Do up: fastening clothes and renovating a home

The idea

For fastening or renovation, use do up the jacket / do the jacket up and do up the kitchen / do the kitchen up. A pronoun goes inside: do it up. The forms are do–did–done and doing.

Examples

• Mina did up the zip on her jacket.
• Please do it up all the way.
• Omar does his shoelaces up before running.
• We are doing up the small flat above the bakery.
• Lea has done up the bathroom herself.
• They did the kitchen up last winter.

Watch out

Doing up a jacket means fastening it, not simply putting it on. Doing up a room concerns repairs or decoration; it does not mean merely completing an unspecified task in it.

Try it yourself

1. Choose the correct option. Mina ___ up her jacket yesterday. (did / done)

   Show answer or example answer

   did

   Yesterday locates a finished past event: use did, the past form of do.

2. Choose the correct option. The zip is open. Please do ___. (it up / up it)

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   it up

   The pronoun it refers to the zip and goes between do and up.

3. Choose the correct option. Lea has ___ up the bathroom. (done / did)

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   done

   After has, the present perfect needs the participle done, not did.

Use it today

Describe fastening something before leaving and improving one room. Include one past sentence with did and one present perfect sentence with has done.