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  • Pronunciation Stress in Phrasal Verbs and Transitive/Intransitive review

    Oh boy, more grammar with phrasal verbs. The cool thing about learning phrasal verb grammar is that it really reviews all verb grammar rules in English.

    One of the more difficult rules is transitive and intransitive verbs. Transitive is when a verb requires an object. Intransitive verbs do not allow for an object. What does that mean? Transitive verbs are verbs that need something/someone to receive the action. I took away…(what? something is missing here because the verb is transitive and it needs ‘an object’ to receive the action.) I took away the toy from the child. (Not nice, but the sentence works!) Intransitive is exactly the opposite. It does NOT allow for an object. The car broke down. (Try to put an object in this sentence and you can’t).

    So today we are looking at the stress put on phrasal verbs. PASS out or pass OUT? It relates back to whether the verb is transitive or intransitive. Interestingly some verbs can be both but with different meanings.
    She passed OUT because of the altitude. INTRANSITIVE (inseparable)
    The teacher PASSED out our homework assignments. TRANSITIVE (separable)
    The teacher PASSED our homework assignments out.

    Are you confused? Watch the video and do the exercise to see if you understand this grammar point.

    Choose which word should be stressed. Example: You can’t get away with anything. stress is on ‘away’ You can’t get AWAY with anything.
    1. I’ve only passed out one time in my life. (pass or out)
    2. The house burned down from a chimney fire. (burned or down)
    3. I never fall for her tricks.
    4. Her boyfriends always cheat on her.
    5. I passed the homework out to my students.
    6. I have been through a lot in the past few years.
    7. She is coming down with a cold.

    Can you use each of the above phrasal verbs in your own sentences?

    Learn more phrasal verbs with our Phrasal Verb of the Day.

    • Petar Šimić

      1. I’ve only passed OUT one time in my life.
      2. The house burned DOWN from a chimney fire.
      3. I never FALL for her tricks.
      4. Her boyfriends always CHEAT on her.
      5. I PASSED the homework out to my students.
      6. I have BEEN through a lot in the past few years.
      7. She is coming DOWN with a cold.

      1.2. I’ve passed OUT after eight pints last Saturday.
      2.2. I saw when rioters put a car on fire. It burned DOWN in minutes!
      3.2. I FALL for blondes.
      4.2. I would never CHEAT on my wife.
      5.2. When I arrived to the office, I PASSED the questionnaire out to all their employees.
      6.2. I WENT through that too, and I can say to you that long-term relationship breakup is a nasty thing.
      7.2. I didn’t go to work because I came DOWN with the flu.

      • LOIEnglish

        Petar…good work. I’m going to give you a few pointers on your sentences that you created.
        1.2-Here you used the present perfect tense however we can never use this tense when we have a time reference. ‘Saturday’ You can say: I passed out after eight pints last Saturday. (after 8 pints anyone would pass out!)
        2.2 I saw when rioters SET a car on fire.
        3.2. I went through that too, and ALL I can say to you IS that A long-term relationship breakup is a nasty thing.

        Thanks for answering!

        • Petar Šimić

          Wow, big thanks for the high-quality feedback.

    • Yuri Manzhos

      but Petar has a mistake in 5. I passed the h/w OUT…