Did you know that the Oxford Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs has more than 6,000 entries? Help! Most Spanish students who study English hate learning phrasal verbs, and we get it. But did you know that not all the phrasal verbs you learn are really phrasal verbs? So – what’s the difference?
Let’s start with the definition of what a phrasal verb is. It is a verb made up of a main verb together with a particle: an adverb, a preposition, or both. Many times, their meaning is not obvious from the meanings of the individual words. Often, but not always, they are less formal than a single word with the same meaning. And they can have an object (transitive) or not (intransitive). The object can go before or after the particle when the object is not a pronoun.
To sort out (transitive and separable)
The crisis team was able to sort the problem out. / to sort out the problem.
To take off (intransitive)
My nephew loves to watch planes take off.
In a phrasal verb, the particle is an integral part of the verb.
Prepositional verbs look like phrasal verbs, but there are 2 important differences:
They are formed by a verb and a preposition, but these cannot be separated from each other.
They always have an object, which immediately follows the preposition. The object can be a noun phrase, a pronoun or a gerund.
For example, “to apply for” is a prepositional verb:
We went to the bank to apply for a loan to buy a car.
NOT: We went to the bank to apply a loan for to buy a new car.
The particle is not really part of the verb, but an essential link between the verb and its object.
Some common prepositional verbs:
To depend on
To look at
To deal with
To look for
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