{"id":23102,"date":"2024-02-09T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T14:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/?p=23102"},"modified":"2024-07-16T14:19:29","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T19:19:29","slug":"light-up-lighten-up-or-enlighten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/light-up-lighten-up-or-enlighten\/","title":{"rendered":"Light up, Lighten up, or Enlighten?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3S9w9xwE_XE?si=OM4BgVZhsbGmBQ7e?rel=0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a class=\"elementor-button large green rounded\" href=\"https:\/\/espressoenglish.lpages.co\/free-pdf-ask-the-teacher\/\"><strong>Download 30+ ask the teacher lessons<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a class=\"elementor-button rounded large blue\" href=\"https:\/\/courses.espressoenglish.net\/600-confusing-english-words-explained-e-book\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>600+ Confusing English Words Explained<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s student question: What&#8217;s the difference between <strong>light up, lighten up,<\/strong> and <strong>enlighten<\/strong>? These have some meanings you might not expect.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Light up<\/strong> can mean for a light to turn on, or to make an area brighter &#8211; the Christmas decorations are lighting up the whole house.<\/p>\n<p>But we also say a person <strong>lights up<\/strong> when they suddenly become excited and cheerful. People often light up when they start talking about a topic they&#8217;re very interested in.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lighten up<\/strong> is an informal expression meaning to take things less seriously. If you and your friend are going to travel to another country but your friend is very anxious and focused on the details, you could say &#8220;Lighten up, everything will be fine.&#8221; You&#8217;re telling them to be more relaxed and happy.<\/p>\n<p>To <strong>enlighten<\/strong> someone is to give them knowledge &#8211; this could be plain facts, or it could be some sort of deeper understanding. There might be an advertising campaign to enlighten people about the dangers of smoking, for example.<\/p>\n<p>Hope that helps, thanks for the great question! And click on the link below to download 30 more \u201cask the teacher\u201d lessons.<\/p>\n<div class=\"alert\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/espressoenglish.lpages.co\/free-pdf-ask-the-teacher\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-23071\" src=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/30-LESSONS-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"525\" height=\"351\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/30-LESSONS-1.png 1000w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/30-LESSONS-1-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/30-LESSONS-1-768x513.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 525px) 100vw, 525px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a class=\"elementor-button large green rounded\" href=\"https:\/\/espressoenglish.lpages.co\/free-pdf-ask-the-teacher\/\"><strong>Download 30+ ask the teacher lessons<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"alert\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Clear up your doubts about confusing words&#8230; and use English more confidently!<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/courses.espressoenglish.net\/600-confusing-english-words-explained-e-book\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-19980 \" src=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/600cw-new-headphones.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"452\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/600cw-new-headphones.png 681w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/600cw-new-headphones-243x300.png 243w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 452px) 100vw, 452px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><center><a class=\"elementor-button rounded large blue\" href=\"https:\/\/courses.espressoenglish.net\/600-confusing-english-words-explained-e-book\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Get this e-book<\/strong><\/a><\/center><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Download 30+ ask the teacher lessons 600+ Confusing English Words Explained Today&#8217;s student question: What&#8217;s the difference between light up, lighten up, and enlighten? These have some meanings you might not expect. Light up can mean for a light to turn on, or to make an area brighter &#8211; the Christmas decorations are lighting up [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-confusing-words-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Light up, Lighten up, or Enlighten? - Espresso English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Download 30+ ask the teacher lessons 600+ Confusing English Words Explained Today&#039;s student question: What&#039;s the difference between light up, lighten up,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/light-up-lighten-up-or-enlighten\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Light up, Lighten up, or Enlighten?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Download 30+ ask the teacher lessons 600+ Confusing English Words Explained Today&#039;s student question: What&#039;s the difference between light up, lighten up,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/light-up-lighten-up-or-enlighten\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Espresso English\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-09T14:00:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-16T19:19:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/light-up.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shayna Oliveira\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shayna Oliveira\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/light-up-lighten-up-or-enlighten\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/light-up-lighten-up-or-enlighten\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Shayna Oliveira\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/#\/schema\/person\/b92f17848e26e2ccdb617df724d13300\"},\"headline\":\"Light up, Lighten up, or Enlighten?\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-09T14:00:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-16T19:19:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/light-up-lighten-up-or-enlighten\/\"},\"wordCount\":229,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/light-up-lighten-up-or-enlighten\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/light-up.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Confusing Words\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/light-up-lighten-up-or-enlighten\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/light-up-lighten-up-or-enlighten\/\",\"name\":\"Light up, Lighten up, or Enlighten? 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