[Grammar] Prepositional verbs vs. phrasal verbs: "accuse of"

Hi everyone,

I am confused about something and I would love your help.

As I understand it, a prepositional verb is one that you CANNOT separate (so "look after the baby", not "look the baby after")

And a phrasal verb you can separate.

But what about "accuse of"? I have a list here and it says it is a prepositional verb. But it can be separated? For example, "I accused him or lying" or "they accused the governments around the world of deceit". Is there a difference between "to accuse of" and "to accuse somebody of"?

Many thanks in advance!

Where did you get this definition from? Phrasal verbs can be separable or inseparable. What they have in common is an idiomatic meaning that differs from the meaning of the individual words, like look after = take care.

Welcome to the forum, sog3000.

Some phrasal verbs are separable and some are not. Click here for more information, and see the Similar Threads below.

Tdol said:

Where did you get this definition from? Phrasal verbs can be separable or inseparable. What they have in common is an idiomatic meaning that differs from the meaning of the individual words, like look after = take care.

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for replying!

I got the definition from here: https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-phrasal-verbs_1.htm Which differentiates between "prepositional verbs" and "phrasal verbs", and says that prepositional verbs cannot be separated.

Could someone explain to me what the difference between a phrasal verb and a prepositional verb is? Are they used differently? And how can I tell the difference between the two?

In my English class we seem to be learning about them separately. We dedicate some time to prepositional verbs, and some to phrasal verbs.

Thank you in advance!

[

Is it perhaps that with prepositional verbs, the meaning of the original verb doesn't change drastically, whereas it does with phrasal verbs??

(But I am still confused about how I can distinguish between a phrasal and a prepositional verb)

Thanks again for any help.

I learned that "prepositional verbs" are a subset of "phrasal verbs". As such they must also be idioms, not just any verb followed by a preposition.

Piscean said:

My cut-and-paste facility is not working at the moment. Click on 'Articles' at the top of this page, and then on 'English Grammar Usage Article and Notes'. If you then scroll down, you'll come to 'Phrasal Verbs - Multi-Word Verbs. You'll find out more there.

Click to expand...

This is the link you're referring to: https://www.usingenglish.com/articles/phrasal-verbs-multiword-verbs.html

Piscean said:

Thanks. I have just discovered how to copy and paste on this steam-driven computer I am using at the moment, so I should be able to manage in future.

Click to expand...

Switch to gerbils, perhaps?

Those are not gerbils. :roll:

Skrej said:

Switch to gerbils, perhaps?

Click to expand...

The clue's in the title - they're guinea pigs. :-D