Type 4 verbs with idiomatic meanings

The verbs in this category [> App 37] often have little or no relation to their literal meanings: e.g. put up with (tolerate), run out of (use up). Unlike the 'free association verbs' noted above, there is no choice in the preposition that can be used after the particle: each verb conveys a single, indivisible meaning: I'm not prepared to put up with these conditions any longer We 're always running out of matches in our house

9 Verbs, verb tenses, imperatives

General information about verbs and tenses

What a verb is and what it does

A verb is a word (run) or a phrase (run out of) which expresses the existence of a state (love, seem) or the doing of an action (take, play). Two facts are basic:

1 Verbs are used to express distinctions in time (past, present, future) through tense (often with adverbials of time or frequency).

2 Auxiliary verbs [> 10.1] are used with full verbs to give other information about actions and states. For example be may be used with the present participle of a full verb to say that an action was going on ('in progress') at a particular time (/ was swimming); have may be used with the past participle of a full verb to say that an action is completed (/ have finished).