The Phrasal Verb 'Own Up' Explained
- 13 hours ago
- 5 min read
An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'own 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.
Are you familiar with the English phrasal verb 'own up'? Is it perhaps one that you have people using before but are not sure how to use or is it one that is completely new to you? In this post I will explain to you what it means and how to use in a natural way, so that you can start using it confidently and naturally. As per usual, there are lots of example sentences in context to show you how native speakers typically use it. So, let's get started and find out what the phrasal verb 'own up' is all about....
QUICK ANSWER: What does the phrasal verb 'own up' mean?The phrasal verb 'own up' has one main meaning
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THE BASICS
OWN UP: KEY INFORMATION
Usage | Common |
Number of meanings | 1 |
Past tense forms | Owned up / Owned up |
Separable? | No |
Before we look deeper into what the phrasal verb 'own up' means, let's first briefly consider the individual words 'own' and 'up' and what they mean on their own.
Own - The verb 'to own' is one that many of you reading this will know already and in modern English primarily means 'to possess something'. In other words, you can use it to say that something belongs to you and is your property. You may also be familiar with the noun 'owner' for a person who owns something. Historically, 'to own' was also used in English to mean 'to confess' or 'to acknowledge that you did an action' and while this meaning is not common today, it can still be heard in some contexts, including in the phrasal verb 'own up' as you will see shortly.
My brother is rich and owns four houses.
Who owns the red car on the driveway?
Sarah owned a horse when she was younger.
Barnaby owns that he was wrong (old-fashioned).
Up - The prepositional particle 'up' is one that we see appearing in phrasal verbs a lot, adding many different meanings depending on the context. In a literal sense, it can add the idea of an upward movement or an increase (go up), however you are more likely to come across it being used figuratively to add ideas like intensification (build up), improvement (pick up), preparation (set up) and making something visible or known (bring up).
So, now that we have covered the basics, let's now move on to the meaning of the phrasal verb 'own up'....
MEANING 1: To admit doing something wrong
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Common |
Where it is used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To confess, to fess up, to admit, to acknowledge, to come clean |
Separable? | No |
If the phrasal verb 'own up' is a new one for you, it will hopefully be a nice and easy one for you to learn as there is only one meaning and that is 'to admit doing something wrong'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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I have a very clear memory of being in a lesson at school many years ago when one of the naughty boys in my class (not me) threw a ball of paper at the teacher when she turned her back to write on the board. The teacher was understandably very angry and as the paper
was thrown when her back was turned, she had no idea who the culprit was. At the end of the lesson, she stopped everyone from leaving and said that we could only leave once the person who threw the paper 'owned up'. After several minutes, we realised she was being serious and the boy who had thrown it nervously put his hand up and said "it was me"!
In my example above, the boy who put his hand up and admitted throwing the paper 'owned up' because he admitted to the teacher that he had done something wrong. Generally speaking, we can use the phrasal verb 'own up' to describe any situation in which a person admits a wrongdoing, particularly after a period of avoiding it or hiding the truth beforehand.
Consequently, this nice little phrasal verb is one that is super common in school and educational environments or generally when children are involved. It can also be heard in business English and in normal everyday adult life too but just not as much.
In terms of tone, 'own up' is less formal than the verb 'to confess' and unlike 'to confess', it is only used to talk about doing something wrong and not about secret feelings or something embarrassing.
No one in James's class was willing to own up.
If you've done something wrong, you should own up.
Sandra eventually owned up after hours of questioning.
Come on, own up! We all know it was you.
Neil refused to own up, even when the evidence was undeniable.
I think it's time that I owned up; I forgot your birthday!
On a grammatical note, 'own up' is an inseparable phrasal verb and it is often followed by the extra preposition 'to' to specify the wrongdoing that the person has done.
You should note if you want to specify the forbidden deed as a verb, you need to use the gerund ('ing) form after 'to'. This pattern of 'own up + to + verb / gerund' is by far the most common way to use it in everyday English. Less commonly, 'own up' can be followed by a 'that' clause.
Kate finally owned up to breaking the vase.
Nobody would own up to making the mistake.
Mike owned up to cheating in the exam.
The teenager owned up to taking the money without permission.
After several hours, the suspect owned up to the crime.
They eventually owned up to lying about where they had been.
The company owned up to its error and apologised to its customers.
It's always better to own up to your mistakes than try to hide them.
Elaine never owned up to what she had done.
Nick finally owned up that he had forgotten to turn the oven off.
We have now reached the end of this post and I hope that you have found it useful and that it has helped you to understand how to use the phrasal verb 'own up' more confidently and naturally.
Feel free to leave any comments, feedback or your own sentences using 'own up' in the section below. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media.
Do you want exercises to practice and consolidate your phrasal verb knowledge? If yes, check out my downloadable phrasal verb workbooks, which include clear explanations, common learner mistakes, exercises, speaking practice and answer keys to help you master the phrasal verbs that native speakers use every day. Browse the workbooks here. |
Thanks so much for reading and see you next time! James 😊
THE END