Professional English Practice · Phrasal Verbs
25 · PUT across the particles
Positioning and deferring: where a thing goes, and when.
ACCESS
Another prediction clinic. The verb put never changes; only the particle moves. One phrase, put out, is used here in a sense we never teach. Predict it from the particle before you read on.
An operations team preparing a board proposal while the clock and a slow vendor work against them.
Marcus The board wants the proposal Friday. Let's not put off the pricing decision any longer.
Lena Agreed. I'll put forward the phased rollout; it's the safest option to defend.
Marcus Good. Put in a risk section too. The board always asks.
Lena Will do. Honestly, I've put up with the vendor's delays long enough. We need a backup.
Marcus Fair. I don't want to put you out, but can you also handle the deck?
Lena I've got it. The key is putting the numbers across clearly, or the message gets lost.
ANALYSIS
ONE QUESTION RUNS THIS WHOLE UNIT
Where, or when?
Put is pure placement and has no color of its own. So its particles do not describe an action: they give a position, either in space or in time. Decide which of the two the sentence is placing something in.
The structure
Same clinic move as the last unit. The verb put holds perfectly still, so whatever shifts, from postponing to proposing to enduring, comes from the particle alone. Put is pure placement; it has no color of its own.
Because put is about position, its particles are about where and when. Put it off (away in time, postpone), put it forward (ahead, propose), put it in (inside, submit), put up with it (hold it up and bear it), put it down (onto the page, or onto someone), put it through (along a channel, connect), put it across (over to a receiver, communicate).
Off: away in time
- Sense
- moved to a distance in time
- How you know
- there was a date and now there is a later one
- Use it to
- report a postponement, with the thing still coming
Forward: ahead
- Sense
- moved ahead, into view of an audience
- How you know
- there is a room, and the thing is now in front of it
- Use it to
- report a formal proposal
In: inside a boundary
- Sense
- moved inside, to whoever is in charge there
- How you know
- there is a process on the other side
- Use it to
- report a submission
Up with: holding it up
- Sense
- held up under a weight you did not choose
- How you know
- the weight is still there; you are bearing it
- Use it to
- report endurance, not acceptance
Read down the particle column. You already know each one. Predict the meaning before your eye reaches the third column.
Put off, and put out
One verb, and two particles that both take something away from where it was, with results that have nothing in common.
Put off moves a thing away in time: the meeting is still going to happen, later. Put somebody out moves a person out of their own arrangements: nothing is rescheduled, somebody is inconvenienced.
The particles are doing precisely what they did in Units 9 and 7: off a surface, out of an enclosure. What changed is only what is being moved: a date in one case, a person's plans in the other.
The test you can run with no book
Ask: is this placing something in space, or in time?
In time and the particle is off. In space, ask where: ahead of an audience is forward, inside a process is in, over to a receiver is across, along a channel is through.
Put up with is the one that will not fit the pattern, and it is worth knowing why rather than memorizing it: you are holding the weight up, and the thing you are holding it against comes after with.
The mechanical half: put up with is three parts and never splits. Put up with it, never put it up with.
Put is the purest test of the method, because it is nothing but placement and has no color of its own. So when put off means postpone and put across means communicate, you know for certain the difference is the particle, because there is nothing else it could be.
ACTIVATION
Work down the page: predict the particle first, then the strangers, then the particle choices, then the words, then say one out loud.
Complete the particle
Complete each with the right particle after put: off, forward, in, up with, down, through, or across. The meaning is in brackets.
Spot and fix the error
Each sentence has the wrong particle. Rewrite it with the right one.
1. Let's put off the pricing decision until next week.
2. I'll put forward the phased rollout as our recommendation.
3. I've put up with the vendor's delays long enough.
4. Put in a risk section before you send it.
5. The key is putting the numbers across clearly, or the message is lost.
Rewrite with put plus a particle
Replace the formal verb with put plus the particle that carries the same meaning.
1. Let's not put off the pricing decision.
2. I'll put forward the phased rollout.
3. Put in a risk section too.
4. I've put up with the vendor's delays long enough.
5. The key is putting the numbers across clearly.
Match the halves
Join each put phrase to the ending that fits its particle.
Meet a Stranger
These three put phrases are not taught anywhere in this book. Predict each from its particle, then reveal the key.
1. “They quietly put some budget by for overruns.”
2. “She put the delay down to the vendor, not the team.”
3. “After three reorgs, the night shift feels put upon.”
put by: to save something for later use. By: set in reserve, off to the side.
put down to: to attribute something to a cause. Down to: trace it down to its reason.
put upon: to be taken advantage of or unfairly burdened. Upon: weight laid on you.
Particle swap
Same verb, three particles, one right answer. Choose the particle the situation needs.
Vocabulary: put as a noun
These are phrasal verbs frozen into nouns and adjectives. Match each to its meaning.
Vocabulary in context
Complete each sentence with a word from G.