Break up, shut down, tune in, drop out, put up with.

Notice any patterns in the above list of verbs?

They’re all multi-word verbs, which means they consist of a verb and a preposition, or an adverb, or both.

You can tell that in the above examples up, down, out, and up with are part of the verbs because they affect the meaning of the verb. Break means something different from break up, shut is different from shut down, etc.

People who have English as one of their first languages use phrasal verbs all the time without even thinking about it. For learners of English, phrasal verbs can be a challenge. They’re idiomatic, which means you can’t automatically work out the meaning of something like break up by knowing the meanings of break and up in isolation.

It’s good to know about phrasal verbs when you’re using the Refreshing Grammar method to find the verb in a finite clause. Throughout the book I tell you to “stop when you get to the lexical verb.” But it’s worth knowing that some verbs are phrasal, and that the extra preposition or adverb is actually part of the verb.

For instance, in the clause You’re looking up the definition of phrasal verbs, the verb is looking up. (S You) (V ’re looking up) (C the definition of phrasal verbs). Here look up means seek or search.

But in the clause You’re looking up at the sky, the analysis is (S You) (V ’re looking) (A up at the sky). Here look means to point your gaze somewhere.

The other annoying interesting thing about phrasal verbs is that the second or third part of the verb doesn’t necessarily immediately follow the lexical verb. An example is You’re looking it up, where the analysis is (S You) (V ’re looking up) (C it).

In Chapter 5 of Refreshing Grammar I explained how to use the question-tag probe to find the verb element of a finite clause. “It will always,” I wrote on p. 59, “be the first auxiliary in the verb element of a clause.”

I explained later in the book why verbs in the simple aspect (p. 62) are slightly different. The auxiliary for these verbs will be a do auxiliary (do, does or did). There’s a detailed explanation in Chapter 5 (under the subheading “Do, do, do”), so I won’t expand further on that here.

But there are some instances where the auxiliary in the question tag won’t match the auxiliary in the clause that have to do with the way the English language has changed over time.

One example is won’t, As in I will struggle to explain this well, won’t I? If you look for the auxiliary in the question tag, you’ll be wo’fully disappointed (sorry). The use of won’t as the contracted form of will not dates back to Middle English, when the form woll (and various alternative spellings) was used. Woll not was contracted to wolln’t, and reduced even further to won’t. When you see won’t in the question tag, look for a will in the finite clause. You’ve heard of where there’s a will there’s a way? It turns out to be equally true that where there’s a won’t (in the tag) there’s a will (in the clause).

Another example is aren’t in clause like I really am struggling with this explanation, aren’t I? If you look to the auxiliary in the question tag, you find are, which doesn’t match the auxiliary in the clause, which is am. Why don't we say amn’t? Well, in some varieties amn’t is exactly the thing to say. You can learn all about amn’t in Stan Carey’s excellent blog post.

Copular verbs relate one thing in a clause (namely, the subject) to another thing (namely, the complement). The relation may be identifying, as in (spoiler alert) Darth Vader is Luke’s father. Here the copula is links the subject (Darth Vader) with a complement that identifies him (Luke’s father). The connection can also be attributive, as in Darth Vader was terrifying. Here the complement (terrifying) is a quality that is attributed to the subject (Darth Vader).

The main copular verb in English is be and its forms (am, is, are, was, were, been, being), but English also has other copular verbs, like seem, appear and become.

As you know if you’ve gotten far enough in Refreshing Grammar (or knew it already), be verbs aren’t always copular. Sometimes they’re auxiliaries.

If the be verb is functioning as a lexical verb, it’s copular. Here are some examples. (The verb element of each clause is in bold. The lexical verb is underlined.)

Oscar, my goldfish is my best friend.

He has been my light in times of darkness.

He would be even happier if I bought him one of those little fishbowl castles.

He must have been a king in a former life.

In the next set of clauses the be verbs (in bold) are auxiliaries, “helping” the lexical verbs, which are underlined.

Oscar, my goldfish is swimming serenely.

He has been shining his lovelight upon me.

He would be flipping his fins for joy if I bought him one of those little fishbowl castles.

He must have been sharing his dreams with me in some psychic fishy way.