Chapter 17: Exploring More Important Verb Structures 253
The van broke down.
She got up.So every time you teach a phrasal verb you need to tell the students whether
or not it’s separable. The most common way to do this is by writing s/o
(someone) or s/t (something) into the phrasal verb on the board:
To call s/t off (pv) (I also include pv here to show that it is a phrasal
verb.)In the examples of separable phrasal verbs, I put the object in the middle
between the verb and preposition. However, at times you can use an object
pronoun instead of a noun.
If the sentence contains an object pronoun instead of a noun, put the pro-
noun between the phrasal verb and preposition, nowhere else:
I have to call it off, not I have to call off it.I need to back him up, not I have to back up him.In some cases, a separable phrasal verb must have the object in the middle
whether it’s a pronoun or not. The phrasal verb ‘to tell apart’ works in this way:
Can you tell the twins apart? Not, Can you tell apart the twins?Some transitive phrasal verbs (the ones that need an object) aren’t sepa-
rable. So for example ‘to put up with’ needs an object but you can put the
object only after ‘with’:
Why do you put up with John’s behaviour?Finally, some phrasal verbs need not one object but two. ‘To do out of’ needs
‘someone’ and ‘something’ to make sense. For example:
That crooked boss did me out of my wages!So here, one object goes after the verb and the other after the preposition.
If you have to use a phrasal verb in a passive sentence, just keep the verb and
preposition together, regardless:
He complained that he had been done out of his wages by the boss.