Phrasal verbs I&#039;ve studied English since I was eighteen (it means long time... haha) and I&#039;ve always enjoyed the learning process. But my enthusiasm crashed one day into what I think is the

Maite

Phrasal verbs I've studied English since I was eighteen (it means long time... haha) and I've always enjoyed the learning process. But my enthusiasm crashed one day into what I think is the hardest think to learn for a Spanish native speaker: phrasal verbs. Trying to memorize the huge amount of phrasal verbs that English people normally use in their everyday speech is a hard work for me. Obviously, English native speakers don't realize how difficult this could be for an English learner because they use them without paying much attention. But for an English learner phrasal verbs can become a nightmare. If you are an English native speaker and you've never thought of this, stop for a while and consider the next. All those verbs in combination with all those prepositions have no sense at all for us, learners. If you try to translate them literally they might seem funnier. For instance, when you say 'put out', it doesn't mean that you want to put something outside a place, but you mean 'extinguish'... How could we, English learners, know that? It's impossible to imagine. Does 'to break up' mean break something at a high level? Does 'run out of' mean that you are running and then going out of somewhere? Intuition here is completely useless!! But, when you discover how much these expressions are used by English speakers you reach the conclusion that they are really important to understand informal speech. From my point of view, if you can use and understand some of them you are getting a higher level in your English learning process. Speaking to English native people to fix them in your mind, making lists to memorize them or paying attention to them when you read a text could be good things to improve your use of phrasal verbs. At least, it's what I'm trying to do, but if you have any other good suggestion, please, be free and express yourself here. Of course, they will be very welcome for me and for a lot of English learners who are desperately struggling to achieve this goal. Thank you!

Oct 4, 2015 4:26 PM

Corrections · 7

Hahaha... a funny count of them! Definitely you are lucky of being a native speaker. I feel like this when I use the subjunctive tense and I try to explain it to a Spanish learner... As you see, there is always a revenge... hehe! I still can't understand why you always add a preposition after a verb. You've said washed up the plates, when you could just have said 'to wash the plates'. The meaning of 'wash' here wouldn't be so different. They sound very cool, but for learners it's an agony. You could have chosen the verb 'get', which I think is the top ten of the phrasal verbs. I have two pages in my dictionary completely dedicated to these combinations. Maybe one day I will be able to remember one of these two pages... ;-) Thanks for your instructive message.

October 5, 2015

Haha, interesting post. Most native English speakers have never heard the term 'phrasal verb', I hadn't until I started doing language exchanges with Spanish speakers who were learning English and they told me that one of the hardest parts about learning English was the phrasal verbs we use. We don't 'learn' or study them, we just pick them up as we learn the rest of the language. Our use of phrasal verbs can cause us problems in learning another language because how do I say 'put out' a fire in Spanish? first of all I have to think of an alternative English word. Your example of 'break up' is a good one because things can 'break down' before they 'break up' for example 'my relationship with my girlfriend was breaking down for several months before we broke up' 'the ship broke down during the storm before it was washed against the rocks where it broke up. We can chop a tree down before chopping it up, we can 'fly off' to Spain and from there 'fly on' to Malta, we can sleep in when we sleep out. Washed up the plates, washed down the car, washed in (or out) by the tide, washed along by the current, washed out by the weather. Look in, look out, look on, look over, look into, uuf, I'm glad I'm a native speaker!!!

October 4, 2015

Phrasal verbs

I've studied English since I was eighteen (it means long time... haha) and I've always enjoyed the learning process. But my enthusiasm crashed one day when I realized how hard it would be to learn for a Spanish native speaker: phrasal verbs. Trying to memorize the huge amount/number of phrasal verbs that English people normally use in their everyday speech is a hard work for me. Obviously, English native speakers don't realize how difficult this could be for an English learner because they use them without paying much attention. But for an English learner phrasal verbs can become a nightmare.

If you are an English native speaker and you've never thought of this, stop for a while and consider the following. All those verbs in combination with all those prepositions have no sense at all for us learners. If you try to translate them literally they might seem funnier. For instance, when you say 'put out', it doesn't mean that you want to put something outside a place, but you mean 'extinguish'... How could we, English learners, know that? It's impossible to imagine. Does 'to break up' mean break something at a high level? Does 'run out of' mean that you are running and then going out of somewhere? Intuition here is completely useless!! But, when you discover how much these expressions are used by English speakers you reach the conclusion that they are really important to understand informal speech.

From my point of view, if you can use and understand some of them you are getting /advancing to a higher level in your English learning process. Speaking to English native people to fix them in your mind, making lists to memorize them or paying attention to them when you read a text could be good ways to improve your use of phrasal verbs. At least, it's what I'm trying to do, but if you have any other good suggestion, please, be free and express yourself here. Of course, they will be very welcome for me and for a lot of English learners who are desperately struggling to achieve this goal. Thank you!

lo siento. Pero tienes verbos reflexivos que no son realemente reflexivos, por lo menos en inglés, entonces, todo es juste!

October 4, 2015

I absolutely agree, Paul. This is a good system. I've learnt much more about them since I started talking to native speakers. I always ask them to use the expressions they normally use with their friends, colleagues or family. Every time I talk to them they use some of these phrasal verbs. It's amazing how common they are!! I'm sure one day I will control them, little by little...haha. Thanks for your comment!

October 4, 2015

Every native speaker will tell you that trying to memorise lists of phrasal verbs is a useless exercise. I would also imagine that it is quite boring for learners! As Adrian said don't separate the verb and the preposition; the meaning cannot be rationalised like that. Learn the verbs in context, if you hear a native speaker use a phrasal verb then don't just make a note of the verb but also make a note of the context that they used it in.

October 4, 2015

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