An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'put through', with lots of examples in context
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Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them.
In this post, I am focussing on the phrasal verb 'put through' and explaining its different meanings and uses. How many of them do you know already? Maybe you know all of them or maybe just one or two, or perhaps this is a completely new phrasal verb to you. Read on to find out more!
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PUT THROUGH: KEY INFORMATION
Usage | Common |
Number of meanings | 5 |
Past tense forms | Put through / put through |
Separable? | Yes |
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THE BASICS
As always, let's start the post by considering the individual words that make up our phrasal verb of choice and in this case this is the verb 'to put' and the particle 'through'.
We use the irregular verb 'to put' a lot in English and it has various different applications and meanings. Perhaps the most commonly used of these is 'to place or move something into a specified position', however it can also be used to mean 'to cause someone or something to be in a particular condition', 'to express something with words' and 'to estimate something'.
I put my hands on my hips.
Sarah put the shopping in her kitchen cupboards.
It's 8pm, so it's time to put the children to bed.
This has put me in a difficult position at work.
She has put my worries to rest!
What did you put in your email?
The prepositional particle 'through' is one that you will certainly already be aware of and is primarily used to talk about movement from one side of something to the other via the centre of it and not around the outside of it. It is of course used with physical movement, but we can also use it in relation to time and emotional states, especially when they are negative. In phrasal verbs, the word 'through' is typically used to convey the ideas of completion (go through), endurance (push through) and exhaustion of resources (get through).
So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'put through'....
MEANING 1: To transfer a telephone call to someone
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CEFR Language Level | B1 - Intermediate |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere, business English |
Potential synonyms | To transfer, to connect |
Separable? | Yes |
If any of you have ever had to make a business call to a company in an English speaking country, then you are likely to have heard this first usage of 'put through' before as it means to transfer a telephone call to someone.
This application is normally only used when making a phone call to a business, typically one with a receptionist or with a lot of different departments and people working within it, where it is possible to transfer a call to another person on the same internal network. As such, you are unlikely to ever hear or use this in reference to a personal phone call to friends or family members.
Typically, when someone from outside of an organisation telephones the company to speak to a specific person, they will often first speak to the receptionist or to another employee in the business or department. Once it has been established who the caller wishes to speak to, the receptionist will then "put them through" and connect them to the desired individual. Moreover, it is quite normal for the person transferring the call to advise the caller what they are doing. This is often expressed in several different ways, here are some typical examples....
I'm just putting you through
I'll put you through now
Grammatically, as you can see from the examples above, we tend to either use either the present continuous or 'will' future when doing this. This application is separable and I would say that we almost always use it in the separable way with the caller or the word 'call' being placed between 'put' and 'through'.
John, I've got your solicitor on the line. Am I ok to put him through?
Don't put any calls through to me this afternoon as I need to catch up on my work.
I've just tried to put you through to Alison but her line is busy. Can I take a message?
MEANING 2: To cause someone to have a bad experience
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CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To subject |
Separable? | Yes |
As many of you may have noticed, many English phrasal verbs typically have at least one negative or unpleasant meaning, and this second meaning is "the negative one."
If you have read my blog post about the phrasal verb 'go through', you may remember that one its meanings is 'to suffer a negative experience' and this second application of 'put through' is linked to this as it means 'to cause someone to have a bad experience'. With this, we are simply changing the focus from solely a person's negative experience to the person or thing that is responsible for it.
In other words, when we use 'put through', we are placing the blame for something unpleasant or traumatic on someone else. It can also be used when a situation or thing is the cause of the negativity.
This can be used on it's own or with a quantifier such as 'a lot' when the person does not wish to specify the nature of their trauma....
My ex-husband has no idea what he put me through.
Do you realise how much you have put the children through recently?
My boss has put me through a lot in the last year but I am grateful to him as it has made me work much harder.
It can also be used with nouns or a noun and a quantifier to describe the nature of the experience....
This situation has put us through so much stress in this past year.
Colin's parents put him through abuse when he was a child.
You've put me through a lot of pain and I don't think we should stay together.
Susan felt terrible for putting her family through so much stress during her illness.
The intense court battle put them through years of emotional and financial strain.
One other noun that is perhaps used more commonly than any other with this application of 'put through' is 'hell'. Again, this does not necessarily reveal the nature of the bad experience, it just stresses that it was very bad.
Our neighbour put us through years of hell.
Being bullied at school every day put David through hell, leaving lasting emotional scars.
The prisoners were put through hell during their years of unjust imprisonment.
MEANING 3: To pay for someone's education
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CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To finance, to pay for |
Separable? | Yes |
Let's switch things up to something more positive for our third meaning of 'put through', which is to pay for someone's education.
