{"id":2857,"date":"2016-02-15T11:00:38","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T19:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2857"},"modified":"2016-11-10T03:01:20","modified_gmt":"2016-11-10T11:01:20","slug":"phrasal-verbs-to-split-or-not-to-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/phrasal-verbs-to-split-or-not-to-split\/","title":{"rendered":"Phrasal Verbs: To Split, or Not to Split?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Phrasal verbs are a challenge and a mystery to so many English learners. It really is strange the way that a verb and preposition can be combined to make a meaning that\u2019s nothing like meaning of the original verb <em>or<\/em> preposition.<\/p>\n<p>But one of the other seemingly mysterious things about phrasal verbs is the fact that some phrasal verbs\u2014but not all\u2014are <em>splittable<\/em>. This means that some phrasal verbs can have a noun placed <em>in between<\/em> the verb and preposition in the phrasal. So for example, to \u201ccall off\u201d means to cancel something. And if your boss cancels a meeting, you can say your boss <em>called off<\/em> the meeting, or you can say your boss <em>called<\/em> the meeting <em>off.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cCall off\u201d is an easily splittable phrasal verb. But some phrasal verb cannot be split&#8230; at least not in their most common usage. Take \u201cget over.\u201d While it has a few other less commonly used definitions, &#8220;get over&#8221; usually means to reach a point in time where an emotional feeling or physical condition has ended. This sense of &#8220;get over&#8221; doesn&#8217;t split. You can say you <em>got over<\/em> a flu,\u00a0but you can\u2019t say that you <em>got <\/em>the flu<em>\u00a0<\/em><em>over<\/em>.\u00a0Similarly, \u201ctake off,\u201d when it is used to mean &#8220;depart&#8221; or &#8220;lift off the ground into flight&#8221;, simply can\u2019t be split. You can say that the airplane <em>took off<\/em> from the airport, but &#8220;<em>took<\/em> the airplane<em> off<\/em>&#8221; from the airport doesn&#8217;t work.<\/p>\n<p>At a glance, the idea of splittable versus unsplittable phrasal verbs can seem like an additional layer of frustrating confusion. But ESL students can take heart. There is a very simple rule to determine whether a phrasal verb can be split or not: if a phrasal verb has a direct object, it can be split by its direct object. If it has <em>no<\/em> direct object, it can\u2019t be split at all!<\/p>\n<p>You can see this in the <em>literal<\/em> meaning of the normally unsplittable phrasal verb \u201ctake off.\u201d Literally, \u201ctake off\u201d means to remove one thing from the surface of another thing. This meaning of <em>take off<\/em>\u00a0has a direct object, the thing being removed. So can <em>take off<\/em>\u00a0your rain coat when the sun comes out, and you can also say that you <em>take<\/em>\u00a0your rain coat\u00a0<em>off<\/em>\u00a0when the sun comes out. And now you have something to feel &#8220;sunny&#8221; about, because the mystery of phrasal verb splitting is solved!<\/p>\n<p>Or rather, the most important <em>part<\/em> of the mystery of split phrasal verbs is solved. There are still times when you <em>can<\/em> split a phrasal verb, based on the rules of English grammar&#8230; but you probably <em>shouldn\u2019t<\/em> split it, based on other rules of English. In my next post on this subject we\u2019ll look at these additional guidelines for phrasal verb splitting.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Phrasal verbs are a challenge and a mystery to so many English learners. It really is strange the way that a verb and preposition can be combined to make a meaning that\u2019s nothing like meaning of the original verb or preposition. But one of the other seemingly mysterious things about phrasal verbs is the fact [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13603],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-2857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Phrasal Verbs: To Split, or Not to Split? - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/phrasal-verbs-to-split-or-not-to-split\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Phrasal Verbs: To Split, or Not to Split?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Phrasal verbs are a challenge and a mystery to so many English learners. 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0%2C50&amp;q=Recine+magoosh&amp;btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2857"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}