Take Off, Eh?

The English language has an unusual construction shared by few others. Even those related languages such as Dutch and German, which have a similar construction, make far less use of it. We call the structure a “phrasal verb”.

Phrasal verbs are, as you might imagine, phrases, or groups of words, which behave like a single verb. Most are combinations of two words, some are three, and rare examples of four or more can be found. What you have is a handful of words describing a single action or state of being.

“Break down”, “carry on”, and “put up with” are typical phrasal verbs. They depend in part on the core verb, or action word, but are qualified by the remainder, which is usually a preposition. The preposition will entirely alter the meaning– consider “keep in”, “keep down”, “keep up”, and “keep away”. And don’t count on things being as they seem: “keep it up” is not exactly the opposite of “keep it down”, and “give it up” isn’t even related conceptually to “give it away”.

Similarly, context can make all the difference when using the exact same phrasal verb: “take off” means one thing if you’re referring to an airplane, something else if you’re speaking of a coat, and yet something else if you’re referring to plagiarism.

These things drive learners of English absolutely nuts, because there is no discernable pattern or rule that you can teach. It’s like the gender of nouns in French. There’s no reason, it just is what it is. You have to learn them one by one, but because we grow up with them, one never thinks about it.

How crazy are they? Well, let’s “break down” the “break” family of phrasal verbs: break up, break out, break down, break in, break off, break through, break away, break into, break with, and likely more. And if that’s not confusing enough for the learner of English, consider that “break down” can mean to cease functioning, or it could mean to reduce something to its elements, unless of course you’re talking Bluegrass music.

Consider “come by” – to “come by something honestly” is completely different in concept than “come by tomorrow evening”, and very much different if you’re a Border Collie (to whom it means to circle the sheep in a clockwise direction.)

Even the “F word” lends itself to a handful of quite different meanings, depending on which preposition is used, be it “up”, “off”, or “around”. We’re as adept with our vulgarities as with the rest of our language.

Enough of this ramble! But the next time somebody tries to tell you that English is such an easy language, tell them that is something up with which you will not put.