keep going

To continue doing something without stopping, even when it is difficult or you feel like giving up. It often describes persisting through challenges in order to finish or succeed.

Type

Inseparable phrasal verb.

Notes

"Keep going" is an inseparable phrasal verb, meaning no object or other word can be placed between "keep" and "going." For example, you can say "She kept going despite the pain," but you cannot say "She kept it going" to express this same meaning of continued effort — inserting an object changes or loses the intended sense entirely.

Conjugation

Narrative

Priya had been studying for her nursing entrance exam for six months. In the f week, she failed two practice tests back to back and nearly cancelled her registration. Her older sister sat with her at the kitchen table on a Tuesday night, g over drug-calculation problems one more time. "You know more than you think," her sister said quietly. Priya wasn't sure she believed that, b she ke anyway — flashcards at breakfast, practice questions on the bus. S , on exam day, she pa with two points to spare. Ev , she cried in the parking lot afterward, from relief rather than a q fear.

Register

Neutral

In January 1915, Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance became trapped in pack ice in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. By November the ice had crushed and sunk her, leaving Shackleton and his twenty-seven men stranded on the frozen surface with three small lifeboats. Over the following months, the crew drifted on ice floes, eventually launching the boats into vi Antarctic waters. Shackleton then led an 800-mile open-boat journey to South Georgia Island — widely considered one of the most da sea voyages in history — arriving in May 1916 with five ex men. He then crossed the island's unmapped mountain range on foot to reach a whaling station and organize a rescue. Every single member of the expedition survived. Shackleton made no dramatic speeches about resilience; he simply as each new obstacle and f the next possible action. S , the expedition is remembered not because the mission succeeded — it failed entirely — buuse when every reason to stop acted , Shackleton and his crew found a way to ke .

To stop trying to do something because it seems too difficult or impossible; to admit that you cannot succeed and abandon your effort. It often implies accepting defeat after a struggle.

Type

Inseparable phrasal verb.

Notes

As an intransitive or inseparable phrasal verb, 'give up' cannot have an object placed between its two parts when used in the sense of abandoning an effort. You can say 'She gave up the project' or 'She gave it up,' but when no object follows — meaning simply 'to stop trying' — the verb stands alone: 'She gave up.' Note that 'give up' can also take an object meaning 'to quit something,' in which case object pronouns must come between the parts: 'She gave it up,' never 'She gave up it.'

Conjugation

Narrative

Priya had been pitching her UX redesign proposal to the same director for four months. Every time, he pushed it to the next quarter. Her colleague Jonah told her to give up and move on — the company clearly wasn't interested. B Priya had data showing the current interface was costing them users. She bo one final meeting, arrived with printed customer complaint logs and a co comparison, and l it all on the table. The director approved a pilot run by the end of the hour. S , giving up, she later said, would have been the ea thing she ever did — a the bi mistake. She had refused to gi even after four months of no.

Register

Neutral

In October 1941, with the German army advancing rapidly toward Moscow, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin faced en pressure to evacuate the capital. Most government ministries had already fled east to Kuibyshev, panic was sp through the city, and some senior officials assumed Moscow would fall within days. On October 19, Stalin made a decision: he stayed. He announced a state of siege, appeared publicly in the city, and gave his famous address on November 7 — Revolution Day — standing on Red Square with German forces less than 50 miles away. The speech was broadcast nationally and filmed. Stalin's refusal to abandon Moscow st the Soviet defense. By December, a Soviet counteroffensive had pushed German forces back from the capital's outskirts. Historians debate many of Stalin's choices, b this particular episode is well documented: the moment when the sy and military weight of not giving up — of vi refusing to concede — shifted the psychological momentum of an entire campaign. So , the decision that changes everything is simply the refusal to gi . In , that single choice altered the course of the entire war.

To break down means either (1) to stop working properly, as a machine or system does when it fails, or (2) to suddenly lose control of your emotions and start crying. Both senses share the idea of something — a machine or a person — reaching a point where it can no longer hold itself together.

