The "Phrasal Verbs" lecture I delivered in my English 402--Grammar course at the State University of New York College at Cortland.

1. Phrasal Verbs
Ed McCorduck
English 402--Grammar
SUNY Cortland
http://mccorduck.cortland.edu

2. Phrasal verbs are idioms consisting of a verb and a particle.
• idiom: a phrase that has a meaning different from that of the
combination of the words that comprise it
• particle: usually a preposition but sometimes an adverb
slide 2: definition of phrasal verbs
English 402:
Grammar

3. Phrasal verbs are sometimes called
• prepositional verbs (but not accurate when the particle is not a
preposition, hence these are also known as phrasal/prepositional
verbs)
• two-word verbs
• multi-word verbs (because some consist of more than two words, e.g.,
put up with)
slide 3: alternative terms in use for phrasal verbs
English 402:
Grammar

4. examples of phrasal verbs
speak up
fill out
get out
go down
get up
fire away
put up with
go out for
get away with
slide 4: examples of phrasal verbs
English 402:
Grammar
check out
get out
give in
give up
give away
fall through

5. compare:
The balloon floated up.
adverbial of place
Jack ran up the stairs.
preposition, head of the PP up the stairs
Jill threw up.
particle in the phrasal verb throw up (= vomit)
slide 5: demonstration of the difference between a phrasal verb and a verb plus adverb or PP
English 402:
Grammar

6. In Reed-Kellogg diagrams, the verb and the particle(s) of a
phrasal verb are put together on the main line with no
separating line. For example, here is the diagram of the
sentence The food ran out quickly containing the phrasal
verb run out which means something like ‘become exhausted’
or ‘become depleted’:
slide 6: Reed-Kellogg diagrams of sentences with phrasal verbs
English 402:
Grammar

7. Compare the previous diagram to the following one of the
sentence The balloon floated up quickly which contains the
verb run followed by the adverb up (actually, this same diagram
serves also for the sentence The balloon floated quickly up,
once more illustrating the relative flexibility in the positioning of
adverbials and giving more evidence of the adverbial status of
up in this use):
slide 7: diagrams of sentences with phrasal verbs compared to those with verbs plus adverbials
English 402:
Grammar

8. To determine if a particle following a verb “belongs to” that verb
in a phrasal verb combination or whether the particle is an
adverb or is a preposition heading a following prepositional
phrase, you can use the so-called movability test. To perform
this test, try moving the particle and any word or phrase
following it to the front of the sentence. If the resulting sentence is
grammatical, you know that you have either a verb followed by an
adverbial or a prepositional phrase; if the sentence is ungrammatical,
this indicates that the verb-particle combination is in fact a phrasal
verb.
slide 8: the movability test
English 402:
Grammar

9. exx
The man ran out.
⇒ Out the man ran.
The man ran out the door.
⇒ Out the door the man ran.
slide 9: the movability test in action
English 402:
Grammar
grammatical, therefore run out is not a
phrasal verb here
grammatical, therefore run out is not a
phrasal verb here

10. but
The money ran out.
⇒ *Out the money ran.
The money ran out quickly.
⇒ *Out quickly the money ran.
slide 10: examples of the application of the movability test revealing a phrasal verb
English 402:
Grammar
ungrammatical, therefore run out is a
phrasal verb here (meaning something
like ‘become exhausted’or ‘become
gone’)
ungrammatical, therefore run out is a
phrasal verb here (meaning something
like ‘become exhausted’or ‘become
gone’)