A phrasal verb is a verb plus a particle (up, out, after, on…), where
the whole means something other than what the parts mean separately.
give— to give.up— upward.give up— to surrender.
Why it is hard
The meaning cannot be worked out logically — it has to be memorised as a separate word. The good news: there are not thousands of such combinations in active use, but a few hundred.
A verb with a preposition is not the same thing
| Type | Example | Can the meaning be worked out? |
|---|---|---|
| Phrasal verb | She takes after her mother | No: "to resemble" |
| Verb + preposition | She looks at the map | Yes: "looks at" |
The test is simple: if the sentence can be understood by knowing the words separately, — it is an ordinary verb with a preposition.
Separable and inseparable
Some phrasal verbs allow an object between the verb and the particle:
turn off the light=turn the light off— separable;take after your mother, but not take your mother after — inseparable.
If the object is a pronoun, a separable verb must be separated:
turn it off, not turn off it.