Phrasal verbs · Free lesson
Ring up your items: English at the checkout
You put three notebooks on the counter. The cashier scans them, and the total appears. You are still getting your card ready. The cashier has rung up the notebooks; in this scene, you have not paid yet.
Professor Scott MendozaMeaning in this lesson
ring up
Enter purchases and their prices at a register so the total can be calculated.
Example
“The cashier rang up three notebooks.”
The cashier entered the three notebooks in the register.
The short answer
At a shop register, ring up items means enter the purchases and their prices to work out the total. In “I’ll ring them up,” them goes between ring and up. The context tells you whether ring up refers to shopping or a phone call.
Use the counter and the purchases to identify the meaning.
The shopping meaning focuses on entering the items at the register. With a noun, ring up the notebooks and ring the notebooks up both work. With them, use ring them up. The simple past is rang up; after has or have, use rung up.
Keep the items in the right position
Can you ring up these pens?
The cashier rang the notebooks up.
She rang them up.
In a phone conversation, ring someone up can mean call that person. A customer at a register can also be “rung up,” especially in American English, so use the setting as well as the words.
Follow this checkout scene
The items are ready
You put three notebooks on the counter.
The cashier enters them
The cashier rings them up.
Payment is still ahead
The screen shows the total. You have not paid yet.
Try it now
Read the checkout context.
Read all answers and explanations
At the register, the cashier says, “I’ll ring up these pens.” What does that mean here?
Record the items and their cost at the register.The cashier will enter the pens and their cost. This shopping scene is not a phone call or a return to the shelf.
The cashier scans the notebooks and shows the total. You are still getting your card ready and have not paid. What has happened so far?
The items have been entered, but payment is still to come.The stated scene stops before payment. The items are entered, but it does not describe a completed payment or a refund.
Replace the notebooks with them and describe the cashier’s action in the simple past.
The cashier rang them up.Use simple past rang and place them in the middle: rang them up. Rung belongs after has or have in forms such as has rung them up.
Build it yourself
Say what you will do at the register.
You are the cashier. Use all five pieces, start with I’ll and finish with now. Use them for the items already mentioned.
Build your short checkout statement. Select a piece again to move it back.
Your checkout statement
0 of 5 piecesYour chosen pieces will appear here.
See a model answer
I'll ring them up now.
I’ll ring them up now keeps the pronoun in the middle and describes the next register action.
A little more clarity
Common questions
A few useful details before you move on.
Does ring up always mean make a phone call?
No. That meaning exists, especially in British English, but purchases and a cash register point to the shopping meaning here.
I will ring up the shop to ask when it closes.
Should I say rang up or rung up?
Use rang in a simple-past statement. Use rung after has or have in the present perfect. The object can still be them in the middle.
She rang them up. She has rung them up.
Take it into your day
At the checkout, ring them up means enter those items. Use rang for the simple past and keep them in the middle.
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