Hi, could you please tell me another phrase that has a similar meaning to ‘keep it up’? I have to create students’ learning profiles and I’d like to use different phrases to encourage them.
Yes Alan, that sounds good. I actually was also thinking of something like ‘it seems you are going from strength to strength and I’m sure you will continue that way.’
What do you think of that?
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Useful phrase in itself but to me it suggests that the person doing it is a bit of a plodder. You know, they’re making progress but it’s a slow business.
Here’s my ‘grain of salt’:
(You’re doing an) excellent job. Keep at it!
Good job – you’re making great progress.
You’re progressing in leaps and bounds.
Your hard work is paying off.
Well done. You’re doing (really) well/great/(just) fine/a fantastic job/a cracking job.
Time to pull up your socks!
Better get it in gear!
Move it or milk it!
Look alive-- the vultures are circling overhead!
Are you going to fool around all day or are you going to study English?
That stunk! Do you want to be a low intermediate all your life?
etc.
.
Could you tell me the ‘mind’ or ‘picture’ or ‘sense’ of the ‘grain of salt’? I have heard a lot of it in such as ‘take it with a grain of salt’ but I am still quite out of its ‘spirit’.
‘Grain of salt’, as I’ve used it, is a French idiom: mettre son grain de sel, which means ‘put in/throw in your two cents/tuppence (worth)’ or ‘give your opinion’.
The English idiom ‘take something with a grain/pinch of salt’ has a different meaning, which is ‘not to believe something completely’.