Real Grammar - Susan Conrad, Douglas Biber 2009

There-Word Phrasal Verbs
Unit 15 I have to get out of here

What have you learned from your grammar textbook?

Some phrasal verbs consist of three words: verb + particle + preposition. Three-word phrasal verbs are always transitive and nonseparable:

• He doesn’t get along with most of his classmates.

What does the corpus show?

A

In conversation, the verb get combines with many particles and prepositions to form different three-word phrasal verbs:

B

The single most common three-word phrasal verb is get out of. This verb has many different meanings:

C

In conversation and fiction writing, most common three-word phrasal verbs express actions:

• I think it just came out of the freezer.

• I guess we should go out for dinner.

But a few three-word phrasal verbs are common with non-action meanings:

• She was looking forward to returning home.

• I can’t put up with the pain.

Frequency information. Here are the most common three-word phrasal verbs in conversation and fiction:

D

In academic writing, only two three-word phrasal verbs are common: set out in, set up in. Both of these verbs usually refer to information that is presented in a table, graph, or other kind of display:

• The predicted relationships between the variables are set out in Table 4.3.

• The table is set up in the form of a financial statement.

Activities

1 Notice in context: Read the conversation and the sentences from different types of writing. Circle the three-word phrasal verbs.

1. Conversation: At work.

Sara: Last week, Rick was coming out of the office, and he said he heard you were quitting.

Leslie: I don’t know. I can’t keep up with the schedule anymore. The hours are too long.

Sara: Yeah, the schedule’s starting to catch up with all of us. We’re all tired.

2. Fiction writing:

a. As soon as he got out of sight, they would hurry away in the other direction, and he would never see them again.

b. “I’ve given up my job,” he told the guard. “My mother and 1 are going to the country to get away from things.”

c. Patrick was nearly twenty now, and she couldn’t hold on to him forever, she realized that. But she only wanted what was best for him, and letting him go was hard.

3. Academic writing:

a. These project objectives were set out in the first project report and are quoted in Section 2.1.

b. The Agricultural Training Board was set up in 1966 to improve the technical performance of workers in the industry.

2 Analyze discourse: Get out of has many different meanings. Read each sentence and use the context to determine the meaning of get out of. Show that you understand that meaning by rephrasing the sentence without using get out of. Discuss your answers with a classmate.

1. He really needs to get out of town and be alone, that’s all.

He really needs to leave town and be alone, that’s all.

2. Get out of my chair! I need to sit down.

3. What day do we finally get out of school, John?

4. The only way he could get out of the parking ticket was to pay the fine.

5. I had pneumonia and now I get out of breath really easily.

6. I understand that Pat is going to get out of coaching the baseball team this year. I guess he really just doesn’t like it anymore.

7. Don’t let the situation get out of hand.

8. Ок-just get out of my face!

3 Practice the structure: imagine that you have a friend who says everything twice. Below are some of his comments. Guess what your friend will say next. Use a three-word phrasal verb to rephrase each of your friend's comments.

1. I invented the entire security system here at the office.

I came up with the entire security system here at the office.

2. Sometimes I like to escape the stress of work and get out of town.

3. Even though I move around a lot, I keep a lot of my old things.

4. You know, I feel like I do just as well as the more experienced workers.

5. My friend Bill and I were filling each other in on what we’ve been up to.

6. Yesterday I tolerated three barking dogs all day.

4 Practice writing a story: in a fictional story, a writer has to describe the actions of the people in the story. With a classmate, go to a public place, like your classroom, a park, or a market, and write your own story to describe what is happening there. Use three-word phrasal verbs to describe the actions of the people you see.

Example

In a park: A small boy is running to catch up with a puppy. He reaches out to hold on to his tail, but the puppy doesn’t seem to want to put up with this treatment. He growls as he tries to get away from the boy.