Original Podcast Episode: 2181 Show: All Ears English

This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2181. You can rely upon us for English grammar. Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We’ll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on Connection Not Perfection with your American host Aubrey Carter, the IELTS Wiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English Adventurer. Coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. To get real-time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All Ears English app for iOS and Android. Start your seven-day free trial at allyearsenglish.com forward slash app.

Looking for a formal or elevated alternative to the preposition on? Try the word upon. Today, find out how it changes the meaning when you insert upon in different speaking scenarios.

Hello, Aubrey. How’s everything going today? I’m great. How are you, Lindsay? I’m feeling good. I’m feeling solid, ready for the weekend. What about you? Excellent. Yes, I feel the same. I am ready for a weekend and I have a question for you. This is interesting.

Who are you able to rely upon in your life? To rely upon. Interesting. Well, I’m lucky to have a lot of people to rely upon. Certainly, my parents have always been steady for me. I can always go to them and I feel lucky about that. Then my partner, my spouse, I can certainly rely upon. My brother, I’d say when things get into a jam, I can go to him even though we’re not super close. You have a lot of people. That’s fantastic. Yeah, for sure. For sure. It’s a good question though, isn’t it? Kind of formal sounding almost. It is a little formal sounding. We got this question about the word upon in English. Did that feel natural to you or do you feel like I would more likely to say, who are you able to rely on in your life? I would have expected you to say rely on because rely upon makes it feel a little more poetic, a little more elevated. We’re just chatting as friends here on the podcast. Yeah. Yeah, it’s not a grammatical error, but it just makes it that much more formal that when you’re just chatting with a friend, it does feel a little strange. Why are you saying it that way? I would more likely say rely on, but both are correct. So this is going to be interesting to dive into. When do we use upon? Why do we use upon? Because this can be really confusing. Oh, for sure. So we got a question from a listener. Can I read it? Are we ready? I love reading listener questions. I just love it. All right, here we go.

First of all, congrats for the show. I downloaded Aller’s English about a month ago. It’s a new listener. I love it and I listen to it every single day when I’m driving to work. Amazing. And he says, I’d like you guys to explain a little bit about the word upon and how to use it exactly. I’ve always had a hard time understanding it. Thank you, Edson net. Yes, I love this question. I love when a question is something that I have not thought about before in English. And this is one of those things I’m like, okay, we use upon. Gotta think about like, when do I use it? Why do I use it? So it was an interesting deep dive that I did to figure out why do we use upon? Yeah, thank you, Edson, for pushing us to think about the English language. And now we’re going to go into it today, Aubrey. So what do we need to know about upon? So it’s very interchangeable with on in many of the ways that we use it. It’s a preposition. Often we could replace it with on, but it makes it just a little bit more formal. Like we were saying with rely, rely upon, you could say, the research was, you know, we relied upon research for this survey, you could also just say, we relied on research for this survey. And the meaning is the same, but it’s just a little more formal.

Yeah, I agree with you. It’s pretty interchangeable. When you want to elevate things a little bit more, we stick in upon, right? Exactly, or based on versus based upon the research was based upon two surveys. That sounds very natural to me because it’s sort of academic. We’re talking about a research paper where maybe speaking more formally depending on the situation. But if it’s just two friends talking, you’d probably say based on. That’s actually interesting. I was flying back from California late Sunday night and we were watching the Devil Wears Prada. It’s always on the airlines. I love it. And at the beginning of the movie, it said based upon the novel by XYZ, there’s so many movies that are based upon novels. But my point is they always say based, usually they say based upon the novel by not based on. Yes. And right when we’re writing, we usually are just a little bit more formal. If we’re in an academic setting, maybe in a business meeting or interview, we might be a little more formal. But if you said to me, oh, the book I’m reading is based or this movie was based, you’d probably say based on was based on this book because it’s more conversational. That’s a good differentiator right there.

