TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
To the Teacher / iv
To the Student / v
1. Separable and Nonseparable Phrasal Verbs / 1
2. Phrasal Verbs and do, does, and did / 8
3. Three-Word Phrasal Verbs / 14
4. Present and Past Continuous Phrasal Verbs / 18
5. Pronunciation of Two-Word Phrasal Verbs / 24
6. Pronunciation of Three-Word Phrasal Verbs / 32
7. Separable Phrasal Verbs with Long Objects / 37
8. Present Perfect Phrasal Verbs / 46
9. Two-Word Phrasal Verbs That Require an Additional Particle When Used with an Object, 1 / 53
10. Phrasal Verbs Used as Nouns, 1 / 61
11. Phrasal Verbs Used in Compound Nouns / 70
12. Past Perfect Phrasal Verbs / 83
13. Passive Phrasal Verbs, 1 / 91
14. Participle Adjectives Formed from Phrasal Verbs, 1 / 98
15. Phrasal Verbs and will or be going to /107
16. Phrasal Verbs with Gerund Objects, 1 / 116
17. Adverbs and Phrasal Verbs / 125
18. Phrasal Verbs and can, could, will, and would / 133
19. Phrasal Verbs and the Adverb right I 141
20. Phrasal Verbs Followed by the -ing Form / 149
21. Phrasal Verbs and should and ought to 158
22. The Particle up and the Adverbs right and all I 165
23. Two-Word Phrasal Verbs That Require an Additional Particle When Used with an Object, 2 / 172
24. Phrasal Verbs Used as Nouns, 2 / 180
25. Phrasal Verbs and have to, have got to, and must / 188
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26. Phrasal Verbs and the Adverb bade / 194
27. Phrasal Verbs with the Particle off and the Adverb right I 202
28. Passive Phrasal Verbs, 2 / 210
29. Phrasal Verbs and might, may, and can /217
30. Participle Adjectives Formed from Phrasal Verbs, 2 / 223
31. Phrasal Verbs and Gerund Subjects / 233
32. Phrasal Verbs with the Particle our / 239
33. Phrasal Verbs and Midsentence Adverbs / 250 34. Pronunciation of Two- and Three-Word Phrasal Verbs, 2 / 257
35. Gerund Phrasal Verbs / 264
36. Phrasal Verbs with the Particle down / 271
37. Phrasal Verbs Used as Nouns, 3 / 280
38. The Verb keep and Adverbs and Adverbials Showing Degrees of Variability / 289
39. Passive Phrasal Verbs, 3 / 296
40. Gerund Phrasal Verbs vs. Phrasal Verbs Followed by the -ing Form / 307
41. Two-Word Phrasal Verbs with the Particle in That Require into When Used with an Object /314
42. Phrasal Verbs with get, 1 / 322
43. Modals and Present Perfect Phrasal Verbs / 331
44. Participle Adjectives and Passive Phrasal Verbs with the Verb get I 340
45. Phrasal Verbs with the Verb rum / 348
46. Pronunciation of Phrasal Verbs with the Particle into / 358
47. Particles Used Without Verbs / 364
48. Modals and Present Perfect Passive Phrasal Verbs / 372
49. Combinations of get, right, back, and tо / 380
50. Keep at It! / 390
Answers to Exercises / 398
Index / 410
TO THE TEACHER
The inspiration for The Ultimate Phrasal Verb Book came about when a student asked me for a textbook to help her learn the meanings of common phrasal verbs. I had nothing to offer. The only textbook focusing on common verbs that I could give her contains not one phrasal verb — it teaches arise but not get up, awake but not wake up, seek but not look for.
Phrasal verbs are verbs, not idiomatic curiosities. There is no logic to classifying take over with take the bull by the horns. Phrasal verbs are an essential part of spoken and written English at all levels, and no student who hopes to master the language can afford to overlook them.
Although this textbook is intended primarily for high-intermediate to advanced students, ambitious students at lower levels will benefit from it as well. Only some FOCUS sections may prove to be a little beyond them; otherwise, there is nothing to prevent any student from studying the definitions and examples and attempting the exercises.
A vocabulary textbook should provide mechanics as well as meaning. Students want to know more than what a word means — they want to know how to use it correctly.
