Make up for means to compensate for something: to make amends for a mistake or to replace what was lost. People use it when something good outweighs something bad, or when they get back what they missed: make up for lost time means to catch up on what you missed.
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make up for + noun/-ing; make up for lost time; make it up to + person
- I missed two lectures last week, so I'm studying on Saturday to make up for it.
- The weather was awful, but the friendly locals more than made up for it.
- After years of working abroad, he's making up for lost time with his children.
What changed
First versionI bought her flowers to make up my mistake.
RevisionI bought her flowers to make up for my mistake.
Without for, the phrase stops making sense: make up on its own means 'to invent' or 'to form', so make up my mistake sounds like inventing the mistake. To compensate for something, you need make up for.
Make up for is about the loss or mistake itself, while make it up to is about the person you let down: Sorry I missed your party, I'll make it up to you. In this pattern, the person you let down comes after to.
Your turn
Our hotel room was tiny, but the view from the balcony ___ the lack of space.
Show the answer
made up for — The view from the balcony compensates for the lack of space: the good outweighs the bad, so made up for fits. Without for, made up means 'formed' or 'invented', and the sentence stops making sense.
Think of a time you put a mistake right or made up for lost time. Write what went wrong and what you did to compensate.
I forgot to reply to an important client, so I called him the next morning and offered a discount to make up for it.
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