Wrap something up vs wrap up something

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Hi all,I am confused about the usgage of the structure " wrap something up" vs " wrap up something".I often hear people say "wrap it up" but " wrap up the work", not "wrap the work up". Am I correct?Thanks,

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(Email Removed), CuocVui (Email Removed) writes
[nq:1]Hi all, I am confused about the usgage of the structure " wrap something up" vs " wrap up something". I often hear people say "wrap it up" but " wrap up the work", not "wrap the work up". Am I correct?[/nq]
You have heard correctly.
If you are literally wrapping something in (say) paper, you can say (for example) either "I wrap up the presents in paper" or I wrap the presents up in paper". (The first is maybe slightly 'more correct'.)

Either way, you can usually leave out the "up", and it means the same thing. The "up" simply provides a little emphasis. However, if it was cold, you might say "Wrap up warm" (put on a warm coat and scarf). Here, you DO need the "up".
There is also the colloquial expression "to wrap up", meaning "to finish", "to stop doing", "to finalize" etc - as in your example "Wrap up the work". Here, it is usual to keep the "wrap" and the "up" together (although there might be some exceptions). But if you used "it" to refer to the work, you would say "Wrap it up" (with the "up" at the end.
Ian

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I often hear people say "wrap it up" but " wrap up the work", not "wrap the work up". Am I correct?[/nq]
This works the same way with any verb-adverb compound. When the object is a pronoun, it must come before the adverb. When the object is a noun, it usually goes after the adverb. It's not incorrect to put a noun before the adverb; it's just much less common.

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Wrap something up vs wrap up something

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