An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'get up' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context
Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them.
On this website, I have written posts about more than 100 different phrasal verbs in English and now I've finally arrived at the one which combines potentially the most frequently used base verb in phrasal verb constructions 'to get' with the most common prepositional particle 'up'. In this post, I will explain all of the different meanings of the wonderful phrasal verb 'get up', some of which I am sure most of you will know already. I will provide you with lots of examples to illustrate how each one is used, enabling you to use it like a native speaker. Do you know all of the meanings already? Let's make a start and find out....
One point to make before starting is that I have not included any meanings of the phrasal verb construction of 'get up to' in this post. As 'get up to' has numerous different meanings, I have decided to dedicate a separate post to it, which will be shared with you very soon!
Please like and share the post if you find the article useful (I won't know otherwise)! Also, feel free to leave a comment at the end with your own sentence featuring 'get up' 😊
GET UP: KEY INFORMATION
Usage | Common |
Number of meanings | 7 |
Past tense forms | Got up / Got up - Gotten up |
Separable? | Sometimes |
THE BASICS
Before we start looking at the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'get up', let's first quickly consider the meanings of the two words that form it: the verb 'to get' and the prepositional particle 'up'.
The verb 'to get' is an extremely common verb in the English language that has a large variety of different meanings and applications, which can often seem confusing to English learners. In addition to its various uses, it also functions as an auxiliary (helper) verb to form the passive voice. Two of its key meanings that are relevant for this post are 'to arrive' and 'to receive'.
What time did you get home last night?
The train got to the station on time.
What did you get for you birthday?
Sam didn't get any emails yesterday.
John got his hair cut at the local barbers.
Next, we have the prepositional particle 'up', which you will all know very well. 'Up' functions as the natural opposite of 'down' and is used to indicate both upward movement and increases. When used in phrasal verb constructions, 'up' can add different ideas, which include preparation (set up), vertical movement (stand up), intensification (speed up), stopping (give up) and creation (make up), among others.
So, now that we have looked at the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'get up'....
MEANING 1: To rise from your bed
CEFR Language Level | A1 - Beginner |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To rise, to wake up |
Separable? | Sometimes |
Some of us love it and some of us hate it but for most of us, one of the first things that we do each day is to get up. In other words, to rise from bed after sleeping, which is the first meaning that we will cover in the post.
This application is typically used when we talk about leaving our nice, warm beds, standing up on two feet and beginning our day, whatever we plan to do with it.
Do not get this confused with 'wake up', which means to stop sleeping and become awake. Although the two are closely related, with getting up often occurring shortly after waking up, their meanings are generally distinct. For example, it is common for many people at the weekend to wake up and then lie in bed for a period of time reading or drinking coffee before getting up. Teenagers, are renowned for lying in bed for a long time and not getting up until lunchtime.
I get up at 5am every morning to do yoga.
What time did you get up this morning?
I do not plan to get up early tomorrow, so please let me sleep.
Sarah got up at 3am to take her boyfriend to the airport.
Lisa is very lazy. She lies in bed all morning snoozing or watching TV and doesn't normally get up until midday.
This usage of 'get up' is not restricted to just when we start our day and it can in fact be applied anytime you leave your bed following a period of sleeping, such as after an afternoon nap or a siesta.
I had to get up several times during the night as my daughter wsa having nightmares.
Jane got up after her afternoon nap and felt refreshed.
So far, I have only explained how we use the intransitive form of 'get up' (without a direct object). However, you should know that it can also be used transitively with a direct object, in which case the structure is 'to get someone up'.
If you get someone up, it simply means that you make them or cause them to get out of their bed which may or may not involve waking them up too. For example, you may need to get your husband or wife up if they forget to set an alarm, or a teenager may need to get their parents up if they have lost their house key and it is late at night (I may have done that myself in the distant past 🤦🏻).
For this transitive usage, you must place a pronoun or person's name between 'get' and 'up' since placing it afterwards will sound incorrect.
Sue gets her kids up at six every morning for school.
Can you get Alan up? He’s going to be late for work.
The nurse got the patient up early to begin his physical therapy.
My Dad always got us up with loud rock music on Sunday mornings.
Eleanor struggled to get her teenage son up for his morning classes.
