What is the difference between preposition and particle

But how could I tell the difference between an inseparable phrasal verb and a verb that is followed by a preposition? She came across a letter The car rolled down the hill. I know that in sentence 1 come across is a phrasal verb.

So here is my question: Is a letter the direct object of only across? And if it's not, why isn't? I dislike the modern tendency to make phrases more and more the units of analysis.

I would prefer to see 'come across' as the ordinary verb 'come' used with the ordinary preposition 'across', but in a metaphorical sense. Therefore I believe that 'a letter' is governed by the preposition 'across'. I agree with you, Wandle. I'd be so much easier if everybody thought of come across in that way. Click to expand English - South-East England. The traditional term 'phrasal verb' can cause confusion. The two distinct factors that can come together when a verb goes with a preposition are: 1 Does the preposition have an object complement?

That is, is it what used to be called an adverb? Phrasal verbs organized by verb This section includes phrasal verbs grouped by common verb, and phrasal verbs exercises by verb. Particles are identical to prepositions in appearance.

In fact, they can be considered a special type of preposition. But it is worth noting that particles are very different from prepositions semantically and grammatically. A particle along with a verb in a phrasal verb forms a single semantic unit.

In to The fine weather continued into November. Go past the library along Movement in relation to a surface.

Go along the main road through Movement in relation to an area. Go through the tunnel. It was past midnight when they finally left through Movement in relation to a period of time. The sunny days continued through October. Fall in love Stay out of trouble Emotions Linguistic expressions Put in into words Communication through language. Goal of activity: Learning about prepositions through the story. Practicing using physical prepositions with each other.

Type of activity: Group work 3. Materials : story book and realia 5. Student profile : 1 year of Kindergarten — 7 years old kid, Novice mid. Procedure - Show the pictures of story and talk about them - Read the story book together - Have students fill in the blanks while looking at the pictures. Goal of activity: Learning about prepositions of time and place by making and talking about the schedule.

Information gap 2. Type of activity: Pair work 3. Approximate time: 30 min 4. Materials : Storybook, worksheet, paper, coloured pencils. Student profile : 1st grader of middle Novice high. Procedure - The class reads the first chapter of the story together and the teacher checks comprehension by asking questions where appropriate.

Highlight the preposition in and explain how it can be applied to both situations. Give some example sentences about the times of events in the story. Students must fill in the blanks with the appropriate preposition, on, in, at.

They can use the storybook to help them. Type of activity: group work. Approximate time: 30 minutes. Materials: large versions of above pictures. Student profile: 4th grade elementary students, low intermediate level, 40 minute class 3 days a week. The aim is to incorporate prepositions of metaphor in their story. The teams are awarded points according to how many appropriate uses they can incorporate into their stories. These Phrasal Verbs can be used in different ways: Without direct object Get out!

It's a misnomer: in your example, it's just "making" that is the verb. I strongly disagree with BillJ's advice about phrasal verbs. The point is that the phrase "make up" behaves just like a verb, even though it is more than just one word.

When "up" appears in that context, it should be understood as part of a verb phrase rather than as having a separate role. How many verbs split in two and appear in either side of their direct objects? The preposition up has an idiomatic meaning along the lines of in to existence.

The word up there is effectively an object oriented depictive complement. Essentially, I now teach students to recognise idiomatic MWVs in sentences they are trying to understand. And how to look them up! They then need to be taught how to use the MWV correctly. This basically also entails using a good dictionary with examples and simply learning the specific MWV's grammar if the verb seems worth entering into the active lexicon.

I don't think there is much useful generalisability here. Show 12 more comments. Active Oldest Votes. Stop picking on him.