Prepositional & Phrasal Verbs | English Vocabulary Lesson

Hello and welcome to this presentation, which  is based on a question Juliana has sent me.  

It's about the famous phrasal verbs. Juliana  says: phrasal verbs are so difficult! What's  

the best way to learn them? So, before I answer  the question what's the best way to learn them,  

let's have a quick review of what phrasal verbs  are, and if they're different from what we call  

'prepositional verbs'. So, let's start with that  little reminder, that little review. First of all,  

we have two types of verbs with prepositions.  Phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs. What's the  

difference? Both look like or are a verb plus a  preposition. In a phrasal verb, the preposition,  

which we also sometimes call the particle, is  connected to the verb and it changes its meaning.  

For example, if you look at this sentence: He came  to quickly after his operation. 'came to', where 'to' is  

part of the verb, is a synonym for 'regaining  consciousness'. Now, in a prepositional verb,  

the preposition is not connected to the verb.  It's connected to the object of the sentence,

what comes after the verb. And it doesn't affect  the meaning of the verb at all. For example,  

the same preposition this time in a different context:  He came to my lecture last week. He attended my  

lecture last week. Right, so in the first one,  'to' is connected to 'come': came to. And here,  

'to' is connected to the object: my lecture,  to my lecture. That's the difference between  

a phrasal verb and a prepositional. Right, now  how to tell the difference when you see one. How  

do you know? Is it this one or that one? Okay, the  test is to drop the preposition. If the sentence,  

after you have dropped the preposition, makes  no sense, then it's a phrasal verb. For example,  

if we just hear or say: He came quickly after his  operation, this sentence has no meaning. We don't  

understand what this speaker is trying to say.  Let's look at some other examples of phrasal verbs  

where I have dropped the preposition, and you can  see that the sentence is meaningless. For example:  

She gave smoking last year. He has turned my  invitation. What does that mean? There is no  

meaning to this sentence: They managed to put  the fire. So, we need the prepositions to make  

sense of the sentence. The preposition is part of  the meaning of the verb, like, as if they were one  

word, one idea. Right, so let's see if you maybe  remember which prepositions complete these verbs,  

these phrasal verbs. Let's look at the next slide  where I give you the prepositions: She gave up  

smoking last year. 'gave up' is a synonym for  'quit'. He has turned down my invitation. He has  

declined my invitation. They managed to put out  the fire, to extinguish the fire. Okay, so maybe  

you did remember. Maybe you didn't. But it doesn't  matter. These need a lot of revision. We will come  

to that. So, now let's look at prepositional  verbs. Here let's drop the preposition and  

see what happens. You will notice that the  sentence still makes sense. The preposition  

is not part of the idea of the verb. It has not  created a new sense for that verb. So for example,  

if you hear or say: He came my lecture last week,  you still understand. There is no misunderstanding  

here. I've listened the podcast. He looked  his watch to check the time. So, obviously the  

preposition is missing. So, there is a grammatical  mistake, but we still understand. She's asked a  

pay rise. We all laughed his joke. What did she  say you? Right so here, although we understand the  

sentence, the idea, we are making a grammatical,  a small grammatical, mistake. But it's not that  

important in terms of communication. Anyway,  let's see if you can remember the prepositions  

for these common verbs. I think you will. I've  listened to the podcast. So, the preposition  

is with the object. I've listened to the podcast  twice. He looked at his watch. She's asked for a  

pay rise. We all laughed at his joke. What did she  say to you? Right, so next point: there are some  

verbs that are phrasal prepositional. So, that makes  them three-part verbs. Let's have a look at some  

examples. So, we came up, 'came up' is the phrasal  part, against the problem, 'against the problem'  

is the prepositional side of the same verb. You  can say: We encountered a problem. Nobody could  

come up (phrasal verb) with a solution. 'with'  is the preposition for this phrasal verb. So, it  

means nobody could suggest a solution. I'm going  to catch up, it's the phrasal part, phrasal verb,  

on my emails, preposition for emails, meaning  I'm going to finish writing them. It was nice to  

catch up, again same verb, same phrasal part of the  verb, different preposition: with Mary. And that's  

to find out Mary's latest news. Okay, so that's  a summary, a revision of what is a phrasal verb,  

what is a prepositional verb, and what is a  phrasal prepositional verb. So, let's go back  

to Juliana's question, which is ... The first sentence  was: phrasal verbs are so difficult, and I'm sure  

we all agree they are difficult. Right, so the  most important part of the question is what's  

the best way to learn them. We're going to look at  that now. Right my answer is, or my idea and/or my  

experience is that the best way to learn them  is like any other vocabulary item. Learn them ... 

let's go through the steps that I would recommend,  learn them, first of all, little by little. Do not  

learn more than 10 phrasal verbs in one of your  study sessions. That goes for all vocabulary  

items. Don't cram new vocabulary in one session.  Limit the number of words you learn when you want to  

study vocabulary. Okay secondly, very importantly,  learn them in context not by translation. There's  

absolutely no point for any type of vocabulary,  particularly phrasal verbs, to write the verb  

with its translation into your own language.  You will not learn them like that.  

