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Everyday English · Travel & getting around

Pick up

Collect someone, often by car.

You go to a place to collect someone and take them with you, often in a car. You are not lifting the person in this travel meaning.

Plain-English lessonVisual explanation3 practice steps

01 · Picture the situation

Understand it in three steps

Cartoon of a driver collecting her sister, who is waiting with a bag outside a railway station.
Picture the meaningHer sister picks her up from the station.
01Friend waits
02You arrive by car
03You travel together

Imagine this: Your sister waits outside the station. You drive there, she gets into your car and you take her home. You pick her up at the station.

02 · Hear it in everyday life

Examples you can use

Three natural sentences

  1. Can you pick me up at six?
  2. I will pick up my brother from the station.
  3. We picked the children up after school.

A short conversation

PERSON AWhere should I wait?
PERSON BOutside the library. I will pick you up there.

Read the conversation aloud. Then swap roles and try it again without looking.

03 · Build your sentence

How to use pick up

Both pick up your sister and pick your sister up work. With me, him, her, us or them, use the middle position: pick her up. Add at for a time or meeting point and from for the collection place.

BASE FORMpick up
PAST SIMPLEpicked up
AFTER HAVE / HASpicked up

The base form is used after can, will and to. The past simple describes a finished past event. The third form follows have or has, for example when connecting an earlier action to now.

A common mistake to avoid

Use thisCan you pick me up?
Avoid this in this meaningCan you pick up me?

Me is the person being collected. The pronoun goes between pick and up.

Do not confuse it: Pick someone up means collect them. Drop someone off means take them somewhere and leave them there.

Does it have another meaning?

Pick up can also mean lift something, collect an item, or learn something informally. “Pick up a bag” and “pick up a friend” may describe different actions.

Learn the meaning and sentence pattern together. Small words such as up and off do not have one fixed meaning in every expression.

04 · Make it stick

Try it for yourself

Choose an answer before opening the explanation. Then make a sentence about your own life.

1. You drive to meet a friend and take them home. You…
  1. pick them up
  2. put them on
  3. write them down
Check answer 1

A. pick them up

You collect your friend and take them with you.

2. My sister needs a ride. I will ___.
  1. pick up her
  2. pick her up
  3. picked her up
Check answer 2

B. pick her up

After will, use pick. Place her between pick and up.

3. Your turn

Arrange a time and place to pick someone up.

See a possible model and self-check

Can you pick me up at six?

This is one model, not the only correct answer. Check that your sentence uses the meaning taught here, the right verb form and the word order above. Change the person, place or time to make it your own.