More Confusion About Phrasal Verbs

 

The timing was kind of strange. The e-mail about phrasal verbs that inspired this week's podcast was one I had actually received months ago. It sat in my "interesting topic to write about" mental pile for quite a while before I was finally ready to put up a podcast about it.

Though it wasn't the first time someone had asked me about word order in expressions like "lock him up," this is nonetheless a pretty rare topic for my in-box. It had been years since I'd last explained the concept of phrasal verbs to anyone.

But, just as I was ready to run the podcast here, I got an e-mail from a man named John telling me about a correction his daughter had made to a political sign. The sign had the expression "taking our country back." I don't know whose sign it was or why it had such an effect on the daughter, but she contacted the campaign with a correction. “She notified them [it] should be ‘taking back our country’ because ‘taking back’ is a verb phrase and should not be split by ‘our country.’"

Um, nope.

No. 1: It's a phrasal verb, not a verb phrase. A verb phrase usually means stuff like "am walking," "had gone," "would have quit." That is, it's usually a participle like "walking" or "gone" plus an auxiliary or two, like "am" or "had." Plus there can be other stuff in between. Grammarians often use the term "verb phrase" to refer to just a single word verb. That's handy when you're analyzing the syntax of a sentence: chopping it up into noun phrases, verb phrases, etc.

Phrasal verbs, as we discuss in this week's podcast, are things like "bring up," "call off," "take down," "throw up," and "make up." They're combos in which the second word actually gives the verb a different meaning than it has when it stands alone. That is, to call means to communicate. To call off means to put an end to. So that's a phrasal verb.

No. 2: You can put the object of a phrasal verb anywhere it sounds best, as in "call the wedding off." And sometimes it clearly works best in the middle. Compare "bring it up" with "bring up it" and you'll see what I mean.

So don't every let someone tell you you're wrong to go with your gut on the word order in terms like "run him over," "call him out," "make something up," and on and on. Anyone who says you can't is just misinformed.

 

 

 

 

 

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