Grammar Mistakes - GROW or GROW UP?

Hi there. My name is Emma, and today's lesson is going to cover a very, very common grammar

mistake. I hear students make this mistake a lot. It's when students mix up "grow up"

and "grow". So today's lesson is going to cover when do we use "grow up" versus when

do we use "grow", and we will do some sample sentences together. So let's get started.

So "grow up" is probably the easier one to remember because we only use "grow up" really

in one context. We use it when we're talking about a child becoming an adult. So it's just

from childhood to adulthood. So for example, this is something children say a lot. "When

I grow up, I want to be a doctor." "When I grow up, I want to be an astronaut." So it

just means when the child becomes an adult, this is what the child would like to be. And

so again, we have the "up".

Now an important thing to note when we do "grow up" is that there is no object. What

do I mean by this? Well, sentences often are either subject-verb or subject-verb-object.

So for example, we have our subject, and we have our verb, and then we have a comma. We

don't have an object. I can't say, "I grow up a tree." "I grow up a beard." No. It's

just, "I grow up." Finish. "When my son grows up." So again, there's no object.

Okay, so let's look at "grow" now. So with "grow", we use "grow" for a lot more things.

Whereas we use "grow up" just in this one example, we use "grow" for plants, beards,

hair, people, cities, etc. We use it in so many different contexts. I won't be able to

cover all of them, but I'll cover some of the main ones.

So my first example is, "The plant grew." "It got bigger." That's pretty much what the

sentence means. And notice in this case, we just have the subject, the plant, and the

verb. We don't have an object. "The plant grew." So with "grow", you don't need an object

all the time. In my second sentence, "My father grew a beard." In this case, we do have an

object. So we have subject, which is "My father grew", which is the verb, and a beard, which

is the object. So you can grow something. "I can grow my hair." "I can grow my hair

long." "People can grow a certain height." So, "He grew five inches this year." "When

I was maybe 12 years old, I had a growth spurt," meaning I grew very quickly. "I grew four

inches." So again, these are just some of the contexts we use "grow" with, and you can

either have it without the object or with an object. Whereas with "grow up", we can't

have it with an object.

So now we are going to do some examples together to make sure you really understand the difference

between these two words.

So let's look at four examples to practice "grow" and "grow up".

So the first question, "Her mother wants her to be a professor when she grows, or when

she grows up." What do you think it is? He said, "grows up." You're correct. So again,

this sentence just means, "Her mother wants her to be a professor when she's an adult."

So it's from going from childhood to adulthood.

Number two, "I in New York." Is it, "I grew in New York," or "I grew up in New York"?

"I grew in New York" or "I grew up in New York"? In this case, "grew up".

And don't be too concerned right now with whether it's past tense or present perfect.

The main thing I want you to concentrate on is whether it is "grow" or "grow up".

For number two, "I grew up in New York." This means that your childhood was in New York.

You grew older in New York. So we use this phrase a lot. Where did you grow up? It means,

where was your childhood? "I grew up in Toronto." Where did you grow up?

Number three, "The line-up has", do you think it's "grown" or "grown up"? "The line-up has

grown." So the line-up is a thing. It's not a person. It's when you're waiting at the

movies, for example, and there's a lot of people waiting in a line. That's the line-up.

So we can say, "The line-up has grown." This just means it's gotten bigger. So we're not

talking about childhood. We're not talking about people. And again, "grow" means "bigger",

so "The line-up has grown." Now again, this is present perfect. I could have said, "The

line-up grew", "The line-up grows." This is without context, so don't worry about the

grammar of this. Don't worry about the tense I mean.

Number four, "The rose in the garden." Is it "grew up" or "grew"? "The rose grew in

the garden." Good. So the simple rule is "grew up" is really talking about childhood and

when you're getting older, to adulthood. So think about being a child, being an adult.

Whereas for "grow", we use it for so many different things. It's for everything but

being a child and growing into adulthood.

So for more practice on "grow" versus "grow up", come visit our website at www.engvid.com.

Until next time.