<p>Well, a phrasal verb is a way of conveying some sort of verbal meaning. So instead of using a phrasal verb, you can just use a verb. Instead of &quot;pick up&quot;, you can have a verb &quot;take&quot;; instead of &quot;back down&quot;, you can have a verb &quot;retreat&quot;. And so on.</p>
<p>Some languages, like Latin, have a set of affixes that you can attach to verbs to derive new ones, and this is how they make all the verbs they need to express various meanings. Other languages just have a lot of verbs in their lexicons.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-17T17:54:51.863Z
Seems to me that verbs like *re-treat* and *pro-ceed* and *per-ceive*, which we know mainly from Latin but are common everywhere in IE, differ from English phrasal verbs only in their inseparability, and German verbs show the softness of the contrast, if I understand right: the particles of German phrasal verbs become prefixes in non-finite forms.  So if I were OP I'd be looking for non-IE answers.
Anton Sherwood
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-17T05:18:40.973Z
2023-07-17T05:18:40.973Z
Draconis
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phrasal_verbs" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Phrasal verbs</a> are common in English. What do other languages (natural or conlang) do to <em>avoid</em> this feature? That is, how can they say the same things without having this feature?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-17T12:02:39.593Z
From a broader linguistic point of view, *phrasal verbs* are the exception and their absence is the norm. So other languages don't "avoid" them, it is more natural to ask, how do speakers of Germanic languages can cope with such beasts.
Sir Cornflakes
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-22T08:53:21.890Z
I can't understand the purpose of this line of inquiry. If for example a conlang contains the morphological equivalent of *aufstellen*, and you want it to work like "ich aufstelle etwas" rather than "ich stelle etwas auf", why not just... *say that that's how it works*? How is there any question about "avoiding" separable verbs, you just... don't separate them.
Karl Knechtel
<verbs>
How are separable verbs / phrasal verbs avoided in languages?
# How are separable verbs / phrasal verbs avoided in languages?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-07-17)

[Phrasal verbs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phrasal_verbs) are common in English. What do other languages (natural or conlang) do to *avoid* this feature? That is, how can they say the same things without having this feature?

**Tags:** verbs
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: From a broader linguistic point of view, *phrasal verbs* are the exception and their absence is the norm. So other languages don't "avoid" them, it is more natural to ask, how do speakers of Germanic languages can cope with such beasts.  
> **username_2**: I can't understand the purpose of this line of inquiry. If for example a conlang contains the morphological equivalent of *aufstellen*, and you want it to work like "ich aufstelle etwas" rather than "ich stelle etwas auf", why not just... *say that that's how it works*? How is there any question about "avoiding" separable verbs, you just... don't separate them.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2023-07-17. Score: 2

Well, a phrasal verb is a way of conveying some sort of verbal meaning. So instead of using a phrasal verb, you can just use a verb. Instead of "pick up", you can have a verb "take"; instead of "back down", you can have a verb "retreat". And so on.

Some languages, like Latin, have a set of affixes that you can attach to verbs to derive new ones, and this is how they make all the verbs they need to express various meanings. Other languages just have a lot of verbs in their lexicons.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: Seems to me that verbs like *re-treat* and *pro-ceed* and *per-ceive*, which we know mainly from Latin but are common everywhere in IE, differ from English phrasal verbs only in their inseparability, and German verbs show the softness of the contrast, if I understand right: the particles of German phrasal verbs become prefixes in non-finite forms.  So if I were OP I'd be looking for non-IE answers.  

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