Short but sweet today.
My sister (glaring at me because I dare to like Strunk & White, which she and my niece are studying) asked me today what I thought about whether the preposition “up” should be used when writing a sentence such as:
- You brighten up my day
Or
- You brighten my day.
I was in the middle of stirring a bit pot of goulash at the time and so didn’t give it a lot of thought, but said that I believed either one was correct, because it was describing the “direction” of the brightening, but wasn’t altogether necessary either way. But after dinner was over and I had some time, I started thinking. I can find plenty of guides to the usage of prepositions. Here, for example. And here. Also here. And yet, this example she gave me is an entirely different case.
Because, in this sample sentence, the word “up” is not a preposition at all. It’s modifying the verb, “brighten.” In other words, it’s an adverb. Prepositions can be just as duplicitous as any other type of word in the English language and serve more than one purpose. The question is whether they’re actually part of a prepositional phrase. If there is an object (“in the house,” “from the left“) they are acting as prepositions. If there is not, they are not.
Here’s a handy little quiz for you, to help clarify it.
Hi Deb, In the quiz, I found the sentence ‘allow through’ to be deceptive. I got it wrong because I believe that ‘through’ was a preposition to an understood object, as in gate, door or barrier. In the last one, the object of ‘through’ was expressed. But it was an interesting quiz.
Hi Deb, isn’t the question here whether “up” adds anything? I don’t see how it could be any direction other than “up” in which case it deserves the red pen… unless, that is, you’re quite relaxed about conversational uses of words even if they’re not ‘strictly’ necessary.
Joanna
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@Gillian–I scored 100% on the quiz (good thing, too, since I’m trying to be authoritative, here), but stopped to think about that one. I don’t know that an object to a prepositional phrase can BE “understood.” I think it has to be clearly stated … but I could be wrong!
@Joanna–I did mention that, actually, to my sister–that it was defining a direction that wasn’t really necessary, but it’s such a colloquial usage that I didn’t see the harm in it, either. It’s not like you can “brighten down” somebody!
After we made it through the snow squall on Route 80, and I could actually mull over the day, I realized that “up” was not a preposition in that particular phrase. “Up” can also be an adjective, a verb, and, as you said, an adverb. So many responsilbilities for one, tiny, little word! I don’t think it’s necessary in my phrase, I think we are just used to hearing it that way.
True enough and an interesting query. I would suggest that ultimately, both are correct. I imagine that the differences between them have been lost over time. It probably did matter previously (my guess is that one was transitive and one intransitive… but I really don’t know.)
That said, I would add the following: “To brighten up” is most certainly a phrasal verb (a combination of a verb with a preposition or adverb that creates a new meaning), the bane of the non-native speaker of English. They always think that English is easy until they discover spelling, pronunciation, and phrasal verbs!