raise vs bring up

ostap77 · Sep 19, 2010

"We raise children."

OR

"We bring up children"

bhaisahab · Sep 19, 2010

ostap77 said:
"We raise children."

OR

"We bring up children"

As I understand it, Americans raise children and British people bring up children.

bhaisahab · Sep 19, 2010

Gillnetter said:
And...we rear children.

We tend to rear cattle or chickens or horses etc.;-)

ostap77 · Sep 19, 2010

bhaisahab said:
We tend to rear cattle or chickens or horses etc.;-)

Is it common for all Americans or it differs from state to state?

Koronas · Sep 19, 2010

I think the animals vary from state to state, but "rear" is normally used for animals, not children - unless you wish to imply a slightly different meaning, such as the suggestion that the children were rather wild!

ostap77 · Sep 19, 2010

Gillnetter said:
Language, as a rule, has few, if any, clear cut boundaries. This is very true in America where people tend to move frequently. I would say that all three (raise, bring up and rear) are fairly common throughout the country. I was taught that you raise an animal and rear a child. I believe that, "to rear a child", is used more in the Mid-Atlantic area - south of New York. In the mountainous region one can still hear archaic English terms, some going back to the 15th Century or earlier.

Well put

:up:

Barb_D · Sep 19, 2010

I think I hear "raise" and "bring up" about equally.

raise vs bring up

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