Learn English – Distinguishing whether “up” is a preposition or a part of a phrasal verb in this case

phrasal-verbsprepositions

In the sentences below, “bill” and “hill” are both nouns.

  • He ran up a big hill.
  • He ran up a big bill.

Can someone explain how one distinguishes whether “up” is a preposition or a part of a phrasal verb?

Best Answer

In a word, context.

The simplest way would be to initially assume it's not a phrasal verb, then ask yourself, "Does the sentence make sense?"

  • Consider: He ran up a big bill - this wouldn't make much sense, not unless there was some huge bill stretched across a hilly landscape, big enough to take literal strides on.

Another trick might be to replace the main part of the verb with a synonym, and see if there is any change or loss of meaning. (If there is a shift in meaning, there's a good chance you're dealing with a phrasal verb.)

  • He sprinted up a big hill. (Essentially, means the same as, "He ran up a big hill.")
  • He sprinted up a big bill. (Does not mean the same as, "He ran up a big bill.")

As your examples show, however, unless you're already familiar with the phrasal verb, there's no way to automatically detect it just from glancing at the sentence.

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