Grammar Day: Difference Between Grow and Grow Up

A common mistake

Students often confuse how to use the words ‘grow’ and ‘grow up’. Often, teachers will hear the following types of sentences:

“I have to grow up my plants.”

“My parents grew me well.”

Do you know what is wrong with each?

How to use ‘grow’

We use ‘grow’ to talk about things that get bigger, taller, or greater. Often, we talk about size. The verb ‘to grow’ can be used transitively (with an object) or intransitively (without any object).

Intransitive: “The tree grew fast.”

Transitive: “I grow tomatoes in my garden.”

As you can see from the above examples, grow is very often used with plants. However, grow can also be used to describe other types of nouns:

“I grew a beard.”

“The problem grew too quickly for me to deal with it alone.”

How to use ‘grow up’

We use ‘grow up’ to describe the change from being a child to being an adult in humans. So, we use it to talk about how a person develops. The verb ‘to grow up’ is only used intransitively.

“When I grow up, I will be a doctor.”

The term ‘grow up’ implies that the person is becoming more mature mentally and physically. Some examples are:

“I grew up in Vancouver.” This means the person spent their childhood in Vancouver and became an adult in Vancouver.

“He is so childish. He really needs to grow up!”  This means the person has not matured, so he acts like a child.

Putting them together!

Read the following sentence. Can you understand the difference between ‘grow’ and ‘grow up’?

“My youngest son grew a lot taller this summer, but he hasn’t grown up at all!”

In this sentence, grow means that the son got taller, so he grew in size. However, he has not become more mature mentally.