Grow (up)

Posted by Pak Guru on April 25th, 2018 | 0 comments | IELTS, meningkat, speaking, vocabulary, writing

Social media may grow up rapidly in the future.

This is a kind of understandable error. Students have seen or heard ‘grow up’ and they assume that absolutely anything can ‘grow up’.

However, only children grow up:

• I grew up with very poor parents.
• His children grew up and moved away.
• My brother is so childish. I wish he would grow up!

Everything else grows (without up!):

• Income inequality has grown massively since 2000.
• Public opinion against nuclear energy keeps growing.
• All economic sectors grew during the war.

Actually in the last three examples ‘grow’ is synonymous with ‘increase’:

• Income inequality has increased massively since 2000.
• Public opinion against nuclear energy keeps increasing.
• All economic sectors increased during the war.

Try this quick practice activity: