Professional English Practice · Phrasal Verbs
2 · Separable, inseparable, and three-part
Writing a clean sentence: the one syntax rule set, taught once.
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Phrasal verbs have one syntax rule set, and ten minutes now saves confusion for the rest of the book. Some split around their object; most never do. One phrase here, live with, follows a pattern you'll learn to spot. Before you read on, decide whether it splits.
Two colleagues editing a document, cleaning up the word order one sentence at a time.
Nadia Small fix: you wrote turn off it. It's turn it off, the pronoun goes in the middle.
Sam Got it. And look after the servers? Can I say look the servers after?
Nadia No, that one never splits. Look after them, always together.
Sam What about “we'll have to put up with the delay”?
Nadia Three-part verb, also glued. Put up with it, never split. Same with live with the risk.
Sam So separable ones split, the rest stay whole. Clear.
ANALYSIS
ONE QUESTION RUNS THIS WHOLE UNIT
Where can the object sit?
Four shapes, and the only thing you have to learn about any of them is where the object goes. Three never split. The one that splits has a single firm rule, and it is about pronouns. Ask this before you place the object, not after.
The structure
Phrasal verbs come in four shapes, and the only thing you have to learn is where the object can sit. Three of the four are easy: they never split. The one that splits, the separable transitive, has a single firm rule about pronouns.
Separable transitive verbs take an object that can go after the particle or between (turn off the light, turn the light off), but a pronoun must go between (turn it off, never turn off it). Inseparable transitive verbs keep the object after the particle, always (look after the kids, look after them). Intransitive verbs take no object at all (the deal fell through). Three-part verbs, verb plus particle plus preposition, are inseparable and keep the object at the end (put up with it, look forward to it).
Separable transitive
- Form
- verb + object + particle, or verb + particle + object
- Meaning
- a full noun phrase can sit either side, but a pronoun must go between
- Use it to
- place an object correctly without memorizing the phrase
Inseparable transitive
- Form
- verb + particle + object, always
- Meaning
- the object never comes between, not even a pronoun
- Use it to
- avoid the split that separable verbs invite
Intransitive
- Form
- verb + particle, and nothing else
- Meaning
- there is no object at all to place
- Use it to
- recognize the shape that cannot be got wrong
Three-part
- Form
- verb + particle + preposition, inseparable
- Meaning
- the object always sits at the end, after all three parts
- Use it to
- handle the longest shape without hesitating
Only the separable verbs split, and only with a firm rule for pronouns. The other three stay whole.
The one rule that is never broken
Of everything in this unit, one rule earns memorizing, because it is absolute and because breaking it is the error that marks a speaker fastest.
A pronoun goes between the verb and the particle. Turn it off. Bring them up. Sort it out. There is no separable phrasal verb in English where turn off it is acceptable.
Everything else in the unit is a tendency you will absorb from reading. This one is a wall, and you can rely on it from today.
The test you can run with no book
Ask: put a pronoun in it.
Say the phrase with it or them instead of the noun. If it sounds right between the verb and the particle, turn it off, the verb is separable. If it has to come after the particle, look after it, the verb is inseparable.
Your ear will answer faster than your memory, because you have heard these forms far more often than you have been taught them. The test converts a grammar question into a listening question.
The mechanical half: if the phrase has three parts, the object goes at the end, with no exceptions. Put up with it, look forward to it, get on with it.
This unit comes early because the syntax never changes. Every phrasal verb in the next thirty units obeys these four shapes. Once you know that separable verbs split, with the pronoun rule, and everything else stays whole, you can write any phrasal verb cleanly without thinking about it again.
ACTIVATION
Practice the syntax: place the pronoun, fix the word order, and sort verbs by shape.
Place the pronoun
Rewrite each with the pronoun in brackets in the correct position.
Spot and fix the error
Each sentence has a word-order error. Rewrite it correctly.
1. Can you fill it out?
2. I'll bring it up at the standup.
3. Please look after the servers.
4. We'll put up with the delay.
5. Turn it off before you go.
Place the object correctly
Build a correct sentence from the verb and object given.
1. Turn off the projector. (or turn the projector off)
2. Look after it.
3. Fill it in.
4. Get on with the work.
5. Call it off.
Match the halves
Join each verb to the shape it belongs to.
Meet a Stranger
These three are not taught in this book. Reason out both the meaning and the shape from the parts, then reveal the key.
1. “Don't bank on the vendor being early.”
2. “We'll iron the last details out before signing.”
3. “No one wants to walk out on a signed deal.”
bank on: to rely on something. Inseparable: the object follows (bank on it).
iron out: to resolve difficulties. Separable: iron the details out, iron them out.
walk out on: to abandon someone or something. Three-part: object at the end (walk out on it).
Particle swap
Same verb, three particles, one right answer. Choose the particle the situation needs.
Vocabulary: writing clearly
Match each term to its meaning.
Vocabulary in context
Complete each sentence with a term from G.