phrasal verbs:vocabulary or grammar

[twins mum]

Hello!I was wondering how to test phrasal verbs grammatically.Tasks involving replace the expression with an appropriate phrasal verb or match the verb with its meaning and the like have more to do with vocabulary(synonymy) than with grammar.They are meaning rather than structure-oriented.A group of teachers and I are expected to devise a test involving the evaluation of some phrasal verbs as a grammar component.I would be grateful if you could shed some light on this issue.Thanks
This is my first thread.Very happy to join such an interesting forum.

[5jj]

Welcome to the forum, twins mum.

Verbs + preposition/adverb/ particle pattern in different ways, for example:

He looked the word up in the dictionary.
He looked it up in the dictionary.
He looked up the word in the dictionary.
He looked up it in the dictionary.

He looked the chimney up in the old house.
He looked it up in the old house.
He looked up the the chimney in the old house.
He looked up it in the old house. (?)

It should be possible to devise exercises to test knowledge of the possible patterns, for example:

Arrange these words into correct sentences. If more than one sentence is possible, write all the possible sentences:

1. He the word in the dictionary. looked up.

There is more on the patterns here http://www.gramorak.com/Articles/Phrasal.pdf, especially from pages 5 on.

[twins mum]

Thank you so much 5jj for the answer and the reference.That sounds more 'grammatical' for me !!!