Questions tagged [phrasal-verbs]
A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and a preposition, a verb and an adverb, or a verb with both an adverb and a preposition.
700
questions
-1
votes
1
answer
53
views
Which preposition is correct to use in "to conjugate __ 3rd Person Singular"?
Is it at/on/in with the following phrase:
to conjugate .... 3rd Person Singular
So far I consistently use "at". Am I right?
Edit:
"have" is conjugated ... the 3rd Person Singular,...
- 1
0
votes
2
answers
86
views
I know it was a liberty—I made it out you were no business man, only a stone-broke painter; that half the time you didn't know anything anyway
(From The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, Chapter XVIII, published 1892)
Passage 287
“Jim,” I said, “you must speak right out. I've got all that I can carry.”
“Well,” he said—“I ...
- 219
1
vote
3
answers
107
views
Is this awkward reuse of a verb between subjects correct?
From a Library of Congress article about Freud:
...patients tended to perform for the camera and doctors to record the most photogenic.
This sentence seems to reuse the verb tended between the ...
- 547
0
votes
1
answer
69
views
Meaning of "bring them away" in Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" (Act2, scene1)?
In act II, scene 1, of Measure for Measure, Elbow says:
Elbow. Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a Common-weale, that doe nothing but vse their abuses in common houses, I know no law :...
- 1,720
0
votes
1
answer
92
views
Meaning of "get out" in "He gets out when he can" [closed]
In his famous hit Working Class Man, Jimmy Barnes sings:
He believes in God and Elvis
He gets out when he can
He did his time in Vietnam
Still mad at Uncle Sam
I can't make sense of the second line. ...
- 2,044
0
votes
2
answers
44
views
Understanding phrasal verbs [closed]
My background: When I was 14 ,I got a C2 level degree in American English. Now I am 22 and I have forgotten so much vocabulary I can't have a conversation in English anymore. I have restarted studying ...
- 101
3
votes
1
answer
150
views
Did English phrasal verbs evolve from the same ancestors as German verbs with separable prefixes?
It seems as if many Germanic aspects of the English language exist in their full-fledged forms in German and in vestigial forms in English.
I wonder whether phrasal verbs in English are somewhat like ...
- 2,496
0
votes
1
answer
45
views
Difference between "Walk" and "Walk down" / "Drive" and "Drive down" [closed]
I'm an English learner, and sometimes I cannot understand why some words are used to express a meaning. For example, the word "Down". What's the difference between "I walked on the ...
- 1
0
votes
0
answers
78
views
Verb particle noun or verb noun particle: to leave out [duplicate]
Which sentence is grammatically correct or sounds more native-like?
Politicians tend to discuss their sources of income nontransparently, leaving the discussions surrounding them out.
Politicians ...
- 21
8
votes
3
answers
7k
views
"You can cream on me"
I was listening to "Let it Bleed" by The Rolling Stones, and the lyrics say
Yeah, we all need someone we can cream on //
Yeah and if you want to, well you can cream on me
On the Cambridge ...
- 1,267
2
votes
1
answer
76
views
Why does emphasis of "it" allow phrasal verb syntax that would otherwise not be grammatical?
Edit: the answer cited with the closure doesn't answer the question I posed; it merely reinforces the usual placement of the pronoun.
Consider the phrase dash it off.
I dashed it off without thinking ...
0
votes
1
answer
32
views
What does 'lay'd-on' mean in Camillo's speech (scene 3, act 5 of "The Winter's Tale")?
In act V, scene 3, of The Winter's Tale, Hermione says:
Cam. My Lord, your Sorrow was too sore lay'd-on,
Which sixteene Winters cannot blow away,
So many Summers dry: scarce any Ioy
Did euer so long ...
- 1,720
0
votes
1
answer
95
views
When can compound verbs be split? [duplicate]
Is it wrong to say:
He took the hat off.
when you could keep the compound verb “took off” together?
He took off the hat.
And is the rule changed at all by more words being placed in the phrase?
...
1
vote
0
answers
32
views
How do you draw the tree in generative grammar for phrasal prepositional verbs such as "put up with? [closed]
I have the structure for transitive phrasals and for prepositional verbs, but I am having some trouble when I have to draw the tree for a phrasal prepositional verb. I know for sure it must contain a ...
- 11
1
vote
1
answer
46
views
Verb for forcing a situation in which you get more pain in order to avoid being stuck in lesser pain over a longer period of time
Is there a verb for forcing a situation in which you get more pain in order to avoid being stuck in lesser pain over a longer period of time?
