Stand up means to rise to your feet: from a chair, from the floor, from the table. With “for”, it means to defend or support someone or something: stand up for a friend, stand up for your rights.
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stand up (from a chair/the floor); stand up for + person/rights; stand up to + person/pressure; stand + person + up
- When the guest speaker walked in, the whole audience stood up and clapped.
- I stand up and stretch every hour because sitting all day hurts my back.
- She always stands up for new colleagues when someone criticises them unfairly.
What changed
First versionOn weekdays I stand up at seven and go for a run.
RevisionOn weekdays I get up at seven and go for a run.
“Stand up” means to rise to your feet, for example from a chair. Getting out of bed and starting your day is a different verb, “get up”. So for rising at seven in the morning, the right choice is “get up”.
“Stand someone up” means to fail to come to a meeting or a date without letting the other person know: He stood me up on our second date. Here the person goes between “stand” and “up”, and the meaning has nothing to do with defending or supporting someone.
Your turn
Anna was the only person who ___ me when the manager blamed me for the delay.
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stood up for — Anna defended the speaker when the manager blamed them, so “stood up for me” is right. “Stood up to me” would mean that she resisted the speaker. In this situation, the only person she could stand up to is the manager: “stood up to the manager”.
Write about a time when you stood up for someone or someone stood up for you. Say who it was and what the situation was.
At my first job, an older engineer stood up for me when a client shouted at me about a mistake I hadn't made.
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