How to use upon

[Kekenkenny]

I know 'once upon a time'

but how to use upon with a verb

my high school teacher said treat it as 'on'

I'm confused with it...

[Yankee]

Hi Kekenkenny

The words 'on' and 'upon' are frequently interchangeable, but 'upon' tends to sound more formal.

There are also times when 'on' cannot replace 'upon'. For example, the word 'on' would sound quite odd as a replacement for 'upon' in the phrasal verb 'come upon'. And 'once upon a time' is a fixed expression, so you should not attempt to replace 'upon' with 'on'.

Why don't you write a few sentences of your own using 'upon', and then post them here for comment.
.
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[Molly]

upon

A few examples:

1. UPON BEING

2. UPON REACHING

3. UPON HEARING

4. UPON LEAVING

5. UPON ENTERING

6. UPON RECEIVING

7. UPON SEEING

8. UPON ARRIVING

9. UPON HAVING

10. UPON MAKING

11. UPON BINDING

12. UPON IMPROVING

13. UPON RETURNING

14. UPON TAKING

15. UPON DISCOVERING

16. UPON FINDING

17. UPON GETTING

18. UPON ASSUMING

19. UPON BECOMING

20. UPON ACHIEVING

21. UPON LEARNING

22. UPON MAINTAINING

23. UPON OPENING

24. UPON RELINQUISHING

25. UPON SHOWING

26. UPON UNDERSTANDING

Do you think all those could be replaced with "on", kekenkenny?

[Molly]

And a few verb + upon collocations:

1 BASED UPON

2 DEPENDS UPON

3 CALLED UPON

4 DEPEND UPON

5 RELIED UPON

6 DEPENDING UPON

7 CALL UPON

8 RELY UPON

9 PLACED UPON

10 IMPOSED UPON

11 LOOKED UPON

12 DEPENDED UPON

13 CAME UPON

14 LOOK UPON

15 ACTED UPON

16 BUILT UPON

17 IS UPON

18 AGREED UPON

19 EMBARKED UPON

20 DECIDED UPON

21 FORCED UPON

22 DRAW UPON

23 SET UPON

24 COME UPON

25 BUILD UPON

26 FELL UPON

27 FOCUSED UPON

28 ACT UPON

29 TOUCHED UPON

30 PUT UPON

Enjoy!

[Kekenkenny]

Thank you for your both, for example, if we use force upon, Should we say: you cannot force upon me going out or you cannot force me going out or you cannot force on me going out?

[Molly]

cannot force going out upon/on me
cannot force me to out

[Lost_Soul]

[Yankee]

[David2010]

Thanks for the examples Molly, especially those using upon to start a sentence. There often seems to be confusion with folks using "on" when "upon" or "when" should actually be used.

An informative post from a wordreference.com forum:

Re: upon vs. when

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'Upon' and 'when' can both be directly followed by the gerund-participle (the ing-form). 'When' is not used for past time meaning.

Upon arriving at the station, the princess received her dog. (past)

When arriving at the station, people go through the ticket barrier. (habitual)
= Upon arriving at the station, people go through the ticket barrier.

When arriving at the station, give your ticket to the ticket-collector. (future)
= Upon arriving at the station, give your ticket to the ticket-collector.

Instead of non-finite 'arriving', you can use a finite verb - one that has a person and a tense. Now as your sentence is about the past, it has to be past tense. But it also needs a subject, 'she', the person.

When she arrived at the station, the princess received her dog.
(can't use 'Upon' this way)

[Beeesneees]

... though with a slight change:

"Upon the princess's arrival at the station, she received her dog."
"Upon her arrival at the station, the princess received her dog."

Hello David,
Welcome to the forums, though I'm not sure whether Molly will see your message as you are responding to a post she made 2 years ago. Are those examples direct from wordreference.com? The one about the princess seems a little out of the ordinary, though it serves to make the point.
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