Crop up means appear or happen unexpectedly: a few practical questions cropped up during the rehearsal. People say it about questions, problems, errands and even names in documents: the same name keeps cropping up. Sorry, something's cropped up is a common polite way to cancel without going into detail.
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something crops up; crop up in a conversation / report
- A few practical questions cropped up during the rehearsal.
- The same name keeps cropping up in the records.
- If anything unexpected crops up, contact the organiser.
What changed
First versionSeveral problems were cropped up after the move.
RevisionSeveral problems cropped up after the move.
Problems seem to happen to us, so a passive form like were cropped up feels natural. But a problem appears on its own; nobody crops it: problems cropped up. The double p in cropped is just normal spelling.
Bring up means someone raised a topic on purpose: she brought up the budget. Crop up means the topic came up by itself: the budget cropped up in conversation. Come up is a near synonym, and pop up is more often about a window suddenly appearing on screen.
Your turn
Choose the natural form for problems appearing: Two new issues ___ during testing.
Show the answer
cropped up — Crop up isn't used in the passive: problems appear by themselves. So it's cropped up, without were.
Describe an unexpected task or question that once ruined your plans.
A question about storage space cropped up just before we signed the agreement.
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