Thread: easy Q. on phrasal verbs

Two examples from the book:
1) Please try not to wake the baby up.
2) You'll wake up the whole family if you don't keep quiet.

Is it correct to say vice versa (i.e. "wake up the baby"/"wake the whole family up")? There is probably a rule which determines the position of the direct object in the sentences with phrasal verbs.

"Wake up the baby/wake up the whole family" and "wake the baby up/wake the whole family up"

Either way they are all correct.

You can even say, "Try not to wake the baby" and it will be correct also mean the same.

Ok, thanks. So this particular phr.verb "wake up" can be used in both ways. But that's not always so, right? I suppose I should just memorize which phr. verbs allow me to use object before particle and whicn don't.

"Try not to wake the baby" sounds the best.

You don't need to use "up" in sentence 2 either.

I think "up" is used only to stress the point.

The only time I can think that "up" needs to be used is in the imperative such as when you are telling someone to, "Wake up!" As in, "Now get out of bed and get dressed and go to work you lazy bum."

some notes from the grammar course in the University:
the place of the particle in phrasal verbs is determined by the object, i.e. if an object is represented by a noun, the position if the particle isn't strict. though the particle must always be placed after an object, if it is represented by a pronoun.
E.g. lift up the baby
lift the baby up
But: lift me up

hope, everything is clear

[quote="gRomoZeka"]Two examples from the book:
1) Please try not to wake the baby up.
you shouldn't end sentences with a preposition.
2) You'll wake up the whole family if you don't keep quiet.

The use of up in these sentences implies a kind of emphasis or stress and
is usually omitted unless the emotional context demands it. Try not to memorize rules, rather get as much exposure to the written and spoken language.

Thanks, Scraty!

Originally Posted by sperk

Try not to memorize rules, rather get as much exposure to the written and spoken language.

That's what I do usually. But sometimes speaking/writing by intuition gives hilarious result, so I'm trying now to improve my grammar skills.