Keep alive means to stop someone or something from dying: The nurses kept the patient alive. Figuratively, it means to preserve something, not let it fade: keep a tradition alive, keep hope alive. Whatever is kept alive usually goes between keep and alive.
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keep + someone/something + alive; keep hope/a tradition/the memory alive; stay alive
- I water my plants twice a week, but I still can't keep them alive.
- Our village keeps the old harvest festival alive with music and food every autumn.
- Regular video calls kept our friendship alive while I was studying abroad.
What changed
First versionMy grandmother tries to keep our family traditions live.
RevisionMy grandmother tries to keep our family traditions alive.
The idea of “living” is split between two English words. Live goes before a noun: live music, a live concert. After keep, stay, be and after an object, you need alive: keep traditions alive. The corrected version replaces live with alive.
Keep alive is when someone or something keeps another thing living: The heater kept the plants alive. Stay alive means to survive yourself, with no object: The climbers stayed alive for three days in the snow.
Your turn
My grandfather still tells the old family stories to keep the memories ___.
Show the answer
alive — The word comes after keep and the object the memories, and that position needs alive. Live goes before a noun, as in live music, and in this position it sounds wrong.
Write about a tradition in your family or town. Say who keeps it alive and how.
My aunt keeps our New Year tradition alive: every December she gathers the whole family to bake pies together.
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