English Help Online's Blog

Today I have a phrasal verb for you that is quite simple but very useful and commonly used: “feel up to”. It is used when we talk about having enough energy or being healthy enough to do something. For example:

I want to go to the party with you, but I have a cold. I’m just not feeling up to it. Sorry.

Are you feeling up to cooking tonight? If you’re too tired, we can order a pizza.

A: If you’re not feeling well, we don’t have to go out for dinner.

B: It’s ok. I had a headache before but it’s gone. I think I’m feeling up to going out now.

Do we have to invite Dan to our party? He always talks shop, and I’m really not feeling up to hearing him complain about his job.

If you feel up to it, I’d like you to help me cook dinner.

With this expression, it’s much more common to use it in negative sentences or in questions. It’s a little unusual to say “I’m feeling up to going out tonight.”, but sometimes we can add “I think” to the beginning of the sentence and that makes it sound more natural (as in the third example sentence). So, instead of saying “I’m up to going out tonight”, we would probably say something like, “I want to go out tonight.” or “I feel like going out tonight.”

In the fourth example, I use the idiom “talk shop”. If you don’t know this expression, you can check my blog from June 2, 2010.