Follow up (on)
The freelancer’s phrasal verb — the one you’ll send most in client emails. Check on / remind / take a next step, with the crucial on-vs-with distinction, the hyphenated noun “a follow-up,” freelance examples, tone tips, and a quiz.
Overview
Follow up (on) is the freelancer’s phrasal verb — probably the one you’ll use most in client communication. It means to take further action after something that already happened — to check on progress, get a response, or continue what was started.
- Check progress / remind after initial contact → check on, chase, remind, revisit
- Take a next action after something → continue, pursue further
- Follow up with + person → contact someone again
Grammar preview: the preposition matters — follow up (alone), follow up on + thing, follow up with + person. It’s not separable.
Parts of speech
Follow up works as three parts of speech.
As a verb — “follow up”
Meaning: to check on something or take a next step (with on + thing, with + person).
- “I’ll follow up on the invoice next week.”
- “Let me follow up with the client.”
- “Just following up on my last email.”
- “The doctor asked me to follow up in two weeks.”
- “I’ll follow up once it’s deployed.”
As a noun — “a follow-up”
Meaning: a next message or action.
- “This is a follow-up to my email.”
- “Let’s schedule a follow-up.”
- “Thanks for the quick follow-up.”
- “No follow-up needed — all clear.”
- “I sent a follow-up yesterday.”
As an adjective — “follow-up”
Meaning: done as a next step.
- “a follow-up call”
- “follow-up questions”
- “a follow-up email”
- “a follow-up appointment”
- “follow-up tasks”
The verb is two words (follow up); the noun and adjective are hyphenated (a follow-up, a follow-up call).
Check progress / remind
= check on · chase · remind · revisit.
- “I’ll follow up on the invoice next week.” (check whether it’s been paid)
- “Just following up on my last email.” (politely reminding you)
Take a next action
= continue · pursue further.
- “The doctor asked me to follow up in two weeks.” (come back / check in again)
- “We should follow up on that lead.” (pursue it further)
Follow up with + person
Contact someone again.
- “I’ll follow up with the client tomorrow.” (contact them again)
The prepositions — the key part
Which preposition you use depends on what you’re following up on:
- follow up (no object — intransitive, the “(i)”): “Thanks for the info, I’ll follow up next week.”
- follow up on + thing: “Follow up on the invoice / the ticket / my email.”
- follow up with + person: “Follow up with Matthew about the milestone.”
- Combine both: “I’ll follow up with the client on the payment.”
You can’t split it: ❌ follow the invoice up on. And unlike figure out, there’s no follow it out — the object always comes after on / with.
The noun: a follow-up
With a hyphen, it becomes a noun or adjective:
- “This is a follow-up to my previous message.”
- “Let’s schedule a follow-up call.”
- “Any follow-up questions?”
Programming / freelance
- “Just following up on the PR review — any blockers?”
- “I’ll follow up with the Railway support team about the deployment issue.”
- “Following up on my proposal from Monday — happy to adjust the scope if needed.”
- “The client hasn’t responded, so I’ll follow up on Friday.” (intransitive — no object)
- “QA found two issues; I’ll fix them and follow up with a staging link.”
Everyday life
- “The clinic said they’d call, but I had to follow up myself.”
- “I applied for the apartment and followed up three days later.”
- “She promised to send the photos — I should follow up on that.”
- “The gym never fixed my billing issue, so I followed up with the manager.”
Client phrases to steal
- “Hi Matthew, just following up on the V2 proposal — let me know if you have any questions.” ✅ (the most-sent email opener in freelancing)
- “I’ll follow up once the fix is deployed to staging.”
- “Following up here — did you get a chance to review the milestone?”
- “Quick follow-up: the invoice from last week is still pending.”
“Just following up” is the standard polite nudge in English business culture — it means “you haven’t answered and I’m reminding you” without sounding pushy. If you’ve already followed up twice, escalate gently: “I wanted to circle back on this” or “Bumping this to the top of your inbox” (informal).
Practice
Choose the right preposition — on (a thing) or with (a person):
1.“I’ll follow up ___ the invoice next week.”
2.“I’ll follow up ___ the client tomorrow.”
3.“Just following up ___ my last email.”
4.“Follow up ___ Matthew about the milestone.”
5.“Following up ___ the PR review — any blockers?”