Keep from literally means “to keep from”. This sounds strange at first glance, but just think about it: when you deny or do not give something to someone, you are “keeping” that thing. And you are keeping it away “from”, or “from ”, another person. That is the meaning of keep from , in a nutshell .
Of course, the explanation in the previous paragraph, if we can honor it with that name, doesn’t get us anywhere. We need to look at concrete cases, and for that the usual example sentences come to our rescue. Get Anki ready and let’s see how to use keep from .
1 – Keep from doing (something ) means “to stop doing” something, “not to do” something, “to stop” yourself from doing something or “to avoid” something.
She could
hardly keep from laughing .
I just managed to keep myself from falling .
I barely managed to avoid falling .
The
play was so boring I could hardly keep myself from falling asleep .
2 – Keep someone from doing something has basically the same meaning: “avoid” or “prevent” someone from doing a certain thing:
These
worries kept her from sleeping properly .
The
troops withheld fire to keep the situation from escalating. ( If you
use “escalate” to translate escalate, I can’t promise to hold back!)
His ex –
wife had kept him from seeing his children .
Put the pizza
in the bottom of the oven to keep the cheese from burning .
Try to keep the children from throwing food all over the floor .
3 – Keep someone from something or from doing something can also be used in the sense of “distracting” or “taking up someone’s time”. It is common to use the verb, in this sense, to apologize for taking up someone’s time.
I hope
I ‘m not keeping you from your work .
I must go now. I’ve kept you from your dinner too long .
I hope
I haven’t kept you from your work .
4 – Finally, to keep something from someone means “not to reveal” information: “to keep a secret”, “to disguise”, “to hide”. Just look:
I
think we ought to keep the truth from him until he ‘s better.
They don’t keep anything from each other .
I kept the news from him for a while.
I didn’t reveal the news to him for a while.
She
could not keep the dismay from her voice .
The
government had wanted to keep this information from the public . (Remember that information does not have a plural, so it can be translated as either “information” or “information”, depending on the case) .
By the way, with that we conclude today’s post . I hope you enjoyed learning more about this phrasal verb !