Phrasal Verb Grammar
The topic packs on this site answer the question of which phrasal verbs to learn. These five pages answer the other one: how they behave once you have them.
These guides explore three useful questions. Does this use take an object? Where does that object belong? And does the expression contain a particle, a preposition, or both? The examples also explain where simple rules need qualification.
The guides
What Are Phrasal Verbs?
Learn what phrasal verbs are, how literal and idiomatic meanings differ, and how examples and dictionary patterns help you use them.
Separable and Inseparable Phrasal Verbs
When does the object go in the middle of a phrasal verb, and when must it not? The pronoun rule, three-word verbs, and the mistakes learners really make.
Transitive and Intransitive Phrasal Verbs
Learn object patterns, optional objects and different senses of phrasal verbs, with examples and an explanation of why the passive is not a reliable test.
Three-Word Phrasal Verbs
Learn three-word phrasal verbs, their object patterns, -ing after prepositions, and exceptions such as put someone up to something.
Phrasal Verbs and Prepositional Verbs
Compare particle verbs and prepositional verbs through object placement, dictionary patterns and questions, with the limits of movement and stress tests.
Where to start
If you are starting from nothing, read them in the order they appear. What Are Phrasal Verbs sets up the vocabulary, and everything after it assumes you have that.
If you only have ten minutes, start with the separable and inseparable page. It shows noun and personal-pronoun patterns and how to check unfamiliar expressions in a dictionary.
The last page is the odd one out. It is the analysis behind the separability rule rather than a rule you need, so read it if you like knowing why, and skip it happily if you do not.