I watch quiz shows on TV where teams compete and each member of a team has to answer a question when it is their turn.
On the show, the presenter wants each member of the team to come on the stage one at a time and asks each of them a different question. And the presenter calls the name of the next member of the team when it is their turn like this: "James, you are up next".
I understand by "up next" the presenter means "James, now it is your turn to come to stage and answer the next question."
But I wonder why does TV presenter say "UP NEXT", where simply "NEXT" would do?
Shortly, is there any difference between "you are next" and "you are up next"?
Regards,
Best Answer
American English has a tendency toward a certain overflow of prepositions (sometimes attached to the verb, sometimes without).
It's the same phenomenon as in phrases such as,
You can "take the dog for a walk" and "take the dog out for a walk"; these phrases are equivalent.
So there are a lot of parallel constructions like this; American English will generally have more of them than BrE. The choice is basically up to the speaker/user.
It comes down to what kind of phrases you've heard more often and have accustomed yourself to. We learn language (even our own, when we were babies/toddlers) by aping and repeating whole phrases, not just words. I find it useful to have a notebook where I don't just write down words from the language I'm learning, but whole phrases (including these cases of un-obvious, redundant use of prepositions).