MEANING 2: To stand from a lying or sitting position
CEFR Language Level | A2 - Elementary |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To stand up, to rise |
Separable? | Sometimes |
This second meaning of 'get up' is one that sometimes causes confusion for English learners when comparing it to the first meaning that we have just looked at as it simply means 'to rise from a sitting or a lying position'.
You may have already guessed it, but this application means the same as the phrasal verb 'stand up' and is simply used as another way to describe when a person rises to their feet so that they are standing in an upright position.
It is a particularly good one to use when you want someone to stop being lazy or to do something.
Roger got up from the chair and walked to the door.
As soon as the princess entered the room, everyone got up to greet her out of respect.
I fell down, but I quickly got up and kept on running.
The old man struggled to get up from the sofa.
Emma got up to make an announcement.
Paul got up and offered his seat on the bus to the pregnant woman.
I told my husband to get up and help me with the groceries.
Get up and give me a hand with this and stop being so lazy!
Like with the previous application, we can also use this transitively (with a direct object) and this is usually when someone is not able to get up on their own and needs someone to help them. Again, the person's name or pronoun must go between 'get' and 'up' here.
Elaine got her father up off the ground after he fell.
Simon gently got his girlfriend up from the chair and led her to the dance floor.
The paramedic got the injured man up and helped him to the ambulance.
Martin quickly got his friend up after he tripped over the cat.
You may have also heard 'get up' used sometimes in English language dance music, particularly in older songs and this is usually a call for people to get up out of their seats and start dancing!
MEANING 3: To move from the bottom of something to the top
CEFR Language Level | B1 - Intermediate |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To go up, to climb up, to ascend |
Separable? | Sometimes |
The idea of upwards movement that we get from the prepositional particle 'up' is integral to the next meaning of 'go up' that we will cover, which is simply 'to move from the bottom of something to the top'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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IS THIS NOT THE SAME AS 'GO UP'?
Yes and no. Although 'get up' and 'go up' essentially mean the same thing here, i.e. moving up from the bottom of something to the top, you should note that they are used in different circumstances. We tend to use 'get up' when there is a problem, difficulty or element of surprise involved with the upwards movement. As such, it tends to be used in negative statements and questions. 'Go up', on the other hand, is used more when referring to a general upwards movement to the top of something or when there are no problems or issues in doing so.
Jack managed to get up the mountain before sunset.
Becky got up the ladder carefully, step by step.
I don’t know how he got up that steep rock face without any ropes.
John and Sam's could not get up the hill in their car due to the snow.
The hikers struggled to get up the rocky slope.
Mary got up the stairs, despite her injured leg.
How did you get up here? You weren't on the guest list!
A couple of other nouns that you may have noticed in the list of commonly used nouns above are 'street' and 'road'. This may seem strange to you as many of these are flat with no upwards movement possible, however you should know that it is very common in English to use both 'up' and 'down' when referring to a movement along a road (I've no idea why!).
There is a police barrier in place and you can't get up the street.
Did you manage to get up the road ok?
Lastly, we can also use this application of 'get up' to refer to the finished action of climbing or ascending something and for this we need the extra preposition 'on', giving us the construction 'to get up on something'.
When using this alternative form, we are not focussing on the movement action so much but rather the final result of being in the higher position. Note that this tends to be used more with smaller items that take seconds to climb and not mountains or hills.
Get up on the table and have a look; the view is much better from there.
Laura got up on her husband's shoulders to watch the concert.
Steve got up on stage to receive his award.
My cat always gets up on the work surface in the kitchen, despite me telling him every time to get down.
MEANING 4: To generate something
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To generate, to create, to summon, to muster up, to pluck up |
Separable? | Yes |
We are now at the mid-point in our journey through the different meanings of 'get up' and this fourth and middle application is 'to generate something from within'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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To clarify this application, what I mean here is to generate something within yourself and to do this you need to make an effort to produce a feeling or to do something that is difficult or challenging.
A common scenario to illustrate this usage is when you find someone sexually attractive and want to ask the person to go on a date with you. In these situations, it is natural to feel very nervous and in order to ask the person on the date, we first need to build the courage to do it within ourselves. To describe this building or generating, we can use 'get up' as an alternative and therefore say 'I got up the courage to ask XXX out on a date'.
Alternatively, maybe you have been very ill lately and as a result your energy levels are low. One day, a friend invites you to go for coffee and despite still feeling very tired, you generate the energy from within yourself to go and meet your friend at the café. Again, it would be perfectly normal in English to say that you "got up the energy to go....".
