Phrasal Verbs

Rationale Behind Phrasal Verbs
Although this book is intended primarily for high-intermediate to advanced
students, ambitious students at lower levels will benefit from it as well. Only
some of the explanations at the beginning of each section may prove to be a little
beyond them; otherwise, there is nothing to prevent any student from studying the
definitions and examples and attempting the exercises.
A vocabulary book should provide mechanics as well as meaning—students want
to know more than what a word means; they want to know how to use it correctly.
The importance of mechanics is the reason for the emphasis on prepositions that
are required when some phrasal verbs are used transitively and for the inclusion
of reviews of points of grammar not specific to phrasal verbs. Prepositions are the
glue that holds English together, but many students falter when using newly
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learned phrasal verbs (prepositional or otherwise) because they do not know that a
preposition is also required, or, if they do, they do not know which one. This
aspect of the English language is not given the attention it deserves because it is
difficult to teach. Though there are patterns to preposition usage, there are no
hard-and-fast rules that govern when a preposition, or which preposition, is
required, and no teacher likes to say, “You just have to remember.”
The hope of the discussion of points of grammar not specific to phrasal verbs is
that combining practice with the phrasal verbs and practice with a variety of
grammatical structures will not only increase students’ confidence in their
knowledge of the phrasal verbs but will also increase their willingness and ability
to use them in a wider range of situations.
There is inevitably a degree of oversimplification. Whether phrasal verb particles
are prepositions, adverbs, or both is mentioned only once. No purpose is served
by differentiating between them, and the overlap between the two is confusing to
students. The concept of transitivity and intransitivity is explained in Unit 1, but
no mention is made of it beyond that, and phrasal verbs are not identified as
transitive or intransitive. There is no need; it is dictated by logic. There is no
indication given to the students that they should classify a particular verb +
element construction in any of the categories described above. Less common
meanings of some phrasal verbs have not been included. Adverb placement is
presented and illustrated in simplified form without discussion of the different
types of adverbs; doing so would have gone beyond the scope of this book.