"keep silence" vs "keep silent"

[lost_soul]

[Molly]

Or irresponsible. He could've infected the whole team.

[lost_soul]

Oh, now it makes more sense ! I never believed in people's responsibility
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Alex

A native speaker of Russian

[Yankee]

By the way, Molly, did you know that a Google search for "looking forward to see" can produce over a million results? To me, the use of 'see' is not only wrong but also extremely unnatural in that phrase.
What do Google results actually mean?
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Molly]

Lesson? Don't trust Google if you want native-speaker results. Check all results. Consult many sources, including native-speakers that may be around you at the time, and then decide. In looking at "keep silence" and "keep silent", I've checked Google, the BNC, the BYU Corpus of American English, native-speakers here, my English husband, the Bible, law books, and a few major newspapers.

Now, do you think "keep silence" is wrong, incorrect English? If so, which sources have you checked?

And "looking forward to see" is not always incorrect. Sometimes, there's an ellipted "in order to".

"At the next meeting, we'll be looking forward to see how we can change things."

"You must look forward to see what the consequence of our actions will be."

[Pamela]

I heard 'keep silent' to be used in a number of contexts. Teachers, when explaining the lesson, often address their disobedient students to be silent. At the same time I second Alex's assumption that 'keep silence' can be a common mistake among the non-native speakers.

[Molly]

[Yankee]

And that brings us back to square one.

I think it unlikely that you will hear the collocation 'keep silence' used very often. I agree with Alan that 'maintain silence' would be a far more likely collocation.
.
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Molly]

[prezbucky]

"Keep silent" is the correct form.

I've not run across "keep silence" before... at least not while listening to, or reading, a native speaker.

now.... one could maintain silence.

but "keep silence" is not common.

We either maintain silence or we keep silent.

[Molly]

[prezbucky]

Molly, are you trying to pick fights with native speakers?

If you want to know my qualifications, they are these:

- BA-Journalism, University of Wisconsin
- MBA, Belmont University
- Copy editor, Daily Cardinal (UW student newspaper -- worked there during my years at UW)
- A lifetime of speaking, hearing and reading English every day.

That is not to say that education is everything... though we wrote an awful lot in journalism classes. The MBA program was also full of writing.

I will say it again: "keep silence" is not common.

[prezbucky]

"Maintain silence" is used in lieu of "keep silence".

The generally accepted forms are:

- Keep silent
- Maintain silence

(I would imagine one would hear "maintain silence" a lot in the military.... sort of like "maintain discipline".

[prezbucky]

Amy, re: "looking forward to see"

Google searches, IMO, are generally useless in determining correct usage.

If a million people are wrong but only four are right... which example should we follow?

[Molly]

I will say it again: "keep silence" is not common.

That, I understood, but "not common" does not mean incorrect. How can "keep silent" be correct, but "keep silence" not.

And , even with your BA in Journalism, you are not familiar with the work of major journalists:

U.S. Lawyers Keep Silence on Listening In

www.nytimes.com/2006/03/18/nyregion/18detain.html

And more..

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So, when you say something such as this: