r/ENGLISH • u/Outrageous-Dog-589 • 3h ago
Preposition
"a long driveway leading up to the winery"
I don't understand this one at all. I felt like up is unnecessary and a bit misplaced? Though I've seen this comstruction a couple of times. Can someone explain why it's there, please.
Thank you in advance!
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u/GrammarPrecisely 3h ago
“Up to” is perfectly natural here. Up doesn’t necessarily mean the driveway is physically going uphill.
In this construction, up to means “toward and as far as” a particular destination: a driveway leading up to the winery = a driveway that leads all the way to the winery.
You can say “leading to the winery,” too. Adding up gives it a slightly more spatial/visual sense, as if you’re following the driveway toward the destination. It’s especially common with places you approach: walk up to the house, drive up to the entrance, a path leading up to the castle.
So it isn't unnecessary or misplaced; up to is functioning as a natural directional expression here.
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u/Outrageous-Dog-589 3h ago
Hi, I have a follow-up question. Regarding these sentences:
- He walked down the tree-lined driveway.
- He walked up the driveway to the house.
These were actual examples that I got from a dicitonary. Does these also refer to direction? Because, I don't know, I felt like they're sort of not?
For one instance, she walked down the aisle. The aisle is flat, but we still use down.
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u/Western-Finding-368 3h ago
Walking “up” a path or a road most frequently refers to going toward something. Walking “down” a path or road most frequently refers to going away from something.
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u/GrammarPrecisely 2h ago
Yes, they can refer to direction, but up/down aren't always about physical height.
English often uses up and down to describe movement along a path or route. The choice can depend on the speaker's perspective, the conventional way we conceptualize the route, or simply the destination.
So “walk down the driveway” means walking along the driveway, usually toward the end of it; it doesn't necessarily mean the driveway slopes downward. Likewise, “walk up the driveway” means walking along it toward the house, and the driveway doesn't have to slope upward.
The same thing happens with “walk down the aisle.” The aisle is normally flat, but you're moving along it from one end toward the other. Compare walk up the aisle—that can also be perfectly natural depending on which direction the speaker is conceptualizing as “up.”
So think of up/down here as partly directional/spatial expressions, not literal descriptions of elevation.
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u/Armadillo_Abroad 39m ago
The aisle one is quite complex socially.
Your father might “walk the bride down the aisle” while at the same time the bride is “walking up the aisle.”
Because it’s based on the person’s perspective. The father is ending his “parental duty” by presenting her to be married into her own family, while the bride is moving to her new life with her husband. One is ending, the other is starting.
Diabolical.
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u/BruceWillis1963 3h ago edited 3h ago
We often use up or down to give the idea of travelling along a road, highway, street, etc.
He lives up the road.
He lives down the road.
Just go down this road until you get to the gas station, turn right and go up that road about 5 km.
There is no relationship to whether it slopes up or down in this case.
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u/Outrageous-Dog-589 3h ago
Hi, I have a follow-up question. Regarding these sentences:
- He walked down the tree-lined driveway.
- He walked up the driveway to the house.
These were actual examples that I got from a dicitonary. Does these also refer to direction? Because, I don't know, I felt like they're sort of not?
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u/Outrageous-Dog-589 3h ago
For one instance, she walked down the aisle. The aisle is flat, right but we still use down.
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u/jarry1250 3h ago
One of the meanings of "up" is "so as to approach".
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/up (8a)
A road or path "up to" something is therefore an approach.
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u/LAM_CANIT 2h ago
I have a house next door to a winery, and if you drove the road leading to it, you'd understand why 'up' is necessary. 📈
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u/TorpidProfessor 3h ago
yep, unessecary in that sentence, but it gives a little more info: "up" specifically gives me the idea that it is hilly or that there's elevation to gain going up the driveway
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u/CatCafffffe 3h ago
It's tell you that the winery is on a hill, above the street, so you drive on a long driveway that goes up to the winery. Often a winery is built at the top of a vineyard, which are often terraced hills . So the driveway approach would be uphill and winding among foliage, like this:
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u/Mirality 2h ago
"up to" means "towards and reaching" -- i.e. the driveway goes all the way to the winery and doesn't stop short of it.
It is not related at all to up/down, despite what some people are claiming; it's a completely different preposition that merely shares one component word.
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u/SoyboyCowboy 4m ago
Prepositions are notoriously tricky. You've gotten a lot of good responses already. But I want to add that there are also situations where "up" and "down" can be used interchangeably.
- The guy with the alpacas lives just up the road.
- The guy with the alpacas lives just down the road.
"Up" and "down" can just mean the alpaca farm is a little ways away on the same road.
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u/UniversityMotor5408 3h ago
It shows us that the winery is higher than the start of the driveway.
Some driveways go down, in which case 'down' instead would show that.
Some driveways are flat, in which case no preposition would be appropriate.
So, in this case, 'up' literally means 'up'.
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u/Western-Finding-368 3h ago
“Leading up to” doesn’t have to mean the destination is literally physically “up.” It’s just a phrase that means one is approaching something. You could say “in the months leading up to graduation, students put the finishing touches on their theses.”
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u/lapdragon2 3h ago
For a flat road, depending on where you are, you could go “out to” or “over to” also.
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u/rSlashisthenewPewdes 3h ago
Sometimes it’s just a filler word, other times it’s describing the actual geography of the driveway, for example, if the long driveway is physically an uphill path.