bring up: meaning and explanation
The phrasal verb to bring someone up means to take care of or look after a child until they become an adult. To raise a child.
We can use this phrasal verb to explain who brought someone up (e.g. I was brought up by my grandparents), where they were brought up (e.g. I was brought up in Scotland but I moved to London when I was 17), or how they were brought up (e.g. I was brought up to be polite….I was brought up in a traditional way).
We often use this phrasal verb in the passive (to be brought up) because we want to focus on the child who is brought up (the object of the action) rather than the people who bring them up (the agent of the action). For example, I was brought up by my grandparents would normally be more natural than My grandparents brought me up.
Sometimes, we don’t even need to include the agent, e.g. I was brought up in a small village…I was brought up to be independent. In these examples, we want to focus on where or how we were brought up, not on who brought us up.
We can also use this phrasal verb as a noun: upbringing. This is used to talk about the way you were raised, e.g. I had a very religious upbringing.
Have a go at these micro-dictation exercises to hear this expression being used in context – how much can you understand?
Listening exercises
Dictation #1
Accent: England (RP)
Dictation #2
Accent: North America
About the sentence
…as his parents died when he was young...
As can be used as an alternative to because, e.g. I decided not to go for a run as it was raining.
Dictation #3
Accent: Ireland
About the sentence
…I was hardly ever allowed to go out…
Hardly ever is a useful way of talking about frequency, and has the meaning almost never. e.g. I hardly ever go to the gym these days – I’m too lazy.
Extra practice
Here are some questions/links to help you learn the new vocabulary:
- What values or principles do you think are most important to bring up children with? How do these values shape their development and future behavior?
- How did your parents or guardians bring you up? What specific methods or practices did they use that you found effective or memorable? Looking back, how do you feel about your upbringing?
- What challenges do parents face today when bringing up children that might not have been an issue in previous generations? How can they address these challenges?
- How do cultural differences influence the way children are brought up around the world? Can you provide examples of unique practices from different cultures that you find interesting or effective?
Wow
These lessons are realy helpful!
Hi Luis,
Thank you! I’m really glad you think so. Feel free to ask if you have any questions, I’m happy to help 🙂
Chris
I’m sure that I had a very good upbringing. I was brought up by my parents and grandparents. I won’t change anything about my childhood and about the way I was educated. As for children, in my opinion they should definitely have some rules to obey. They should help and respect their parents and obey curfew hours. This will help them to become responsible and
intelligent people in the future.
Great example Svitlana – your English is fantastic. I would make one small correction: it might be better to say, “I wouldn’t change anything about my childhood”. Can you explain why this would be better?
Because will is used for future action which may happen and would is used for past actions which we can not change now because they have already happened.
Yes – more generally, would is used for hypothetical/imaginary present situations. As you say, we can’t change the past, so this makes the question of changing the past hypothetical. Basically, it is half of a second conditional: [If I had the power to change the past,] I wouldn’t change the way I was brought up.
extremely useful for your lesson
Thank you Kit!
I was brought up by my parents in a small city. I was brought up to be a good person. I like the way that I brought up and wouldn’t change anything about it. In my opinion children should be brought up to respect rules in order to have a good relationship in society.
Excellent example!
It’s almost perfect except for one small mistake in this sentence: “I like the way that I brought up and I wouldn’t change anything about it”. Can you identify it?
I was brought up in the Baku by my parents. They were perfect.
I guess, I had to be brought up self-assured.
I think children should be brought up with some rules, for instance, supporting one each other, never be traitor, never lie and with their believing they should be free.
It sounds like you had a great upbringing Seva 🙂
A couple of small corrections:
1) We don’t need ‘the’ with the names of cities (“I was brought up in Baku”).
2) “never be a traitor”
Hi, Chris. Thank you!