Examples:
When one forces himself/herself to vomit, for ...
- 1,036
9
votes
3
answers
587
views
What is the exact meaning of the phrasal verb "hold out" when used in the construction "hold [something] out to be [something]"?
Examples of context:
LEGAL AND FINANCIAL DISCLAIMER
I am not an attorney, accountant or financial advisor, nor am I holding myself out to be.
I am not, nor am I holding myself out to be a doctor/...
- 365
0
votes
2
answers
46
views
Which is (more?) correct: "Highly-variable" or "High-variability"
I have a question regarding a caption I'm writing for a photograph. For the sake of this example, the sentence has to communicate this device can read many different types of text.
So, which is more ...
- 9
2
votes
2
answers
165
views
What is the difference between 'end up' and 'end in'?
Are there any differences between the meanings of 'end up' and 'end in'?
For example:
Her marriage ended in divorce.
You will end up being fired.
Can I swap 'end up' and 'end in' in the above ...
- 121
5
votes
2
answers
1k
views
What does "get on" mean in this sentence from Walden?
In the first chapter of Walden, Thoreau writes:
I cannot but perceive
that this so-called rich and refined life is a thing jumped at, and I do not get on
in the enjoyment of the fine arts which adorn ...
- 1,720
3
votes
1
answer
72
views
Can a present-participle (compound) verb which could function as an adjective be further modified with -ly become an adverb?
For example, if the height of an platform is such as to be sickness-inducing, then could the platform be said to be sickness-inducingly high?
Or take the example of mind-boggling -> mind-bogglingly....
- 439
-1
votes
2
answers
151
views
What are the digital versions of "clock/punch in" and "clock/punch out"?
I looked up the phrasal verbs clock in, clock out, punch in and punch out in various British advanced learner's dictionaries and they seem to imply that these verbs concern the analog way of recording ...
- 5,391
0
votes
2
answers
165
views
How come "screw over" means "to cheat"?
I looked it up in Wiktionary, and I've found out that the term "screw over" means "to cheat someone, or ruin their chances in a game or other situation."
I want to know how that ...
- 1
4
votes
1
answer
314
views
What does "be drawn before someone" mean?
In Oxford learner's dictionary, the word "drag", in one sense, means:
a strong-smelling lure drawn before hounds as a substitute for a fox or other hunted animal.
My understand is that &...
- 299
0
votes
2
answers
75
views
Count with vs count on?
I was reading Rudyard Kipling's "If", and there's this line-
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
It seems to me that here "...
- 1
1
vote
1
answer
96
views
Talk vs open up
Look at these two newspaper article titles(I know you must be thinking that the first one no journalist would write this way):
1: "Klopp talks about what went wrong with his team".
2: "...
- 21
0
votes
2
answers
961
views
"Used to play" or "was used to playing"? [closed]
In the answer he says 'used to play' means I played something in the past but not anymore, yet 'was used to playing' means a habitual activity but had changed some way.
For me, as a non-native English ...
- 13
1
vote
1
answer
199
views
Should I use "I'm noting down ..." or "I'm taking ... to note."?
In this example, I am writing down in my notebook some high-level terms that were used in other people's conversation. I want to tell my friend that I am doing so. In the following two sentences, ...
- 613
0
votes
0
answers
53
views
What does "to put it up to the favourite" mean?
The sentence is "Ground permitting, he is going to put it up to the favourite."
I looked this up and found that it is mostly used in horse racing contexts. Does it mean to challenge the most ...
- 17
1
vote
6
answers
95
views
How to describe actions towards realizing a goal
I am struggling to find the right verb to describe taking actions to realize a goal.
Specifically, here is a sentence I am trying to write in an elegant and terse manner :
The government first ...
- 313
2
votes
2
answers
189
views
"centers around the concept" vs is "based on the concept"? [closed]
I've met a sentence like this in a technical book.
It centers around the concept of [some concept].
I would simply use:
It is based on the concept of [some concept].
I would like to understand the ...
- 129
0
votes
2
answers
56
views
Grammatical Structure of Complex Sentence
The Sentence in Question
The legal “theories” of democracy that evolved in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were precisely intended to provide such definitions as would link certain actual or ...
0
votes
1
answer
452
views
What is the meaning of "bruing/brewing conversation" or "bru/brew some conversation"?
I heard this in a talk show. But I couldn't catch the word. Like the man said -
I can't wait to bru/brew some exciting conversations.
