check out
BothSense-dependent: some meanings take an object and split, others take none. Check the sense you mean.
How to say it
Stress the particle, not the verb: check OUT. Saying “CHECK out” is the clearest learner tell — the verb stays light and the particle carries the beat.
Link across the gap. The final /k/ of “check” moves onto the particle and starts its syllable: “check out” is said “che-ckout”. Pausing between the words is what makes phrasal verbs sound recited rather than spoken.
Verb vs noun
As a noun the stress flips to the front: the verb is check OUT, the noun is CHECKOUT. Same two words, different beat — “to check OUT” is the action, “a checkout” is the thing. Getting this backwards makes the sentence land oddly even when every sound is right.
3 meanings
- 1
To look at or investigate something.
informal- “I'm going to check out that new restaurant this weekend.”
- “Check this out — I found it in the archive.”
Similar: look at, investigate
- 2
To pay and leave a hotel.
- “We need to check out by eleven.”
- “He checked out early and caught the first flight.”
- 3
(Of a fact) to prove to be true.
- “We ran the references and everything checked out.”
Similar: hold up