15 Powerful Phrasal Verbs with Up

Boost Your English Vocabulary Instantly

Want to level up your English? Learning these 15 phrasal verbs with “up” will instantly make your English sound more natural, fluent, and confident. Preparing for competitive exams? Need to sound polished in meetings? Want to write better emails? These expressions will power up your communication in every situation.

• Bring up – To mention a topic
  • He brings up interesting points in meetings.
  • She brought up the issue last Friday.
  • I will bring it up during the review.
• Give up – To stop doing something
  • She gave up chocolate last year.
  • They have given up on the old method.
  • I will be giving up fast food soon.
• Set up – To establish or arrange
  • He is setting up his new studio.
  • They had set up the event perfectly.
  • We will have set up everything before the guests arrive.
• Make up – To invent or reconcile
  • She makes up excuses all the time.
  • He has made up his mind to move abroad.
  • I had been making up stories for fun as a child.
• Pick up – To collect or learn casually
  • She is picking up new skills at work.
  • They had picked up a stray puppy.
  • We will have picked up the documents by then.
• Catch up – To reach the same level or to update oneself on missed info, tasks or to recover time, tasks that was previously missed
  • He caught up on sleep last weekend after a hectic week at work.
  • I have caught up with all my assignments.
  • She will be catching up on her coursework throughout the week
• Look up – To search or improve
  • She looks up to her mentor.
  • I have looked up that word already.
  • He had been looking up information all day.
• Clean up – To tidy or sanitize
  • He is cleaning up the garage now.
  • We had cleaned up the whole backyard.
  • By then, they will have cleaned up the beach.
• Put up – To tolerate or raise
  • I put up with the noise every day.
  • He has put up shelves in the kitchen.
  • They had been putting up decorations since morning.
• Bring up – To raise a child or mention
  • I bring up the concern every time.
  • She has brought up her daughter single-handedly.
  • They had been bringing up the topic repeatedly.
• Step up – To take responsibility
  • You must step up your game.
  • We have been stepping up our performance.
  • He stepped up when no one else did.
• Wind up – To conclude or end
  • They wind up the meetings early.
  • She has wound up the project successfully.
  • He had been winding up the session when I arrived.
• Break up – To end a relationship or disperse
  • They break up every few months.
  • She has broken up with him recently.
  • I had been breaking up with him for weeks.
• Turn up – To appear unexpectedly
  • He turns up late every time.
  • She has turned up already.
  • We had been turning up at events uninvited.
• Come up – To arise or emerge
  • It comes up often in discussions.
  • That issue has come up again.
  • They had been coming up with ideas all night.

15 Powerful Phrasal Verbs with Up is more than just a list—it’s a toolbox for fluent and effective English. Now that you’ve seen these phrases in action across different tenses, you have a strong foundation to build on. Notice how variety in grammar helps you use language flexibly in real conversations. Keep revisiting and practicing these phrasal verbs in different contexts to lock them into memory. Want to grow your skills further? Check out our other resources for more English power tools.