English Pronunciation Tip of the Day
Tip 89
Category:
Intonation
Author: JAM
Compound verbs and the nucleus (2)
In Tip 81 we saw that the nucleus often falls on the particle of a compound verb and not on the verb itself. There is another class of compound verbs, often called phrasal verbs, which have a verb part and a particle. The difference between these and those in the earlier tip is that phrasal verbs can take an object noun or pronoun. Examples:
1 Take your hat off.
2 Take off your hat.
3 Take it off.
In sentences 1 and 2, where the object is a noun, the nucleus is most likely on the syllable hat, but in sentence 3, where the object is a pronoun, the nucleus is likely to be off.
Here are some more examples with the nucleus underlined:
I don't have room to put him up.
You haven't filled your form in.
Could you stop here and drop me off?
If you don't want those books, just cross them out.