knock out
SeparableThe object can go before or after the particle — but a pronoun MUST go in the middle: “clean it up”, never “clean up it”.
How to say it
Stress the particle, not the verb: knock OUT. Saying “KNOCK out” is the clearest learner tell — the verb stays light and the particle carries the beat.
Link across the gap. The final /k/ of “knock” moves onto the particle and starts its syllable: “knock out” is said “kno-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 knock OUT, the noun is KNOCKOUT. Same two words, different beat — “to knock OUT” is the action, “a knockout” is the thing. Getting this backwards makes the sentence land oddly even when every sound is right.
2 meanings
- 1
To make someone unconscious.
- “The punch knocked him out in the second round.”
Similar: floor, stun
- 2
To eliminate from a competition.
- “They were knocked out in the quarter-finals.”
Similar: eliminate