Last week’s column examined a number of phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs, of necessity, are made up of two words; a verb and an adverb or preposition. Phrasal verbs are categorised as separable, inseparable, transitive or intransitive verbs.

The main distinction between separable and inseparable phrasal verbs is that in the case of the former, other words can be inserted between the two words that form the phrase. The opposite is true of the latter.

For instance, “James needs to take back the shovel he lent you in order to finish his own work”. We can rephrase the same sentence to read “For James to finish his own work, he will need that shovel. He will have to take it back from you”. Between the words ‘take’ and ‘back’, we have inserted ‘it’ and still retained the original meaning. Other common separable phrasal verbs include; Use up. Turn down. Set up. Put off. Put out. Point out. Hang up. Fill up. Bring up etcetera.

Inseparable phrasal verbs, while they can take a direct object (become transitive), they cannot be separated without getting mangled. Some of the most common inseparable phrasal verbs are; Look after. Go through. Run into. Run across. Call on. Get over. Wait on. Take after etcetera. When one says “Mary looks after her elder sister’s little children back home in the village”, there is no way we can separate ‘looks’ and ‘after’ by inserting another word in between and retain the meaning.

Intransitive verbs

The following example will help understand what ‘attaching a direct object’ to transitive phrasal verbs (three word phrasal verbs) means. The ‘object’ in any sentence is the person or thing that receives the action of the verb. Often, the objects are nouns. At random, let us use the most common of the transitive verbs; Look forward to (anticipate, expect).

Put up with (bear). Run out of (exhaust, finish). Walk out on (abandon). Looking forward to has everything to do with eagerness. In a sentence, one could write “Little children look forward to Christmas when they can get new cloths and presents”. The object in this case is ‘Christmas’. And while there is an ‘object’, there should be the ‘subject’. In the sentence above, the subject (who carries out the action) are ‘children’.

Intransitive verbs do not need objects to follow them. Some of the verbs are; Come over. Get by. Keep away. Come back. Break down, etcetera. In a sentence, therefore, we write; Grandpa promised to ‘come over’ (visit) but he did not. ‘Despite our limitations, we will get by” (survive). “Always ‘keep away’ (distance oneself from) from trouble makers”. “The old car ‘broke down’ (stopped working) in the middle of the road”.

Sometimes, as earlier pointed out, verbs take on a completely different meaning when used in different contexts. For example, ‘break up’ with a partner (disagree bitterly). Thieves ‘break into’ a house ( by ‘breaking down’ a door), while on a clear day the sun ‘breaks through’ the clouds.

Complex phrase

‘Break down’, when used intransitively (without attaching a direct object) means to stop working; ‘my car broke down’. The car is an inanimate object. But when the object is animate, say, a human being, the same phrasal verb ‘break down’ describes extreme sadness ; ‘Petronilla broke down on learning she had missed the bursary’. In the transitive form, (with a direct object), break down means to destroy; “The police broke down the door to the fugitive’s house to arrest him’.  The same expression, when used as an abstract noun, assumes the meaning of ‘to explain’ or ‘to simplify’. For example, “Her son had to break down the fee structure for her to understand why she was paying so much money yet education is supposed to be free”.

To conclude today’s column, let us also take a look at some of the most common words and phrases that though quite simple, could end up being used in the wrong context. ‘All things considered’, when forming part of a sentence means that one has taken into account every minute detail of the issue at hand. In a sentence, we can say; “All things considered, NASA’s plan to swear in Raila Odinga as the People’s Assembly President will impact the country negatively despite the bravado displayed by Jubilee diehards”.

The word ‘significantly’ should be used to introduce a point pregnant with meaning, for example; “Significantly, Attorney general Githu Muigai neglected to tell Kenyans that the constitution no longer permits the hanging of convicts”.

Mr Chagema is a correspondent at The Standard.achagema@standardmedia.co.ke