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What Are (Phrasal Verb)
What Are (Phrasal Verb)
The whole phrase acts as a verb and has a different meaning to the original verb. For
example, look up, look after, and look forward to doing NOT mean the same as look.
Because we cannot always work out the meaning of a phrasal verb from its individual
words, phrasal verbs are usually "idiomatic". They are very common in spoken
English, and less common in formal written English.
Some phrasal verbs can be split by their object. They are said to be "separable"
because the object can go between the verb and the rest of the phrase. For example, in
the following sentences the phrasal verb "turn on" is separable, so the object ("the
radio") can go after the phrasal verb OR in the middle of the phrasal verb: