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Everyday English · People & feelings

Carry on

Continue an activity.

You continue doing something, either without stopping or after a pause. The activity goes on.

Plain-English lessonVisual explanation3 practice steps

01 · Picture the situation

Understand it in three steps

Cartoon of a learner returning to her open book and notes after a drink of water.
Picture the meaningAfter a short break, she carries on studying.
01Start an activity
02A short pause
03Continue

Imagine this: You practise English for ten minutes, pause for water and then practise again. After the break, you carry on practising.

02 · Hear it in everyday life

Examples you can use

Three natural sentences

  1. Please carry on reading while I answer the door.
  2. After lunch, we carried on with our work.
  3. It was noisy, but she carried on studying.

A short conversation

PERSON AShall we stop the lesson now?
PERSON BLet us carry on for five more minutes.

Read the conversation aloud. Then swap roles and try it again without looking.

03 · Build your sentence

How to use carry on

Use carry on + an -ing activity, or carry on with + a noun: carry on reading / carry on with the lesson. Carry on can also stand alone when the activity is already understood.

BASE FORMcarry on
PAST SIMPLEcarried on
AFTER HAVE / HAScarried on

The base form is used after can, will and to. The past simple describes a finished past event. The third form follows have or has, for example when connecting an earlier action to now.

A common mistake to avoid

Use thisWe carried on learning.
Avoid this in this meaningWe carried on to learning.

Before an -ing activity, use carry on directly. There is no to in this pattern.

Do not confuse it: Carry on means continue. Give up means stop trying. A short break can come before carrying on, so continuing does not mean you never rest.

Does it have another meaning?

Carry-on luggage is a noun phrase for a bag taken into an aircraft cabin. That is different from the verb carry on meaning continue.

Learn the meaning and sentence pattern together. Small words such as up and off do not have one fixed meaning in every expression.

04 · Make it stick

Try it for yourself

Choose an answer before opening the explanation. Then make a sentence about your own life.

1. After a short break, you continue practising. You…
  1. carry on practising
  2. give up practising
  3. take off practising
Check answer 1

A. carry on practising

Carry on means continue the activity.

2. Please carry on ___ your homework.
  1. with
  2. to
  3. at
Check answer 2

A. with

Use carry on with before the noun phrase your homework.

3. Your turn

What would you like to carry on learning?

See a possible model and self-check

Please carry on reading while I answer the door.

This is one model, not the only correct answer. Check that your sentence uses the meaning taught here, the right verb form and the word order above. Change the person, place or time to make it your own.