Is ’wait for’ a phrasal verb?
Hello, everyone,
“He got up and stood patiently in front of the door, waiting for the door to open in the subway train.”
I understand "he waited for the door to open" means "he waited for the opening of the door“
When I parse the underlined part of the sentence, which one is natural to you between following two?;
1) he [waited for] (the door) the door to open;
- waited for; a transitive phrasal verb (but I’m not sure if this is a phrasal verb, based on the separability of the two words)
- the door; both an direct object of the phrasal verb and the implied subject of the infinitive - ‘to open’
2) he waited [for the door] to open;
- wait; both an intransitive verb and a catenative verb followed by ‘to infinitive’ as its complement
- for the door ; the implied subject of the infinitive - ‘to open’
Would hope to hear your valuable opinions.
Top answer
deepcosmos Is ’wait for’ a phrasal verb? No, but you can call it a prepositional verb. It's intransitive — but (off-topic) its formal cousin "await" is transitive.
- deepcosmos Is ’wait for’ a phrasal verb?
- No, but you can call it a prepositional verb.
- It's intransitive — but (off-topic) its formal cousin "await" is transitive.
- And because of the preposition, it's not catenative.
- 'wait' certainly has an interesting grammar, though, doesn't it?
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deepcosmos Is ’wait for’ a phrasal verb?
No, but you can call it a prepositional verb. It's intransitive — but (off-topic) its formal cousin "await" is transitive. And because of the preposition, it's not catenative.
'wait' certainly has an interesting grammar, though, doesn't it?
It can be followed by for and a noun:
wait for
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