[General] Sleeping

[GripSparrow]

"He worked the day through."
"He worked through the day ."

"The sniper took out two intruders."
"The sniper took two intruders out."

"He slept through the morning."
"He slept the morning through."

I do understand that for standard transitive phrasal verbs, the preposition could be moved behind the direct object. But "sleep through" is not a universally accepted transitive phrasal verb. So could the second sentence be wrong?

 

[Barb_D]

"He slept the morning through" does not sound at all natural. I don't much like the one about working the morning through either.

 

[GripSparrow]

Thank you, Barb_D!

I found this:

books.google.com/books?id=ffz-0HnT3AIC&pg=PA153&dq=%22worked+the+night+through%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hfzZT6uFCaqe6QH0_YnLAg&ved=0CGwQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=%22worked%20the%20night%20through%22&f=false

"He had worked the night through and had not noticed the approach of daylight. "

Could it be an editing error?

 

[Barb_D]

Just because I don't like it, it doesn't mean it's an error.

 

[GripSparrow]

Thank you, Barb_D!

Could these:

"to sleep the night through"
"to work the night through"
"to rest the night through"

be old English?

 

[JMurray]

Could these:
"to sleep the night through"
"to work the night through"
"to rest the night through"
be old English?

You will occasionally come across this construction but you should be careful if you're tempted to use it.
For example, like Barb_D, I don't think "He slept the morning through" sounds natural, neither does "to rest the night through" in the examples above.

It's sometimes found in song lyrics where the word order can provide a useful and mellifluous alternative to the standard form. For example, "love me the whole day through" and "dream the whole night through" are from songs by Neil Young and Josh Rouse respectively, and the use of "whole" in both instances may be traceable to the influence of a famous Leadbelly song with the line "I would shiver the whole night through". My point being that this is a very particular context away from day-to-day conversation or writing.

not a teacher

 

[emsr2d2]

I was about to add that "the whole night through" sounds much more natural in BrE, but it doesn't work as "the night through".

He slept right through.
He slept right through the night.
He slept the whole night through.