bring up children

Meaning

This phrasal verb means to care for children and help them grow into adults, teaching them how to behave and introducing them to beliefs and values. It is synonymous with 'raise children' but is more common in British English, though understood globally. It is very frequently used in the passive voice when people talk about their own childhood.

Examples

• It is incredibly tough to bring up children on a single income these days.

  It is incredibly tough to bring up children on a single income these days.

• They wanted to bring up their children in a quiet, rural environment.

  They wanted to bring up their children in a quiet, rural environment.

• My grandparents helped bring up the children while my parents worked full-time.

  My grandparents helped bring up the children while my parents worked full-time.

• She did her best to bring up her children with strong moral values.

  She did her best to bring up her children with strong moral values.

• How you bring up children often depends on how you yourself were raised.

  How you bring up children often depends on how you yourself were raised.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ She wants to grow up her children in the city.

  ✓ She wants to bring up her children in the city.

  'Grow up' is intransitive, meaning it describes the child's own action of getting older. To describe the action of raising someone else, you must use 'bring up' or 'raise'.

• ✗ They brought up their children very well-behaved.

  ✓ They brought up their children to be very well-behaved.

  When describing the result of the upbringing, 'bring up' requires an infinitive verb pattern ('bring up someone to be/do something') rather than a direct adjective.

Related Expressions

Practice

• It's not easy to ___ children in today's digital world.

  💡 A phrasal verb starting with 'b'.

  Show answer

  bring up

• She was ___ by her aunt after her parents passed away.

  💡 Use the past participle form of the phrasal verb.

  Show answer

  brought up