Grammar Girl here.

Listen up everyone.

Today's topic is phrasal verbs as in to listen up.

And now guest writer Bonnie Tringer writes a listener, Paulino from Minneapolis, would like

to know what phrasal verbs are and why they're called that.

Phrasal verbs always seem to stump my students when I taught English as the second language

in Tokyo, Japan.

Even those of you who are native speakers might not know what a phrasal verb is, but you

probably use at least one every hour.

Let's go over them then, hint hint.

A phrasal verb is a verb that comprises more than one word, often a verb and a preposition

such as to back off or to hold up.

Some other common ones are to give up, to break down and to run out of.

I imagine phrasal verbs are called that because the two or sometimes three components make

up a phrase, and this set of words acts as a single verb unit.

Phrasal verbs are often considered idioms or components of idioms.

As with idioms like to kick the bucket, which is an impolite way of saying to die, the

meaning of phrasal verbs doesn't always make sense from the words used in the phrase.

This is definitely a challenge for students of English.

For example, one meaning of the phrasal verb to hold up is to assault someone with a weapon

in order to steal money or valuables.

It has nothing to do with the verb to hold.

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