Type

Inseparable phrasal verb.

Notes

In its primary senses — stopping functioning or losing emotional control — 'break down' is inseparable: you cannot place an object between the two parts. You say 'she broke down' or 'the engine broke down,' not 'she broke her emotions down.' However, when 'break down' means to divide something into smaller parts or categories, it becomes separable: 'Can you break the report down into sections?' or 'Can you break down the report into sections?' are both correct.

Conjugation

Narrative

Priya had held herself together for three weeks after her father's diagnosis — ma appointments, calling relatives, updating insurance forms. She told herself there was no time to feel anything yet. T one Tuesday afternoon, she was washing dishes and a song her father used to hum came on the radio. She turned off the tap, sat down on the kitchen floor, and completely br . Her roommate found her there twenty minutes later and simply sat beside her, saying nothing. So , Priya thought, you don't ch when the walls come down — they choose for you. It was, in its own q way, a ne collapse.

Register

Neutral

On the night of June 4, 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stood before the House of Commons and de one of the most coial speeches of the twentieth century — the 'We shall fight on the beaches' address. What many people do not know is what happened immediately afterward. Churchill walked off the floor of the House, turned to a colleague, and reportedly mu , 'And we'll fight them with the butt ends of broken bottles, because that's bloody well all we've got.' According to close aides, in pr moments during those first desperate months of the war — with France collapsing, Dunkirk barely survived, and invasion seemingly imminent — Churchill did, on at least one occasion, break down in private, weeping openly. He had built a public image of granite-like resolve, b the weight of responsibility for millions of lives took its toll in rooms where no cameras watched. That pr fracture, those moments of breaking down, may have made his public composure more genuine, not less. E the strongest systems — human or mechanical — can reach a point where they simply br .

To become completely exhausted and lose all energy or motivation, usually because of working too hard or being under too much stress for a long time. When someone burns out, they often feel unable to continue doing their job effectively.

Type

Inseparable phrasal verb.

Notes

When 'burn out' is used as an intransitive phrasal verb — meaning a person becomes exhausted — it is inseparable: no object comes between the two parts. You say 'She burned out after months of overwork,' never 'She burned herself out' in this intransitive sense. Note, however, that the related transitive form (where something exhausts another person, as in 'The job burned him out') does allow an object, but the most common self-directed use remains inseparable.

Conjugation

Narrative

Priya had been a software developer at the same fintech startup for three years. In the final push before the product launch, she was ro sending emails at midnight and skipping lunch to fix bugs. One Tuesday morning, she sat at her desk, op her laptop, and simply could not type a single line of code. Her manager no she'd gone quiet and asked her into a one-on-one. 'I think I'm bu ,' Priya admitted, her voice st but tired. Her manager closed his notebook. 'Then we fix the workload, not you,' he said, a they b a real schedule together that afternoon. S , the exhaustion, once named, finally had somewhere to go. Ev , it took weeks to feel normal again.

Register

Neutral

In the early 1940s, the British mathematician and codebreaker Alan Turing was at the center of one of history's most consequential intellectual efforts — breaking Nazi Germany's Enigma cipher at Bletchley Park. Turing worked at a pace that was extraordinary even among his brilliant peers, often going days with little sleep, ob over logical problems that others had abandoned. By 1942 and into 1943, colleagues noted that he had become increasingly wi , cycling compulsively between his billet and the hut, eating erratically, and struggling to engage with the institutional politics that were consuming Bletchley. He eventually stack from direct operational codebreaking leadership and moved toward more theoretical work on computing. Historians have noted that the sheer gr intensity of the war years — the stakes, the secrecy, the re pressure — took a measurable toll on e his extraordinary capacity. S , the documented shift in Turing's role and demeanor during this period is one of history's clearest examples of what happens when sustained, high-pressure intellectual work is carried beyond what any person can maintain: in , even the most brilliant minds can bu .