grammar'.

What's more, his idea seems to have some support from other writers. I confess to now being thoroughly confused and I might well have to eat humble pie.

Phrasal verbs with go

English Phrasal Verbs in Use (Cambridge University Press) lists some forty phrasal verbs based on the verb 'go'. Here are some exercises to help you learn some of them in context.

I've divided them according to the four main structural types, and then brought them together in a little story at the end.

I suggest you just plunge straight in, without looking them up first. If you want to check their meanings just use one of the dictionaries on the right. Oxford Advanced Learner's lists phrasal verbs further down the page after the main meanings and idioms. There's a link to it below.

Random stories - Three-part phrasal verbs

Random Stories

Illustrating a language point with a story, no doubt with varying degrees of success.

This little story will give you some practice in using three-part phrasal verbs. It includes just about every three-part phrasal verb listed in English Phrasal Verbs in Use (Cambridge). If you need to brush up on your three-part phrasal verbs first, you can look at my previous set of exercises, which includes some grammatical explanation, here.

Random stories - Prepositional verbs

Random Stories

Where I will try to illustrate a language point with a story, no doubt with varying degrees of success.

Here's a little story to give you some practice in prepositional verbs, although I'm afraid it's unlikely to win me a contract with Mills and Boon. It is designed as a follow-up to the lesson on prepositional verbs, where it originally appeared. You might want to do the lesson first. You can find it here.

Three-Part Phrasal Verbs - Practice exercises

Three-part phrasal verbs are sometimes known as Type 4 phrasal verbs, or phrasal-prepositional verbs

Grammar notes - they have two particles. The particles can't be separated by the object.

• We get on with the neighbours like a house on fire.
• It looks like we've run out of coffee.
• Do you think they will get away with it?

The first particle is an adverb and always stays with the verb, whereas the second particle is a preposition and cannot be separated from its object. We can however, sometimes separate the two particles with modifiers.

• I get on really well with my in-laws.
• I'm not putting up any more with your behaviour.

Lesson on prepositional verbs

What is a prepositional verb?

Good question! It depends on who you ask, as the definition of prepositional verb seems to be somewhat elastic.

They are sometimes seen as corresponding to one of the four classic categories of phrasal verb, and that is how I'm interpreting them here. But see note below for other theories.

In these examples the underlined particles are prepositions, the rest are adverbs.

1. Intransitive. get up
2. Seperable transitive. give up sth or give sth up
3. Non-separable transitive. Prepositional verbs look for sb / sth
4. Three part verbs put up with sth

I'm not totally convinced about doing exercises based on only one type of phrasal verb, but then the subject of phrasal verbs is such a huge one, that it's probably as good a way as any of breaking them down into manageable chunks. In any case I have a funny feeling that prepositional verbs are going to be a trending topic (metaphorically), so we might as well get used to them.

When is a phrasal verb not a phrasal verb?

When it's a 'prepositional verb', apparently.

Or - how they moved the goalposts when I wasn't looking.

This post started off life as a small peeve in another post, but has now grown into a full-scale rant about how the writers of English course book sometimes like to change the terminology we are all used to. If you landed here expecting to find some exercises on phrasal verbs, or even prepositional verbs, I'm afraid this is not the right place, but you can find a lesson on prepositional verbs with lots of exercises here.

This is probably more addressed to my fellow teachers than students, and it gets a bit detailed in parts. But if you are interested in grammatical niceties or how English is taught, why not stay along for the ride. I've annotated any difficult word or phrases to help you stay aboard. (Probably a mixed metaphor)