on upon
Hi, today’s lesson is another in the series "Quick Fix," where I quickly fix a common problem in English.
In this lesson, you will learn the difference between ON and UPON in English.
This is a request from Fazil Peerally, so this is especially for you Fazil
and I hope this makes it clearer.
so, two prepositions that confuse non-native speakers are ON and UPON as both mean the same thing.
In this lesson, you will learn the subtle differences between ON and UPON and when they are used.
So, in general, as we said, ON and UPON are prepositions that mean the same thing
and can often be interchanged.
However, UPON is more formal.
So, you can say:
He depends ON his mother for support at home.
OR
He depends UPON his mother for support at home.
These sentences mean the same thing but the one using UPON is more formal.
Most teachers would advise students to use UPON sparingly
that means "not much."
and usually just for literary effect.
In other words, does it improve the sentence or message or does it just make it too formal and inappropriate?
However, there are some occasions when only UPON will work.
So, UPON is used to emphasize that there is a large number or amount of something.
So you would say,
mile upon mile of dusty roads,
Or,
thousands upon thousands of letters,
Or,
row upon row of seats.
And lastly in some common idioms:
so you have, "Once upon a time….."
This is how bedtime stories for children begin, to mean a long time ago
and only UPON is used in this sentence.
or
The summer season was almost upon them again.
If something in the future is almost upon you, it is going to arrive or happen very soon.
So, that’s it for now. I hope you now feel more confident in using ON and UPON in English.
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So that's it, take care and see you very soon. Bye- bye!
on upon