Phrasal verbs of English: species

Phrasal verbs of English have no analogues in the Russian language. They are a combination of the verb and the so-called afterword, which can be used separately, but together bear an indivisible semantic load. For example, dress up - "dress up", bring up - "bring up, bring up", look down on - "look at someone from top to bottom", put up with - "reconcile, tolerate". As we see, the value can be either more or less transparent, obvious, or completely unexpected.

Phrasal verbs in English are very actively used in spoken language, replacing the more stringent analogues, which are more often found in the literature (for example, put up with instead of endure). However, one should not think that phrasal verbs are a sign of a purely conversational style. They can be found in legal documents or business reports, and everywhere they have their own specifics. The same phrasal verb can have a literary, figurative and idiomatic meaning.

Phrasal verbs of English: species

Since these verbs represent one of the most living English themes, it is very difficult to classify them. How can you remember the phrasal verbs of the English language, the list of which in one of the directories is more than five hundred, but in fact there are much more?

In many cases, the meaning of the phrasal verb can be guessed by knowing the meaning of its parts. For example, put off - "postpone anything for a later period." Put - "put", off - an adverb indicating the removal, the distance of something. Now let's see how the phrasal verb put off can be translated: "postpone, turn off (light), disengage, repel (disgust), interfere, distract, discard (doubt), shove, eject." In all these variants of translation, one can find an indication of the meaning of the main verb and adverb. With experience, you will be able to guess the meaning of a phrasal verb based on the context, but, alas, this is not always possible. For example, it's not so easy to guess that looking up to is "treating someone with respect."

Therefore, first the translation of the phrasal verbs of the English language should be simply memorized, and structuring will help in this. What are the types of phrasal verbs?

1. Intransitive phrasal verbs

These verbs are used independently, that is, without additions. For example: hurry up! "The vine is off", the device has broken down.

2. Divisible transitive phrasal verbs

These are flexible, mobile verbs, the most unusual for Russian students. A particle of such a phrasal verb is separated from the main part and is at the end of the sentence after the additions, although some verbs demonstrate mobility: the afterword can be separated by the addition from the verb or not. For example: she is looking through folders - "she looks through folders". And in the following example, the addition goes after the particle, so the phrase gable is divisible: she is looking the folders through - she's looking through the folders. "

3. Indivisible transitive phrasal verbs

Additions in sentences with these verbs go only after the particles. Thus, the verb retains its whole structure, remains indivisible. For example, I turned out the light. Take into account that there are phrasal verbs, which, as mentioned above, can have different meanings, and one of them may be transitive, and another is intransitive, which means that they can be divisible and indivisible. For example, look up. In the meaning of "search in the dictionary, the directory" it will be transitional (look the term up in a dictionary -), and in the meaning of "getting better" this verb will be intransitive (things are starting to look up - " Everything gets better ").

4. Multifrasive verbs

These verbs are relatively small. They consist of three parts. For example: get down to "get down to work, talk, discussion, business."

5. Prepositional verbs

They simply masquerade as phrasal verbs, because they require the use of certain prepositions, but they have a literal translation. For example: begin with - "start with", believe in - "believe in", forgive for - "forgive for", talk about - "talk about". These verbs can not be separated by addition. The object with which the action takes place is always after the preposition. For example: believe in love - "believe in love," talk about money - "talk about money."

It should be understood that this classification is rather simplistic, the specialists allocate much more groups of phrasal verbs. For example, the five bits of phrasal verbs are distinguished by the specific meaning of the value introduced by the post-succession.

How to learn Phrasal Verbs in English?

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to rely on your ingenuity here. You need to practice as much as possible. Experts can not agree on how many times to repeat an unfamiliar word, seven or twelve, to firmly remember it, but agree that without a constant repetition, success in learning foreign languages is impossible. At the same time, there is no point in acquiring collections of phrasal verbs, which are abundant in shops. The mechanical memorization of a phrasal verb and its translation will be useless. These verbs are one of the most living sections of English, it is very important to repeat them in context. Choose from the huge lists of phrasal verbs that you really need and are consistent with the goals of your training. The scheme for studying this topic is best structured as follows: the analysis of the initial meaning of words that become postpositions, and their influence on the general meaning of the verb (very often one can catch patterns), the choice of the most common phrasal verbs, and then memorization itself. For example, a day you can take one phrasal verb and mentally play with it different situations, after two or three days, check yourself or arrange yourself a mini-exam.