Thursday, February 09, 2012

What is "UP" --Interesting....


I've seen a version of this before and even used that version for a grammar lesson. This one is a little different, but I wanted to share it with you! Have a great day!

What's UP?

Imagine teaching this word to someone learning English.

I'm sure you will enjoy this. I never knew a single word
in the English language could be a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and preposition.

UP
Read until the end ... you'll laugh...
This two-letter word in English has
more meanings than any other
two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.'
It is listed in the dictionary 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, brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and fix UP the old car. 

At other times, this 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 UP 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 soaks UP the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.
One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now . . . my time is UP!

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

Did that one crack you UP?

Now I'll shut UP!

No comments:

Post a Comment

I love reading comments! Let me know you stopped by my blog!