Speed up means to go faster or to make something happen faster. You can use it about movement (a car starts going faster) and about work or a process: speed up the process, speed up delivery. In the past tense, both “sped up” and “speeded up” are correct.
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speed up (= go faster); speed up + process/work/delivery; speed it/things up; sped up or speeded up (past)
- The driver sped up to overtake the lorry before the bridge.
- Using templates for emails has really sped up my work in the mornings.
- The bank promised to speed things up, but my card still hasn't arrived.
What changed
First versionThe approval process takes two weeks. Can we speed up it?
RevisionThe approval process takes two weeks. Can we speed it up?
It can seem logical to put the pronoun after the whole phrase, as in “speed up it”. But “it” and “them” go between “speed” and “up”: “speed it up”. With an ordinary noun, both orders work: “speed up the process” and “speed the process up”.
“Speed” without “up” means to move very fast, to race along: A taxi sped past us. “Speeding” means driving faster than the law allows: She was stopped by the police for speeding. If a car simply starts going faster, say “speed up”: The driver sped up on the motorway.
Your turn
The new self-service machines have ___ check-in at the airport: the queue now moves twice as fast.
Show the answer
sped up — The queue now moves twice as fast, so check-in has become quicker: “sped up”. “Slowed down” means made slower, which contradicts the second half of the sentence.
Write about something that helped you do a routine task faster at work, in your studies or at home. Say what the task is and how much time you save now.
A shared shopping list on our phones has sped up our weekly shopping, and now we save about half an hour.
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