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Saturday July 31st 2010

Phrasal Verbs – What are phrasal verbs?

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What are phrasal verbs?

Phrasl verbs are also called Two-part verbs, three-part verbs, and multi-part verbs. Phrasl verbs is different from just a verb and a prepositon, or a verb and an adverb.

When particles come together with a verb, a new definition is made. The particles change the original definition.

Prepositions and adverbs add information, but they don’t change the original defintion of the verb.

figure out = understand after much thought
look through = search for something
find out = discover or learn information
sort out = orginize something messy or complicated

Importance of particles
The boy looked through the keyhole. (It’s not a phrasal verb because “looked through” is additional information. In this sentence, ‘through’ does not chage the original meaning of ‘look’.)
The lawyer looked through the files. (‘looked through’ has the meaning of ‘search’. It changes the original meaning.)

Question : In above video lesson, which statement has a phrasal verb?
1) Jennifer is sitting on the couch and reading a magazine.
2) Jennifer likes to sit back and watch TV when she gets the chance.
The answer is 2). Sit back means ‘get comfortable’ or rest in a comfortable position.

Jennifer is thinking over what she wrote in her complaint letter. Was she ready to send?  (Think over means carefully consider before making a decision.)

Jennifer said good-bye and hung up.  (Hang up means end a phone call.)

Jennifer didn’t get around to vacumming until after 2 in the afternoon. (‘get around to’ means finally do after much delay)

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7 Responses to “Phrasal Verbs – What are phrasal verbs?”

  1. Rajapk says:

    Merry X-MASS and happy new year Mrs.Jennifer

  2. BassMan says:

    I am not going to be original this time, so all I am going to say that your blog rocks, sad that I don’t have suck a writing skills

  3. Pretty insightful post. Never thought that it was this simple after all. I had spent a good deal of my time looking for someone to explain this subject clearly and you’re the only one that ever did that. Kudos to you! Keep it up

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  5. My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!

  6. MarkSpizer says:

    great post as usual!

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