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