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For example:

  • The service was very bad, so I want to get back a part of my money.
  • The service was very bad, so I want to get a part of my money back.

What case is right and why?

Google Translator says the second variant is right. But it comes from the translation of a German phrase, in which the part "back" ("zurück") stays at the end of a sentence.

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    What the Germans do is irrelevant to the rules of English grammar.
    – Stuart F
    Nov 23, 2021 at 10:09
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    @StuartF: It is, but it's good to be aware that Google Translate might happen to prefer one translation over the other because of the word order in the German rather than because it's better English.
    – psmears
    Nov 23, 2021 at 10:20

3 Answers 3

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The Oxford Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs classes this usage of the transitive multi word verb get back (= 'recover [something] [one previously possessed]') as optionally separable, meaning that the orders

[simplex verb] [transitivising particle] [noun phrase] and

[simplex verb] [noun phrase] [transitivising particle]

will both be met with.

However, ODPV stresses in the preface that with such multi word verbs, it is far more idiomatic to postpose the particle with short NPs (indeed, it is ungrammatical not to do so with prepositions):

  • If you lend him your gloves, you'll never get them back. [not get back them]
  • Did you get your car back from the garage? [get back your car rather unusual]

And the reverse is true with weighty NPs:

  • Did you get back that marvellous tool for extracting tacks and nails that you lent to Alice?

................

The NP 'a part of my money' falls in the middle lengthwise; you can confidently separate the MWV get back, or choose not to. Claims that only one variant is acceptable / normal are overprescriptive.

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What you ask in your question's title is different from what you ask in its text, so I'll guess that the latter is what you really mean to ask.

One test you can apply is to use a pronoun for the object. "I want to get it back" is correct but "I want to get back it" is not. This shows that "get back" is one of those phrasal verbs where the idiomatic order is 1. verb (get) 2. object 3. particle (back).

English also allows the order 1. verb 2. particle 3. object if the object is sufficiently heavy (i.e. long or complicated). Whether this applies in any particular case is a matter of style and opinion. The single word "something " is not heavy enough. However, you might or might not think that the noun phrase "a part of my money" is indeed heavy enough to allow the wording "I want to get back a part of my money.". Despite what Kate Bunting.wrote, the words "of my money" are not superfluous and bear on the question of heaviness.

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    No. 'Did you get that marvellous tool for extracting tacks and nails that you lent to Alice a couple of months ago back?' would not be used. Size of NP is an important factor.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Nov 23, 2021 at 13:03
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    @EdwinAshworth Which is exactly the point I was trying to make.
    – Rosie F
    Nov 23, 2021 at 16:05
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    +1 Heaviness is the key dimension here. The longer and more complex the constituent, the more likely it is to be moved rightward.
    – John Lawler
    Nov 23, 2021 at 16:47
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    'This shows that "get back" is one of those phrasal verbs where the idiomatic order is 1. verb (get) 2. object 3. particle (back).' No. There are two possible orders, one idiomatic for light DOs (and mandatory for pronouns), one idiomatic for heavy DOs.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Nov 23, 2021 at 17:28
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Get [something] back is the usual version (the 'ofs' in your heading are superfluous).

Your first version would be acceptable, but the second is much more idiomatic.

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