Doubt with prepositions and the order to use them...
Hi community ! how are you doing? I hope you are all well, well this doubt has been on my mind since last week... Which of these phrases are right? "Take out the rubbish before you leave" OR " Take the rubbish out before you leave" How do I know the correct order to the preposition ? I ask her out - I ask out her -- in this case, it sounds awful ! so the correct answer is the first one, but what about other like the rubbish example ? is there a rule or something? I hope you can help me with this. it's turning into a chaos on my mind ! pls help !

Question

Doubt with prepositions and the order to use them...
Hi community ! how are you doing?  I hope you are all well, well this doubt has been on my mind since last week...  Which of these phrases are right?   "Take out the rubbish  before you leave"  OR  " Take the rubbish out before you leave" How do I know the correct order to the preposition ?  I ask her out - I ask out her  --> in this case, it sounds awful ! so the correct answer is the first one, but what about other like the rubbish example ? is there a rule or something? I hope you can help me with this. it's turning into a chaos on my mind ! pls help !

Answer

Some phrasal verbs are separable, some aren't. There are no rules - you just have to learn them individually, and remember examples of complete phrases. As native speakers, we all know instinctively what 'sounds' right, and you've obviously developed this instinct because you know what sounds wrong!

There is one rule I can give you, though. If you are using a pronoun with a separable phrasal verb, the pronoun has to go between the verb and the particle.
The pronoun can't go at the end - that's why 'ask out her' sounds so bad. For example:

Take the rubbish out ---> Yes
Take out the rubbish ---> Yes
Take it out ----> Yes
Take out it  ---> NO