give in/up

To give in = to yield to something under insistence or pressure. "He gave in to the demands of the lawyer."

To give up has several possible meanings:

1 : to yield control or possession of : "He was forced to give up his job"
2 : to desist from : "She refused to give up her opinions in the matter".
3 : to declare incurab

Hi,

give in
give up

I'm wondering what's their difference? I know 'give up' means .. to stop whatever that you're working on but when do I use 'give in'? They somewhat mean exactly the same to me.

They are certainly very close, and in various contexts could be interchanged. However, here are a couple of comments to think about.

Hi Feebs11, Clive, thank you!

Can I understand it as 'give in' is surrendered to outside force like what Clive said, while 'give up' is surrendered valunteerily, or at least to a small degree, 'give up' is more likely to be done valunteerily?

Can Feebs11's example "He was forced to give up his job" simply be replaced by "He gave in his job" while having the exact same meaning?

No, you can't say "He gave in his job". You can say "He gave in about his job" = under pressure he caved in. OR "He gave up his job."

Yes, "give in" implies outside influence/pressure; "give up" [as you suggest] is the voluntary resignation of something.

Hi Feebs11!

This is more complex than I was expected! so if the content of 'pressure/outside force' has been aforementioned, can I just say "because XXXXX, so he gave in his job"? or "gave in ABOUT job" is the only/always the natural choice when it come to 'job' or to the likes.

Further more, since you added "about" in this example, how could I tell when 'give in' isn't enough

give up - stop trying
give in - stop resisting

Kathy worked for hours on the problem, but she was not getting any closer to the solution, so she gave up.

Kathy's mother kept asking her to write a thank-you letter for the birthday gift she had received, but Kathy was just not in the mood. After listening to her mother's harping for two weeks, Kathy finally gave in a

Hi CalifJim!

Hmm, this is somewhat easier to understand, the second case would be apparently wrong if replaced by 'stop trying'.

Thank you so much! -Terr

actually i dont understand about preposition. not in general. i think the usage for some words is has to be learnt by rote. it isn't like in general when we can say that :
i live in or on tuesday. is there any way to identifying and characterize the preposition so thus i don't need to memorying them? please help. thx be4

Hi The Walrus!

This is my thread so even I know that I'm not the right person but I guess I'm obligated to answer this question.

In short, no, the context of each 'combination' with different verb vary GREATLY. There can't be a summarized rule that could apply for all cases. And you'd end up lose by miles on some particular case even if you do, example would be my question in t