Meaning & use
to build someone up
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Meanings
phrasetransitive
to make someone feel more confident and positive by giving them encouragement or praise.
Grammar: Takes a person as object; the object usually goes between build and up.
Patterns
- build someone up
- build up someone's confidence
- build someone up to do something
Her teacher built her up before the exam, telling her she was ready.
He always builds his little brother up instead of teasing him.
Good managers build their staff up rather than pointing out every mistake.
phrasetransitivedisapproving
to praise someone or something so much that people expect too much of them.
Grammar: Often used in the passive with into: be built up into something.
Patterns
- build someone up into something
- be built up as something
The media built the young singer up into a star before she had even released an album.
Don't build him up as a genius; he is still learning.
Common combinations
- build up someone's confidence
- A few kind words can build up a child's confidence.
- build someone up into something
- The press built the race up into a national event.
- build someone up before something
- She built me up before the interview.
- constantly build someone up
- His parents constantly built him up, so failure hit him hard.
Synonyms and how they differ
- encourage
- Encourage is more general and can mean giving someone courage to act; build up focuses on making them feel good about themselves.
- praise
- Praise is simply saying good things about someone; build up suggests a repeated effect on their confidence.
- reassure
- Reassure means removing someone's doubts or fears, while build up adds a sense of increasing their overall confidence.
Opposites
Word family
- buildup noun
- A gradual increase or a period of praise and publicity before something happens.
Commonly confused: to build someone up or build on?
to build someone up vs build on
Build on means to use something as a base for further progress, as in build on your success, not to encourage a person.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrasal verb correctly?
Choose one answer.
With a pronoun object, the pronoun must go between build and up: build them up. Option A puts the pronoun after up, which is wrong with pronouns, and option C uses the subject pronoun they instead of the object them.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “to build someone up”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.