So the credits of a movie before or after the movie, you’re going to see based upon. But if you and I are chatting, how did you see that movie? Did you know it’s based on this book? Exactly. And they mean the same thing, both correct. Whenever we’re writing or in a formal situation, we might opt for a pun just to uplevel our English to be a little bit more formal. Well, it’s good for our listeners to have options, guys. This is what brings you to 99% fluency and connection is to know the difference and to have options. That’s what we’re doing today. Exactly. And there are actually four different ways we use upon in English. This, what we’ve been talking about is the first way where it just means the same as on, but is a little bit more formal. This is sort of abstract, the way we’ve been talking about so far based on, rely upon, based upon, but it can be more literal. You could say, you know, he set the flowers upon the table. And if you’re reading a poem or seeing something written, it might be this way. But in normal conversation, we probably just say, you know, he set the flowers on the table. Yeah, he set the flowers upon the table. It sounds a little too singsong-y, a little too novel-ish. It’s a novel, right? The beach setting novel. Sounds literary. Exactly. But that’s not the only way we use it, right? So let’s get into the others here.

What’s the second way we use this, Lindsay, upon? Okay. So meaning up and on. Interesting. Upward so as to get or be on something. So, for example, he climbed upon the horse, right? This is interesting. We use it to mean getting up and on something. We use the preposition upon instead. Now, of course, there are less formal versions here as well. I might be more likely to say he climbed onto the horse just because of where I grew up. But this is grammatically correct as well. And you might hear someone say he climbed upon the horse. Though it still has the high-brow sort of singsong-y literature. Absolutely. Feeling to it, right?

So the other thing I might say here is he climbed up onto the horse. He climbed up onto the horse. More conversational. Yes. And you might say like, oh, maybe you’re reading a book and it says, the circus performer rode upon the elephant’s back. Oh, it’s right. And just like you said, grammatically correct. But if I were to just say this to someone, I’d probably say the circus performer rode on the elephant’s back. Yeah. You might, if you said that to someone conversationally, you might sound a little out of touch because you’re almost reciting a poem. Right. Why are you speaking? You know what I mean? Yeah. Occasionally, I’ll talk to someone who kind of speaks that way. And it feels a little weird. That’s your personality? Then go with it. But I don’t know. True. But I think there is a little bit of a risk to break the connection a little bit. If it feels just a little bit awkward, like you’re sort of making the situation more formal, that’s not always the best way to build connection. We want to feel comfortable in our conversations. So this is one of the key points about upon.

You want to understand how it’s used, but you don’t want to throw it into conversation all the time because you are making it more formal. 100%. That’s why connection mattered. That’s it. That’s the connection piece right there, right, Aubrey? Yes, absolutely. Imagine how great it would be if you could answer just seven questions and find out your English fluency level in a simple, easy way and find out what to do to reach 99% fluency. Well, you can do this by taking our quick fluency score quiz. What is your fluency score? Find out in just a few minutes. Go to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. Okay.

Number three, what is the third way? Aubrey? Yes. So we also use upon when we’re talking about something that is going to be experienced or dealt with very soon. Like for example, you know, we might say another few weeks and spring will be upon us. And I do use it this way in conversation, right? Something will soon, Christmas is upon us, right? Meaning like it’s here or it’s coming very soon. This is an interesting way that we use upon. And I’ve had this feeling in the last couple of days. Yesterday and today, it’s sunny and 65. And I have this feeling spring is upon us. Right now, we’re recording this on March 1st, a few weeks back from the date this publishes. But it does have that feeling right now in the air. Spring is upon us. And then the snowstorm comes, right? That’s how it is. Yes, right.

Or you might say exams will be upon you before you know it. Better get studying if you’re kids. You know, I’ve said this to my daughter recently. She has AP exams soon. They’ll be upon you before you know it. Get studying, right? I mean, it’s already ending. It’s crabbing. The end of the year is coming. The end of the school year is not that far away. It is. It will be upon us very soon. And there’s a little grammar note here. In this case, you can’t just replace it with on. You can’t say like spring is on us. No, but you could replace it with, you know, you could say spring will be here soon. So it’s a different meaning. Yeah, for sure.

