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2.6.- Phrasal verbs.

Información de vuelos.

I bet you have heard about phrasal verbs, terror of the English students. You will see that they are not so hard!

A phrasal verb is a verb combined with a particle (an adverb or a preposition).

Sometimes the meaning of the phrasal verb is obvious from the verb and the particle (sit down, come back) and sometimes is not so obvious (give up = stop, carry on = continue) and very often they have more than one meaning (take off = despegar, quitarse una prenda de ropa).

There are three kinds of phrasal verbs:

  • No object. Verb and particle cannot be separated.

    • The plane took off two hours late.

    • Come on! Hurry up! You're late.

  • With object. Verb and particle cannot be separated.

    • I'm looking for my keys.

    • She will look after the baby.

  • With object. Verb and particle can be separated. If the object is a pronoun, it must go between the verb and the particle.

    • Please, switch off your phone.
    • Please, switch your phone off.
    • Switch it off.
    • Can you fill in this form?
    • Can you fill this form in?
    • Don't throw those papers away.
    • Don't throw away those papers.
    • Don't throw them away.

Ejercicio Resuelto

Click to read the Spanish translation.

Think about it

The same phrasal verb often has a literal and figurative meaning, as you can see in this joke:

  • Doctor, doctor, I can't sleep at night.
  • Sleep on the edge of the bed and you will soon fall off.

(fall off means both "caerse" and "dormirse").

You should know

Here you have an explanation of phrasal verbs in Spanish.

Phrasal Verbs.