If you're a native English speaker and not involved in language teaching, you will pause here to ask (as I did one day in my late 20s), what a phrasal verb actually is. In English, they are as natural as breathing and so are not even taught at school. But for non-native speakers they are fiendishly difficult, and if you wish to use them correctly, as native speakers do, there's no alternative but to learn them by heart.
I had my eureka moment this month, doing phrasal verb tests with some of my top students, who are generally very good at communicating in English. But in this test, they were scoring two or three out of 15.
So then.
A phrasal verb is one where a preposition or adverb (or both) added after it changes its meaning so it is no longer literal. So, for example, to run - verb. "I run to the shops" In this sentence "to run" is not a phrasal verb, because to preposition "to" that follows it doesn't change its meaning. But "to run across", ("I ran across an old friend in the street), "to run up" ("I had the tailor run up this jacket for me") or "to run up against"("I ran up against a serious problem) most certainly are. "To stick" - lepić; but "to stick out"? Wystawać, odstawać - but where's the association with lepić?
Phrasal verb roots are generally short, simple verbs that even the smallest native-speaking child will understand and use naturally; to go, to get, to take, to do, to look, to put, to bring, to give.
English being an 'onion language' of many layers (Celtic, Germanic, Latin, French, global loanwords) is a language rich in synonym, so many phrasal verbs have perfect or close-matching synonyms. These are usually Latinate in origin.
"I can't endure this any longer" - to endure = to put up with.
"This is a skill I acquired in my last job" - to acquire = to pick up.
Note in the last example the impossibility of direct translation into Polish... To jest umiejętność którą ja podniosłem w mojej ostatniej pracy - a direct and incorrect translation. Incorrect, bo nie można podnieść umiejętność, raczej ją nabyć/ zdobyć/ uzyskać. (A correct translation would be: Jest to umiejętność, którą nabyłem w mojej ostatniej pracy). And hence the difficulty for Poles.
How about some tests then?
What are the phrasal verb equivalents of the underlined words?
- I know him too well to be deceived (__________) by his stories.
- Their children were raised (__________) in the Catholic faith.
- Golf occupies (_______) most of his free time.
- The air show was cancelled (________) because of bad weather.
- The application was rejected (__________) because it wasn't completed (_______) properly.
- He raised (_______) the subject of his promotion again.
Can you offer synonyms for the following phrasal verbs?
- He came down with __________ malaria while working in Africa.
- It’s about time we threw away _________ those old brochures!
- I found out _________ that one of my colleagues has a criminal record.
- We will be shortly handing out _________ landing cards.
- One of our top spies had gone over _______ to the Russians.
- She needs to break out of __________ that boring routine!
These are no-brainers for native English speakers. For non-natives - they can be extremely hard. So I intend to concentrate on teaching phrasal verbs for the next few months. As I said, there's no alternative to just learning them all by heart - and there's thousands of them out there.
This also raises an important point in the management of multinational corporations where English is the main language; should native-speaking managers be made aware of phrasal verbs (especially ones used idiomatically) and be asked to avoid them?
Incidentally, the problem works the other way too. I still have problems in Polish with prefix + verb structures such as wnosić, wynosić, przynosić, donosić, zanosić etc, which function similarly to phrasal verbs. Indeed, this makes for a good introduction to the subject for Polish students of English.
* To work out - to reach a conclusion (dojść do wniosku); to calculate (kalkulować).
This time two years ago:
Putin writes about Molotov-Ribbentrop
This time three years ago:
Summer in the city
This time four years ago:
Last bike ride to work
Poland being the number one hub nation for CEE, most of my students speak English to Hungarians, Spaniards or Dutch people rather than Brits or Yanks, and I often find myself questioning the value of teaching down to that level of pernicketyness/fine lineage as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm have to say I'm glad to hear you also have difficulty with prefixes and the like - they give me merry hell!
I teach English myself (mostly to Francophones) and it's true that the use of phrasal verbs seem to be the glass ceiling that even otherwise proficient students rarely breach. One reason is the ease of direct and technically correct translation (a French speaker will not "come up with" or "make up" something if he can just as well "invent" and still get away with it (or rather "pass without a problem").
ReplyDeleteAnother reason is low phrasal verb awareness. PVs are hardly ever mentioned in class (at least in Belgium) and few non-natives realize their importance. So kudos for taking the time to teach them to your students.
You are also right in comparing phrasal verbs with Polish prefixed verbs, although I'd argue that on the whole Polish prefixes modify words in a more predictable way than English adverbs and prepositions do.
Micheal, I'm so delighted you've got up to this topic. Once I mapped out the whole posting about Poles having difficulties to pick up phrasals, but for some reason I gave it up and your excellent post has put me off getting round to bringing up the issue.
ReplyDeleteYes, you have to learn them by heart, but that's the you if you master hundreds of them and can use them. When reading my blog, have you picked over I try to show off my phrasal verb repository posiible often?
Pick sth up, for me is załapać coś, e.g. During my last lesson I finally picked up how to change gears smoothly - podczas ostatniej lekcji nauki jazdy załapałem jak płynnie zmieniać biegi. This is just one example, much can differ, dependning on the contenxt. Phrasal verbs are natural and thereby colloquial. My company tries to root them out as stuff that obfuscates the communication. So if I happen to use them, when I find them most suitable, I'm told off.
