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?
I was brought up by my parents in Azerbaijan. They wanted me to be honest, fair. Ä° do all my best to deserve it. Ä° don’t think that there was something wrong in the way of my brought up. I think children should be brought up giving them some rules. As well, parents try to be friend with them.
Excellent example Gulnar. A couple of corrections:
“I do all my best” should be “I do/did my best” or “I do/did everything I can/could” (depending on whether you are talking about now or the past).
You can use ‘to bring sb up’ as a noun – ‘upbringing’ (e.g. I had a strict upbringing). So in your example, you could say: “I don’t think there was anything wrong with my upbringing”.
Have a read about ‘also’ and ‘as well’ here.
I was brought up by my mom. Sometimes she was a strict upbringing, but mostly – kind to me. To my mind, children should have some rules but it’s okey if they not follow them always and everytime 🙂 As Rag’n’Bone Man sings – I’m a human after all 🙂 A lot of strict rules create a desire to go off the rails. At the same time permissiveness makes us spoiled.
Thanks Tanya, great example and well done for using some of the vocabulary from recent exercises!
Think of ‘upbringing’ as similar in meaning to ‘childhood’, but also communicating the way you were raised (not just the time period). This means that you need to change your example about your mum to something like: “sometimes my upbringing was strict, but mostly my mum was kind to me”.
Does that make sense? Let me know if you need any more examples 🙂
Yes, it makes sense, thank you! I was wrong thinking that ‘upbringing’ is someone who raise a child.
Ah, got it. For that you could say parent, guardian or carer 🙂
Nowadays, parents are more lenient when bringing up their children. It implies positive and negative consequences, as It is true that you shouldn’t be too strict with your sons in order to allow them to discover the realities of life. But It is also true that being too much tolerant or permissive might affect their behavior later on. After all, parents want well-mannered children who behave at home and work well at school that will give them lifelong positive values
Great example Cristian.
– Careful with ‘sons’ – I think you mean ‘children’.
– ‘too much tolerant’ should be ‘too tolerant’.
Can I use “bring up” instead of ‘grow up”? They are sinonims? When is better to use one instead of other? Thanks. I love microenglish.
Thanks Nicolas! I’m really glad you find MicroEnglish useful 🙂
You’ve asked a very good question. ‘Grow up’ and Bring sb up’ are not synonyms.
The most important difference is grammatical.
‘To grow up’ has no object, so “a child grows up”. You can’t ‘grow somebody up’ – this doesn’t exist in English. The person who does this action is the child.
‘To bring sb up’ has an object, so “parents bring up their children”. The person who does the action is not the child. The child receives the action.
Because of this, the two phrasal verbs have different meanings.
‘To grow up’ basically means ‘to get older and become an adult’.
‘To bring sb up’ is more complicated, and means something like ‘to look after/educate a child until they have grown up’.
Use ‘to bring sb up’ when you want to talk about how you were brought up, e.g. “I was brought up to be polite and hardworking” or about who brought you up, e.g. “My grandparents brought me up” or “I was brought up by my grandparents”.
If you don’t go into any detail (and use ‘to bring sb up’ in the passive, i.e. ‘to be brought up’) then the meanings will basically be the same, e.g:
“I grew up in London” = “I was brought up in London”.
Hope that helps, but feel free to ask if you have any other doubts. Thanks!