1. Review: what is a phrasal verb?

Phrasal verbs are verbs with two or more words.

The first word is a verb.
The second word changes the verb.

This means phrasal verbs have their own unique meaning.

Phrasal verb	Phrasal verb’s meaning	Example sentence
pick up	collect	They picked up the new television this afternoon.
take apart	take into pieces	He took apart the Lego.
hang on	briefly wait	Please hang on a minute.
cut out	cut to remove	The instructions say to cut out a square from the cardboard.
put in	insert or inject	If you put in some extra work, you will get promoted.
come along	accompany	The boys went to the park, and Amy came along too.

*Prepositional verbs are also verbs with two or more words.
However, prepositional verbs do not change the verb. They just say wat direction the verb is going.

2. Some phrasal verbs can be split

The object after a phrasal verb can sometimes be put inside the phrasal verb.

However, there are some phrasal verbs that cannot be split.

1. Phrasal verbs that need an object (transitive verbs) can be split.
2. Phrasal verbs that don’t need an object (intransitive verbs) are not split.

Transitive phrasal verb	Object	Example sentence with split phrasal verb
put away	the box	Donna put the box away.
beat up	Dave	Phillip beat Dave up.
take up	boxing	Dave will take boxing up.
turn on	the television	She will turn the television on.

Intransitive phrasal verb	Object	Example sentence
grow up	–	Dave is an idiot who needs to grow up.
carry on	–	I am tired but I will carry on.
get on	–	James and Kay really get on.
close down	–	The shop on George Street is closing down.

3. Pronouns and transitive phrasal verbs

Transitive phrasal verbs take objects.
These phrasal verbs can be split.

However, if the object of the sentence is an object pronoun, the transitive phrasal verb must be split.

*Object pronouns are me, you, it, him, her, us, them

Sentence without object pronoun	Correct	Incorrect
He put away the boxes.	He put them away.	He put away them.
Dave took up boxing last month.	Dave took it up last month.	Dave took up it last month.
Fiona wrote down the message.	Fiona wrote it down.	Fiona wrote down it.
Malik looked up Louis XV and Louis XVI in the encyclopaedia.	Malik looked them up in the encyclopaedia.	Malik looked up them in the encyclopaedia.

4. Exercises

1. Split these phrasal verbs:
(i) I took out the box.
(ii) He washed up the blood.
(iii) She divided up the money.

2. Object pronouns mean a transitive phrasal verb must be split. Therefore all these sentences are wrong. Make these sentences correct:
(i) She beat up him
(ii)They took away it.
(iii) The car ran over it.

3. Which of these sentences are OK?
(i) He tidied up the room.
He tidied up it.
(ii) They burnt down it.
They burnt down the house.
(iii) She put out the garbage.
She put out it.