Multi-word verbs

MULTI-WORD VERBS are those verbs formed by 2 or more words. Here you have some examples:

• I look forward to seeing you (3 words)

We should distinguish between two different verbs:

• PREPOSITIONAL verbs: verbs followed by a preposition
  • Look at Peter! ---- Look at HIM!
• PHRASAL verbs: verbs followed by an adverb
  • Look up the word in the dictionary ---- Look IT up in a dictionary

But what is important to know is the way they function, that is, if you must split the verb and the particle to introduce the pronoun, as you can see in the second example. The best way to learn them is in context and then keep in mind the verb used with a pronoun as you have seen above.

There are plenty of lists of multi-word verbs but I think it's better to learn by heart all those that you need in your daily life and increase your own list little by little. Then you should go through them from time to time to revise. This kind of verbs are really frequent in English and they mark the difference in your level of English.

If you want to start practise you can use the ones in the student's book or you can go to some links on the internet like these ones:

• exercise 1      exercise 2      exercise 3     exercise 4: this is a list and it's a document for teachers but you can use it to know the main phrasal verbs.