Complete English Grammar Rules_ Examples, Exceptions, Exercises, and Everything You Need to Master Proper Grammar ( PDFDrive )-268

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Consider	these	sets	of	examples	that	use	the	same	phrasal	verb:
•	“I	was	a	bit	of	a	skinny	kid,	but	I	filled	out	nicely	during	high	school.”
(Intransitive,	meaning	“to	become	larger	or	fuller	in	one’s	figure.”)
•	“Make	sure	that	you	fill	out	the	form	correctly.”	(Transitive,	meaning	“to
complete	(a	document)	by	providing	the	required	information.”)
•	“The	two	friends	made	up	after	their	bitter	argument.”	(Intransitive,	meaning
“to	reconcile	or	resolve	a	quarrel.”)
•	“Please	stop	making	up	excuses.”	(Transitive,	meaning	“to	fabricate	or
invent.”)
Prepositional	verbs	vs.	phrasal	verbs
Sometimes,	a	prepositional	verb	may	be	mistaken	for	a	phrasal	verb.	Although
both	combinations	appear	to	be	very	similar,	you	can	differentiate	them	by
examining	their	meaning.	Prepositional	verbs	use	the	literal	meanings	of	verbs,
whereas	phrasal	verbs	tend	to	be	idiomatic.
For	example,	the	meaning	of	the	verb	ask	doesn’t	change	when	combined	with
the	preposition	for;	however,	it	changes	dramatically	when	combined	with	the
particle	out:
•	“Kelly	asked	for	a	raise.”	(The	literal	meaning	of	to	ask	is	to	inquire.	Kelly
inquired	about	a	raise,	making	it	a	prepositional	verb.)
•	“Kelly	asked	out	Chad.”	(Ask	out	means	to	invite	someone	on	a	date,	making	it
an	idiomatic	phrasal	verb.)
We	can	see	this	difference	even	more	clearly	with	a	set	of	examples	that	use	the
same	verb-preposition	pairing:
•	“They	sailed	through	the	waters	with	plenty	of	time	to	spare.”
•	“They	sailed	through	their	exams	with	plenty	of	time	to	spare.”
Both	examples	use	the	verb	sail	+	the	preposition	through.	However,	because	the
first	sentence	uses	the	literal	meaning	of	sail,	we	know	it	is	a	prepositional	verb
—the	preposition	is	merely	describing	the	movement	of	the	verb,	without
changing	the	meaning	of	the	verb	itself.	If,	for	instance,	we	change	the	sentence
to	“They	sailed	along	the	coast,”	the	meaning	of	sail	does	not	change.
The	verb	phrase	of	the	second	sentence,	however,	has	the	idiomatic	meaning	of
“to	complete	with	ease	and	speed.”	It	can	only	have	this	meaning	if	sail	and
through	are	paired	together.	Changing	the	preposition	would	also	completely
change	the	meaning	of	the	verb	phrase;	therefore,	it	is	functioning	as	a	phrasal