|
Welcome to your GrammarBook.com e-newsletter.
|
I am a GED instructor at a local community college in southern Oregon. I use The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation and GrammarBook.com to teach writing skills relevant to the GED exam. Thank you for providing these valuable resources for my students.
—Kay J.
I love your GrammarBook.com website and the quizzes I can take after each lesson to test what I've learned.
—Linda P.
I have been a subscriber for a while and am so pleased with your e-newsletter. Your articles are easy to understand and make learning grammar fun!
—Donna M.
|
|
|
Understanding Verb Particles
As noted in a recent GrammarBook e-newsletter article, verbs form both the engine and the steering wheel driving our language.
They determine the direction and speed of a sentence.
Sometimes, we’ll spot other words riding with them in the passenger
seat. They’re not verbs, but they still attach themselves with seat
belts secured. We accept and use those words because we know the main verb
needs them for where we want to go in expressing ourselves.
These verb-car passengers are referred to as verb particles. Verb particles are the add-ons in verb phrases with idiomatic meanings—i.e., their definition is not obvious from the words creating the phrase.
Consider a sentence such as “She looked up the number in her cell
phone’s contact list.” The verb is “looked.” The
verb particle is “up.” A literal, non-idiomatic reading of the
words alone would lead us to think she was physically looking up, perhaps
toward the sky or a ceiling. Idiomatically, however, we understand she is
retrieving the number from her phone.
Some other common verb particles are “in,” “off,”
“down,” “over,” and “out,” as used in
the following examples:
Facing constituent pressure, the governor gave in
to the Senate’s proposed legislation.
Would you please break off a piece of that
chocolate bar for me?
Analysts agree the company’s bold marketing campaign will beat down the competition.
That’s a tough question. Let me mull over
my answer for a while.
Will you be checking out of your room soon?
Here are several more verbs that include particles to achieve their
meaning:
| bog down |
shape up |
| break away |
single out |
| burn down |
sleep in |
| flip out |
sum up |
| head out |
wind up |
| hold up |
wrap up |
As shown here, the verb particle is often needed to convey the right idea.
At the same time, we need to watch for particles that seem like they belong
but make the phrase a tautology—e.g., continue on, close down. These examples would not lose meaning or clarity without the particle and thus are not idiomatic.
In certain other cases, a particle might create a tautology, but we still
need it for proper writing and speech. One such instance involves the verb
“sit,” which by definition does not need the particle
“down” for clarity. However, imagine using “sit”
instead of “sit down” when addressing a person instead of a
dog.
It’s always easier to use and ride with a particle in your verb car
when you know what it is, why it’s there, and, equally important, if
it belongs. Just determine if together the verb and particle are idiomatic
and not tautological. If so, leave them connected and keep your content
cruising along.
If not, pull over, let the passenger out, and wish it the best in finding
another good sentence.
Because of the e-newsletter’s large readership, please submit your comments or questions regarding today's (or any past) article through GrammarBook.com’s Grammar Blog
|
|
Free BONUS Quiz for You!
[[firstname]], because you are a subscriber to the newsletter, you get access to one of the Subscribers-Only Quizzes. Click here to take an Affect vs. Effect Quiz and get your scores and explanations instantly!
More Good News for Quiz Subscribers
We are pleased to announce that we have added even more quizzes to help you challenge yourself, your students, and your staff. We added quizzes to existing categories and created some new categories such as “Vocabulary,” “Spelling,” “Confusing Verbs,” “Subjunctive Mood,” “Comprise,” and “Sit vs. Set vs. Sat.”
We reviewed and strengthened every quiz on our website to ensure consistency with the rules and guidelines contained in our eleventh edition of The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation.
If you think you have found an error in a quiz, please email us at help@grammarbook.com.
“GrammarBook's subscription quizzes opened a new door for me, a way to see exactly who is doing the work and who isn’t, and it is very convenient for the students.”
“So convenient … hundreds of quizzes in one click.”
[[firstname]], Subscribe to receive hundreds of English usage quizzes not found anywhere else!
- Take the quizzes online or download and copy them.
- Get scored instantly.
- Find explanations for every quiz answer.
- Reproduce the quizzes to your heart’s content.
- EASY to use.
- No software to download.
- No setup time.
- A real person to help you if you have any questions!
Instructors and Employers: we make your life easier!
- Assign quizzes to your students or employees.
- Students log in from anywhere.
- Scores are tallied and compiled for you.
- You decide whether to let students see their own scores and quiz explanations.
- Let GrammarBook.com take the hassle out of teaching English!
“Fun to test my skills!”
“The explanations really help … thanks!”
Your choice: Subscribe at the $29.95 or $99.95 level ($30 off - previously $129.95).
“I download the quizzes for my students who don’t have computer access.”
Subscribe today to receive hundreds of English usage quizzes not found anywhere else!
“Makes learning English FUN!”
 |
Don’t need all the quizzes at once?
You can now purchase the same quizzes individually for ONLY 99¢ each. Purchase yours here. |
Get Yours Today!
Get Amazon’s No. 1 Best-seller in Four Categories!
No. 1 in Grammar
No. 1 in Reading
No. 1 in Lesson Planning
No. 1 in Vocabulary |
The Blue Book of Grammar
and Punctuation
by Jane Straus, Lester Kaufman, and Tom Stern
The Authority on English Grammar!
Eleventh Edition Now Available
Have You Ordered Your Copy Yet?
An indispensable tool for busy professionals, teachers, students, homeschool families, editors, writers, and proofreaders.
Available in print AND as an e-Book! Over 2,000 copies are purchased every month!
Order Your Copy Today!
- Hundreds of Grammar, Punctuation, Capitalization, and Usage Rules
- Real-World Examples
- Spelling / Vocabulary / Confusing Words
- Quizzes with Answers
The publisher of The Blue Book, Jossey-Bass, A Wiley brand, is offering a 35 percent discount for those of you who order the book through Wiley.com. Shipping and tax are not included. Simply go to bit.ly/1996hkA and use discount code E9X4A.
*Offer expires December 31, 2017.
|
Wordplay
Learn all about who and whom, affect and effect, subjects and verbs, adjectives and adverbs, commas, semicolons, quotation marks, and much more by just sitting back and enjoying these easy-to-follow lessons. Tell your colleagues (and boss), children, teachers, and friends. Click here to watch. |
