The Phrasal Verb 'Mix Up Explained
- Phrasal Verbs Explained
- Oct 17
- 10 min read
An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'mix up' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context
Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native.
How well do you know the phrasal verb 'mix up'? I imagine that many of you will have heard it before but did you know that there at least 4 different ways to use it in English? In this post, my aim is to explain these different applications and provide you with lots of example sentences to enable you to recognise and use them to enhance your English level and impress your friends and colleagues. So, without further ado, let's get started....
TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one)
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THE BASICS
MIX UP: KEY INFORMATION
Usage | Common |
Number of meanings | 4 |
Past tense forms | Mixed up / Mixed up |
Separable? | Yes |
The phrasal verb 'mix up' is formed from the base verb 'to mix' with the prepositional particle 'up' and so, as per usual on Phrasal Verbs Explained, let's start our phrasal verb analysis by considering the two individual words themselves.
The verb 'to mix' is one that is very well known in English and means to combine two different things, normally in order to form one single substance, product or thing. You can mix ingredients to make food, a painter may mix two colours to create a third one or a DJ might mix two songs together. In addition to its usage as a verb, the noun 'mix' and adjective 'mixed' are heard a lot in English.
The barman carefully mixed our cocktails.
If you mix red and blue, you get purple.
Oil and water do not mix.
I've mixed the ingredients together and put the dish in the oven.
The prepositional particle 'up' is perhaps the most common of all prepositions that form phrasal verbs and can add many different ideas to the verb. Perhaps the most logical meaning that it can give a phrasal verb is the idea of an upwards movement or increase ('go up' and 'shoot up'). Additionally, when 'up' is found in phrasal verbs, it can add a sense of completion (end up, wrap up), preparation (set up), accumulation (save up) and improvement (look up), among others.
So, now that we have looked at the basics, let's move onto the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'mix up'....
MEANING 1: To mix two or more things together
CEFR Language Level | A2 - Elementary |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To mix, to combine, to shake up |
Separable? | Yes |
The first application of the phrasal verb 'mix up' that we will look at is one that you may be familiar with already and it simply means 'to mix two or more things together'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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To clarify, if you mix things up, you thoroughly combine or blend two or more different things together with the aim of creating something new. As a result, it is common to hear 'mix up' in this sense being used in reference to food and drink preparation.
You may be wondering if this is the same as the verb 'to mix' on its own and while these two are more or less synonyms of each other, there also are some subtle shades of difference between them.
Firstly, the verb 'to mix' is more formal than 'mix up' and so you are perhaps more likely to see it in recipes and instruction manuals, whereas 'mix up' might be used more in everyday speech. Secondly, I think 'mix up' conveys more the idea of a complete mix, so that the two or more things being mixed are absolutely 100% blended and it is not possible to blend them anymore. More often than not though, these two variations do mean the same thing and the only differences that arise are just from the tone or emphasis of the speaker.
Note that this usage is separable and you can place the object between 'mix' and 'up' or after them and this will not change the meaning.
Lucy mixed up the batter for the pancakes.
Jeremy mixed up some cement to repair the wall.
Let’s mix a salad up with all these fresh vegetables.
The artists mixed up the paint colours to create a new shade.
I'm going to mix the ingredients up in a large bowl before baking.
The bartender mixed a few cocktails up for the guests.
First, you will need to mix up some dough for the cookies.
Whilst I was mixing up the herbs and spices for the marinade, I realised I had added the wrong herbs.
Tom carefully mixed up the chemicals in the lab.
Sarah's kids asked her if they could mix up some mud and water to make pretend pies.
MEANING 2: To put things in the wrong order
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To mess up, to scramble, to jumble |
Separable? | Yes |
In the last application, I explained how 'mix up' can be used to mean to combine two things by mixing them together in an intentional, positive way and now for our second application we have a bit more of a negative meaning as it means 'to put things in the wrong order'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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Imagine that you have spent a few hours preparing a work presentation on your computer with many different slides in the correct order to make it as effective as possible. The next week, just before the presentation starts you check the slides and notice that they are all out of order, with the first slide at the end and the second slide where the third slide should be etc. In this situation, you can say that the slides were 'mixed up' as the correct slide order was changed.
This particular scenario has never happened to me but I have been in many situations in my life in which the order of something has been mixed up, causing me lots of problems or hassle as a result.
Anyway, to clarify further, we can use this application for any situation in which the correct order of something is changed so that it is wrong. This might be something that is arranged in numerical or alphabetical order, something that is organised into chronological (time) order or even things that are arranged in a physical space.
I've accidentally mixed up the pages of the report.
Penny mixed the order of the photos in the album up.
The teacher mixed up the students’ test papers by mistake.
Please don’t mix up these files; they need to stay in alphabetical order.
We mixed up the shipping labels and sent the packages to the wrong addresses.
John mixed up the letters in his name so that it spelt njho.
The numbers somehow got mixed up when I entered them into the spreadsheet.
Someone's mixed up the order of the slides in the presentation, so I need some time to fix it.
You should note that we often use the past participle form 'mixed-up' here as an adjective to refer to things whose correct orders have been mixed up and are therefore incorrect. If you want to add some emphasis or stress to say that the order of something is very mixed up you can say "all mixed up".
Oh no! The receipts are mixed up; I spent ages putting them in the correct order yesterday.
