In the English Language, Do you always go up to the capital city?

Question

ie. In the UK, would you go up to London from Manchester purely because it is the Capital? I guess I am really talking about what you may call 'Queens English' as against the various local dialects across the UK

Answer 1

There's no rule that states you have to use 'up' with the capital - it's just a silly little thing people say. In 'standard English' you should just say 'I'm going to London', not 'I'm going up to London'. I live near Manchester, and personally I would never use 'up' when talking about a place that's further south than here. Using 'up' or 'down' like that is purely spoken language, almost slang really.

Answer 2

I think this started with the landed gentry of long ago being so 'up themselves', that the announcement of going to the Capital City was a 'one upmanship' statement. Those who use it today are only using it from habit, I hope.

Personally, living as I do, in Manchester (most of the time), London is an adventure that I am non too anxious to visit often.
However, I have to go to Heathrow Terminal 1 Arrivals in about 4 hours and that does not amuse me at all.
Report later!

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Nah mate, can't afford it...

Seriously though, I think I could say, quite happily, 'I'm going down to London for the weekend, would you care to join me?'
I think there is a certain point here though- it seems that it is possible to use the term 'going up' in regard to travelling to places as a term of affection. When I was in the North, I sometimes used to say that I'd go up to Lincoln, because that's where my family was. I would venture that 'going up' with regard to travelling to places is a term of endearment rather than any strict rule to be associated with travelling to the capital.

Man, 'Queens' English, and 'Standard' English, I think they're false ideals... There will be some people who speak 'proper', but it's probably not even the most intelligible mode of speech any more... could be wrong I suppose, but that's my gut feeling. What is communicative is, at least to me, the most important facet of language.

Interestingly, in Japanese you can say 'joukyou suru', where 'jou' is the 'up', 'kyou' is capital, and 'suru' is the verb to do, and that'd mean travelling to the capital city in whatever country you happened to be in... It's not a set rule though, at least as far as I can tell, it's just there for use if necessary.

Answer 5

Sorry to disappoint but one travels Up or Down the country; North to South etc, but one goes up to London our capital city, the city of our country that holds primary status and the seat of government and is usually fixed by law or by the constitution. When one is going to the capital of a country one is going up to the capital and seat of ones government . This is the correct use of language and not the diluted lazy way that the text generation would have us believe.

Answer 6

I think that is a very old fashioned way of speaking (probably correct though) but I would always use the geographic location, if I was in Machester - I would say I'm going down to London - does that help?

Answer 7

No, I ived north of London, and always went DOWN to London.

Answer 8

Not just English do we go 'up to the capital': I also noted this in Japanese train timetables, where towards the capital was always marked by the 'up' character, when it was usually east, west or south! ;-D

Perhaps we're making the mistake of considering 'north' as 'up'.

Answer 9

Convention says yes, you go up to London - although this may seem illogical since we northerners go down south.

Answer 10

Yes, in so-called "Queen's English" you go up to the capital. You also go up to Oxford (university) etc.

I'm originally from Cheshire and would say, were I still living in that part of the UK, "I'm driving DOWN to London this weekend," because it's DOWNWARDS on the map.