Should I use on or upon in the following sentence?
I remembered the story years later when I investigated the incident it was based on.
English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this communityShould I use on or upon in the following sentence?
I remembered the story years later when I investigated the incident it was based on.
Usage note from Thefreedictionary:
In their uses to indicate spatial relations, on and upon are often interchangeable.
It was resting on (or upon) two supports.
We saw a finch light on (or upon) a bough.
To indicate a relation between two things, however, instead of between an action and an end point, upon cannot always be used.
Hand me the book on (not upon) the table.
It was the only town on (not upon) the main line.
Similarly, upon cannot always be used in place of on when the relation is not spatial.
He wrote a book on (not upon) alchemy.
She will be here on (not upon) Tuesday.
Should I use on or upon in the following sentence?
I remembered the story years later when I investigated the incident it was based on.
In this particular case, it makes no real difference. And if you’re one of those who feels that whenever you have the choice of two words of unequal lengths, indistinguishable in meaning, that you should always select the shorter of the two, then the choice is clear.
Others have noted that despite claims that on and upon are completely interchangeable, that there many places where you cannot use upon at all. It turns out there are also a few places where the reverse is true, that you cannot use on and must upon.
One such place is with phrasal verbs involving upon; there are also several non-verbal formulaic constructs associated with upon. Here are some of them:
to come upon
to fall upon
to set upon (to attack, assail, fall violently upon)
to stand upon
to feel put-upon by an imposition
upon a wind (a nautical term)
once upon (a time)
The sentence shouldn't end in "on". It should be ".. on which the incident was based."