ENGLISH
REFERENCE

hand out

phr. v..
A2 Elementary Oxford General-service

phr. v.. to give something to each person in a group.

phr. v.. to distribute items to a group of people, typically by hand; often used in educational or organizational contexts.


SIMPLE

The teacher will hand out the test papers now.

CONTEXTUAL

Volunteers stood on the street corner to hand out flyers for the upcoming local election.

COMPLEX

The charity organization managed to hand out over five hundred blankets to those displaced by the sudden flooding in the valley.

Particles
out
Separability
optional
Pattern
hand + (object) + out
Usage

this verb is separable, meaning the object can go between 'hand' and 'out'.

Teaching tip

contrast with 'give out' (very similar) and 'distribute' (more formal); 'hand out' specifically implies the physical act of passing items from one person to others.

Pitfall

He handed out them to the class.He handed them out to the class.when the object is a pronoun like 'them', it must go between the verb and the particle.

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