Course books and grammar books tell us that we can separate some phrasal verbs or not, depending on our choice, but they never seem to tell us when native speakers are likely to separate, and when not. All they usually tell us is that if the object is a pronoun, we must separate, and that there are a few phrasal verbs that are always separated, such as ring somebody back (I've written a separate post about these - link below).
Look back at those dictionary example sentences. Do you notice any difference in the sentences where the transitive verb is separated (2,3,6,8,11) and where it is not (5,9)? Think especially about the direct objects.
I think we can notice the following:
- Where the direct object is short, it often goes between the verb and the particle
- Where the object is longer, it usually goes after the particle
- When the expression is followed by a prepositional phrase (as in 11), the object goes between the verb and the particle. NOT It is important that we get across this message to voters. (but see note below)
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