And spring will be here soon is also, I would say is still more casual than spring is upon us will be upon us. But this is the most accessible way to use upon when you’re talking about moving into a new time period. Exactly. This is used more commonly even in day to day speech, right? We just say something is upon us. Absolutely. Okay, now the next one, this is the fourth way, right? It’s when we know that something happens soon after and because of something else. Exactly.

So for example, upon hearing the alarm, we all evacuated the building. And you could say, you know, when we heard the alarm, we evacuated the building. This is more conversational and more likely to be heard. Again, a little more literary to say upon hearing the alarm, they evacuated. Yeah, it really seems like most of these scenarios where we use upon is more formal, more literary, more, I don’t know, kind of elevated, I suppose. Yeah. Absolutely. Right. You might hear someone say upon arrival at the airport, they went straight to baggage claim. And you will hear this, you know, TV movies, podcasts every now and then someone will throw this into a more of a daily speech type of scenario. Sure it is, you know, a little more formal than just saying when they arrived, they went to baggage claim. Or you might also see this if you, if you’re on like a group tour, they’re always going to send you, you know, upon checking in at the hotel, you’ll be served a welcome drink, right? It’s a little more formal than, hey, when you check in, you’ll get your drink, right? Especially if that’s written in an itinerary, they would be much more likely to write it that more formal way. Exactly. Exactly. Okay.

Do we have a bonus here? Ooh, I like this one. Yeah, we just want to note the where you will hear upon the most often is once upon a time, which is a phrase that’s used to introduce a narrative of past events, both in speech, I will say this sometimes in the role play in just a minute, you’re going to hear how it might come up in a conversation, but mostly in stories. Yeah, for sure. I feel like every kid’s story starts this way. Exactly. We’re used to, probably not anymore, but historically the old classics start this way once upon a time. There was a girl and… Yes. And I was curious when that started, how long this has been used in books. It’s been since 1380, according to Oxford English Dictionary, that stories have begun with once upon a time. So interesting. That is really interesting.

And I feel like maybe not as much now storytellers would also start original stories that way. Once upon a time, you know, we’re telling a story to your kids. Do your kids ever ask you to tell them stories? Do you ever have to come up with something, Aubrey, off the coast? Yes. I do that a lot, right, when they want to go to bed and then tell me a story. And so I make something up. But often I get them to participate. I’ll have them tell me a story or I will start it and have them continue. And then I’ll pick it up again and we sort of build it together. That’s my favorite. That’s great. I would totally do that too. That makes a lot of sense. It’s also at the end of the night, you’re tired. Come on, guys, help me out here. This whole story? Exactly. Right.

All right, role play time. Shall we do it? Let’s do it. So this is a little more of a somber occasion because it would be strange to just throw a pawn in several times if it’s a very lighthearted, casual conversation. So this role play is you and I are visiting, chatting after a funeral. Okay. All right. Great. Here we go.

Well, I’ll miss your cousin. She was such a good friend. Once upon a time, we were very close, but unfortunately, we haven’t seen each other in years. She was definitely someone you could rely upon. You did a really good job on the life sketch. Was it difficult to prepare that? It was an emotional experience, but she had kept journals, so I was able to base it upon her writing, which was nice. I’m glad I could be here. Immediately upon arrival, I ran into someone from high school. It’s nice to see old friends who also knew her. Okay. So this feels a little more natural to me. As I was writing the role play, I’m like, I can’t just throw a pawn into daily conversation, right? But this, I could potentially see me using a pawn a few times when we’re trying to be more respectful, a little more formal, because we’re speaking about someone who just passed.