I don't know, what does that mean?
I found on my research that &...
- 1
1
vote
2
answers
27
views
flung himself off meaning [closed]
Recently, I found this sentence, and I'm not sure the correct meaning of it. Unfortunately, I have neither context nor remember where it came from. Here's the phrase:
He grinned at me and flung ...
- 111
-1
votes
2
answers
194
views
Do break down vs break up (meaning "to divide" something) have the same usage?
According to the Cambridge dictionary (image below), the phrasal verbs "break down" and "break up" share the same meaning, "to divide".
Moreover, according to this answer ...
- 99
1
vote
1
answer
69
views
Expressing the idea of killing, finishing/knocking someone off with the phrasal verb "to blip off"
Somehow I was in the knowledge of the fact that the phrasal verb "to blip off" could be used to convey the idea of "to bump off", "to kill", "to knock off" and ...
- 235
0
votes
1
answer
32
views
"hack it" - phrasal verb or prepositional verb? [closed]
I'm trying to understand the difference between particles and prepositions for my
English assignment but specifically I'm trying to identify parts of speech in the sentence "he couldn't hack it ...
- 13
7
votes
2
answers
192
views
What is the path of the expression "fall out" to mean have a quarrel?
I wonder what would be the logical or historical path that led the phrasal verb "fall out" to mean to have a quarrel? I mean phrasal verbs are not baptized to an action out of the blue, ...
- 171
2
votes
2
answers
293
views
Usage of "suss out" in Australian English
What's the meaning of "suss out" in Australian English? (Sydney, specifically) How does it compare with "figure out"?
I've heard the verb used slightly differently than normal in a ...
- 23
0
votes
2
answers
212
views
What's the meaning of "so in"?
I couldn't find anything about "so in" in my research on Google. I heard people say it. And today I saw that on a Facebook post. So here's the context-
You want long hair but short hair is ...
- 15
0
votes
1
answer
64
views
Is it "come to" vs "come down" to a place?
When asking if they visit the city I live in, What should I say?
Do you come down to xyz often?
or
Do you come to xyz often?
Assume xyz is a name of a city.
When instructing someone to come to a ...
1
vote
1
answer
44
views
What does "we were just popping off each other" mean?
In an interview, when Paul McCartney talked about his memory with Michael Jackson:
It was actually upstairs, here. In this office. Michael originally rang me, and said ‘do you want to make some hits?’...
- 13
-1
votes
1
answer
79
views
To remove someone's sins
Is there a phrasal verb or an idiom that people use, especially in religious contexts, to wish that God would remove someone's sins? Something like:
Hassan used to rape girls, but he repented of his ...
- 1,440
1
vote
2
answers
83
views
Are "go into," "come into," and "get into" transitive?
As the subject says. Note the following sentences:
"I got into a taxi."
"He came into the room."
"We went into the store."
For some reason, I have always been under the ...
- 81
1
vote
1
answer
545
views
The phrase "belong to" in a question [duplicate]
Can we separate the words "belong" and "to" in a question like this?
To what language family does English belong?
-1
votes
1
answer
89
views
Is "looks up" a correct phrase when referring to a computer searching for information?
Is the following sentence grammatically correct?
The computer looks up the email address provided.
Guess it's just my brain, but "looks up" didn't have a familiar ring to it when I read ...
- 21
1
vote
2
answers
84
views
What is the meaning of "He scowled ahead of him"?
Reading Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, I just found the expression “He scowled ahead of him” and it struck me as something I'd never heard or read before. The context is that this guy is sitting ...
- 175
0
votes
0
answers
436
views
What is the grammar of "I'm home"? [duplicate]
Why do we often say "I'm home" rather than "I'm at home"? How is the former even grammatically correct? Should this be thought of as a use of a "phrasal verb", "to ...
- 257
-1
votes
1
answer
73
views
Exact difference between "Take up sth" and "Take to sth" [closed]
I just came across two phrasal verbs "Take up sth" and "Take to sth" and both mean to start.
Dug deeper, I found that "Take to" means start often, while "Take up&...
- 3
0
votes
2
answers
85
views
Which one is correct - run off or run off from? [closed]
They ran off the burning car before it exploded.
or
They ran off from the burning car before it exploded.
- 11
1
vote
0
answers
32
views
Phrasal verbs and the position of object [duplicate]
Is there any difference in the following sentences?
They passed me over.
They passed over me.
If yes, how, and please can anyone tell some similar examples?
- 23