33. Focus on: phrasal verbs and midsentence adverbs

As we saw in Section 17, adverbs are words that modify verbs. Some adverbs are called midsentence adverbs because they are commonly placed in the middle of a sentence. Midsentence adverbs are usually placed before main verbs:

He X goofs around. She X helped him out.

after any form of be:

He is X goofing around. She wasn't X helping him out.

and between an auxiliary (helping) verb and the main verb:

He will X goof around.

She can't X help him out.

In questions, a midsentence adverb is usually placed between the subject and the main verb:

Does he X goof around?

Is he X goof ing around?

Has she X helped him out?

The following are common midsentence adverbs. Adverbs of frequency

Other midsentence adverbs

250

1. blow... up p.v. When something blows up or when someone blows something up, it explodes.

Seven people were killed when the building blew up.

The hijackers ultimately blew the plane up.

2. blow... up p.v. When something blows up or when someone blows something up, it becomes much larger because air or something else is being forced into it.

It always takes me an hour or more to blow up the balloons for a party.

Hank blew up a beach ball and threw it in the pool.

3. blow... up p.v. When you make a picture or photograph larger, you blow it up.

I blew the photograph up and framed it.

When you blow this photo of the car up, you can make out the license plate number.

blowup n. A blowup is a picture or photograph that has been made larger.I made a blowup of the photo and framed it.

4. blow up (atIover) p.v. [informal] When you blow up or blow up at someone, you suddenly become very angry. When you blow up over something, you suddenly become very angry because of it.

Heather blew up when she saw her boyfriend dancing with Linda.

Heather blew up at her boyfriend when she saw him dancing with Linda.

Dad blew up over the increase in our property taxes.