When phrasal verbs are transitive, they always take direct objects. This can make it difficult to tell whether a particle or prepositional phrasal ...

When phrasal verbs are transitive, they always take direct objects. This can make it difficult to tell whether a particle or prepositional phrasal verb is being used. However, there is a quick test that we can perform to be sure. First, we substitute a personal pronoun for the object of the phrasal verb. If it can be arranged before the particle/preposition and still make sense, then a particle is being used; if it has to come after to make sense, then a preposition is being used. Phrasal verbs that can be divided by objects are commonly referred to as being separable; those that cannot be divided are known as being inseparable. Let’s look at this in one of our previous examples: “Please look over the proposal and let me know what you think.” It might seem as though over does in fact introduce a prepositional phrase: over the proposal. However, if we substitute the personal pronoun it for the proposal, we can see that the object can come immediately after the verb: “Please look it over and let me know what you think.” Therefore, look over is a particle phrasal verb and is considered separable. Let’s look at another example to see when this can’t be done: “He has been looking after his mother.” Using the personal pronoun her instead of his mother, the sentence now reads: “He has been looking after her.” Now let’s try rearranging it in the sentence: ✖ “He has been looking her after.” (incorrect) We can see that the sentence no longer makes sense: the object, her, must follow the phrasal verb and form a prepositional phrase to be logically complete. Therefore, look after is a prepositional phrasal verb and is inseparable. Finally, some phrasal verbs can be both transitive and intransitive, depending on which idiomatic meaning is being used.