make up
SeparableThe object can go before or after the particle — but a pronoun MUST go in the middle: “clean it up”, never “clean up it”.
How to say it
Stress the particle, not the verb: make UP. Saying “MAKE up” is the clearest learner tell — the verb stays light and the particle carries the beat.
Link across the gap. The final /k/ of “make” moves onto the particle and starts its syllable: “make up” is said “ma-kup”. Pausing between the words is what makes phrasal verbs sound recited rather than spoken.
Verb vs noun
As a noun the stress flips to the front: the verb is make UP, the noun is MAKEUP. Same two words, different beat — “to make UP” is the action, “a makeup” is the thing. Getting this backwards makes the sentence land oddly even when every sound is right.
4 meanings
- 1
To invent a story or an excuse.
- “He made up an excuse for being late to work.”
- “She made the whole thing up.”
Similar: invent, fabricate
- 2
To become friendly again after an argument.
- “They argued on Friday and made up by Sunday.”
Similar: reconcile
- 3
To constitute or form a whole.
- “Women make up about sixty percent of the intake.”
Similar: constitute, comprise
- 4
To apply cosmetics.
- “She spent twenty minutes making up before the shoot.”
Don’t confuse it with
Make UP alone invents or reconciles. Make UP FOR compensates for a specific failure.
Make UP invents something new. Make OUT struggles to perceive something that is already there.