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Grammar
There are various grammatical aspects to bear in mind:
Separable versus not separable verbs
1.- SEPARABLE: verb & particle can be separated
Turn
on the light verb
+ particle + object (better with a long object)
Turn
the light on verb + object
+ particle
Turn
it on verb + object + particle (when
the object is a pronoun)
Turn
on
2.- INSEPARABLE & NO OBJECT: verb & particle remain together
Look
after the children verb + particle
+ object
Look
after them verb + particle
+ object
Look
them after
Look
the children after
3.- INSEPARABLE: verb & particle remain together
He
went away. verb + particle
Why
don't we eat out tonight? verb + particle
Hurry
up! We're going to be late. verb +
particle
Carry
on working!. verb + particle
So remember that when we have an object (it, him her, the bus, etc) we need to know the word order. This information is shown in most dictionaries. But even if it isn't you should study the example to try to learn how the verb is used.
If you are not sure whether a verb is separable, don't separate it. You will always be right.
Verbs with two particles
Phrasal verbs like put up with sb/sth have two particles and are never separated. There are few verbs with two particles.
Phrasal verb noun & adjective forms
Just like many other verbs in the language, phrasal verbs can also be used as nouns and adjectives.
These are some examples: backup, pick-up, or slowdown, and adjectives like spaced-oud, burned-out, broken-down, and many others.
Different
labels
Phrasal verbs, multi-word verbs, prepositional verbs, and so on. There are many different names for phrasal verbs but you shouldn't worry about this. The name is not important althought the most accepted term is phrasal verbs.
The particle can be a preposition or and adverb. Again this is not important at all. You can call it a particle, a preposition or an adverb. On this site we use the word particle because it covers both prepositions and adverbs.
The important thing is being able to understand and use phrasal verbs.
Learn phrasal verbs properly
These two examples show you things that help you remember phrasal verbs:
Example 1.- To learn keep down try to remember...
- Logic of the particle: Down sometimes means reducing.
- Good example: Excuse me sir, I'll have to ask you to keep your voice down.
- A Couple of collocations: you can keep down your voice, the noise, your weight.
- Grammar: you can separate it. You can say keep your voice down and keep it down .
Example 2.- To learn come across try to remember...
- Logic of the particle:Across sometimes means finding.
- Good example: I came across an old school friend of mine when I was travelling in Canada.
- A Couple of collocations: you can come across a friend, an old photograph, a good story in the newspaper.
- Grammar: you can't separate it. You can say come across an old friend but you can't say come an old friend across or come him across.
Meaning
The meaning of phrasal verbs may not be obvious but it's usually logical.
When you become familiar with the different meanings of particles it's easy to understand most phrasal verbs. Try to figure out the meaning of the particle every time you learn a new phrasal verb. Go to the pages on this site where the meanings are explained with examples and compare the new phrasal verb you are learning with similar phrasal verbs that share the same particle meaning.
Sometimes though, it's just not possible to understand the logic behind the particle. But there is surely a reason for speakers to use that particle. It may just be that the choice of particle was logical at the time to describe a common situation, but social change means we no longer find it logical because things are different now.