3.6.1
Phrasal Verbs
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Separable Phrasal Verbs
Phrasal verbs are idiomatic expressions. Phrasal verbs are created by combining verbs and prepositions to make new verbs. The meaning is often not obvious from the definitions of each word.

Use of phrasal verbs
- Phrasal verbs are used in both written and spoken English.
- New examples are formed all the time, as they are a flexible way of creating new terms.

Separable phrasal verbs
- Separable phrasal verbs can be separated into two parts in a sentence.
- The phrasal verb doesn’t have to be separated, but it can be:
- E.g. ‘Take back’
- In the sentence ‘I had to take the shirt back to the shop because it was too large’, the verb ‘take’ is able to be separated from the proposition ‘back’.
- E.g. ‘Take back’

Separable phrasal verbs examples
- Other examples of separable phrasal verbs include:
- Write down - 'write your ideas down'.
- Put on - 'Put your hat on'.
- Blow up - 'Can you blow those balloons up?'.
- Fill up - 'Fill the car up'.
- Find out - 'Find it out for me'.
- Hand in - 'Hand your homework in'.
Inseparable Phrasal Verbs
Phrasal verbs are idiomatic expressions. Phrasal verbs are created by combining verbs and prepositions to make new verbs. The meaning is often not obvious from the definitions of each word.

Inseparable phrasal verbs
- Inseparable examples of phrasal verbs must stay together in a sentence:
- E.g. ‘Come over’
- In the sentence ‘Anya, please come over to my house', you can’t separate 'come' and 'over'.
- E.g. ‘Come over’

Inseparable examples
- There are fewer examples of inseparable phrasal verbs. Some examples of phrasal verbs are:
- Look after.
- Jump to.
- Look on.
- Stand by.
- Run across.
- Wait on.

