Manser Useful Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs

1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4835-9477-4
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten

A phrasal verb is a verb that consists of two or three separate parts: 'come in', 'run away', 'look forward to', etc. With an idiomatic phrasal verb, the meanings of the separate parts tell us little or nothing about the meaning of the whole. For example, students may be fully familiar with the meanings of 'pick' and 'up' as individual words, but this knowledge does not help them when they want to know the idiomatic meaning of 'pick up' in, 'Business is picking up'. This dictionary has been written to help the learner with this type of idiomatic combination. To be fluent in English, you have to be able to use phrasal verbs well. This dictionary has been written for intermediate and advanced students who want an easy-to-use reference book that deals with this area of the language. The emphasis is on idiomatic phrasal verbs, whose meaning and use are especially difficult for students.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Manser, Martin

Leseproben

Introduction   A phrasal verb is a verb that consists of two or three separate parts: come in, run away, look forward to, etc. With an idiomatic phrasal verb, the meanings of the separate parts tell us little or nothing about the meaning of the whole. For example, students may be fully familiar with the meanings of pick and up as individual words, but this knowledge does not help them when they want to know the idiomatic meaning of pick up in, ‘Business is picking up’. This dictionary has been written to help the learner with this type of idiomatic combination. Non-idiomatic or literal phrasal verbs, which simply combine the meanings of their parts, are excluded.   However, having made the distinction between idiomatic and non-idiomatic phrasal verbs, we must point out that these are merely labels for the opposite ends of a scale: there are many phrasal verbs which are neither fully idiomatic nor fully literal. The guide for selection in these cases has been comprehensibility, so that a verb combination has been included if its meaning is not obvious from its parts. There are two exceptions to this rule: verbs used only in technical or specialized fields are not included, nor are verbs which are no longer in common use. The intention has been to concentrate on the items likely to be of greatest use to the majority of students.   For prepositions used with non-idiomatic or literal verbs, such as collide with (a vehicle) and recover from (an illness), see Martin Manser, Useful Dictionary of Verbs with Prepositions.     Grammatical patterns   The grammar of phrasal verbs is a little difficult. The grammar consists of two basic parts:   The main verb, for example bring or come, and another part, for example out, down, up, in: bring out: ‘publish’: The publishers will bring a book out. come out: ‘appear’: The sun came out at 6 o’clock this morning.   If the main verb can be immediately followed by an object, it is marked as transitive (for example bring); if the main verb cannot be immediately followed by an object, it is marked as intransitive (for example come).   If the part that follows the main verb can be immediately followed by an object, it is marked as preposition (for example into, with). If the part that follows the main verb cannot be immediately followed by an object it is marked as adverb (for example out, up).   Phrasal verbs are used in four main grammatical patterns. Here are examples of these:   (transitive, adverb) bring out In The publishers will bring a book out, ‘a book’ is the object, so ‘bring’ is transitive. ‘out’ is not followed by anything so ‘out’ is an adverb.   (intransitive, adverb) come out In On holiday he likes to sip a cold drink by the sea and watch the stars come out, ‘come’ is not followed by anything so ‘come’ is intransitive. ‘out’ is not followed by anything so ‘out’ is an adverb.   (transitive, preposition) land with In That husband of hers always manages to land you with the bill! ‘you’ is the object, so ‘land’ is transitive. ‘with’ is followed by ‘the bill’ so ‘with’ is a preposition.   (intransitive, preposition) bump into In I bumped into one of my old schoolfriends today, ‘bump’ is not followed by anything so ‘bump’ is intransitive. ‘into’ is followed by ‘one of my old schoolfriends’ so ‘into’ is a preposition.   Most phrasal verbs are either (transitive, adverb) or (intransitive, adverb).     Other important notes   1 With (transitive, adverb) phrasal verbs, you can put the object between the verb and the adverb or immediately after the adverb. So you can say either The publishers will bring a book out or The publishers will bring out a book. But if the object is a pronoun (for example him, her, it), you cannot put the pronoun after the adverb; you must put it between the verb and the adverb: The publishers will bring it out. (The publishers will bring out it is wrong.)   With (transitive, adverb) phrasal verbs, if the object is a long phrase, the object usually comes after the whole phrasal verb, to keep the two parts of the phrasal verb close together: There was one question that caught out everybody who took the exam.   2 The grammatical patterns are not necessarily the same for every meaning of a phrasal verb. For example:   draw up 1 (intransitive, adverb) arrive at a place and stop: A car drew up and two men jumped out. 2 (transitive, adverb) compose and write down something in a formal way: They’ve drawn the contract up, but it hasn’t been signed yet.   3 A slash mark (/) is used to show alternatives. For example:   come along/on (intransitive, adverb) 1 improve or progress, especially in connection with work, growth or health: How’s your piano-playing coming along these days? The vegetables are coming on nicely, thanks to all the rain we’ve been having. The doctors are pleased with the way he’s been coming along since the operation. 2 hurry, make more effort; often used in the imperative: Come on! We’re going to be late again. Come along, Mary! You can do better than that.   4 There are two basic patterns for three-part verbs:   (intransitive, adverb, preposition) I don’t feel up to answering their questions. (transitive, adverb, preposition) I mustn’t eat bananas. They bring me out in a rash.   Phrasal verbs with the pattern (intransitive, adverb, preposition) are more common than (transitive, adverb, preposition) verbs.   5 Some phrasal verbs may be used with two parts or three parts. Such verbs are shown by the use of round brackets:   call in (on) (intransitive, adverb, preposition). This means you can say either call in, which has the grammatical pattern (intransitive, adverb) or call in on, which has the grammatical pattern (intransitive, adverb, preposition): I called in and saw John instead of going straight home. It’s only 10 o’clock. Why don’t we call in on John instead of going straight home?   6 Nouns derived from the verbs shown in the dictionary have been included and are shown as follows:   The noun kick-off comes from this sense: The first goal came just two minutes after the kick-off.   7 Most idiomatic phrasal verbs are used by native speakers in everyday conversation, and these have been left unmarked. Occasionally, however, the style-markers Formal and Informal are used.   The style marker Formal is shown against verbs which belong to formal written English, such as business reports or unusually formal spoken English. These verbs will not form part of the spoken vocabulary of the average learner. (It might be helpful to point out here that, in the case of on or upon alternatives, the use of upon is generally more formal.)   bear down on/upon (intransitive, adverb, preposition) Formal approach someone or something quickly or purposefully,...