So, how to do that is to write them down with  their ordinary synonym or definition, and always  

an example sentence. It would be good to use  flashcards. There are many good apps. You can use  

paper or use flashcard apps. Gradually, build your  repertoire of any type of vocabulary, particularly  

phrasal verbs, and then once you're building these  you need to revise them regularly. Like let's say  

you have a new study session for yourself. You  learn 3-4 new words each time or verbs.  

You need to go back and review all the ones  you already have in your repertoire. Okay, now  

that goes for all types of vocabulary, but most  importantly, really important for phrasal verbs, is  

not to stress yourself out about using them. This  is what I notice with almost every single student  

I teach. It's like: I need to start using phrasal  verbs! I must use phrasal verbs! There's a lot of  

stress around using phrasal verbs. Okay, so why  is it important to stop this? Why is it important  

to stop stressing yourself about using them? Two  good reasons, at least according to me. The first  

one is because an ordinary verb is as good as a  phrasal verb. I don't understand this insistence  

on 'I must use as many phrasal verbs as possible'.  If you say: I gave up smoking, it doesn't sound  

any better, any more advanced, or more impressive  than saying: I quit smoking or I stopped smoking.  

There's no higher value to using a phrasal verb.  Believe me, no-one is counting how many phrasal  

verbs you use when you speak or write emails for  example. Alright, and the second, and I think you  

will agree with me, if you get stressed about them  if you get stressed about anything, you will just  

block your ability to remember them. It will be  a complete waste of your time to be all stressed  

thinking 'I must learn these! I must use these!'  They will just go in one ear and out the other.  

So, these are for me the reasons not to stress  about them. So what happens when you learn them  

gradually, a few at a time, revising the previous  ones each time and without stress? The first thing  

that happens is that your listening comprehension  improves as you begin to hear and see the ones  

that you've been learning and revising. You keep  catching them here and there. Right, and then,  

as you start to catch the common ones, because  they're the ones you're going to be hearing most  

of the time, as you start to catch the common ones  again and again, you will start using them quite  

naturally yourself. You just have to let them come  to you. Right, but just to show you what I mean,  

I hope I have chosen the right examples, here are  some common phrasal verbs that I'm sure you have  

learned, not by writing lists and translating,  but just by hearing them in context many many many  

times. Let's see if you know the prepositions, the particles that complete these sentences. For  

example: She gets at seven every morning. Think  to yourself, what's the preposition, the particle,  

that comes to you straight away. She gets at  seven every morning. I'm looking my glasses,  

have you seen them? What's the preposition here?  Could you please pick the kids from school today?  

Right, so let's see what the answers are. I'm  pretty sure you knew all three of them, whereas  

with the previous ones, maybe you didn't  because they were less common than these  

very basic ones. So obviously: She gets up at  seven every morning. I'm looking for my glasses,  

have you seen them? And: Could you please pick up  the kids from school? 'get up', 'look for', 'pick  

up'. They're so common and used so frequently,  that you will have naturally picked them up. I  

think you will notice that you use these even  without labelling them as 'phrasal' and therefore  

there is no panic around them. Right, so I think  to sum up: Must you study phrasal verbs? Yes,  

they are part of your natural, all of our natural,  vocabulary expansion as non-native speakers.  

But, you must use the right method to learn  them. That's the right method according to me,  

which I described earlier: Only through context,  no translation, flash cards, revision, revision,  

revision. But the next question: must you make a  huge effort to use them above all other words  

and expressions in the English language? They  must be learned and used first! No, they have  

no higher value than any other vocabulary item.  Just allow them to become part of your active  

vocabulary slowly, surely, naturally by catching  them in different contexts, studying them   

and then catching them in different contexts, as I have also just described to you. Well,  

I hope this has given you a quick  revision of what these verbs are 

and how to approach learning them calmly, happily,  and effectively. I hope you've enjoyed this lesson  

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