Job Discussion Forums

[Lucy Snow]

I have a student studying for her CAE, and being the kind of student that she is, she pulled some grammar worksheets off of a Hungarian EFL site.

The problem is, it looks like many of the phrasal verb examples are wrong, but it may be my unfamiliarity with certain aspects of British usage.

The examples are taken directly off the worksheet. I'm not concerned with whether or not the sentences are grammatically correct--I know that some of them are not--I'm only concerned with the usage of the phrasal verbs.



So, all you of you experts, tell me if these examples are correct or not:

come up against Mariah came up against her mum because of her boyfriend.

do away with The house I was born in will be done away with next week.

give over Hey, give over crying.

make for Hard work makes for passing all your exams.

push on Muriel's grandma often pushes her grandson by giving him chocolate.


Thanks for any help you can give me.

[richard ame]

Hi Lucy
Sorry kid these are pretty poor examples of the use of P.V's may I suggest you disregard them and try one of the many better websites reccommended on Dave's there are so many ,perhaps this question should have being on the newbie forum ,are you a newbie Lucy ? No I thought not ! Sorry for my crass remark .

[Lucy Snow]

The reason she's using worksheets from this website is that they give translations of the phrasal verbs in Hungarian. I have already pulled some better worksheets for her, but she had specific questions about the examples that I posted. Not wanting to give her wrong information, I thought I'd post it here.

[Mike_2003]

Szia,

I imagine that usage varies from place to place, even within the UK. But this is how I would personally interprete these phrasal verbs.

Come up against: This is used occasionally but the example seems a little strange to my ears. I often hear it in sports contexts: "They were doing well until they came up against the league leaders."

Do away with: Again, it's used, but the example doesn't seem right. A better example might be: "The government have done away with plans to renovate the area."

Give over: Means "stop" but I would rarely use it.

Make for: The meaning suggested in the example is not so common. It's more often used to mean "attempt to reach a place" or "head in that direction".

Push on: Used to mean "continue regardless of problems". For example: "Despite the bad weather they decided to push on to the next town."

Regards,

Mike.

[Lucy Snow]

Thanks, Mike for your helpful response. Your comments reinforced what I thought when I saw the examples. I have given her better examples for those strange sentences, but I needed to be sure that I was in line with British usage. It's been a long time since I lived in England.

[Stephen Jones]

The example with "give over" is correct.

The sense of "make for" is correct though I don't like the example much.

The other three are badly used.

[scot47]

I suspect these have been put together by someone whose English is not 100 percent up to the mark !

Phrasal verbs are really difficult and something that some learners never really get.

[Guest]

The worksheet examples are really poor. I don't believe they would be used in these particular contexts regardless of the area of Britain.

Give over is often used if a person is exaggerating or winding you up and would correspond more or less to give me a break.

Do away with an idea or a plan. You can also do away with a person. You can't do away with a building.

Make for can mean move towards like head for, but it also has another meaning which I think your example was trying to capture, but didn't really get.
Some friends of mine are visiting soon and we'll take trip to the coast. That should make for a nice weekend.

I think you should discourage your student from using this worksheet. It's not accurate. Hungarian translation is a poor substitute for valid examples in an accurate context.