Prepositional verbs are a series of verbs which are included in a group called multi-word verbs, that is, a verb plus a particle. Depending on the category of the particle, a multi-word verb is a prepositional verb (if the particle is a preposition) or a phrasal verb (if it is an adverb). The main characteristic of prepositional verbs, which makes it different from phrasal verbs, is that the particle can never be separated from the verb.
Therefore, prepositional verbs are those that contain a preposition, which is always followed by its nominal object, either a noun group or a pronoun. Say, a more practical definition of prepositional verbs could be, as I explained in class, that they are verbs that always go with a certain preposition. Let's see some examples:
The exam consists of a written part and an oral part.
Your travelling abroad this summer will depend on your school final marks.
When someone speaks to you, please look at their face.
Prince Phillip got married to Letizia Ortiz.
John is very friendly. He always sympathises with everybody's problems.
They were listening to the news while I was waiting for the taxi.
As you can see in the above examples, these verbs always go with these prepositions and the meaning is always the same. However, there are some prepositional verbs which can change preposition with an implication of a change of meaning. For example:
I couldn't go out yesterday because I had to look after my sister. (look after = watch)
She lost my car keys and I looked for them everywhere in the house. (look for = search)
The police looked into him and discovered he was the murderer. (look into = investigate)
Remember: Prepositional verbs are not separable, that is, you cannot separate the verb from the particle, not even if the object is a pronoun:
John always dreams about Anna. (OK)
John always dreams about her. (OK)
John always dreams her about. (NEVER!!)
(Compare with phrasal verbs)
An article on Phrasal and prepositional verbs here.
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