Simple Verb Complements 153 it I needed to hear what they had to say. it I like to get home early on Fridays. Gerunds it I love going for long walks in the fall. it I liked hearing what they had to say. it I like getting home early on Fridays. The nice thing about using a third-person pronoun to identify objects is that you don’t even need to know the technical name for a complex object structure. All you need to know is that it can be replaced by a third-person pronoun. Exercise 10.2 Underline the objects that follow the italicized transitive verbs. Confi rm your answer by showing that a third-person pronoun can substitute for the object. it I noticed that you got a new computer. 1. They heard what you said. 2. The lawyers confi rmed that we needed to consult a patent attorney. 3. They emphasized always being on time to meetings. 4. I anticipated having to get a taxi to get to work on time. 5. We fi nally chose to look for a new apartment closer to our jobs. 6. The contract specifi ed that all the work had to be fi nished by June 30. 7. We resumed what we had been doing before we had to stop. 8. The audience appreciated how well they had performed. 9. We looked into taking a vacation in Mexico this summer. 10. You need to be more careful in the future. (i-viiiB,001-328B) whl bk.indd 153 3/16/09 12:34:12 PM 154 Verb Phrases 11. The witness swore that the defendant had not been at the scene. 12. I couldn’t resist making fun of such a ridiculous idea. 13. Nobody could understand his excited shouting. 14. Finally we recovered what we had initially invested in the company. 15. Please forgive what I said earlier. Separable and inseparable phrasal (two-word) verbs. Phrasal (two-word) verbs are an idiomatic combination of verbs and prepositions or adverbs whose meanings are often wildly unpredict- able. Phrasal verbs also pose a major problem for nonnative speakers because they have some very unusual grammatical characteristics. In this section we will only examine what are called sepa- rable and inseparable phrasal verbs. A separable phrasal verb is a compound verb consisting of a verb stem and an adverb. (The terminology for phrasal verbs is unsettled. Many books use the term particle rather than adverb or preposition. The differences in terminology are not very important since there is no real dif- ference in the description of how phrasal verbs work.) Here are three examples that all involve the verb call: The CEO called off the meetings. (call off ϭ cancel or postpone) The CEO called up the chairman. (call up ϭ telephone) The CEO called back the reporter. (call back ϭ return someone’s telephone call) What is so unusual about the grammar of separable phrasal verbs is that the adverb part of the verb compound can be moved to a position following the direct object, breaking the verb com- pound apart: The CEO called off the meetings. ⇒ The CEO called the meeting off. The CEO called up the chair. ⇒ The CEO called the chair up. The CEO called back the reporter. ⇒ The CEO called the reporter back. Note that the adverb part of the compound is moved to a position immediately after the direct object, but before any other adverbs: The CEO called off the meetings yesterday ⇒ The CEO called the meetings off yesterday. Sometimes learners make the assumption that the adverb moves to the end of the sentence. This is not correct: The CEO called off the meetings yesterday ⇒ X The CEO ca lled t he meetings yesterday off. (i-viiiB,001-328B) whl bk.indd 154 3/16/09 12:34:12 PM Simple Verb Complements 155 Even more remarkable, if the direct object is a pronoun, then moving the adverb is obliga- tory. The sentence is ungrammatical if the adverb does not move. X The CEO called off them ⇒ The CEO called them off. X The CEO called up him/her ⇒ The CEO called him/her up. X The CEO called back him/her ⇒ The CEO called him/her back. Exercise 10.3 Underline the object noun phrase that follows the italicized separable phrasal verb in each sen- tence and write the appropriate object pronoun substitute above it. Then rewrite the sentence to replace the object noun phrase with the pronoun. Remember to move the adverb portion of the verb compound to a position immediately after the object pronoun. them We took down the Christmas decorations this morning. We took them down this morning. 1. I dropped off my parents at the station. 2. Jordan wrote down the message on a slip of paper. 3. He looked over the report carefully. 4. The waiter brought in the next course promptly. 5. Susan read back the memo to me. 6. I looked up the answer on Google. 7. George thought through all the complexities very carefully. 8. We talked over all the major points before the meeting. (i-viiiB,001-328B) whl bk.indd 155 3/16/09 12:34:12 PM 156 Verb Phrases 9. Finally, I got back my stolen bicycle from the police station. 10. She poured out her troubles to her closest friend. 11. We picked up the kids’ toys quickly. 12. Albert turned down the company’s generous offer regretfully. 13. I put together all the loose ends in a neat package. 14. Our company is taking over their company in a friendly merger. 