The importance of mechanics is the reason for the emphasis on the prepositions required when some phrasal verbs are used transitively and for the inclusion of reviews of points of grammar not specific to phrasal verbs. Prepositions are the glue that holds English together, but many students falter when using newly learned verbs because they do not know that a preposition is also required, or if they do, which one. This aspect of English is not given the attention it deserves because it is difficult to teach — there are no rules that govern when a preposition, or which preposition, is required, and no teacher likes to say "You just have to remember."
The hope of the latter feature, the discussion of points of grammar not specific to phrasal verbs, is that combining practice with phrasal verbs and practice with a variety of grammatical structures will increase not only the student's confidence in the knowledge of phrasal verbs but also his or her willingness and ability to use them in a wider range of situations.
There is inevitably a degree of oversimplification. That phrasal verb particles are sometimes prepositions and sometimes adverbs is mentioned only once. No purpose is served by differentiating between them, and the overlap between the two is confusing to the student. Phrasal verbs are not identified as transitive or intransitive because this is dictated by logic. Less common meanings of some phrasal verbs have not been included. Adverb placement is presented and illustrated in simplified form without discussion of the different types of adverbs — doing so would have gone beyond the scope of this textbook.
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THE ULTIMATE PHRASAL VERB BOOK Student
And no differentiation is made between recognized adjectives derived from past participles and past participles with adjectival meaning. The adjectival use of past participles (both phrasal and nonphrasal) is an extremely important aspect of spoken English — something every student of English should be familiar with — yet the dividing line between true adjectives derived from past participles and passive sentences employing past participles with adjectival meanings is ill-defined and problematic. Native speakers of English regularly use past participles in superficially passive sentences with purely adjectival meaning. Whether the past participles are verbs or actually adjectives is of no concern to the native speaker and is entirely irrelevant to the student of English. Rather than distract the student with an unnecessary element of confusion, both are referred to as participle adjectives throughout this textbook.
The exercises in this textbook are intended to reinforce meaning and mechanics. A cloze exercise always comes first, followed by exercises focusing on sentence structure and the FOCUS discussion. Last are exercises that ask the student to answer questions or write original sentences.
There is a good deal of review built into this textbook. Every section contains two or more exercises requiring the student to refer back to a previous section in order to review a phrasal verb, participle adjective, or noun. When a phrasal verb has two or more meanings, it is intentional that no help is provided to the student in determining which meaning applies; students have to review them all and figure it out for themselves.
I have tried in this textbook to imitate the form and content of everyday English. If occasionally the register and subject matter of some examples and exercises seem not quite right for formal discourse, that is deliberate. Students need to learn formal English, of course, but since most people speak informally most of the time, students need to gain familiarity with the syntax, usage, and content of the informal English they read and hear every day at work, at school, at home, and on television.
TO THE STUDENT
Phrasal verbs are combinations of ordinary verbs like put, take, come, and go and particles like in, out, on, and off. They are a very important part of everyday English. Every student of English needs a basic understanding of the most common phrasal verbs and also of common nouns and adjectives made from phrasal verbs.
Most phrasal verbs are nor informal, slang, or improper for educated speech or formal writing. Exactly the opposite is true — most phrasal verbs are acceptable at all levels of spoken or written English. In fact, for many of the phrasal verbs in this textbook, there is no alternative to the phrasal verb — there is no other way to say it.
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However, a few phrasal verbs in this textbook are identified as informal, and it is better not to use them in serious, formal speech or writing. But these informal phrasal verbs are important because they are very common in everyday informal speech and writing.
Some phrasal verbs are very easy to understand. For example, it is not difficult to understand sit down or come in because their meanings are obvious. But many phrasal verbs are very idiomatic. Idiomatic means that there is no way to know what the verb and particle mean together by knowing what the verb and particle mean separately. For example, every beginning-level student learns what the words call, run, off, and out mean, but that does not help the student to know that call off means cancel or that run out means use all of something.
Each section of this textbook starts with a FOCUS, an explanation of something important about phrasal verbs. Then eight phrasal verbs and an explanation of each important meaning of each one are presented along with one or more example sentences for each meaning. Following that are several exercises to help you understand and remember what the phrasal verbs mean and how to use them in a sentence. And like real conversation, questions asked with I or we are answered with you, and questions asked with you are answered with / or we.
And because there is a lot to learn in this textbook, there is a lot of review to help you learn it. Every phrasal verb is reviewed at least twice later in the book. The more idiomatic phrasal verbs are reviewed more often, and the more important meanings of phrasal verbs with several meanings are reviewed more often.