Starting this week I will be looking at useful phrasal verbs and their meanings. I will start tomorrow with one phrase a day based on the verb to look. I also listed them in my current newsletter, which you can see here: Bob’s Newsletter 16 December 2009
You can also subscribe to my newsletter by visiting the page listed above: Newsletter. You can also try my online exercise here:
https://languageskills.wufoo.com/forms/phrasal-verbs-to-look/.

Difficulties with phrasal verbs

Phrasal verbs are often difficult for learners to use and assimilate into their active vocabulary. Two possible reasons for this are: learners are uncertain which words to use (for example whether to use on or at), or: they don’t really understand the meaning. The meaning is sometimes difficult because phrasal verbs can be figurative or abstract. They are abstracted from literal meanings.

A basic definition of phrasal verbs

A phrasal verb is a verb in a phrase which can then have a different meaning from the verb alone. For example: to look is clear. But to look up is not always as clear. You can look up to see the sky. And you can also use it as follows: to look up a word in a dictionary. They are both phrasal verbs, the first one is literal and second is figurative. The second meaning is metaphorically derived from the literal meaning — I will write more about that in a future entry.

More technical: about prepositions and adverb particles

A more technical definition of a phrasal verb is that it is a verb with either a preposition or an adverb particle (a “particle” seems abstract too, but it is really just what it says: a little part of a phrase or sentence), or both together. This phrase then has a different meaning from the verb standing alone.

A preposition always has an object after it, for example: to look at the cow. You cannot simply say I looked at. You have to look at something: I looked at the cow. The cow is the object.

An adverb particle says more about how or where: As mentioned above, you can simply look up: When I looked up, I saw a flying cow (thinking of the movie Twister here). Up can be a preposition, but here it is functioning as an adverb. It doesn’t need an object here. And of course you can look up at the flying cow. Here you have both an adverb and a preposition. This is a literal use of the verb to look with an adverb and a preposition. As mentioned above, a figurative use is: to look up a word in the dictionary. In this case you are not literally — physically — describing tilting your head so that your eyes are pointed up.

But don’t spend too much time with the technical definition — it is not easy. It is only important for you to become familiar with typical phrasal verbs and practice using them in the appropriate situation, which is usually when speaking, or writing emails.

Future entries on Phrasal verbs

In the future I will write about formal verbs versus the informal use of phrasal verbs.

I will also write more about the definition of phrasal verbs and how they derive from metaphors of real-life experiences.

Tomorrow I will start with daily entries on individual phrasal verbs based on to look.