A phrasal verb is just what it seems: a phrase consisting of a verb and one or more other sentence components, such as a preposition or an adverb.
Phrasal verbs are phrases that indicate actions. They are generally used in spoken English and informal texts. Examples of such verbs include: turn down, come across and run into.
A phrasal verb is a phrase or expression that consists of a verb plus another word or two, like this:
- [verb + adverb] e.g.: look up.
- [verb + preposition] e.g.: look after.
- [verb + adverb + preposition] e.g.: look forward to.
- In English traditional grammar, a phrasal verb is the combination of two or three words from different grammatical categories – a verb and a particle, such as an adverb or a preposition – to form a single semantic unit on a lexical or syntactic level. Examples: turn down, run into, sit up.
