Shaken Up

How are you doing?

I’m a little bit shaken up.

by Ardeen Top

Due to the Coronavirus and unrest in major cities in the United States and around the world, you might find a new phrasal verb helpful to describe situations, institutions, and how you or others around you feel.

“Shaken up” is a phrasal verb and it can be used as a noun.

Phrasal verbs can be separable or nonseparable and be used in present tense, -ing form, past tense, as a past participle adjective (as above), or as a noun.  You cannot always know whether a phrasal verb should be separated or not. However, a noun is written together and sometimes is hyphenated.  Let’s look at some uses below:

If I use the phrasal verb shaken up, it is separable, but written together when used as a participle adjective (a past participle of a phrasal verb used as an adjective).

How can we informally describe current events going on in the United States and around the world?

If you are upset, frightened, or shocked by something, you can say that it shakes you up.  This is present tense usage.  We often use it to describe how we or someone feels…. 

Here I used the pronoun “you”.  Then the pronoun separates shake and up.  A separable phrasal verb can also be separated by an object (as below in past tense)….

My risky behavior as a child shook my mom up.  (I used to climb trees and jump from swings).

Then by replacing ‘mom’ with the pronoun ‘her’, it looks like:

 My risky behavior as a child, shook her up.

As a participle adjective it looks like the following:

I am shaken up by what is going on in some major US cities. 

“Shaken up” here is a participle used as an adjective that describes how I feel.  This seems like a popular usage especially nowadays.

Another example is:  Seeing all the chaos has me really shaken up.        

You can also use shake…up as a phrasal verb, we might say more literally, when you mix things together.

When I buy paint I know I have to shake it up before I leave the store.

At the paint store, you could say it different ways:

I need this paint shaken up, please. (past participle)

Please shake up my paint. (This is a phrasal verb, but it is imperative-so this is direct, or could sound demanding)

Another meaning of “shake up” as a phrasal verb is to make a major change usually in an organization or business.  So in today’s environment, we might say:

Some local governments will shake up police departments in order to change policies.

Finally, when it is used as a noun, it is hyphenated and also means a major change in an organization or business.

For example:

There has been a shake-up in many city police departments and city governments. 

There are more phrasal verbs that can be used as nouns.  Some of those are:  let up, print out, slow down, and trade in.  Each example below is used as a phrasal verb in the first statement and then as a noun in the second one.

When will the spread of the virus finally let up?  Well, there finally seems to be a letup in the number of severe cases.

Can I print this document out?  Yes, I will get you a printout.

The economy definitely slowed down during the last few months.  Hopefully, it is the end of the economic slowdown. 

And

Can I trade my car in?  Yes you can, I’m sure now would be an excellent time for someone to buy your trade-in.

I hope this has given you new vocabulary.  It can help you describe how you feel, or what is happening in organizations and local and larger governments in the United States and around the world.