Sunday, May 13, 2007

The word UP

 
        Lovers of the English language might enjoy
        this......How do non-natives ever learn all
        the nuances of English???

        There is a two-letter word that perhaps
        has more meanings than any other two-letter
        word, and that word is "UP."

        It's easy to understand UP , meaning toward
        the sky or at the t op 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 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 doesn't 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 .....!

        Oh...one more thing:!
        What is the first thing you do in the morning
        & the last thing you do at night?

        U     P

        Don't screw up.  Send this on to everyone you
        look up in your address book.

 

5 comments:

  1. Hello Ms Vanessa.
    I have a long time to write you about anything.
    You don’t think that I give up the blog. Time to time I’m getting here; I’m reading everything you write. But the last two weeks I have no internet because technical problems. Not mine but generally problems of my village’s service.

    Now in my country we have a lot of warmth. We already started the bath in the see. But I already work often too.
    I want to tell you that I read the last two comments.

    “What shall we talk about” and the “the word UP” .
    For the first one I agree that the children they don’t have opinions about a lot of things. They don’t have comments because they don’t know the most of the times the subject. I think they don’t care to learn about things like nature , environment, science, or another country’s social problems …. Except things that some people ‘teach’ them. I mean about some standard. Some wrong standard. Even then the comments is very poor. I have children and I know this.
    For the second comment. I read it and I find it very useful. I want to learn more about this word. I mean the rules if exist.

    I decided to study more intensively English. I’m thinking to give exams in the future. Maybe the December, if I’m ready for this. I have to study some books that here in Greece the carpentry is following:
    1. The course book
    2. The companion
    3. The exercise book
    4. The composition or writing
    5. The grammar
    I like to read with method. So, I think that I won’t have a lot of problems.

    I’ll write you again as soon as I can. Thank you for your time.
    Best regards,
    Matoula

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mata

    I dare say most if not all of the most common preopositions present similar problems. The more common and used the preposition, the more idiomatic and phrasal expressions get attached to it.

    As for not having either opinions or the basic information & knowledge from which to build opinions, that gap is not limited to children. Teaching college to young adults, I noticed gaps in that group as well. I would ask "what are you interested in" and they would answer, "I dunno." I would ask "what do you think about X" and they would answer eith "I dunno" or repeat an opinion I know they heard elsewhere (often talk radio or Fox news) and was not there own.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Ms. Vanessa, How are you?

    I am back after my exams. Now, I can participate in the discussions with full vigour. I think I have lost many good lessons but I'll try to keep up the pace.

    It is great to find the different uses of UP. I have taken out a copy of that with the hope of looking at them in my free time.

    Bye

    Rajeev

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Ms Vanessa.
    It is 5 o’clock in the morning. I wake up early today. Everybody is sleeping so; it is a good opportunity to read your articles with no one bather me. I’m interesting about ‘Soziety’. Do you find it as a good idea to use this way? I don’t know how it works all this but I believe that is a good way to improve my spoken English.

    Which are the different when speak English and when write in English? Are there different?
    And I want to ask you something else. ‘Good’ and ‘well’ have the same meaning. But we use them in a different way. I don’t remember them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mata

    I have not tried SoZiety but it sounds interesting and certainly worth looking into - especially as long as it stays free. I recall another, pre-Skype language learning "trading" arrangement - that one for writing practice. The problem in trading can be finding an English speaker who wants to learn Greek. Since English is likely to be in high demand, thwe supply might not match the demand.

    Yes, there are differences between written and spoken English - even among native speakers. It's a complex subject, and there are no easy answers because there is also no single form of either speaking or writing. There are registers or levels depending on audience and situation.

    This is an important topic and would be interesting to explore separately - too big to cover in even a long comment.

    'Good' is the adjective (modifying nouns) and 'well' is the adverb (modifying verbs and other modifiers) form. The meaning is basically the same - and both comparative (better) and superlative (best) forms are the same for both ajective and adverb.

    Examples:

    You look well. That dress looks good on you. I just read a good book. He reads well.

    ReplyDelete

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