keep up the good work

Meaning

This is an encouraging phrase used to praise someone's performance and motivate them to continue performing at a high level. Managers often use it to boost morale, and colleagues use it to show appreciation for excellent work. It is casual, warm, and highly supportive.

Examples

• Your presentation was excellent today; keep up the good work!

  Your presentation was excellent today; keep up the good work!

• The sales numbers are looking great this month, keep up the good work.

  The sales numbers are looking great this month, keep up the good work.

• Thanks for putting in the extra hours, keep up the good work.

  Thanks for putting in the extra hours, keep up the good work.

• I'm really impressed with your progress so far, keep up the good work!

  I'm really impressed with your progress so far, keep up the good work!

• Everyone did a fantastic job on this launch; keep up the good work.

  Everyone did a fantastic job on this launch; keep up the good work.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ Keep the good work up.

  ✓ Keep up the good work.

  While phrasal verbs can sometimes be split, this specific idiomatic expression is almost always kept together as 'keep up the good work'.

• ✗ Keep up your good work.

  ✓ Keep up the good work.

  Native speakers use the definite article 'the' in this set phrase, rather than possessive pronouns like 'your'.

Related Expressions

Practice

• You did a wonderful job on the client report, ___!

  💡 An encouraging phrase to tell someone to continue doing great.

  Show answer

  keep up the good work

• The manager told us to ___ after we hit our quarterly target.

  💡 Use the common expression for encouraging high performance.

  Show answer

  keep up the good work