A practical english grammar - Vyssaja skola 1978

Separable two-word verbs
Sound symbols

English uses many combinations of a verb and a function word (usually analyzed as an adverb) together so that they express a unit of meaning that is often quite different from that of either of the elements in isola­tion. For example, put on means “don,” put out means “extinguish,” put off means “postpone,” and put up means “preserve (food) by can­ning” or “furnish sleeping accommodations to.”

Not only does the student have to learn the meanings of the various combinations, but he also has to learn which are separable and which are not. By separable we mean that the two elements making up the two-word verb may be separated by a direct object coming between them.

Put your hat on.  Put on your hat.

Put the light out.  Put out the light.

Put the party off.  Put off the party.

The noun object of a separable two-word verb may come between the two parts, but is not required to.

Unstressed pronoun objects (me, you, him, her, it, us, them, and the indefinite one) must come between the two parts of separable two- word verbs:

Put it on.

Put it out.

Put it off.

Such an arrangement of words as “put on it” is not English.

Here is a list of common separable two-word verbs with unpredictable meanings. The student must keep in mind that this is only a sample, and also that any list is valid only for the time it is made, since new combinations come into use all the time.¹

¹ For a more detailed treatment of two-word verbs, the student is referred to The Key to English Two-Word Verbs (in the Collier Macmillan English Program) or to any good dictionary.

TWO-WORD VERBS

blow up     cause to explode

bring about    cause to happen

bring on    induce, cause to begin

bring off    accomplish (something difficult)

bring out    publish (e.g., a book)

bring up    raise (e.g., children or a subject)

call off    cancel (e.g., a meeting)

call up    telephone

carry out    perform, fulfill

cut off    sever, amputate

cut out    eliminate, delete

do over     redo, do for the second time

figure out    calculate

fill in or fill out   complete (e.g., a questionnaire, printed form)

fill up    fill completely

find out     learn, discover

give away    give (indiscriminately, as something one no longer wants)

give back    return (something taken from another)

give off     emit (rays, smoke, etc.)

give up     surrender, abandon

hand in     submit (e.g., a report to someone in authority)

hand out    distribute publicly, gratis

have on    be dressed in

hold off     delay, restrain

leave out    omit

let down    disappoint, betray

look, over    examine

look up     seek (information in a book, file, etc.)

make out    write (a check, formal document)

make up    invent, compose (a story); apply cosmetics (to the face)

mix up    mingle thoroughly; confuse

pass out    distribute publicly

pass up     take no advantage of, refuse (e.g., an opportunity)

pay off    discharge a debt to

pick out     select

pick up     lift with the hands or fingers

point out    indicate (a detail or individual among others)

put away    store, put (something) in a safe place

put on    dress oneself in

take down    write from dictation

take off    remove (clothes)

tear down    destroy (a structure)

throw away    discard, reject (objects not wanted)

try on    put on (a garment) to test the fit appearance, etc.

try out     test, use experimentally

turn down    refuse, reject (an offer)

turn off     stop the operation of by interrupting the flow of electricity, fluid in a pipe, etc.

turn on     begin the operation of, by electricity, water, gas, etc.

wear out    use (something) until it is no longer serviceable