Up Phrasal Verbs 1

By admin 9 comments

I’ve had a lot of requests for some lessons on ‘up’ so here is the first of several. We’ll cover the easy part today.

One common use for ‘up’ in phrasal verbs is to indicate

  • An upward movement
  • An increase
  • An improvement

See how that applies to these eight verbs.

If you display something such as a poster, you ‘put it up’ on a wall or a notice-board.

  • Have you seen the warning the boss has put up on the notice-board?
  • Can you put up a poster in your window?

If somebody is miserable and you want them to be happier, you can tell them to ‘cheer up’.

  • You look really unhappy. Cheer up!
  • I wrote Pearson a letter to try to cheer him up a bit.

If you are sitting and then you rise from your chair, you ‘stand up’.

  • When the President arrives, everybody must stand up.
  • Stand up straight when I am speaking to you.

If a party or a seminar is dull, you need to ‘liven it up’.

  • You need to liven up your ideas.
  • How can we liven up this presentation?

If you want to make something stronger, you can ‘build it up’.

  • I have built up a strong team of workers.
  • I have been ill and need to build up my strength.

I can’t hear very well these days – I’m old. When you speak to me, you need to speaker, to ‘speak up’.

  • Can you speak up? There is a lot of background noise.
  • It is a big room. You will have to speak up so that those in the back can hear.

The place where you lived when you were a child is where you ‘grew up’.

  • I was born in Scotland but grew up in England.
  • Where did you grow up?

If something increases fast, it ‘shoots up’.

  • The price of petrol has shot up recently.
  • My English scores shot up after I started studying with Pearson.

exercise 1
exercise 2
exercise 3
exercise 4

9 Comments

Hilda Andrade

Sep 9, 2011, 1:29 pm

I have started learning English through you marvellous method. Thank you.

Hilda Andrade

Sep 9, 2011, 1:35 pm

It is so difficult to learn a foreign language when one is kilometres away from an English speaking country!!! One has to build up effort to achieve his/her objective, i.e., learn how to write and speak English. Thank you. hilda andrade

Nandor Makkai

Sep 9, 2011, 2:19 pm

“My English scores shot up after I started studying with Pearson“(Caroline and Brown).That’s true.Thanks Ms.and Mr.Pearson.

Tran Ha

Sep 9, 2011, 1:11 am

Thank you so much. Your lessons are so helpful.

darshani

Oct 10, 2011, 7:55 am

very helpful.Thanks a lot!!!

E.J

Oct 10, 2011, 6:53 pm

Your English materials are very helpful to me.
I usually study from your email, and I want to post your materials on my blog.
May I do that?

E.J

Oct 10, 2011, 7:14 pm

the purpose of the posting is just for studying English, and for me not the other ppl.
Anyway I wonder your opinion.
Have a good day.

Alper

Oct 10, 2011, 8:37 pm

Thanks for your all helpful lessons. Especially the phrasal verb lessons, they all are very useful for me. Please keep lighten us up. So many thanks.

sriyani

Aug 8, 2012, 4:55 am

thankyou for your kindness oneday I would pay for that madam

Comments are closed.