Learn phrasal verbs with ‘keep’ with meanings. How can I learn new English words every day? Stop memorising the new vocabulary! If you want to learn more words faster, you need to learn them in context and put them into practice.
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Speak better English with Harry - Episode 345
List of phrasal verbs with keep
Harry
Phrasal verbs with keep
Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to my podcast where I try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language so that you can have better conversations. You can get through that difficult job interview or that very stressful team’s meeting in English.
Whatever it is, I’m here to help improve your English grammar, phrasal verbs, expressions, show you how to use them.
So what are we going to talk about today? In this particular podcast episode, we’re going to look at phrasal verbs with the word ‘keep.’ Phrasal verbs with keep.
Keep is all about possession. When we keep something in a box, we keep something in a drawer, or we keep something to ourselves. Yes, it’s about holding on.
So keep that in the back of your mind.
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INSANITY: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Okay, so the first one
keep at
Meaning: when we keep at something means we continue doing it until we get it right
Example:
If you don’t understand some of these phrasal verbs, keep at it. Keep reading, keep practising, and eventually, you will understand.
So when we keep out something, we can continue to do it, we might get tired, a little exhausted, might get a little fed up, but it’s best to keep at it.
It’s late at night, but I’ll keep at this until I finish it.
keep back
We can use this in quite a few ways.
Meaning: not to move forward, or not to allow someone to move forward
Example:
The police put a big cordon around a traffic accident and told the public to keep back.
Or we can keep back something for later.
Sam didn’t finish all of his meal and kept back a little snack for later in the afternoon.
When you’re calculating your budgets and how to spend your salary each month, you might keep a little back to save for a rainy day.
Meaning: to retain something and not to spend it all, not to give everything away
Example:
Let’s keep a little back every month for our holiday.
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keep down
This phrasal verb has lots of different meanings.
Meaning: to not vomit, to keep food in your stomach
You’re not feeling so well and you’ve eaten something that didn’t agree with you, and you might feel like you’re going to vomit, it might be very hard to keep your breakfast down.
If you’re on a rocky boat, it’s difficult to keep anything down.
Meaning: to make less noise
Keep your voices down. Don’t get so excited, grandma is trying to sleep.
Meaning: to prevent something from increasing
We would like the government to help us to keep the costs down.
We’ve got inflation, we’ve got higher petrol prices, we’ve got higher food prices, higher property prices, and the list goes on. So wouldn’t we all like somebody somewhere to keep those costs down?
Next
keep from
Meaning: to prevent somebody from doing something or somebody from seeing something
Examples:
Please keep the children from getting their clothes dirty, they’re going over to visit their granny, and I want them to look clean for once.
I’ve kept it from him long enough. Someday I’m going to tell him that I was the one who made a mistake.
Phrasal verbs with keep
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keep in (with somebody)
Meaning: when we try to keep in with somebody, we try to maintain their friendship.
It might be for genuine reasons because we really like them and we want to be friends with them.
We might keep in with somebody because it might be important for our careers.
Keep in with the boss. If you don’t, he’s not a guy who likes enemies. If you’re not friends with them, there’s little chance of progressing your career here.
keep off
Meaning: to stop or withhold or just deny yourself something
Keep off the grass.
Any public park you go into, you’re bound to see a sign, keep off the grass, which is always quite amusing. What’s the park for, if not to walk around and enjoy? It’s not so inviting to the public.
His doctor told him to keep off red meat to lower his cholesterol.
Keep off sweet things.
Keep off cigarettes.
Phrasal verbs with keep
keep on
Meaning: to continue despite difficulties
Example:
He continued studying and retook his IELTS exam the following year.
Keep it on doing what you are doing, it seems to be working.
Keep on driving, you’ll eventually get to where you want to go.
Next,
keep to something
Meaning: to follow a routine or a rule and do what you are supposed to do
It might be to keep to a strict diet, as we were talking about before.
To keep to a particular routine, because you don’t want to disturb things.
With kids, it’s always good to keep them to the routine, even in these difficult times.
It’s hard to have everything perfect, but it’s best to try and keep to the routine.
I like to keep to my fitness routine.
I like to do it at a certain time every day. If I can’t do it that time, then it gets a little bit difficult to do it later.
Phrasal verbs with keep
Next
keep up with
Meaning: to continue to be informed
Example:
If they don’t keep up with the gossip, their friends will reject them.
And then finally
keep up with somebody
Meaning: to stay at the same level as someone else
There’s an expression
keep up with the Joneses
That means to look out the window and if your neighbours buy a car, you buy a car. If the neighbours put up new curtains, you put up new curtains. So we keep up with the Joneses.
Examples:
After 10 minutes of an aerobics class, I was completely exhausted but tried to keep up with everybody.
My wife can’t keep up with me when we go for a walk.
So phrasal verbs with keep. As I said, the simple verb to keep. It’s all about possession.
For the phrasal verbs, we have to add on a preposition.
Let me give them to you one more time:
- keep at something
- keep back
- keep down
- keep from
- keep in (with somebody)
- keep off
- keep on (doing something)
- keep to something
- keep up with
- keep up with somebody
I hope you’ll be able to keep up with all the suggestions and you can practice those. If you have any problems, you can contact me and my contact details are www.englishlessonviaskype.com. Just drop me a line, I’ll be happy to help you if you’ve got any problems.
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More information
For more information on English grammar rules, English collocations and English idioms, check out the links below:
Idioms related to feelings and emotions
Phrasal verbs about relationships
You can always study English advanced level at Learning English with the BBC.
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