This mini episode teaches you about an interesting pattern that occurs with some phrasal verbs.
Episode 234 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you about an interesting pattern that occurs with some phrasal verbs. Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“This is Marwa from Iraq, and you’re listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 234 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode, I am going to talk about something that I have talked about several times before. And that is phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs. Do you know what phrasal verbs are? Phrasal verbs are like compound verbs. They are verbs that are made with two parts. They contain a verb and then a preposition.
For instance, the phrasal verb run over. Run over. Which means to hit somebody with your car. That’s kind of an unexpected meaning. And that is one of the reasons why phrasal verbs can be so difficult. Because their meanings have to be memorized. You really cannot usually figure out the meaning of a phrasal verb just by looking at the parts.
Another thing that makes phrasal verbs difficult is that they do not all work the same way. With some phrasal verbs, you can place the direct object—the object of the verb—between the two parts or at the end of the phrasal verb. With some phrasal verbs, that object can go in the middle or at the end. But not all phrasal verbs.
Today, what I’m going to talk about is a certain pattern with some phrasal verbs. Let me get a little bit more specific, and then I think it will be easier to understand.
For this discussion, I am going to use the phrasal verb pick up. Pick up. P-i-c-k u-p. Pick up. Pick up has more than one meaning, but for this discussion, I am thinking of this meaning of pick up: to lift something from a surface. To lift something from a surface. That is one very common meaning of the phrasal verb pick up.
For instance, you might say, “I dropped something. Oh, let me pick my keys up.” In other words, “Let me lift my keys from the floor, where they fell.”
Pick up is one of those phrasal verbs where the direct object can come in between the two parts or after the second part.
So, going back to that example of the keys that fell on the floor, I could say, “I must pick up my keys.” I must pick up my keys. In that example, keys—the direct object of the verb—comes after the second part of the phrasal verb. It comes after up. “I must pick up my keys.”
Okay. All of that is fine. Well, maybe it’s complicated, but at least we can see that there is this pattern: With some phrasal verbs, like pick up, the direct object can go in between the two parts of the phrasal verb or after the second part of the phrasal verb. I can pick my keys up, or I can pick up my keys.
But what if instead of using a noun phrase, like “my keys,” I just use a pronoun? Instead of calling them “my keys,” I could call them “them.”
“My keys fell out of my pocket. I must pick them up.” Instead of “pick my keys up.” I’m just replacing my keys with a pronoun: them. Because that’s what we do with pronouns. We replace nouns or noun phrases with pronouns.
Okay. All of that is fine. Remember what I said, though. Remember that I said that with pick up, the direct object can come between the two parts of the phrasal verb, and it can go after the second part of the phrasal verb. That’s why I could say, “Pick my keys up” and “pick up my keys.”
But when that direct object is a pronoun, it must go between the two parts of a phrasal verb like pick up. It cannot go after the second part. That’s why I can say, “I must pick them up”—where I am referring to my keys, I must pick them up. But I cannot say, “I must pick up them.” I can say, “I must pick up my keys,” but I cannot say, “I must pick up them.” When the direct object is a pronoun, it needs to go between the two parts of a phrasal verb.
This is true when the pronoun is them or it or us or him or her. It doesn’t matter. When it comes to a phrasal verb like pick up—where a regular noun direct object can go between the two parts or at the end of the phrasal verb—a pronoun must go between the two parts and not after the phrasal verb.
That’s pretty complicated, isn’t it? I told you: phrasal verbs are difficult! They are difficult for many reasons.
I think if you can learn this pattern, you will see it more and more often. And if you use this pattern when you are speaking English, your English will sound much more natural.
Outro
And that’s the end of episode 234 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions about the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can use at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Marwa recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with another episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. Goodbye! I’ll see you soon.