This seemingly typical question can bewilder us if you are not fluent in English.
What Does “Up To” Mean?
Up as an adverb means ahead, above, high, and as a noun – rise, success. But the phrasal verb using up has the following meanings:
- to be able to do something;
- to create;
- to meet a standard;
- depend on someone;
- to know something secret.
But if you are wondering what does “up to” mean, why not get some extra lessons on phrasal verbs and idioms? To do this, you just need to visit the UpskillsTutor website, select a tutor and start classes.
What Are You Up To: Meaning
You can often hear this question from friends and relatives who are thus interested in your affairs. So, the phrase mentioned is not translated literally, but generally means:
- What are you doing?
- Are you busy now?
- Do you have any spare time?
- What’s new?
- How are you?
If we want to ask a familiar person about what he/she did before you met him/her, we should use the expression “What have you been up to?”. And we say so in case we do not see the person every day.
Read more: 8 Tips for Using the TI-84 Graphing Calculator on the SAT
How to Respond to What's Up?
By the way, “What are you up to today?” often used as an analogue of greeting. It should therefore be answered as follows:
- Not much.
- Nothing.
- Nothing much. What about you?
- You mean, right now?
- The usual.
- Not a whole lot.
- Oh, not much, you?
Examples of Using The Phrase in Dialogs
Let’s take a look at this clip of a dialogue between good buddies.
To speak as easily and casually, you need to understand the slang, in general, to know the language from within. You will need an English tutor for that. Then you will not only be able to creatively answer questions like “How u been?”, but also learn to distinguish styles and vocabulary for each of them.
