Phrasal and prepositional verbs

Multi-word verbs function like a single verb and often have idiomatic meaning since their sense cannot be deduced from its constituents. There is a strong tendency, especially in informal English, to use phrasal verbs instead of their often longer one-word equivalents. It would be very unusual, for instance, to say Enter! instead of Come in! in response to a knock at the door. Moreover, new combinations or new meanings are constantly evolving.

The most common phrasal verbs are formed from the shortest and simplest verbs be, come, do, get, give, go, let, make, put, take. Not only can a single verb can combine with a large number of adverbials or prepositions to form new verbs but even a single combination can have different meanings. Put out your cigarette. (= extinguish), This stuff will put you out in no time. (= make you unconscious) .

Phrasal verbs

Phrasal verb is a unit made of a verb and an adverb particle. Phrasal verbs are common in fiction and conversation but rare in academic prose because they are colloquial. The most common adverbial particles are up, out, in, off, down, forward, back.

With transitive phrasal verbs, the particle can be placed before or after the direct object.

She switched of the lights. She switched the lights off.

With pronouns, the normal word order is to put a pronoun object between a verb and adverbial.

Se turned it on. She turned on it.

However, some are inseparable like carry on (continue) or come across (find accidentally).

1. Intransitive phrasal verbs cannot have an object.      I got up at 7.00 today.

2. Transitive phrasal verbs require an object are more spread across written and spoken language.

She will set up her business soon. They pointed out our mistake.

  

Prepositional verbs

Prepositional verbs consist of a verb and a preposition. Most productive with prepositional verbs are lexical verbs get, look, work, go, know and prepositions to, with, for, in, on. They always take an object so they are transitive but they are a bit different since the object always follows a preposition even if the object is a pronoun (look after them - look them after). This is called a prepositional object.

There are two main structures:

1. With a single prepositional object                                                       It looks like a dog.

2. With a direct object and a prepositional object                             It reminds me of some parts of London.

Most common prepositional verbs:

Activity (look at, look for, deal with, wait for, play with, turn to)

Communication (talk to, talk about, speak to, ask for, refer to, write to)

Mental (be known as, be seen in, be regarded as, be seen as)

Causative (lead to, result in, contribute to, allow for, be required for)

Occurrence (look like, happen to, occur in)

Existence (depend on, belong to, account for, consist of)

Phrasal-prepositional verbs

They share characteristics of both phrasal and prepositional verbs as they consist of a lexical verb combined with both adverbial particle and a preposition.

Look forward to = lexical: look, adverbial: forward, preposition: to.

They can sometimes be replaced by a single transitive lexical verb with similar meaning with is considered to be formal.

put up with = tolerate