Teacher Discussion Forums

In the classroom, what term do you use to refer to verbs like "put on," "look up," "give in," "turn off," etc.?

Saram,

According to the English Grammer in Use (Cambridge University Press) they are phrasal verbs.

Hope that helps!

~ Jennifer

Thanks very much for your reply, Jly. It's certainly helpful.

I was in kind of a rush when I posted the inquiry and probably should have provided a bit more info on why I ask the question in the first place.

I've heard/seen both terms used, and I'm interested to know which term is most often used by you ESL/FL teachers when dealing with the subject in class.

The more opinions the better!!!

Saram

Phrasal verbs is the commonest.

My OXFORD Dictionary of English Grammar

does list a two-part verb:
"A multi-word consisting of a verb plus a prepositional particle (a prepositional verb)
or a verb plus an adverbial particle (a phrasal verb).

Hope this helps,
Roger

Hi Saram,
I have got used to the term phrasal verbs. they are also called multi word verbs as they can have more than two parts. hth
Will.

I've heard some teachers call this construction 'prepositional verbs' but I always say 'phrasal verbs'.

I try not to use either as the students invariably remember the words 'phrasal' and 'verb' a lot better than the actual vocabulary item(s), in much the same way that a person who studies English will tell you that they are familiar with the 'present perfect' tense but struggle to use it in an appropriate context.

Do you think we need to give these types of verbs a label, or can we merely tell students that in some cases verbs have more than one word, and today i'm going to present some to you? What do you think? Does giving these language items a label aid in the learning process, or are we just teaching labels?

Adam Simpson wrote:...in much the same way that a person who studies English will tell you that they are familiar with the 'present perfect' tense but struggle to use it in an appropriate context.

In my experience metalanguage is very important to learning language. They are simply labels which identify various ideas or concepts. Initially, some time and effort needs to be expended to identify the ideas. Once this has been done we can tag it with a label for future reference. It's a natural part of life. We don't go around using the phrase "a green fruit that hangs from tree and tastes good" - that's far too long-winded. Instead we naturally label this object: apple. Jargon, is just more specific.

I've met students who could express themselves using the present perfect, but didn't know the label, and students who could explain the label but not actually use it. If think, Adam, you've got you priorities right. Teach the actual language first, define it second. However, in my opinion, it's very useful to define it too, so that we can discuss how/why/when to use a particular grammar point; tools of the trade.

Iain

I call them Phrasal Verbs as that's the term students seem to be most familiar with, though I can't see anything wrong with calling them Multi-Word Verbs.

As Shakespeare wrote, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet".

Forgot to say, I would avoid the term "Two-word verbs" as some have more than one particle e.g. get on with, get off with, go through with...

You could call them "More-than-one-word verbs". Anyone?

Yeah, you could

Except that would be distinct from the category of phrasal verbs with one particle. To be fully inclusive wouldn't you have to say something like "Verbs-with-two-bits-except-for-occasions-when-it's-three"? Aaaaargh!

On reflection, given that students always say they find phrasal verbs difficult, maybe "horrible verbs" would be a more apt name. Any takers?

ONe of the grammar books I used to teach from made a distinction between phrasal verbs and verbs that were often collocated with a preposition. I think it may have been Focus on Grammar, but I can't remeber.

Anyhow, it made the distinction that a phrasal verb would have a different meaning than the sum of its parts (For example: I took up skiing last winter. -in this case take+up=begin a hobby) whereas multi word verbs did not change meaning in this way (For example: I told him to sit down. -essentially the same meaning as sit).

My students didn't really take to this distinction, and we didn't spend much time on it. We had more fun deciding which phrasal verbs were seperable, inseperable, and required separation.