In class, when I say 'My parents grew me up in Bogota', my teacher tells me it is wrong.  Why is it wrong, and what should I say?
Santiago, Colombia

This is a very interesting question, Santiago, and one that many, many students have problems with.

As we all know, our parents do, in a sense, grow us up – we understand the meaning, yet how can it be wrong?

Well, it's all connected to the choice of verb here.  The phrasal verb grow up is what we call an intransitive verb; this means that the verb does not take a direct object.  Let's look at your initial sentence;

My parents grew me up in Bogota.

Now, remember the subject + verb + object rule of sentences.  In this case, My parents is the subject, grow up is the verb, me is the object and in Bogota is a prepositional phrase.  Now we know that grow up is an intransitive verb, we understand that this sentence is grammatically impossible, even though it makes sense to us.  There are some things that we can do.

We can change the sentence like this;

I grew up in Bogota.

In this sentence, there is no object, so grow up is grammatically possible.  However, if we want to include the object me, we can use one of two transitive verbs; those are verbs that usually need an object.  Look at these sentences;

My parents raised me in Bogota.
vs
My parents brought me up in Bogota.

With these two sentences, the meaning is exactly the same and both are grammatically correct.

Saying this, the same rule applies when using a passive structure – consider these;

I was raised in Bogota.
I was brought up in Bogota.
I was grown up in Bogota.

In a passive structure, remember that the person doing the action (the agent) is not always necessary – it's like the agent is hiding, so therefore, the rule with transitive and intransitive verbs is still valid.

Another thing to notice is when verbs with -ing act like a noun (gerund);
Growing up in Bogota was great fun.

This sentence is fine, but with the other two verbs, you must use it in a passive sense – look;

Being raised in Bogota was great fun.
Being brought up in Bogota was great fun.

Simple when you know how!

Have a look at these sentences – are they correct or not?

1 – While I lived in London, I was brought up to respect my elders.
2 – Raising in Tokyo was full of excitement.
3 – My parents brought me in a small village in Scotland.
4 – I grown up in the USA.
5 – I really appreciate my parents growing me up so well.