You normally go to bed at ten, but tonight you are still doing a puzzle at eleven. You are staying up later than usual.

The idea

In the bedtime sense, stay up has no object and means remain awake instead of going to bed. Use stayed up in the past, until for the end time, and an -ing activity in stay up talking.

Examples

  • I stayed up until midnight to finish the puzzle.
  • Mina does not stay up late on work nights.
  • We stayed up talking after our guests arrived.
  • You do not need to stay up for my call.
  • Lea stayed up, but Omar went to bed.
  • Can I stay up for another half hour?

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Watch out

Stay up does not mean stand upright: you can stay up while sitting in a chair. Stand up describes a different action or position.

Try it yourself

  1. Choose the correct option. Yesterday I ___ up late. (stayed / stay)

    Show answer or example answer

    stayed

    Yesterday places the event in the past, so use stayed.

  2. Choose the correct option. Mina does not ___ up late on work nights. (stay / stays)

    Show answer or example answer

    stay

    Does not already marks the subject and tense; the main verb stays stay.

  3. Choose the correct option. We stayed up ___. (talking / talk)

    Show answer or example answer

    talking

    Talking names the ongoing activity during the time you stayed up.

Use it today

Describe one evening when you stayed up: say how late and what you were doing. Contrast it with another person's earlier bedtime.