Phrasal verbs are awesome. Native speakers use them A LOT in their everyday speech. We use them so much that we don’t even realise that we are using them. Therefore, it’s so important that you learn as many as possible.

This blog complements a previous blog on the grammar of phrasal verbs. In that blog, I explained that some phrasal verbs can be separated, and some cannot. (click here to read that blog) For example,

1. My car broke down. = You cannot separate ‘broke’ from ‘down’.
2. I threw out my old shoes. = You can separate ‘threw’ and ‘out’. I threw my old shoes out.

So, if a phrasal verb can be split like ‘throw out’, there is some important grammar to know.

Firstly, the object can go after the phrasal verb or in the middle of the phrasal verb. For example:

TAKE OUT

I took out the garbage.

I took the garbage out.

CLEAN UP

I cleaned up the mess.

I cleaned the mess up.

WRITE DOWN

She wrote down my telephone number.

She wrote my telephone number down.

Secondly, if you replace the ‘object’ with a pronoun like ‘it or me or you etc’, then you can ONLY put it into the middle of the phrasal verb and NOT after the phrasal verb.  For example:

TAKE OUT

I took it out.

I took out it (INCORRECT GRAMMAR)

CLEAN UP

I cleaned it up.

I cleaned up it. (INCORRECT GRAMMAR)

WRITE DOWN

She wrote it down.

She wrote down it. (INCORRECT GRAMMAR)

And that my friends is the grammar of phrasal verbs. How interesting is that? It’s time you started a list of useful phrasal verbs, you can click here for my list of the 10 most useful phrasal verbs.

Have a great day!