A : I kept myself under at the park for ten hours. B : I stayed at the park for ten hours. Are both of them the same meaning?

26 Dec 2016

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English (US)

"Stay" means "remain in the same location" or "remain in the same state/position"
"Keep" means "continue the same action" or "cause to remain in the same state/position/action"

In "I stayed at the park" you use "stay" because you are remaining in the same location. You cannot use "keep" here because keep doesn't have that same definition.

In "They kept him under the knife," "under the knife" means "in surgery," which is a state/condition. Therefore you use "keep" because the surgeons are CAUSING him to stay in that state. That's not a definition of stay so you can't use it.
If it had said "He stayed under the knife for 10 hours," you would use "stay" because he is talking about the condition itself, not what is causing him to stay under the knife.

I hope I made this understandable for you!

katiem415

26 Dec 2016

English (US)

I would say "I stayed at the park for ten hours."
A) just sounds odd, you only use "keep" in that sense with actions/verbs
"She kept painting for nearly 3 more hours"

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Deleted user

26 Dec 2016

@katiem415 I understand, but what I'm wanting is "keep under." Because I'm not sure it has the same meaning the verb "stay" or not. Thank you so much ^^

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katiem415

26 Dec 2016

English (US)

@Koreakimchi Do you have an example sentence where you saw this used? "Keep under" isn't really a phrase by itself, "under" is just a preposition

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delta1212

26 Dec 2016

English (US)

@Koreakimchi There are a few times when "keep" can be used to mean "stay."

"We kept under cover" means the same as "We stayed under cover."

It doesn't normally and "kept under" is not equivalent to "stay" by itself in any context I can think of.

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Deleted user

26 Dec 2016

@katiem415 Here is the original sentence: 'They kept him under the knife for ten hours"

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Deleted user

26 Dec 2016

@katiem415 I just thought that both of them are very similar.

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katiem415

26 Dec 2016

English (US)

"Stay" means "remain in the same location" or "remain in the same state/position"
"Keep" means "continue the same action" or "cause to remain in the same state/position/action"

In "I stayed at the park" you use "stay" because you are remaining in the same location. You cannot use "keep" here because keep doesn't have that same definition.

In "They kept him under the knife," "under the knife" means "in surgery," which is a state/condition. Therefore you use "keep" because the surgeons are CAUSING him to stay in that state. That's not a definition of stay so you can't use it.
If it had said "He stayed under the knife for 10 hours," you would use "stay" because he is talking about the condition itself, not what is causing him to stay under the knife.

I hope I made this understandable for you!

1 like 0 disagrees

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Deleted user

26 Dec 2016