In a spiritual phrase the segment says
…have mercy on me, a sinner.
could you use "upon" rather than "on"?
I feel that using "upon" personalizes the phrase better.
Or is my grammar failing?
Learn English – Use of “upon” or “on” in phrase
differencesprepositions
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Best Answer
"On" and "upon" are interchangeable most of the time. Not always.
Can't use "upon" here.
Upon sounds a notch more formal and can be a lot more emphatic, depending on the context.
There's some wild talk about "upon" only being used where actual physical space is involved, but it doesn't make much sense: "Upon my honor" is a perfectly legitimate phrase.
To confuse matters further, you can (and are encouraged to) use onto where both space and action are involved:
He climbed onto his horse.
Climbing upon one's horse is permissible, but climbing on does sound a bit comical (evoking, as it does, the image of a rider doing some climbing while already sitting on his horse).