Thread: I have a question about the meaning of a word.

Hello everybody!

I would like you to explain me the meaning (maybe all the meanings) of word - "upon"

I already revised all my dictionaries but I still can' understand where I need to use it. I can't see a particular quality of this word.


Thanks for all your anwers.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/upon
Upon is an old term and rarely used today.

You will never need to write or speak this word except when you read fairy tales to your kids. Almost all fairy tales start with "Once upon a time...." Сравни Жили-были старух со старухой....

Originally Posted by chaika

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/upon
Upon is an old term and rarely used today.

You will never need to write or speak this word except when you read fairy tales to your kids. Almost all fairy tales start with "Once upon a time...." Сравни Жили-были старух со старухой....

upon arrival
based upon
agreed upon
I wouldn't consider it obsolete.

It's the same as "on", basically.

Hi Soriori! Here is some advice for you:

"explain me" is a grammatical mistake that lots of people across Europe make. (A French colleague of mine says it all the time...) But this word order is never correct!

The sentence should be:

"Please, could you explain the meaning of the word ______to me".

OR

"Could you explain to me what the word ______means, please?"

One more thing: You cannot say "I already revised all my dictionaries"

The right word for this sentence is: "checked", "searched", "tried", "consulted" or "looked in".

Revise is an advanced word that you don't really need to use much in normal conversations. It means "checking something that you knew/completed earlier".

For example: John has an exam tomorrow and needs to revise Greek mythology because he thinks it might come up in the exam. He studied it last year but has forgotten almost everything.

One of the reasons for the 'explain me' difficulty, is that 'tell me' is perfectly acceptable. 'Tell it me' sounds odd, while 'Tell it to me' is normal, and 'Tell me it'. 'Ask me' is another case where the preposition (of) may be omitted. Use of 'of' in this case sounds archaic. The 'to' needn't be inserted for every instance of verb-indirect object for dative case. 'They sent me a postcard.' etc.

Sometimes the oddities are for purposes of meter, in poetry. In poetry, the regular rules may be broken, for effect.

'Send it me
instead of she,
make the sum
precisely three.'


For "I already revised all my dictionaries", I'm guessing she meant, "I already reviewed all my dictionaries." ???

Originally Posted by Seraph

One of the reasons for the 'explain me' difficulty, is that 'tell me' is perfectly acceptable. The 'to' needn't be inserted for every instance of verb-indirect object for dative case.???

Not only is "tell me" perfectly acceptably, I would say it is the only possibility. It sounds very odd with a preposition. Mainly because "tell" kind of incorporates the preposition in itself - "she told me the bad news" as opposed to "she told the bad news to me". In the second case, "to" is unnecessary. You may as well say "she said the bad news to me" (which sounds a little strange). Indeed, some languages don't really make a distinction between the two. In German, for instance, "tell" and "say" are often translated by the same word.

"Explain me" you might possibly hear in regional language, but most people will deem it to be a mistake and poor grammar. It's also interesting that, while "she gave me it" is widely accepted as being fine, "she gave it me" is somewhat frowned upon. Indeed, that word order is more of a regionalism.

Ah, the inconsistencies.