Meaning & use
phone up
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Meanings
verbphrasal verb
To contact someone by telephone, often to ask something or arrange something.
Grammar: Separable with an object: phone up the shop or phone the shop up; with a pronoun it must be phone her up.
Patterns
- phone someone up
- phone up someone
- phone up to do something
I'll phone up the garage tomorrow and ask when the car will be ready.
She phoned me up at midnight just to say good luck.
If you can't find the address, phone up the hotel and ask them.
verbintransitive
To make a telephone call, especially to a business or organization, without naming whom you call.
Grammar: No object; often followed by to plus a verb: he phoned up to complain.
Patterns
- phone up to do something
- phone up about something
Dozens of listeners phoned up to share their opinions on the show.
He phoned up to cancel his appointment at the last minute.
If you have any problems with the delivery, just phone up and we'll sort it out.
Word forms
| third person singular | phones up |
|---|---|
| past tense | phoned up |
| past participle | phoned up |
| -ing form | phoning up |
Common combinations
- phone up and ask
- Just phone up and ask whether they have a table.
- phone up to complain
- Several customers phoned up to complain about the noise.
- phone up the doctor
- I need to phone up the doctor's office before ten.
- phone up a friend
- On a bad day, phone up a friend and talk it through.
- phone up a radio show
- He phoned up a radio show to request his favorite song.
Synonyms and how they differ
- call up
- It means the same thing and is the usual American choice, while phone up sounds more British.
- ring up
- It is also British and a little more casual and spoken than phone up.
- contact
- It is broader and neutral, because you can contact someone by email or letter as well as by phone.
- dial
- It describes pressing the numbers, not having the conversation, so it focuses on the act of connecting.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: phone up or phone in?
phone up vs phone in
Phone in usually means to call a place like work or a broadcast from elsewhere, as in phone in sick, while phone up is simply to call someone.
Practice
Choose the sentence in which the pronoun is placed correctly.
Choose one answer.
Phone up is separable, and a pronoun object must come between the verb and the particle: phone her up. Placing the pronoun after up is not accepted.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “phone up”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.