Find it out, but look at it. Both are a verb and a small word, and the pronoun goes in a different place. In 473 lines of the novel, the pronoun stands between the verb and the small word 34 times and after it 8, and the 8 turn out not to be exceptions.
Core ideas
Three ideas. The second explains the 8.
Up, out, off, down, away, back and over can be a particle. At, to, for, of and with are prepositions. The test between them is the pronoun: it goes between the verb and a particle, and after a preposition.
The lab finds 34 lines with a pronoun between verb and particle and 8 with the pronoun after. Read the 8. Five begin a new sentence or clause (came away. It was, sit down You are). Three have over as a preposition: get over it twice and glancing over it. None puts a pronoun object after a true particle.
A phrasal verb is a verb and a particle that act as one. The novel's commonest are go away 32, sit down 29, find out 20, come back 16, and then give up and set off with 12 each; the tile names give up, the first of the two by spelling. The play's are sit down 11, go out 9, break off 8, pick up 7, and come up and go over with 5 each.
The material
34 of the 42 lines with a pronoun put it between. Read the other 8.
A particle, plural particles, is a small word such as up, out or off that joins a verb to make one action: give up, find out, put off. A preposition (plural prepositions) is a small word such as at or of that joins a noun to the verb. On the page they look the same, and they follow different rules.
Take a pronoun, it, as the object. After a verb and up, it goes in the middle: give it up. After a verb and at, it goes at the end: look at it. The place of the pronoun tells you which small word you have.
The lab runs this on 473 lines from the novel. It finds a verb and one of seven particles, and looks for a pronoun. 34 lines have the pronoun between, among them find it out, give it up and put it off. 8 have it after, and that gives 81.0% for the rule.
81.0% looks like a rule with exceptions. Read the 8 and it is not. Five of them are a verb and a particle at the end of a clause, with the next clause starting with a pronoun: when we came away it was, let us sit down You are. The lab sees a pronoun after the particle, and the pronoun is not its object. The other three are get over it, twice, and glancing over it. There over is a preposition, and the pronoun follows it as the rule for prepositions says.
So the 34 are the whole story for a pronoun object. The play reads the same way. Its sample is smaller, 149 lines, with 16 between and 5 after, which is 76.2%. Of the 5, three begin a new clause, as sitting down You can does, and two follow a noun, a good influence over him and her hand over it, so again none puts the object after a particle.
The second list under the table holds the contrast: 347 lines in the novel with a verb, at, to, for, of or with, and a pronoun. Look at it, think of it, dance with him. Every one has the pronoun last. These lines were gathered that way, so the count says how common the pattern is. It does not say that no one could write it otherwise.
The novel's 473 lines are not 473 different verbs. Five make up a large share of them: go away 32, sit down 29, find out 20, come back 16 and give up 12, with set off also at 12 just behind it in the full table. The play's 149 lines lead with sit down 11, then go out 9, break off 8, pick up 7 and come up 5, with go over at 5 beside it. Sit down is in both lists.
What the lab cannot tell you is the meaning. Give up does not mean give and up, and the lab does not know that. It finds spellings. A few rows are not phrasal verbs at all, such as any great advantage over the country, where the word before over is a noun. You are looking at a count, and the table is there so that you can see where it is soft.
Interactive
Every verb and particle in the text, and every verb, preposition and pronoun
The contrast: a verb, then a preposition (at, to, for, of, with), then a pronoun. The pronoun comes after a preposition, never before it.
| the printed words | verb | preposition | pronoun |
|---|
Method
Three questions, then one check.
Then it is a preposition. The pronoun comes after it: look at it, think of it.
It may be a particle. Say the pronoun and check the next step.
Find it out, give it up, put it off. Not find out it.
Give up the idea and give the idea up are both said. Only the pronoun is fixed.
Get it over and get over it are both in the novel. Over can be either, and the pronoun's place tells you which.
Each is a line, or the same kind of line. Name the small word, then the place of the pronoun.
The first three are among the 34. The next two are of the 347 lines in the lab's second list, in which a verb, one of five prepositions and a pronoun stand together. In every one of the 347 the pronoun is after the preposition, but that is how the lines were chosen, so it shows how common the pattern is and not that no one writes otherwise.
The last is one of the 8. In get over it the word over is a preposition, and the pronoun follows it as it follows at. In get it over the same word is a particle. The rule is not broken. The word has two jobs.
You should be able to tell a particle from a preposition by where the pronoun goes, read the rule's score off the printed lines, explain the lines that look like exceptions, and name the phrasal verbs a text uses most.
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