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My daughter's school uniform includes a school shirt and a school skirt. A schoolboy's uniform includes a school shirt and a pair of school shorts (the design of the shirt and shorts are different from schoolgirls').

My daughter tucked her school shirt in her skirt.

I checked several dictionaries and it seems the verb "tuck" is transitive. You must have a noun after "tuck".

I feel the phrase "their school shirts" is not necessary in Do all your friends tuck their school shirts in like that?.

Can I say "Do all your friends tuck in like that?" for short with "tuck" used as an intransitive verb?

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  • When a dictionary indicates that a verb is transitive, it means that it can take a direct object, not that it must have a direct object. Transitive verbs can be used intransitively. She sang a ballad vs She sang beautifully and She sings in the choir. ("You must have a noun after 'tuck'" is incorrect.)
    – TimR
    Commented Sep 12 at 9:51

2 Answers 2

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To "tuck in", without any additional clarification, idiomatically means to begin eating heartily. So your sentence sounds like you're asking about the other person's friend's table etiquette.

You need to ask "Do all your friends tuck their school shirts in like that?" for clarity.

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  • The "other person" is the speaker's child. Do you really think there's a danger of being misunderstood when speaking to a child and looking directly at the way the shirt is tucked into the waist of the shorts? "tuck in like that" is only used in the food sense when the conversation is about the person's eating habits or the speakers are at a meal and eating. Otherwise "like that" makes no sense.
    – TimR
    Commented Sep 11 at 18:32
  • @TimR I think this is a site for teaching people how to speak English properly.
    – Astralbee
    Commented Sep 12 at 8:33
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If your son buttoned his shirt all the way up to the collar instead of leaving the top button open you could ask:

Do all your friends button-up all the way like that?

Note that the two pieces of the phrasal verb are usually spoken in fairly rapid succession when the verb is used intransitively, as if up were enclitic.

The same thing would work here with your daughter's blouse when context makes things clear:

Do all your friends tuck-in like that?

Just don't ask her the question right when she's taken a large bite of a piece of pizza.

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    For any who might be puzzled, to tuck in means to eat.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Sep 11 at 13:20
  • @Mari-LouA They wouldn't be puzzled if they had read Astralbee's answer.
    – TimR
    Commented Sep 11 at 18:27
  • What in particular about the answer merited the downvote? Are you disagreeing that "up" is spoken like an enclitic particle there? Disagreeing that the question can be posed in that manner without a direct object? What?
    – TimR
    Commented Sep 11 at 18:30
  • Dunno, didn't downvote it.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Sep 11 at 18:32
  • @Mari-LouA I didn't address the comment to you since I figured you would have told me why if it had been you.
    – TimR
    Commented Sep 11 at 18:36

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