Monday, August 5, 2019

parts of speech - How to identify a phrasal verb + object from a verb + prepositional phrase

In sentences with the combination “verb + preposition + noun phrase” is there a procedure to identify whether it is a phrasal verb + object or a verb + prepositional phrase? or does it solely depend on the meaning?



For example consider these two examples from which I think the first one has a phrasal verb and the second one a prepositional phrase:






  1. She always talks about her childhood friends


  2. She fell from her bicycle





I think in the first example “talk about” is the verb and “her childhood friends” the object. As for the second example, I think “fell” should be the verb and “from her bicycle” a prepositional phrase.



The two examples seem a lot similar to me and the fact that one has an object and one doesn’t is somehow unexplainable to me.

No comments:

Post a Comment