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Phrasal Verbs

Be Up To

What does the phrasal verb 'Be Up To' mean? Clear definitions, real examples and a short video, explained by a British English teacher.

I Swear English › Phrasal Verbs › Be Up To

What does ‘Be Up To’ mean?

Related forms: (transitive),(inseparable)

To be able to withstand something. To be in a fit state to do. For people we use this to ask if, or say that a person has the energy or the motivation to do something. Notice the to is a preposition and must be followed ...by ing when a verb is used.

“Are you up to going out tonight?”.
“I am really not up to visiting your mother this weekend. Could you tell her we can't come?”.
“For things we use "to be up to" to talk about the object's ability to withstand a process, journey or task. To have sufficient resilience for”.
“Do you think the car is up to a journey to Lisbon?”.
“The bolts broke because they weren't up to the strain put on them”.

To be thought to be planning, or carrying out something, generally bad, in a secretive manner. This phrase is particularly used for children, but is also used in other contexts.

“I don't know what the kids are up to, but they are up to something”.
“She paid a detective to find out what her husband was up to”.
“To be up to can also mean do in this sense en the phrase What have you been up to? what's up?”.

In the construction: a decision or choice is up to somebody, the be up to means that it is the choice or the decision of that person.

“It's up to you whether we stay i or go out”.
“If it were up to me I would do it differently”.

To be up to can also be used to mean until. Up to a certain time.

“This list of subscribers is up to the 31st of December”.
“This is up to date”.

Watch: ‘Be Up To’ explained

Video transcript

Hi there. To be up to. To... the verb to be with up to. This has various meanings and it's not the easiest of phrasal verbs. So, for example to start with: to be able to withstand, to be in the state to have the ability to do something ...is better I give some examples. Um... are you up to coming out for a drink? Do you ave enough energy? Do you feel in... well enough to do it? Or for example an... a machine. Is your computer up to running this program? Are the specifications high enough? OK, to be up to. Um... so to be up to the specification, to have a high enough quality, or to be in a physical state, to have enough energy, or stamina to do something. Let's try another up to. To plan or act in a suspicious way, so that people think you are planning something. OK, for example, the kids are really quiet, they are up to something. They're doing something, something that might be bad. Something that woooo... we're not sure about. OK. Um... the police arrested the man because they thought he was up to something. OK. Let's try another one. It's up to you. It's your decision. The decision is up to him. THe decision is up to the teacher. The responsibility of the decision belongs to that person. They nee... they are the person who needs to decide. So, it's up to you if you study English or not. Now a final one. These accounts are up to the 31st of October. Until. OK. So you can wo... this is up to, up to a date. Until a date. So let's l... look at these again. To be up to, to be able to withstand, to have stamina to do, to be suspicions so that people think you are doing something bad. It's your decision, it's up to you and until a certain date. So, I'll see you in another video. Bye for now.

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