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Jackson6612 Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

The form you would look for if you were looking the word up in a ...

0The following sentence is just one of those sentences which cause problem to me.02br
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01font00The form you would look for if you were 01b01i00looking02i02b00 the word 01b01i00up02i02b00 in a dictionary.02font02br
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01font00Why has 01b01i00up02i02b00 been placed so far away from 01b01i00looking 02i02b00in the above sentence?02font00 They should be put together since 01i00looking up02i00 is a phrasal verb.02br
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01font00Couldn't that sentence be written as:02font02br
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01font00The form you would look for if you were 01b01i00looking up02i02b00 the word in a dictionary.02font0-
  

Top answer

1i 00Look up02i 00 can both be transitive and intransitive but its being transitive or not changes the meaning. 02br 02br 00look up,ıntransitive,to get better: Things are looking up since her coming as a surgeon to our hospital. 02br 02br 00look sb up, transitive, to visit someone: I am planning to look my grandmother up in the afternoon.

— Doll

  • 1i 00Look up02i 00 can both be transitive and intransitive but its being transitive or not changes the meaning.
  • 02br 02br 00look up,ıntransitive,to get better: Things are looking up since her coming as a surgeon to our hospital.
  • 02br 02br 00look sb up, transitive, to visit someone: I am planning to look my grandmother up in the afternoon.
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15 Answers
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1i00Look up02i00 can both be transitive and intransitive but its being transitive or not changes the meaning. 02br
02br
00look up,ıntransitive,to get better: Things are looking up since her coming as a surgeon to our hospital. 02br
02br
00look sb up, transitive, to visit someone: I am planning to look my grandmother up in the after
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0 Unfortunately, there is usually no indicator whether an idiomatic phrase is 02br
00 separable or inseparable. In most cases the phrases must simply 02br
00 be memorized. 0-
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0 Some two-part verbs are separable, some are not.02br
00If a two-part verb is separable (as 'look up' is separable in your sentence), then you can say either '01b00look the word up02b00' OR '01b00look up the word02b00'.02br
00However, when you use a pronoun with a separable two-part verb, then you 01u00must02u
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1font00Isn't 01i00look up02i00 a phrasal verb?02font02br
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00If it is even then 01b00Bokeh02b00 is wrong because he is calling 01i00look up02i00 an idiomatic phrase. This is not an idiomatic phrase.0-
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0 Hi Jackson02br
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00Phrasal verbs can also consist of more than two words. For example, 01b00look forward to02b00 and 01b00look down on02br
02b00These are not separable.01b02br
02br
02b00 0-
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0But you agree that 01i00look up02i00 is phrasal verb and also that it is not an idiomatic phrase. Right?02br
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00BTW here is another sentence which uses separable two-part verb:02br
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01font00When you 01b01i00set02i02b00 the adjective clauses 01b01i
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0 Jackson, the word 'idiomatic' is used in many different ways and the word 'phrasal' comes from the word 'phrase'. Basically all phrasal verbs can also be called idiomatic. I also called them something different here, too -- I chose to call them 'two-word verbs' because I only wanted to talk about verbs consisting of exactly two words. 0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Yankee12cite10Jackson, the word 'idiomatic' is used in many different ways and the word 'phrasal' comes from the word 'phrase'. 11b11font10Basically all phrasal verbs can also be called idiomatic.12font12b10 I also called them something different here, too -- I chose t
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0Jackson, I'm afraid the OED doesn't agree with you. 05002br
051010id5251hrefhttp://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/phrasalverb?view=ukcDefinition of "phrasal verb"
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0Here is still another example of sentence which uses separable two-part verb:02br
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01font01b001:02b00 He turned the cards over.02font02br
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01font01b002:02b00 He turned over the cards.02font02br
02br
01font
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