She ended up (being??) a rich woman

Question

1. Somehow they all ended up at my house. ("end up" + prepositional phrase)

2. Well, grades ended up to be unimportant after all as my first job after graduating ended up in a private school with a very low pay scale. ("end up" + prepositional phrase)

3. She ended up a rich woman. ("end up" + noun phrase)

4. Maybe I'll end up a journalist. ("end up" + noun phrase)

5. She'll end up penniless if she continues to spend like that. ("end up" + adjective)

6. That could end up catastrophic. ("end up" + adjective)

Are they all correct? Or do they all need "being" after "end up"? For example:

Maybe I'll end up being a journalist.

When should we use "end up" + being + noun phrase/adj phrase/adverb phrase/prep. phrase, and when should we use "end up" + noun phrase/adj phrase/adverb phrase/prep. phrase?

Answer 1

End up is an idiom meaning 'come finally to (some situation or conclusion)' and can take a gerund complement describing the end state, which can be a predicate adjective or noun (with a being auxiliary). It has pretty much the same meaning and grammar as wind up.

• She ended up going to the movies after all.
• She ended up writing about her mother.
• She ended up being bored out of her skull.
• She ended up being too weak to stand.
• She ended up being the assistant producer.

Auxiliary forms of be can be deleted by many rules, since they're predictable, so Whiz-deletion and to be-deletion are common in relative clauses and infinitive complements. This also happens to being auxiliaries with end up:

• the man who was standing on the corner ==> the man standing on the corner
  (Whiz-deletion)
• He's considered to be lazy ==> He's considered lazy
  (to be-deletion)
• She ended up being a country lawyer ==> She ended up a country lawyer.
  (being-deletion)

Answer 2

It is hard to know where to start ...

In all cases, “up” is an adverb that carries the meaning of “finally or completely”.

Compare:

He opened the box - this does not say how far he opened the box - perhaps just a little...

He opened the box up / He opened up the box. He opened the box completely, e.g. he took off the lid.

To end up is probably a phrasal verb = to complete a journey (in space or time.)

1 end[ed] up = verb + adverb, at my house is an adverbial prepositional phrase.

2. as above

3. a rich woman is a noun phrase acting as an adverb – she ended up as a rich woman.

4. as above. (Quite amusing if up were a preposition.)

5. Penniless is an adjectival free modifier

6 As above