accident up... i don't know when i have to use "up"
1.There was an accident ahead
앞에 교통 사고가 있었다.

2.There's a traffic accident up ahead. (앞에 교통사고가 났어요.)

3.It's unusual to have a traffic jam at this time of day. There must be an accident up ahead.
이 시간에 차가 이렇게 막히다니, 앞에 무슨 사고가 난 게 틀림없어.

I found that words above.
why do "2,3" need to follow 'accident' with 'up' in those sentence?
is it ok to put this word or not? ... is it problem about tense?
Thanks for reading my question.

Question

accident up... i don't know when i have to use "up"
1.There was an accident ahead
앞에 교통 사고가 있었다. 

2.There's a traffic accident up ahead. (앞에 교통사고가 났어요.)

3.It's unusual to have a traffic jam at this time of day. There must be an accident up ahead. 
이 시간에 차가 이렇게 막히다니, 앞에 무슨 사고가 난 게 틀림없어. 

I found that words above.
why do "2,3" need to follow 'accident' with 'up' in those sentence?
is it ok to put this word or not?  ... is it problem about tense?
Thanks for reading my question.

Answer

I don't think there is any particular rule about this, but the 1st sentence might sound strange with 'up' because it's in the past tense. The 'up' merely emphasises the relative position of the accident. The 2nd sentence doesn't really need the word 'up', and neither does the 3rd. In fact, instead of 'up ahead', I would be more inclined to say, 'further down' or 'further along' or just 'somewhere'.

It's an interesting question though, and there are plenty of other examples with the word 'up'. It's quite often redundant - as in "I called him up" and "He chopped up the wood" (in which case it is called 'pleonasm').

Answers · 1

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