Tuesday, August 7, 2007

"Cope Up With"

An expression that many of my students have trouble with is "cope with." More often than not, they say (and write) "cope up with" which, in my view, overdoes the whole thing. The word "cope" means to "deal with" something. If it's more serious, it also means "to struggle with" trouble, trials, etc. Using the word "with" already means facing the situation. To add "up" is like doubling the struggle. After all, we do not say "deal up with."

I've corrected my students many times yet they still persist on using "cope up with." I think it's really just a question of remembering the right expression. Say it with me now: "cope with," "cope with," "cope with," cope with," "cope with," "cope with," "cope with!"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess a lot of people commit this mistake. If you do a Google search on "cope up with", several sites have "cope up with something" entries.

Justine said...

Hi Prix, I agree. It's so Filipino to say "cope up with." I hope you do an entry on "the reason is because.."

I also recommend the following site as a resource for you: usingenglish.com

Anonymous said...

Ey Prix,

Congrats on your blog! I'm sure you'll enjoy. I'll see if I can email you some tips to get started. The first one would be to get an RSS feed at feedburner.com and then claim your blog at www.technorati.com. I'll be putting you in my blogroll (links) too. Lastly, let's setup the adsense part so that you'll earn din. I'm sure you'll have lots of visitors since this really is a niche that you're serving.

Ayt? gotta "cope with" my blog now!

Hehe

GM T