Phrasal verb

The term phrasal verb is commonly applied to two or three distinct but related constructions in English: a verb and a particle and/or a preposition co-occur forming a single semantic unit. This semantic unit cannot be understood based upon the meanings of the individual parts in isolation, but rather it can be taken as a whole. In other words, the meaning is non-compositional and thus unpredictable. Phrasal verbs that include a preposition are known as prepositional verbs and phrasal verbs that include a particle are also known as particle verbs. Additional alternative terms for phrasal verb are compound verb, verb-adverb combination, verb-particle construction, two-part word/verb, and three-part word/verb (depending on the number of particles), and multi-word verb.

There are at least three main types of phrasal verb constructions depending on whether the verb combines with a preposition, a particle, or both. The words constituting the phrasal verb constructions in the following examples are in bold:

The difference between these types of phrasal verbs lies with the status of the element(s) that appear in addition to the verb. When the element is a preposition, it is the head of a full prepositional phrase and the phrasal verb is thus a prepositional phrasal verb. When the element is a particle, it can not (or no longer) be construed as a preposition, but rather is a particle because it does not take a complement. Finally, many phrasal verbs are combined with both a preposition and a particle.

The aspect of these types of phrasal verbs that unifies them under the single banner phrasal verb is the fact that their meaning cannot be understood based upon the meaning of their parts taken in isolation. When one picks on someone, one is not selecting that person for something, but rather one is harassing them. When one hangs out, one is in no way actually hanging from anything. The meaning of the two or more words together is often drastically different from what one might guess it to be, based upon the meanings of the individual parts in isolation.

As a class, particle phrasal verbs belong to the same category as the separable verbs of other Germanic languages. They are commonly found in everyday, informal speech as opposed to more formal English and Latinate verbs, such as to get together rather than to congregate, to put off rather than to postpone (or to defer), or to do up rather than to fasten. However, a few phrasal verbs exist in some Romance languages such as Lombard due to the influence of ancient Lombardic: example "fa foeura" (to do in: to eat up; to squander) and dà denter (to trade in; to bump into) in Lombard. Some of this verbs are used also in Italian for lombard influences, some in all the language (as "far fuori"), other only in Lombardy (as "mangiare fuori")

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