depend on
phrasal verbdepend on/upon somebody/something
- to rely on somebody/something and be able to trust them
- He was the sort of person you could depend on.
- depend on/upon somebody/something to do something He knew he could depend upon her to deal with the situation.
- to be sure or expect that something will happen synonym count on somebody/something
- Depend upon it (= you can be sure) we won't give up.
- depend on/upon somebody/something doing something Can we depend on you coming in on Sunday?
- (formal) You can depend on his coming in on Sunday.
- (ironic) You can depend on her to be (= she always is) late.
depend on/upon somebody/something (for something)
- (not usually used in the progressive tenses) to need money, help, etc. from somebody/something else for a particular purpose
- The community depends on the shipping industry for its survival.
- I don't want to depend too much on my parents.
depend on/upon something
- (not used in the progressive tenses) to be affected or decided by something
- Does the quality of teaching depend on class size?
- It would depend on the circumstances.
- depend on/upon how, what, etc… Whether we need more food depends on how many people turn up.
Grammar Point depend ondepend on- In informal English, it is quite common to say depend rather than depend on before words like what, how or whether:
- It depends what you mean by ‘hostile’.
- It depends on how you define the term ‘hostile’.