DAILY GRAMMAR (DG) 23-05-2018
1. Please, don’t dabble into what you don’t know. (No)
Please, don’t dabble in what you don’t know. (Yes)
(As a phrasal verb, “dabble” attracts “in” to become “dabble in”, not “into.”)
2a. Don’t give trying up till you succeed. (No)
Don’t give up trying till you succeed. (Yes)
2b. We collected the pens and gave away them. (No)
We collected the pens and gave them away. (Yes)
(Phrasal verbs are used as fixed terms and there is usually no separation between a verb and its particle. However, one exception is that if a pronoun is the object of a phrasal verb, it must come between the verb and the particle. For example, “the gentleman brought up his children well”; “the gentleman brought them up well.”)
3a. The university was closed down for six months. (No)
The university was closed up/ shut down for six months. (Yes).
(To “close up” is to “shut down” an institution. To “close down” is to “stop trading” with reference to a small business enterprise. To “shut down” is to “stop operating”, which is applicable to institutions and business outfits. To “shut” is to block an opening. That a university is “shut” does not mean that it is “shut down”.)
Did You Know?
The year 1928 is known as “the Year of the Dictionary” because it was the year “Oxford English Dictionary” (OED) was completed, an effort that started 67 years earlier. Acclaimed as “the supreme authority, without a rival or the prospect of a rival”, OED provides unequalled documentation of the words that make up the English language as it has been spoken, written, printed or transmitted over the last millennium.