Scattered papers and misplaced tools can make a room untidy even without dirt. Tidying up focuses on arranging things neatly and putting them where they belong.

The idea

Use tidy up alone or name the place or things: tidy up her desk / tidy her desk up. With a pronoun, use tidy it up. Change y to i for tidied, but keep y in tidying.

Examples

  • We tidy up the workroom after each lesson.
  • Mina tidied her desk up before lunch.
  • Mina tidied up her desk before lunch.
  • The room is untidy; please tidy it up.
  • Omar is tidying up the pile of papers.
  • We can tidy up together.

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Watch out

Tidying focuses on order; clean up can include removing dirt as well as making things neat. Also, ordinary tidy can have the same meaning without up, so up is not always required.

Try it yourself

  1. Choose the correct option. Yesterday Mina ___ up her desk. (tidied / tidyed)

    Show answer or example answer

    tidied

    Before -ed, tidy changes y to i: tidied.

  2. Choose the correct option. Omar is ___ up the papers. (tidying / tidiing)

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    tidying

    Before -ing, keep the y: tidying, not tidiing.

  3. Choose the correct option. The room is untidy. Please tidy ___. (it up / up it)

    Show answer or example answer

    it up

    The pronoun it goes between tidy and up.

Use it today

Describe a messy desk and two actions that make it orderly. Then invite someone to tidy up with you, without naming an object in that invitation.