Without sounding too much like a self help book, this usage is really all about finding the energy or strength within yourself to do something.
On a grammatical note, this application is separable and can be used both separably and inseparably with no change in meaning.
Alex finally got the courage up to ask the handsome boy out.
Debbie couldn’t get up the nerve to speak in front of the crowd and stayed quiet.
I need to get up the energy to clean my apartment but I am so tired!
Julian got enough confidence up to confront his boss about the threatening email.
Kath got up the strength to finish the marathon.
I couldn’t get the motivation up to start my assignment, so I went for a walk instead.
Neil got up the willpower to quit smoking.
MEANING 5: To become stronger
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To strengthen, to brew, to intensify |
Separable? | No |
The fifth meaning of 'get up' is one that we use specifically to talk about the weather and it means 'to become stronger or more powerful'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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As you can see from the nouns above, this usage is applied specifically when talking about bad weather conditions. We normally use it when we perceive that a period of bad weather is about to start as we can feel the wind getting stronger or the rain getting more intense. We can also use it when we can see or feel that a storm is going to materialise.
Moreover, this application is often also used in reference to the sea or the ocean when there are lots of big waves caused by the wind, making it unsafe to swim or sail.
A strong wind is getting up; we should head inside and get some shelter.
The storm started getting up just as we reached the shore.
Dark clouds gathered overhead, and the wind got up quickly.
A heavy sea was getting up, making sailing dangerous.
You can feel the wind getting up before the rain starts.
The waves got up suddenly, forcing the fishermen back to shore.
MEANING 6: To be dressed as something
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Rare |
Where is it used? | British English |
Potential synonyms | To be dressed as |
Separable? | No |
This next application of 'get up' is one for all of those among you who love dressing up for parties and social events as it means 'to be dressed as something'.
Typically, we do not use this application to talk about dressing in normal everyday clothes, but rather unusual, elaborate or funny clothes. Often, this is when we dress up as a character or for a specific festival, like at Halloween or Christmas parties. Furthermore, we can also use it when we put on clothes to imitate what people wore in the past. It doesn't have to be something strange or bizarre though as you can just use this application to describe when someone wears something considered normal that they just would not usually wear in their everyday life.
Grammatically, this application tends to be used more in the passive voice with the structure 'to be got us as / like...' when referring to the thing that we are imitating. To refer to the clothes that we are wearing, we would use the alternative structure 'to be got up in...'.
Lucy was all got up in a glamorous 1920s outfit.
The marketing team were got up as superheroes for the work convention.
Barbara was got up like a movie star from the 1950s.
The kids were got up as their favourite cartoon characters for Halloween.
Lucas was got up in a tuxedo, looking sharper than ever.
Rosie was got up in a shimmering gown, ready for the gala.
We can also use this application in the active voice and when this is the case, it is usually with the reflexive '-self' pronoun'.
Tim got himself up as a pirate for the costume party.
They are going to get themselves us in full drag for this evening's performance.
I don't want to get myself up as anything, so I think I will miss the party this evening.
MEANING 7: To prepare or organise
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Rare |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To prepare, to organise, to arrange |
Separable? | Yes |
Our seventh and final usage of 'get up' means 'to arrange or organise something' and is more common in old or formal English.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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In this sense, 'get up' is used to mean to put in some effort to organise and plan an event, party or social gathering.
This is not a meaning that I personally use or that would feel natural to me, however it is used by some English speakers and can still be found in literature and formal writing. For this reason, it is one to be aware of in case you happen to come across it.
Marcia got up a charity event to raise money for the hospital.
The residents got up a petition to protest the new law.
Ben got up a team for the local football tournament.
We got up a surprise party for our Mum's birthday.
Sarah-Jane got up a meeting to discuss the company’s future.
We have now reached the end of this post and I just want to say thank you for clicking on my post and reading it. I hope that you've enjoyed it and have been able to learn something new about the phrasal verb 'get up'. If you enjoyed this post, please go ahead and check out some of my other posts.
Now it is YOUR turn. Can you think of a sentence yourself using 'get up'. Write it in the comments section below if you can, or alternatively any comments, suggestions or feedback that you may have....don't be shy!!!
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THE END
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