Right. I think at the top of the episode, I actually thought about a funeral as being a context that this could make sense. So it’s something a little elevated. You’re trying to speak beyond just your everyday language, right? Yes, exactly. And you might see in an obituary or in something written about the funeral upon her death, something, something, right, where we’re using this more elevated language. Yeah. So you said here, Aubrey, you said, once upon a time, we were close, very close, but unfortunately, we hadn’t seen each other in years. Right. Yes. And this is interesting to use it this way. I’m not starting a story, right? But I’m just saying like back in the day, another way of saying that, once upon a time, we were really close. Do you use it this way sometimes, Lindsay? I heard it used this way. I might. I might when I’m trying to be human, but also deep, I guess. Exactly. Right. This I thought was the kind of scenario where I might be, right? We are sort of trying to show this respect. And also, this is clearly a conversation where you and I don’t know each other that well. It’s my cousin that has passed. You’re a friend from high school in town. We don’t know each other very well. So we are being a little more formal.

Yeah. And maybe there’s also a hint of nostalgia in there, in that once upon a time, right? Definitely. Yeah. And then you said she was definitely someone you could rely upon. And here, it would make total sense to say on, right? Exactly. This is that first meaning we shared where it’s interchangeable with on. So you could definitely say you could rely on. They have the same meaning. This is just a little more formal. Yeah. Okay. Then what did you say, Aubrey? And then I said, I was talking about using her journals to write this life sketch, which is you’re sharing all kinds of details, information about her life during a funeral service. And I said, I based it upon her writing. So again, this first meaning where I could say, I based it on her writing, but I’m being just a little bit more formal by saying based upon. Yeah. And it’s kind of elevating the event a little more than work you’ve done. It’s just sending gestures that this thing matters a little more. Exactly. I love that. It’s amazing how just by saying upon instead of on, there’s that little bit of implied respect and import, right? We’re saying this mattered. This was serious. This is what we get into here on All Heirs English. Aubrey, we like to get into the nitty gritty. There’s little tiny things that change the connection change the meaning. The last thing I said here was, I’m glad I could be here. Immediately upon arrival, I ran into someone from high school.

Yes. And that’s that last meaning we talked about, right? Where you could say, when I arrived, right? Immediately after I arrived, this happened. This is another way to say that. Immediately upon arrival, I ran into someone. Yeah. And another scenario where I could imagine them using upon would be on an airline when the stewardess announces upon landing your baggage will be in gate 12, right? It’s something like that. Yes, absolutely. And especially if she’s reading from a card of something written, right? She doesn’t want to think about it so often they just read the flight instructions she’s reading immediately upon arrival. Check for your details for your next flight. Yeah. But although there are certain airlines that try to be more casual, like Southwest, they try to be more human. So maybe they would say when we land or when we hit when we touch down or something. I don’t know. That’d be interesting to compare the formality and pay attention to the feeling. Do I feel safer if they’re speaking a little more formally or do I like them being more friendly and casual? Yeah, the flight that I was on this weekend, I think it was Southwest and they were making jokes about like, if the oxygen mass drops, stop panicking and like, oh my gosh, maybe I’m not the time to be joking about this. I’m probably not. I know they want to make jokes with their customers, but maybe that’s not the right thing at this moment, right? I know, especially where you have people who have phobias of flying that could be easily triggered. Like, let’s not make jokes about the plane crashing. Kind of inappropriate. Anyways, what’s the takeaway for today, Aubrey, about upon and all? Yeah, I loved this question. Prepositions in English can be very tricky, especially when they’re similar like upon and on, understanding exactly when you should use them or what it means when someone uses them. So thank you again for sending in this question. I’m glad we could dive into this. Yeah, we’re giving you guys the tools to just make a tiny turn to the right or to the left and dial up the formality, elevate something. So it’s right for one scenario, but it’s not for another. So now that you guys know this, this is the way to connect. Exactly. Yes, practice using it. If you do want to add that little bit of formality and respect, and then keep in mind that like you were saying, Lindsay, if you’re wanting to connect and you’re in a casual conversation, you might want to opt for one of these other less formal options. Yeah, I love it. Good stuff today, guys. If you love our style, where we really look at the nuances of English and how it creates connection, then hit follow right here on this show. Right, Aubrey? Yes, absolutely. Awesome, Lindsay. This was really fun. All right, good stuff. I’ll talk to you soon. Thanks. Bye-bye. Bye.

Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two-minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don’t miss anything. See you next time.