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Call up meaning

Call up means to phone someone. It can also mean to choose someone to play for a national team or join the army.

Check yourself: 3 questions

call somebody or something up

call up · called · calling

B1Separable+1 more meaning

I called up my grandma to wish her a happy birthday.

Call up meanings and examples

2 meanings, each with its own CEFR level from Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries and the Cambridge Dictionary.

  1. 1phone someone
  2. 2choose someone to play for a national team or join the army
  1. 1

    Phone someone

    call somebody or something up

    B1Separable

    • I called up my grandma to wish her a happy birthday.
    • Why don’t you just call him up and ask?
    • She called up the shop, but nobody answered.
  2. 2

    Choose someone to play for a national team or join the army

    call somebody up

    C2Separable

    • He was called up for the national team at nineteen.
    • Thousands of young men were called up in 1914.
    • The coach called him up for the World Cup.
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Is call up separable?

Call up is separable: call up a friend or call a friend up. With a pronoun, it goes in the middle: call her up, not call up her.

In the phone meaning, it is more common in US English. UK speakers often just say call or ring. The team and army meaning is very often passive: be called up.

Verb tenses for call up

PresentI call up · she calls up
Pastcalled up
Present perfecthave called up
-ing formcalling up

Common mistakes with call up

What learners often say, and what to say instead.

  • Wrong: I’ll call up her tonight.

    Right: I’ll call her up tonight.

    A pronoun goes between call and up.

  • Wrong: He was called for the national team up.

    Right: He was called up for the national team.

    In the passive, up comes straight after called.

  • Wrong: I called up to the hotel to book a room.

    Right: I called up the hotel to book a room.

    No to after call up.

Synonyms and opposites of call up

Words close to it, and words that mean the opposite.

Similar

Opposite

Call up quiz

Three quick questions. Pick an answer to see if it is right and why.

  1. 1I was bored, so I ___ an old friend for a chat.

  2. 2Choose the right sentence.

  3. 3“Ali has been called up for the national team.” What happened?

More phrasal verbs with call

5 phrasal verbs start with call. Test yourself on all of them in a few minutes.

Test yourself on callTake the full test

Call up FAQ

Questions people ask about call up.

Is call up American or British?

Both use it. For phoning, US English uses call up more; British people often just say call or ring.

What is a call-up?

A call-up is an order to join the army, or a choice to play for a national team: his first call-up for England.

What is the difference between call up and call back?

Call up means phone someone. Call back means phone someone who phoned you, or phone again.

Use call up in real conversations

In Slova you learn new words with picture cards, then use them when you talk about the things you love. A few minutes a day, at your level.

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