15. The lawyer summed up his case simply and forcefully. We now turn to the second set of transitive phrasal verbs, inseparable phrasal verbs. These are verb compounds consisting of a verb stem plus a preposition. (The second element in the compound is called a preposition because, unlike the adverbs in separable compounds, preposi- tions cannot move.) Here are some examples of inseparable phrasal verbs: She knows about the meeting. I bumped into an old friend today. John talked to Mary. The second element in the phrasal verb cannot move, even if we replace the object with a pronoun: She knows about the meeting She knows about it. ⇒ X She knows it about. I bumped into an old friend today. I bumped into him/her today. ⇒ X I bumped him/her into today. John talked to Mary. John talked to her. ⇒ X John talked her to. (i-viiiB,001-328B) whl bk.indd 156 3/16/09 12:34:13 PM Simple Verb Complements 157 The obvious problem for English learners is how to tell which phrasal verbs are separable and which are inseparable. There actually is a way to predict (to a degree at least) which com- pounds are separable and which are inseparable, but it isn’t simple. It turns out that the lists of adverbs and prepositions used in separable and inseparable verb compounds are nearly mutually exclusive. That is, if you know what you are looking for, you can make a good guess based on the second element in the compound whether the compound is separable or inseparable. Here is a list of the most common adverbs and prepositions used in phrasal verbs: Separable adverbs Inseparable prepositions apart about away after back against down at in by off for on from out into over of through on up through to with What is remarkable about the list is that there are only two words, on and through, that appear on both lists. With the exception of these two words, you can predict with a fair degree of accu- racy whether a phrasal verb is separable or inseparable by looking at the second element in the compound. It is probably worth your time to memorize the list of separable adverbs. (You do not need to memorize both lists. The list of separable adverbs is longer, and separable adverbs are much less common than inseparable prepositions.) Sometimes this rule of thumb (“rule of thumb” is an English idiom meaning an imperfect, but nevertheless helpful guide) will be wrong, but it will be right far more often than guessing will be. Exercise 10.4 Label the italicized phrasal verbs as Sep (for separable) or Insep (for inseparable). If the verb is separable, confi rm your answer by moving the adverb to a position immediately after the object. Sep They talked over their proposal this morning. They talked their proposal over this morning. (i-viiiB,001-328B) whl bk.indd 157 3/16/09 12:34:13 PM 158 Verb Phrases 1. Please look after my plants. 2. James always played down the size of the problem. 3. He consulted with everybody involved in the project. 4. They split up the original team. 5. He hinted at the possibility of a new job. 6. They guarded against getting over confi dent. 7. I pointed out all the problems. 8. A policeman pulled over the red convertible. 9. I stand by my original statement. 10. The terrorists blew up a gasoline truck. 11. She learns from her mistakes. 12. He was trying to paper over his involvement. 13. Let’s talk about our problems. (i-viiiB,001-328B) whl bk.indd 158 3/16/09 12:34:13 PM Simple Verb Complements 159 14. We need to pare down our expenses. 15. They prayed for a swift recovery. 16. We set up the display tables quickly. 17. He hardly blinked at his outrageous offer. 18. We turned in our badges at the desk. 19. Did you hear about the new offi ce? 20. I kept playing over the entire conversation. Linking verbs In linking verbs, the subject is not an actor performing any action, and the complement is not the recipient of any action. Rather, the complement is used to describe some attribute or character- istic of the subject. The verb is called a linking verb because it links the complement back to the subject. Linking verbs can take three different types of complements: (1) noun phrases (including pronouns), (2) predicate adjectives, and (3) adverbs of place and time. If the complement of the linking verb (Link) is a noun phrase, it is called a predicate nomi- native (Pred Nom) rather than an object. Here is an example: subject Link Pred Nom Thomas is a football player. Note that the subject Thomas and the predicate nominative a football player are one and the same person: Thomas ϭ a football player. (i-viiiB,001-328B) whl bk.indd 159 3/16/09 12:34:13 PM . unusual about the grammar of separable phrasal verbs is that the adverb part of the verb compound can be moved to a position following the direct object, breaking the verb com- pound apart: The CEO. verb stem and an adverb. (The terminology for phrasal verbs is unsettled. Many books use the term particle rather than adverb or preposition. The differences in terminology are not very important. anticipated having to get a taxi to get to work on time. 5. We fi nally chose to look for a new apartment closer to our jobs. 6. The contract specifi ed that all the work had to be fi nished by