The English language on 'UP'

Lovers of the English
language might enjoy this. It is yet another example of why
people learning English have trouble with the language.
Learning the nuances of English makes it a difficult
language. (But then, that's probably true of many
languages.)

There is a two-letter word in English that
perhaps has more meanings than
any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.' It
is listed in the dictionary as being used as an [adv],
[prep],
[adj], [n] or [v].


It's easy to understand UP, meaning
toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken
in the morning, why ! do we wake UP?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do
we speak UP,
and 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 and
we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we
warm UP the
leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We
lock UP the house and some guys
fix UP the old
car.
At other times the
little word has a real special meaning. People
stir UP trouble,
line UP for
tickets, work UP an appetite,
and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is
special.
And
this up is
confusing:
A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.

We open UP a store in the
morning but we close it UP at night. We seem
to be pretty mixed UP! about UP !

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP , look the
word UP in the dictionary. In a
desk-sized dictionary, it
takes UP almost 1/4 of
the page and can add UP to about
thirty definitions

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
wind 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 it rains, it
wets UP the
earth.. When it does not rain for awhile, things
dry UP.

One could go on & on, but I'll wrap
it UP ,
for now........my time is UP , so
time to shut UP !