Now the test
1. put on
2. brought up
3. takes up
4. called off
5. turned down, filled in
6. brought up, again?
The other way round it seems more difficult
1. fell ill (hey, zapaść na jakąś chorobę to jest come down with, a nie jakiś prosty czasownik
2. disposed of, got rid of, discarded
3. learnt
4. distributing
5. trespassed???
6. again, break out of is so natural that it's hard to replace, so maybe - set herself free, free from???
We could go on about this for hours, yet, I'm running out of time, again.
@ Bartek -
ReplyDeleteYou have beaten EVERY ONE of my students! Only one mistake in the first set of exercises:
1.I know him too well to be deceived (taken in) by his stories.
2.Their children were raised (brought up) in the Catholic faith.
3.Golf occupies (takes up) most of his free time.
4.The air show was cancelled (called) because of bad weather.
5.The application was rejected (turned down) because it wasn't completed (filled in) properly.
6.He raised (brought up) the subject of his promotion again.
Can you offer synonyms for the following phrasal verbs?
1.He came down with (caught, contracted, succumbed to) malaria while working in Africa.
2.It’s about time we threw away (disposed of, got rid of, discarded)
those old brochures!
3.I found out (learnt, discovered)that one of my colleagues has a criminal record.
4.We will be shortly handing out (distributing) landing cards.
5.One of our top spies had gone over (defected)to the Russians.
6.She needs to break out of (escape from) that boring routine!
Three out of six this time - but still, not one student topped 50%.
Well done!
Phrasal verbs are natural and thereby colloquial. My company tries to root them out as stuff that obfuscates the communication. So if I happen to use them, when I find them most suitable, I'm told off.
Your company is absolutely right to do so. Try finding a phrasal verb on the BBC World website!
And yet any five year-old in England will know what's meant by doing up his coat, eating up his greens, and then giving off a funny smell. So watch out!
@absolwentSGH ;)
ReplyDeleteMost impressive. Since you're up for a few pointers let me just add that in the example you gave 'caught on' would be more natural than 'picked up'.
Even though Michał says phrasals are a no brainer it took me a while to remember 'taken in' as the first to come to mind was 'caught out', which in itself is not wrong but not quite right either.
As for the others they were no brainers however my automatic response to 'threw away' was 'binned' (U.S. would say trashed).
Given the subject of english teaching has bee raised I would like to ask a question. I'm giving lessons to a lady in her 30's who is of intermediate level, who keeps forgetting to use definite articles and who knows tenses relatively well but still keeps making awful errors. Any tips for improving her English rather than just hard grind? I've recently been trying to improve her fluency by finding some song clips with subtitles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_y9F5St4j0&feature=related and encouraging her to learn them - but there seems to be some inbuilt resistance. Maybe it's a shyness thing?
@adthelad:
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, articles are a concept so alien to adult Polish learners that they often continue to be a problem long after all other difficulties with English have been overcome.
Realistically, if a person in her 30s still ignores articles or uses them at random, chances of improvement are rather slim.
Generally speaking, when dealing with adult learners, I think you need to pick your battles. You can only go so far with certain aspects of the language. For instance, pitch-perfect pronunciation is highly unlikely ever to be achieved, and in the case of Poles and most other Slavs, articles are also a huge hurdle if the student isn't already fluent in another language that uses them.
Usually, the best you can hope for in such a case is understandable pronunciation, appropriately used tenses and irregular verbs, and a fairly extensive vocabulary. On the other hand, "bat", "bad", "bet" and "bed" will probably always sound alike, phrasal verbs will be absent and articles will forever remain hit-and-miss.
Of course, I don't know the person in question, so I may be assuming too much, but in my experience, that's what I would expect from an adult Pole with little or no experience of total immersion in a native English-speaking environment.
PS. Maybe she just doesn't like "The Fiddler on the Roof"? ;-)
Glad to hear it Michael :)
ReplyDeleteI'd argue "to put on" is correct as well, though it is rather American English and "to take in" is more suitable.
contracted, escape - I should have guessed it easily - my English is on decline - that's the result of practising it too little in off-work time.
@adthelad - where did I use 'caught on'?
'to catch sb out' - an excellent equivalent for Polish colloqial verb zagiąć kogoś
@absolwentSGH,
ReplyDelete"where did I use 'caught on'?"
er...you didn't.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteThese are not all no-brainers! I think phrasal verbs do go in and out of fashion and that can add to the difficulty of teaching their use.
I like your idea of setting a company-wide agreement on their usage to avoid misunderstandings. For native speakers it comes naturally and will require some effort to stick to the single word synonyms.
My answers:
1.taken in
2.brought up
3.takes up
4.called off
5.thrown out, filled in
6.brought up
1.contracted
2.discarded
3.discovered
4.distribute
5.defected
6.abandon
By way of trying to show the options available in the English language I give you:
ReplyDelete1. caught out
2. born into
3. sucks up
4. put off
5. put aside, filled out
6. spoke of / about
Then
1. suffered
2. ditched
3. uncovered
4. issuing
5. switched
6. scrap
:-)
After forty years of successful professional carieer in the US you threw me to my knees with your mastering of the English, which for me is the SECOND languagedisbus. Respectfully
ReplyDelete