segunda-feira, 16 de novembro de 2009

Phrasal Verbs: Nothing More Than New Vocabulary

What's GOING ON (happening) Flabbergasting English followers?

I have received a plethora of e-mails about topics I should be writing on. One of those really caught my eye. Milson, from the YMCA Belo Horizonte emailed me about the difficulty people have when it comes to Phrasal Verbs.

Phrasal Verbs have to be seen by every ESL student as a new vocabulary. Instead of saying "Cancel the meeting" you might say "CALL OFF the meeting". You do not need to know why "CALL OFF" is synonym of "cancel". As well as, instead of saying "Richard stopped or quit smoking", you can also say "Richard LEFT OFF or GAVE UP smoking".

Those above are, only, some examples of Phrasal Verbs. Yet, what is phrasal verbs? And, what are they consisted of?

PHRASAL VERBS are VERBS + PREPOSITION(S) or CONJUCTION(S). The preposition(s) and/or conjunction(s) are in charge of changing the meaning of the verb.

For example: Using the verb "call". Adding a preposition to it, more verbs will be created. CHECK it OUT.

To call
Call up - to phone someone - I call mom up, but she hung up on me.

Call on - to make a quick visit - She called on me while I was in hospital.

call off - to cancel - I called off that class because I was exhausted.

To get (Which is really common!)
get up - I get up at six in the morning every single day.

get down - Get down soldiers, enemies are shooting.

get off - I'll get off the bus on 5th Ave.

get on - Get on the chair, the mice are coming!

get in - Get in the car please! We need to get going!

get out of - Get out of my car. You cut the cheese (You farted!).

get into - It has started raining, so I think it's better to get into the house.


There are plenty of phrasal verbs in English, actually Phrasal Verbs exist only in the English Language. Some of them are separable, some of them aren't. The latter are called inseparable Phrasal Verbs.

Separable Ph.Verbs:
call up - I'm going to call up my friends this coming weekend.
I'm going to call my friends up this coming weekend.

Inseparable Ph. Verbs:
look forward to: I've been looking forward to seeing her.

Rodrigo Pelegrini Honorato

ESL Teacher

rphingles@yahoo.com.br








Nenhum comentário:

Postar um comentário