To Go Up
To Rise, To Get Higher
intransitive verb, godan verb
This word consists of kanji with hiragana attached. Because the hiragana ends with an う sound, you know this word is a verb.
This is an intransitive verb. That means it does not take a direct object. The kanji means above so this means something rises. For example: A fever goes up. The sun rises. See? No direct object here. That's why this verb means to go up or to rise.
Be careful not to confuse this with its transitive buddy 上げる, which means "to lift something" or "to raise something." With that other verb, someone is doing the lifting, it's not happening by itself like it is here.
Since this word has okurigana (hiragana attached to the kanji) you can guess that it uses the kun'yomi reading, which also happens to be a reading you didn't learn when you learned the kanji. Let's use a mnemonic for the kun'yomi reading now, though. You have to remember at least the あ part to read it.
You know that this word means to go up. Imagine something just rising on its own, like a floating tree or something. What would you say? Probably a "surprised" sound. Maybe you'd scream "あ!" when you saw this floating tree.
If you need help remembering the hiragana part, imagine that it's a girl rising up and you scream "Ah! Girl!"(あがる).
一気に上がる
to go up all at once
ステージに上がる
to go up on stage
リングに上がる
to step into the ring
上に上がる
to go up
エスカレーターで上がる
to go up by the escalator
かいだんで上がる
to go up by the stairs
エレベーターで上がる
to go up by the elevator
テンションが上がる
to get excited
レベルが上がる
to level up
声が上がる
to raise one's voice
少し上がる
to go up a little
どんどん上がる
to go up and up
八月に花火が上がる。
Fireworks get set off in August.
三フロア上までエレベーターで上がりましょう。
Let's take the elevator up three floors.
去年よりコレステロールが上がってしまった。
My cholesterol has gone up from last year.