The loose pages of the manuscript fell on the floor and when I picked them up they were all mixed up.
MEANING 3: To confuse two or more things
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To confuse, to muddle (up), to conflate, to confound |
Separable? | Yes |
Next, we will move on to the third and perhaps most commonly used application of the phrasal verb 'mix up' and that is 'to confuse two or more things'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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This application is typically used when there are two or more things that share similar characteristics or attributes and as a consequence, people can make the mistake of thinking that one is the other and vice versa.
For example, imagine that you meet two sisters, Lucy and Laura, who both look alike and have long brown hair. If you only met them once or twice and didn't know them very well, it would be easy to think that Lucy was Laura or Laura was Lucy and when you do this you are mixing them up.
As you can imagine, this application is often one that is associated with older people, however I think that this is a bit unfair as everybody has the capacity to mix people or things up when they are not overly familiar with them.
On a grammatical note, we can often also use the construction "to get XXX mixed up (with XX)" here as an alternative and you will often hear native speakers saying this in these situations.
I always mix up your twins; they look so alike! I don't know how you tell them apart.
Don’t mix up salt and sugar when you’re baking or you will have a nasty surprise.
Claire got the two movie titles mixed up.
Luke mixed up my phone with his because they are the same model.
The waiter got our orders mixed up.
I always get the words 'affect' and 'effect' mixed up.
The teacher mixed up my essay with another student’s.
Louise mixed up the names of the two cities.
It’s easy to mix up those two songs as they have such similar melodies.
You should also know that it is possible to use the construction 'to mix someone up' to mean 'to confuse someone or make them feel worried or upset in some way'. This is a rarer usage that I don't think I have ever personally used but it does exist, so you may well come across it one day in your English-speaking interactions.
Don’t tell her that yet; it’ll just mix her up.
That dream I had last night really mixed me up.
She was so mixed up after the breakup that she didn’t know what she wanted anymore.
MEANING 4: To become involved in something
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To involve, to get involved with / in, to embroil, to implicate |
Separable? | Not usually |
Let's now move on to our fourth and final meaning of 'mix up', which is the most advanced of its applications but nevertheless has a logical link to the others and that is 'to become involved in something'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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Let me first clarify, when I say "to get involved in something", what I mean is to become a participant in a situation or alternatively, when talking about people, to become part of a social group. If you are mixed up in a situation or group of people, it simply means the same thing. You should note however that when we use 'mix up' in this context, it is usually to talk about something negative, troublesome or complicated.
For example, you might talk about getting mixed up in a political scandal if you somehow become involved in one, or being mixed up in an argument between two friends who try to include you in it. When referring to people, this is often used to describe when someone starts socialising and spending time with groups or gangs of undesirable people or even criminal gangs.
On a grammatical note, you should note that this application is mostly used in the passive voice and is formed with the constructions 'to get mixed up in' to describe the process of becoming involved and 'to be mixed up in' to describe the existing state of being involved. When talking about people, it is also possible to use 'with' as an alternative to 'in'.
Paul got mixed up in a bad crowd at school.
I advised Emily not to get mixed up in office politics.
They are mixed up in a legal dispute that has been dragging on for years.
I don’t want to get mixed up in their argument; it's nothing to do with me.
Ben somehow got mixed up with the wrong people.
Elizabeth got mixed up in a scandal without even realising it.
Our company is mixed up in a corruption case.
Don’t get mixed up in things that don’t concern you; it will do you no good!
Tim was afraid of getting mixed up in criminal activity.
Lesley got mixed up in a messy breakup between her friends.
BONUS: The noun 'mix-up' and the adjective 'mixed-up'
Now we've finished looking at the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'mix up', however did you know that there is also a noun 'mix-up' and adjective 'mixed-up' that have emerged in the English language as a result of this phrasal verb.....
Let's first think about the noun 'mix-up', which is actually a pretty commonly used word, especially in the workplace in the English speaking world. A 'mix-up' is in fact just a mistake or error that causes confusion, often arising from a misunderstanding or as a result of someone mixing up two different things, like in the third application (here).
Apologies for the mix-up; I thought the meeting was tomorrow!
We had a mix-up at the airport and almost ended up on the wrong flight.
The company blamed an administrative mix-up for the incorrect invoices.
The adjective 'mixed-up' on the other hand can be used to describe a situation in which there is a 'mix-up' as per the above, however it is more commonly used to describe people. If you say that someone is 'mixed-up' it is usually to mean that he or she is emotionally unstable and is often confused and upset, sometimes with the potential to cause trouble. As such, it is often used to describe naughty children or teenagers who play up due to deep social or emotional issues.
Kathy was a mixed-up teenager just trying to figure out who she was.
Terry seems like a nice guy, he's just a bit mixed-up right now.
The character in the story is a mixed-up young man who is searching for meaning.
We have now reached the end of this post and I just want to say thank you for clicking on my post and reading it. I hope that you've enjoyed it and have been able to learn something new about the phrasal verb 'mix up'. If you enjoyed this post, please go ahead and check out some of my other posts.
Now it is YOUR turn. Can you think of a sentence yourself using 'mix up'. Write it in the comments section below if you can, or alternatively any comments, suggestions or feedback that you may have....don't be shy!!!
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THE END
Really interesting
My boss told me so many things I had to do that it mixed me up.
Excelent explication of this phrasal verb. Thank you very much.