A Short Clarification

of Phrasal Verbs

A phrasal verb is a
combination of a verb
and an adverb, a verb
and a preposition, or a
verb, an adverb, and a
preposition. Phrasal
verbs act semantically as
an element, this means,
they enclose their own sense, which is very often a
modification of the real sense of the verb. However, the
sense may change totally. For example:

She came across his brother at the store. (She met his
brother at the store.)

In this case, we blended the verb to come with the

preposition across to signify that she suddenly met his
brother at the store. While the sense is very different from
the sense of come, you can perceive that the combination
effortlessly shows a person bumping into another person,
or two itemsobstructing each other in some way. In ESL
programs, teachers discourage this intent to reclaim the
new sense by digging in the roots of the verb, however, I
think they’re not correct, and I encourage you to do it. This
has to do with literal versus idiomatic use. But idiomatic
use at all times comes from literal use, and their
association isn’t a meaningless and absurd one. As an
example, to get over exactly means to climb over
something, and when you say She ultimately got over her
mother’s death, providing an idiomatic use to the phrasal
verb, the connection with the literal sense is direct and
obvious: actually, just if you possess a fresh awareness of
its literal use you’ll be capable of feeling its full implication,
the heaviness over her; the wearing effort it took her to get
over that happening. Of course, you can not predict the
sense of a phrasal verb only by looking at its components,
or that you can structure phrasal verbs by adding particles
to verbs by preference, but once you know the sense of a
phrasal verb, attempting to work out its literal source is
always fascinating.

Note that occasionally, the sense changes totally depending

on whether the phrasal verb carries an object or not. As an
example:

He came across positively in the meeting. (He made a good

impact on them.)

In this case, across is employed as an adverb, not a

preposition, and because the phrasal verb doesn’t carry an
object, the sense varies.

Lastly, there are some grammar rules you must study in

regards to phrasal verbs. One of them controls the
organization of the particles in the phrase. Let’s see:

Separable phrasal verbs may be kept joined except when a

pronoun is the object. In this case, the pronoun should go
between the verb and the particle. For example:

She gave up that awful job = She gave that awful job up =
She gave it up (OK)
But you cannot say She gave up it. (Not right)

Inseparable phrasal verbs constantly remain joined, no

matter if you employ a noun, a noun phrase, or a pronoun
as an object:

Kathy was looking after his daughter = Kathy was looking

after her (OK)
Kathy was looking his daughter after (Not right)
Kathy was looking her after (Not right)

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