Phrasal verbs · Free lesson
Back up your files: make an extra copy
Your travel photos are on your laptop. You make a separate copy before another trip so losing the laptop would not mean losing your only copy.
Professor Scott MendozaMeaning in this lesson
back up
Make an extra copy of digital information for possible recovery.
Example
“I backed up my travel photos.”
I made an extra copy of my travel photos.
The short answer
To back up files is to make an extra copy for recovery if the originals are lost or damaged. You can say back up the photos or back the photos up. With them, use back them up, not back up them.
Keep the copying meaning; put them in the middle.
With a noun such as my photos, both shown positions work. When you replace that noun with them, place the pronoun between back and up. In the past, back becomes backed and up stays the same.
Two noun positions, one pronoun position
I back up my photos.
I back my photos up.
I back them up.
Back up is the action. A backup is the extra copy. Neither expression means that you deleted the original.
Refer to the same photos again
Name the files
my photos
Use the separated noun pattern
back my photos up
Replace the noun with them
back them up
Try it now
Describe the extra copy.
Read all answers and explanations
In this computer lesson, what does back up the photos mean?
Make an extra recovery copy of the photos.Backing up makes another copy for recovery. Renaming or deleting the original does not describe that action.
Replace my photos with them. Choose the correct order.
I back them up.Them must come between back and up in this pattern: back them up.
You completed the copying yesterday. Choose the past form.
I backed up the photos.Back takes the past ending: backed up. Do not change the particle up to upped.
Put it into practice
Fix the photo update.
Them refers to your photos. Move it to the correct place without changing the past tense.
I backed up them before my trip.
See a model answer
I backed them up before my trip.
The pronoun changes position; the meaning and past tense stay the same.
A little more clarity
Common questions
A few useful details before you move on.
Is back the photos up also correct?
Yes. A noun object can go between back and up or after up in this meaning. The short pronoun them needs the middle position.
Please back the photos up.
Is saving a file the same as backing it up?
Saving records the file or its changes. Backing it up emphasizes a separate extra copy for recovery. Saving changes to your only copy does not by itself describe a backup.
I saved the document, then backed it up.
Take it into your day
Back up the files, back the files up, and back them up describe making an extra copy.
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The Phrasal Verbs course includes this digital-copy meaning in software and troubleshooting. Move from one file task to grouped vocabulary and complete-conversation practice, with pauses to take a speaker’s role.
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