ENGLISH
REFERENCE

follow up

phr. v..
B2 Upper Intermediate Oxford Academic Dialect General-service

phr. v.. to take further action after a first step has been made. you use this to check on progress or get more information about something you started earlier.

phr. v.. to pursue a matter further or take additional steps to ensure the completion or success of a previous action; often used in professional contexts regarding communication or medical care.


SIMPLE

I will follow up with a phone call tomorrow.

CONTEXTUAL

The doctor asked me to follow up in two weeks to see if the medicine is working.

COMPLEX

Although the initial meeting was productive, the project failed because no one followed up on the agreed action points.

Particles
up
Separability
optional
Pattern
follow + up (+ on/with + object)
Usage

often used with the preposition 'with' for a person or 'on' for a topic.

Teaching tip

contrast the phrasal verb 'follow up' with the noun 'follow-up' (hyphenated); the verb is used for the action of checking, while the noun is the check-up itself.

Pitfall

I need to follow-up the client.I need to follow up with the client.the verb form does not use a hyphen and usually requires 'with' when referring to a person.

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