I was talking ton an English teacher who was extolling the virtues of “verb phrase”. Is the such a thing in Mandarin?
Hmm, my English grammar is not the bestest. Do you have any examples?
Here are some but I’m still not sure. Perhaps some English teachers can enlighten us?
Are you sure your english teacher was not talking of phrasal verb rather than verb phrase? Verb phrase is the banal construction subject+verb+complement you find in most european languages english, french, german … The phrasal verb is the use of verb+ particule which is typically english like come in, come back, come over, come out. My english teachers were very fond of these phrasal verbs which are sometimes confusing for foreign people.
No, She was talking about using a combination of simple but common words to substitute for a verb not found in common language.