There is a two-letter word in English that has more meaning than any other two-letter word ; that word is up. It can be an adverb, preposition, an adjective, a noun, and a verb.It is easy to understand ‘up’ when it means something like ‘towards the sky’ or ‘at the top of the list’, but first thing in the morning, why do we wake up.In a meeting, why does a topic come up? Why do participants speak up, why are the officers up for election, and why is it up to the secretary to write up a report? We call up our friends; we brighten up a room; we polish up the silver; we warm up the leftovers and clean up the kitchen. We lock up our houses and pay people to fix up our old cars.At other times, the little word has a really special meaning. People stir up trouble; the queue up for tickets; work up and appetite, and think up excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed up (for an occasion) is special.And sometimes up is confusing. A drain must be opened up. We open up a shop in the, but we close it up at night. In fact, we seemed to be pretty mixed up.To be knowledgeable about the proper use of up, look the word up in a dictionary. In some dictionaries it takes up over a page and can add up to to about 30 definitions. It is up to you to refer to the dictionary.If you are up to it, you might try building up a list of the many ways up is used. It will take up a lot of your time, but if you don’t give up, you may end up with a hundred or more.When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding up. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing up. When we have washed up, we can go on to dry up. These days we want to know what’s up on Whatsapp. I can go on and on, but I will wrap it up. My time is up. So, it is time to shut up.
There is a two-letter word in English that has more meaning than any other two-letter word ; that word is up. It can be an adverb, preposition, an adjective, a noun, and a verb.It is easy to understand ‘up’ when it means something like ‘towards the sky’ or ‘at the top of the list’, but first thing in the morning, why do we wake up.In a meeting, why does a topic come up? Why do participants speak up, why are the officers up for election, and why is it up to the secretary to write up a report? We call up our friends; we brighten up a room; we polish up the silver; we warm up the leftovers and clean up the kitchen. We lock up our houses and pay people to fix up our old cars.At other times, the little word has a really special meaning. People stir up trouble; the queue up for tickets; work up and appetite, and think up excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed up (for an occasion) is special.And sometimes up is confusing. A drain must be opened up. We open up a shop in the, but we close it up at night. In fact, we seemed to be pretty mixed up.To be knowledgeable about the proper use of up, look the word up in a dictionary. In some dictionaries it takes up over a page and can add up to to about 30 definitions. It is up to you to refer to the dictionary.If you are up to it, you might try building up a list of the many ways up is used. It will take up a lot of your time, but if you don’t give up, you may end up with a hundred or more.When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding up. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing up. When we have washed up, we can go on to dry up. These days we want to know what’s up on Whatsapp. I can go on and on, but I will wrap it up. My time is up. So, it is time to shut up.
