terça-feira, 21 de julho de 2015

Phrasal Verbs cheat sheet


COMMON AND ESSENTIAL PHRASAL VERBS

I would like to make a list of phrasal verbs for study, due to their extreme importance in the English language and striking difference with the Portuguese and Spanish languages.  Students who are able to study and practice this list will excel in their language learning capabilities.  For practical reasons, I am dividing this list between transitive verbs and non-transitive verbs.  When a verb is found on both lists an explanation will be noted along with the Portuguese so that the context may be understood.

Enjoy!


Transitive verbs
infintive                                s. past tense                          Portuguese

to clean up                            cleaned up                      limpar/arrumar
to hang up                            hung up                          pendurar
to take out                            took out                          levar fora
to put away                           put away                        aguardar
to pick up                              picked up                       apanhar/pegar
to turn down                          turned down                  abaixar/recusar
to turn on                              turned on                      ligar
to turn off                              turned off                     desligar
to start up*                            started up                    arrancar/ligar máquinas
to count on*                         counted on                  contar com
to cut off                               cut off                           cortar/seperar  
                           

Non-transitive verbs
infinitive                               s. past tense                          Portuguese

to pass away                           passed away                 falecer
to pass out                              passed out                   desmaiar
to hang up*                             hung up                      desligar na cara
to catch on                              caught on                    perceber
to catch up                              caught up                    alcançar (atrasado)
to look out                               looked out                   ter cuidar
to work out                              work out                     funcionar/ malhar         
to cheer up                              cheered up                  alegrar
to calm down                           calmed down              acalmar-se
to call back                              called back                 retornar uma ligação 
to eat out                                ate out                       comer fora de casa
to hang out                             hung out                   ficar em um lugar cômodo 
to help out                              helped out                 dar uma mãozinha/ ajudar to give up                               gave up                     dar-se por vencido           to stop by (someone's house)  stopped by           passar pela casa de alguém
to set up                                 set up                montar (área de trabalho etc.)    



As you can see here, phrasal verbs are unique because they express an action using a verb and a preposition combination.

The rule with transitive phrasal verbs deserves attention because as you know, transitive verbs must include the object in the phrase of the sentence is lacking and incomplete.  If the noun is used (example: the music) then the rule is that you can include this object between the verb and the preposition that together form the phrasal verb, or you can include it after the phrasal verb (example: He turned the music down.  He turned down the music.).  

But if you choose to use a pronoun to represent the object, you must always put the object pronoun between the verb and the preposition. (Example: He turned it down.)

TIP
Remember that the object pronoun must always correspond to the object in number. (We use "it" for the singular and "them" for the plural.)

Example:

We counted on Nick and Andy to help out.

We counted on them to help out.



* "Start up" could be used generally speaking without an object.  This is because the understanding is like a reflexive pronoun.  Example: Did it start up? Se arrancou?  

* "Count on" is an exception to the normal collocation of object pronoun between the phrasal verb and preposition.  The difference is expressed in Portuguese with the use of a preposition also (com).  Because of this the object must always come after the complete phrasal verb.


* The meaning of "hang up" is differs between transitive and non-transitive verbs.  When used as a non-transitive, it refers to phone calls.


Remember that this is not a complete list, but a list of some of the more important phrasal verbs.  There are also those that you already know well, such as "look for".