Name: How to use phrasal verbs type 1, 2, 3 & 4 - 6 Minute Grammar
Uploaded: 2025-02-09T10:56:55.000Z
Duration: 6 min 14 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Welcome to 6 Minute Grammar with me, Callum.

In this programme we're talking about multi-word verbs.

Yes, these are verbs that are made up of more than one word.

There is a main verb followed by one or two particles, which might be adverbs or prepositions.

And multi-word verbs are incredibly important.

They're used all the time in spoken English and often in written English.

So if you want to have a good understanding of English and want to be able to express yourself naturally, it's a good idea to know your multi-word verbs.

There are different types of multi-word verbs and today we're looking at four types of prepositional and phrasal verbs.

And to keep things simpler, we'll refer to them all as phrasal verbs.

And listen for the answer to this question.

On the first day I picked up a nasty bug.

I think I picked it up from something I ate.

Well, we hadn't been getting along well for some time.

I guess we just couldn't put up with each other for any longer. 6 Minute Grammar from the BBC Right, that was Dave using a lot of phrasal verbs.

Now the question was, why did Dave have to stay in bed, Callum?

And the answer is, because he picked up a nasty bug.

Yep, and picked up is a phrasal verb that means caught here.

To pick up is an example of a type 1 phrasal verb.

These phrasal verbs are transitive, which means they always have an object.

Without an object, it doesn't make sense.

So there has to be something that is picked up.

In this example, the object of picked up is a nasty bug.

And with type 1 phrasal verbs, you can put the object after the particle or between the verb and the particle.

So you can say, I picked up a nasty bug or I picked a nasty bug up.

But if you use an object pronoun like it, him or her, it must go between the verb and the particle.

As we heard Dave say about the bug, he picked it up from something he ate, not he picked up it.

Now listen for another phrasal verb in this clip.

Now, get over is our second type of phrasal verb.

To get over something means to feel better after an illness or an upsetting event.

It's transitive too, so it always has an object.

But unlike type 1 phrasal verbs, the object or the object pronoun must come after the particle.

You can't separate the verb and the particle, unlike Dave and his girlfriend.

It's not very nice to split up on holiday, is it?

And what do we need to know about type 3s, Callum?

Well, they are intransitive and that means they don't have an object and you can't split the two parts of the phrasal verb.

If two people get along, it means they like each other and have a good relationship with each other.

I guess we just couldn't put up with each other for any longer.

And there's our fourth type of phrasal verb and there are three parts to it.

There's put, followed by the particles up and with.

Like type 2 phrasal verbs, the object must always come after the particles.

And finally, some phrasal verbs are both type 3 and type 4.

Yes, do you remember that Dave and his girlfriend hadn't been getting along?

Well, you could also say that they hadn't been getting along with each other.

We can sometimes extend the type 3 phrasal verbs to become type 4 like that.

So Catherine, how do you know what type a phrasal verb is?

Well, if you see it or hear it being used, you can usually work it out, but also a good dictionary will tell you whether it's transitive or not.

So I recommend whenever you note a new phrasal verb, you also write down some examples and what type it is.

When Dave got ill, it took him a few days to get it over.