In the traditional grammar of Modern English, a phrasal verb typically constitutes a single semantic unit consisting of a verb followed by a particle (e.g., turn down, run into, or sit up), sometimes collocated with a preposition (e.g., get together with, run out of, or feed off of).
[3] The term was popularized by Logan Pearsall Smith in Words and Idioms (1925), in which he states that the OED editor Henry Bradley suggested it to him.
The resulting two-word verbs are single semantic units, so grow up and give in are listed as discrete entries in modern dictionaries.
A particle would naturally be grouped with the preceding verb, a preposition with the following noun phrase.
A third test, which probes further into the question of the natural division, would be to insert an adverb or adverbial between the verb and the particle/preposition.
This is possible with a following prepositonal phrase, but not if the adverbial is intruding between the two parts of a particle verb.
While this distinction is of interest to linguists, it is not necessarily important for language learners, and some textbooks recommend learning phrasal verbs as whole collocations without considering types.
Note again that the particle verb constructions (in orange) qualify as catenae in both the a- and b-trees.
An extension of the concept of phrasal verb occurs via compounding when a verb+particle complex is nominalized.
By contrast, particle verbs are much rarer in cross-language comparison, and their origins need some explanation.
An example in Dutch: In these languages, the particle can appear either before or after the base verb, according to the same rules that would apply to any other type of adverb.
When it comes in front of the verb, the spelling convention is to write the two parts together as one word, and as this happens in the infinitive, which is the dictionary form, the particle is traditionally conceived of as a prefix which separates under certain circumstances.
There are 3 phrasal verbs in Portuguese that are commonly used; Ir embora, Jogar fora and Fazer de conta.
Some other phrasal verbs are: Estar perante, Ficar de, Usar-me como and Ter Medo.