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Unit 18 was my first introduction to “phrasal verbs” and I have to say it has been a most difficult concept for me to understand. As a native speaker, I was never formally taught—or don’t remember being taught the three types of phrasal verbs, recognizing them and their usage. Most likely this learning took place informally, occurring naturally as I developed and matured. With that said I would like to share some of my frustrations with phrasal verbs.
First, I discovered that phrasal verbs seem to exist only in the English language, or at least English has the largest number of phrasal verbs compared to other languages! To better understand this existence requires a definition of colloquial and vernacular language. Colloquial language is the use of informal words and dialogue while vernacular language refers to the native language of a certain place. I take that to mean that phrasal verbs belong to both categories.
A second frustration with phrasal verbs is that many of words used have literal and figurative meanings which often differ and that many words serve as both prepositions and verb particles. The word “on” is one such example. Here is another example to further illustrate the literal and figurative confusion. The phrase “look up” literally can be a head movement of looking up, or when one looks something up. A figurative meaning would be to conduct research.
A final frustration comes from the prepositional phrases “in to” and “on to” are combined into one word in certain circumstances. Here are examples of each. “I went into the doctor’s office,” a literal reference, and “I went in to see the doctor,” which is figurative. Onto is correct when preceded with up, “I climbed up onto the rock,” but the two-word form is preferred in sentences such as “I want to hold on to this book.”
