A phrasal verb ['freɪzl və:rb] (or also compound verb ['kɔmpʌund və:rb]) is a stable combination of a verb with a preposition or a particle, or both, such a combination is idiomatic:
A phrasal verb formed with a preposition is called a prepositional phrasal verb, and a phrasal verb with a particle – a particle phrasal verb or an adverbial phrasal verb:
The function of a particle in phrasal verbs can be performed by prepositions or adverbs. The difference between a particle phrasal verb formed with the help of a preposition from a prepositional phrasal verb is determined by whether the preposition is part of the sentence's object (i.e., whether it forms the prepositional object) or not:
In the second case, there are two options for the location of the particle, before and after the object:
If a personal pronoun is used as the object, then the phrasal verb's particle is always placed after the pronoun:
Compare with the prepositional phrasal verb:
In connection with the above, phrasal verbs are sometimes divided into separable [ˈsepərəbl] and inseparable [ɪnˈsepərəbl].
Phrasal verbs in English are more often used in everyday communication and, as a rule, they are formed with native English words, and usually are not formed with words borrowed from other languages, i.e. verbs belonging rather to formal speech:
Sometimes some lexical meanings of a phrasal verb can be understood from the meanings of the attached preposition or adverb, for example: "give away", "give back", "look for", "get up".
After studying a certain number of phrasal verbs, the understanding comes of what this or that preposition, or adverb in a given phrasal verb can mean.
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