1. The ship put in at the first available port to repair its damaged hull. 2. The advertisement was put out for wide circulation. 3. The matter had become so urgent that it could not be put off for another day. Select the answer using the codes given below :

Correct — D, (d) 1, 2 and 3.

All three underlined items are phrasal verbs built on 'put', and each is used in one of its established senses.

Sentence 1: 'The ship put in at the first available port to repair its damaged hull.' To put in, said of a vessel, is to enter a port or harbour, usually for supplies, shelter or repair. It is the standard nautical idiom and it takes 'at' before the place - a ship puts in at Kochi, puts in at the nearest harbour. The rest of the sentence supplies the classic reason for putting in, a damaged hull.

Sentence 2: 'The advertisement was put out for wide circulation.' To put out is to issue, publish or broadcast - a statement is put out, a press release is put out, a notice is put out. The passive with an advertisement as subject is exactly how the idiom is used, and 'for wide circulation' names the purpose of issuing it.

Sentence 3: 'The matter had become so urgent that it could not be put off for another day.' To put off is to postpone or defer. The construction is idiomatic in both voices - one puts off a meeting, a meeting is put off - and the sentence's logic supports it: urgency is precisely the condition under which something cannot be postponed.

Since every sentence is correct, the answer is the option that names all three. Note that this item, like the second one in the set, offers no escape option; its fourth choice is '1, 2 and 3'.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)1 and 2 only — This option excludes sentence 3, which is the most familiar of the three idioms: 'put off' meaning to postpone is in everyday use, and the sentence surrounds it with a reason - the matter had become urgent - that makes the sense unmistakable. The only way to reject it is to confuse it with the other senses of the same phrasal verb, of which there are several: to put someone off can mean to repel them, or to distract them, or to make them lose interest. Those senses take a person as object; this sentence takes 'the matter', which selects the postponement sense.
• (b)1 and 3 only — This option excludes sentence 2, the publishing sense of 'put out'. Like 'put off', this phrasal verb has several senses that may be causing the doubt: to put out a fire is to extinguish it, to be put out is to be annoyed or inconvenienced, and to put out a hand is to extend it. But 'issue or publish' is squarely among them, and it is the sense a sentence about an advertisement and wide circulation selects. Phrasal verbs are polysemous by nature, and the presence of other senses is never a reason to reject the one the sentence uses.
• (c)2 and 3 only — This option excludes sentence 1, and it is the most likely of the three wrong choices to be picked, because 'put in' in its nautical sense is the least familiar idiom in the item. A candidate who knows only the commoner senses - to put in an application, to put in a word for somebody, to put in hours of work - may not recognise 'the ship put in at the port' as English. It is, and it is old and settled English: putting in at a port is what a vessel does when it enters harbour, and the preposition 'at' before the place is part of the idiom.

A phrasal verb is a verb plus a particle whose meaning is not predictable from its parts, and two features of the class explain why examiners like them.

The first is that they are polysemous. A single combination often carries several unrelated senses: put out means to extinguish, to issue, to inconvenience, to extend, and in cricket to dismiss. Which sense is meant is settled by the objects and the context around it, not by the words themselves.

The second is that the particle is fixed. Changing it produces a different verb rather than a variation of the same one: put in, put out, put off, put up, put down, put through, put across, put by and put upon are nine different verbs sharing one stem.

The cluster in this item is worth learning in full:

put in - to enter a harbour; to submit an application or claim; to devote time. put out - to extinguish; to issue or publish; to inconvenience or annoy; to extend a limb. put off - to postpone; to repel or discourage a person; to distract. put up - to accommodate; to erect; to offer resistance. put up with - to tolerate. put down - to suppress; to record in writing; to disparage. put through - to connect a caller; to complete a piece of business. put across - to communicate an idea successfully.

The test to apply in an item like this is to ask what the object is. A vessel and a port select the harbour sense; a notice and circulation select the publishing sense; a matter and a day select postponement. Where the object fits an established sense, the sentence is correct.

Key facts

• To put in, said of a ship, is to enter a port or harbour, usually for shelter, supplies or repair; the idiom takes 'at' before the place.
• To put out is to issue, publish or broadcast - a statement, a notice or an advertisement is put out - alongside its other senses of extinguishing and inconveniencing.
• To put off is to postpone; when the object is a person rather than a matter, the same phrasal verb shifts to the sense of repelling or discouraging.
• The particle is what fixes a phrasal verb's meaning, so put in, put out, put off, put up, put down, put through and put across are different verbs sharing one stem.
• This item and the second in the same set offer no escape option: their fourth choice is '1, 2 and 3', so the set is capable of accepting every sentence.

Common traps

• Rejecting the nautical sense of 'put in' because only the everyday senses - put in an application, put in the hours - are familiar.
• Treating a phrasal verb's other senses as evidence against the one the sentence uses; polysemy is normal and is not a fault.
• Assuming a set of three sentences must contain at least one error, when this item's option list is built to accept all three.
• Reading 'put out' only as 'extinguish' and finding the advertisement sentence odd.
• Confusing 'put off' with a person as object - to discourage or repel - with 'put off' meaning to postpone, which takes an event or a matter.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In which one of the following sentences is the phrasal verb used correctly ?

  • (a)The Department put off a circular clarifying the new rates
  • (b)The vessel put out at Paradip for repairs after the storm
  • (c)The hearing was put off to the first week of next month
  • (d)He put in the lamp before leaving the room

  Answer(c) The hearing was put off to the first week of next month - put off means to postpone, and a hearing is the kind of object it takes. (a) needs 'put out' for issuing a circular, (b) needs 'put in at' for entering a port, and (d) needs 'put out' for extinguishing a lamp.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  'The manager could not put ______ his subordinate's constant complaints any longer.' Which completes the sentence correctly ?

  • (a)off
  • (b)out
  • (c)up with
  • (d)in for

  Answer(c) up with - to put up with is to tolerate, which is the sense the sentence needs. 'Put off' would postpone the complaints, 'put out' would extinguish or publish them, and 'put in for' means to apply for something.