In a nutshell, if someone puts you through school, college or university, then they pay for you to attend the institution until you graduate or get your qualifications.
It is worth pointing out here the difference between American and British English when referring to educational establishments. In the USA, a university is typically referred to as 'college', whilst in the UK, a college is normally an educational institution for school leavers and adults, offering both academic and vocational courses. A couple of prestigious universities (Oxford and Cambridge) are made up of different colleges but in general in the UK, the word 'college' does not mean the same as in America. |
As you might expect, this application is normally heard in reference to wealthy people who can afford to pay for someone's education, however it can also be used to describe when a company pays for a trainee or an apprentice to undertake a course of education that prepares them to work in a specific role in their company.
Alex's parents worked multiple jobs to put him through college.
Katherine's grandparents put her through law school, insisting on supporting her pursuit of a better future.
The scholarship that Debbie received helped her family put her through university without getting into debt.
The government program aims to put underprivileged students through higher education by offering full financial aid.
One other time that you might hear this is when a person is able to pay for themselves to go to college or university, typically to stress that they have earned the money to pay for the education themselves. In this case, we use the reflexive (-self) pronoun.
Emily put herself through college by working nights as a waitress in a restaurant.
Steve managed to put himself through medical school by taking out loans and working on weekends.
Sam was proud of having put himself through an MBA program despite the financial challenges.
Of course, unless you are a very rich or lucky person with good personal connections, this application is probably not going to be one that many of you (or me) will ever experience on a first-hand basis. However, it is still one that I hear in use from time to time so it is definitely worth knowing it.
MEANING 4: To action something and continue with it until the end
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CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To implement, to enact, to see through |
Separable? | Yes |
Our fourth meaning of 'put through' is 'to action something and continue with it until to the end'.
This application is one that you are likely to come across in both the worlds of business and politics as it is typically used with things like plans, processes, policies and laws.
We use 'put through' here to describe the entire process of initiating the required work and seeing it through to a successful conclusion, normally in order to ensure that an official change has been implemented.
Jonah worked tirelessly to put the new policy through, ensuring it received approval from the board.
The finance minister vowed to put the legislation through, no matter how many obstacles arose.
They had to negotiate with multiple stakeholders to put through the merger agreement.
MEANING 5: To allow someone to the next stage of a competition
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CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Rare |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To advance someone, to go through |
Separable? | Yes |
I'm not sure if it is the same in your country, but on the television in the UK, there seem to be more and more talent competitions in which people compete to become the best singer, dancer or entertainer etc. It's absolutely not my cup of tea, however if it is something that you enjoy, then this fifth and final meaning of 'put through' may be of interest to you as it means 'to allow someone to move to the next stage of a competition'.
Again, this is similar to the phrasal verb 'go through', however with 'put through' there is an element of a judge or vote deciding that a competitor can move to the next round, rather than going through to the next round based on point or a score as is often the case with 'go through'.
I'm sorry, but I don't think you have what it takes to win this competition and I am therefore not putting you through to the semi-finals.
The judges have put me through to the final!
EXTRA MEANINGS AND IDIOMS
Before I end this post, I just want to make you aware of a couple of other times that you may hear 'put through' being used by an English speaker, as well as a couple of nice and useful idioms to help you sound more like a native speaker...
To put something through a business - If you know anyone who is an entrepreneur or who runs their own business, you may hear them talking about recording personal expenses and costs on their business account, rather than their personal account. This practice is known as 'putting something through a business' and is done as a way of claiming something as a tax relief and therefore not having to pay for it.
Put your credit card away, I'll pay for the meal and put it through the business.
To put someone through a wall / window - If an English speaker ever tells you that they will put you through a wall or a window, then you should perhaps apologise or move away quickly as it is in fact a threat to hit or punch you very hard. The idea is that they will punch with so much force that you will go through the wall, which is nonsense of course but nevertheless, they are probably very angry with you.
If you ever do that again, I will put you through the wall. Do you understand?!
To put someone through their paces - This is a lovely idiomatic expression that means to test what someone or something can do by making them do it. It can be used with both people and objects eg. machines and devices alike.
I'm going to take the new Mercedes car out this morning and put it through its paces.
To put someone through the wringer - This final idiom is an informal expression that is used to mean 'to cause someone to experience a very stressful experience, or a series of unpleasant or horrible experiences'. It can also be used to mean to ask someone a lot of questions, like an interrogation, which can itself also be a stressful thing to go through.
Poor Jean, she's really been put through the wringer this year with one problem after another.
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We have now reached the end of this post and I just want to say thank you for clicking on my post and reading it. I hope that you've enjoyed it and have been able to learn something new. If you enjoyed this post, please go ahead and check out some of my other posts.
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THE END
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