Two prepositions
- Sometimes you can have two prepositions in the phrasal verb. For example:
- Check up on.
- Get along with.
- Drop out of.
- Keep up with.
- Get rid of.
1Spelling
1.1Spelling
1.2Prefixes
1.3Suffixes
1.3.1Vowel Suffixes1.3.2Short Vowel Suffixes1.3.3Suffixes: '-ous'1.3.4Rules for Suffixes: '-ous'1.3.5Rules for Suffixes: '-ous' 21.3.6Suffixes: '-ly'1.3.7Suffixes: '-ation'1.3.8Suffixes: '-ation' 21.3.9Spelling: '-tion' Endings1.3.10Spelling: '-sion' Endings1.3.11Spelling: '-ssion' Endings1.3.12Spelling: '-cian' Endings1.3.13End of Topic Test - Suffixes1.3.14End of Topic Test - Spelling
1.4Making Words Plural
1.5Homophones
1.5.1Accept & Except1.5.2Affect & Effect1.5.3Ball & Bawl1.5.4Berry & Bury1.5.5Brake & Break1.5.6Fair & Fare1.5.7Grate & Great1.5.8Groan & Grown1.5.9Hear & Here1.5.10Heal, Heel & He'll1.5.11Knot & Not1.5.12Mail & Male1.5.13Main & Mane1.5.14Meat & Meet1.5.15Medal & Meddle1.5.16Missed & Mist1.5.17Peace & Piece1.5.18Plain & Plane1.5.19Rain & Reign & Rein1.5.20Scene & Seen1.5.21Weather & Whether1.5.22Whose & Who's1.5.23End of Topic Test - Homophones1.5.24End of Topic Test - Homophones 21.5.25End of Topic Test - Homophones 3
1.6Word Meanings
2Punctuation
2.1Punctuation
2.1.1Full Stops2.1.2Capital Letters2.1.3Commas2.1.4Commas 22.1.5Using Apostrophes with Regular Plurals2.1.6Using Apostrophes with Irregular Plurals2.1.7Question Marks & Exclamation Marks2.1.8Brackets2.1.9Dashes2.1.10Colon2.1.11Semi-Colon2.1.12Direct Speech2.1.13Indirect Speech2.1.14Hyphens2.1.15Ellipses2.1.16End of Topic Test - Punctuation2.1.17End of Topic Test - Punctuation 2
3Grammar
3.1Word Classes
3.2Conjunctions
3.3Writing Coherently
3.5Modal Verbs
3.6Phrasal Verbs
3.7Subjunctive Verbs
3.8Sentences
3.8.1Subject of a Sentence3.8.2Object of a Sentence3.8.3Main & Subordinate Clauses3.8.4Simple Sentences & Compound Sentences3.8.5Complex Sentences3.8.6Relative Clauses3.8.7Relative Clauses Without Relative Pronouns3.8.8Participle Clauses3.8.9Run-on Sentences3.8.10Sentence Functions3.8.11End of Topic Test - Sentences
3.9Tenses
3.10Adverbials
4Decoding Words
4.1Common Word Roots
4.2Common Prefixes
4.2.1For & Against4.2.2All & Same4.2.3Away & Far4.2.4Colour & Shape4.2.5Back & Down4.2.6Numbers4.2.7Across & Through4.2.8Life & Earth4.2.9Empty & Broken4.2.10Great & Greater4.2.11Hearing & Speaking4.2.12Apart & Together4.2.13Over & Under4.2.14In4.2.15Less & Smaller4.2.16Before & After4.2.17End of Topic Test - Common Prefixes 24.2.18End of Topic Test - Common Prefixes
5Reading & Writing
5.1Reading Formats
5.2Writing Formats
Jump to other topics
1Spelling
1.1Spelling
1.2Prefixes
1.3Suffixes
1.3.1Vowel Suffixes1.3.2Short Vowel Suffixes1.3.3Suffixes: '-ous'1.3.4Rules for Suffixes: '-ous'1.3.5Rules for Suffixes: '-ous' 21.3.6Suffixes: '-ly'1.3.7Suffixes: '-ation'1.3.8Suffixes: '-ation' 21.3.9Spelling: '-tion' Endings1.3.10Spelling: '-sion' Endings1.3.11Spelling: '-ssion' Endings1.3.12Spelling: '-cian' Endings1.3.13End of Topic Test - Suffixes1.3.14End of Topic Test - Spelling
1.4Making Words Plural
1.5Homophones
1.5.1Accept & Except1.5.2Affect & Effect1.5.3Ball & Bawl1.5.4Berry & Bury1.5.5Brake & Break1.5.6Fair & Fare1.5.7Grate & Great1.5.8Groan & Grown1.5.9Hear & Here1.5.10Heal, Heel & He'll1.5.11Knot & Not1.5.12Mail & Male1.5.13Main & Mane1.5.14Meat & Meet1.5.15Medal & Meddle1.5.16Missed & Mist1.5.17Peace & Piece1.5.18Plain & Plane1.5.19Rain & Reign & Rein1.5.20Scene & Seen1.5.21Weather & Whether1.5.22Whose & Who's1.5.23End of Topic Test - Homophones1.5.24End of Topic Test - Homophones 21.5.25End of Topic Test - Homophones 3
1.6Word Meanings
2Punctuation
2.1Punctuation
2.1.1Full Stops2.1.2Capital Letters2.1.3Commas2.1.4Commas 22.1.5Using Apostrophes with Regular Plurals2.1.6Using Apostrophes with Irregular Plurals2.1.7Question Marks & Exclamation Marks2.1.8Brackets2.1.9Dashes2.1.10Colon2.1.11Semi-Colon2.1.12Direct Speech2.1.13Indirect Speech2.1.14Hyphens2.1.15Ellipses2.1.16End of Topic Test - Punctuation2.1.17End of Topic Test - Punctuation 2
3Grammar
3.1Word Classes
3.2Conjunctions
3.3Writing Coherently
3.5Modal Verbs
3.6Phrasal Verbs
3.7Subjunctive Verbs
3.8Sentences
3.8.1Subject of a Sentence3.8.2Object of a Sentence3.8.3Main & Subordinate Clauses3.8.4Simple Sentences & Compound Sentences3.8.5Complex Sentences3.8.6Relative Clauses3.8.7Relative Clauses Without Relative Pronouns3.8.8Participle Clauses3.8.9Run-on Sentences3.8.10Sentence Functions3.8.11End of Topic Test - Sentences
3.9Tenses
3.10Adverbials
4Decoding Words
4.1Common Word Roots
4.2Common Prefixes
4.2.1For & Against4.2.2All & Same4.2.3Away & Far4.2.4Colour & Shape4.2.5Back & Down4.2.6Numbers4.2.7Across & Through4.2.8Life & Earth4.2.9Empty & Broken4.2.10Great & Greater4.2.11Hearing & Speaking4.2.12Apart & Together4.2.13Over & Under4.2.14In4.2.15Less & Smaller4.2.16Before & After4.2.17End of Topic Test - Common Prefixes 24.2.18End of Topic Test - Common Prefixes
5Reading & Writing
5.1Reading Formats
5.2Writing Formats
Practice questions on Phrasal Verbs
Can you answer these? Test yourself with free interactive practice on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.
- 1Which of these are examples of phrasal verbs?True / false
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