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I'm far from being an English major, but I have a simple question. If someone were to say keep updated in a sentence, is that correct? I know the usage, tense, and other things matter, but is it incorrect to use those two words together?

If you were to suggest that someone keep updated [a statement], would that be correct?

I read another post here (which was similar), but it didn't say anything specific about "keep" or "updated" together.

Update: Thanks to a comment written in response to an answer below, a good example of this would be the sentence, “Whom should I keep updated about our progress?” (Is this correct?)

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    Meant keep (constantly) in updated condition or up to date
    – Kris
    Commented May 22, 2014 at 6:29
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    If you say it ON ITS OWN, it would be kind of a terse written command. you can imagine a list, in a hospital, and someone has written beside some item "keep updated". it's difficult to construct a good-sounding sentence literally using those two words. it would be more like "Keep me updated" or "be sure to keep the software updated".
    – Fattie
    Commented May 22, 2014 at 6:32

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We use update word a lot of times in our business mails but have never seen them being used together. We always put something in between the two words like "Keep me updated", "Keep us updated"," I will keep you updated" or if you are ordering someone to update something, you will say "Keep it updated" . Since you will always be updating someone or something , hence, there should be something in the middle.

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    This oversimplifies things. There should be an object, that is true: keep is only used transitively in this construction, and updated must therefore be the object complement, not the subject complement. But objects do not necessarily have to come between the verb and the object complement. It can be fronted, for example: “Whom should I keep updated about our progress?” is perfectly fine, although nothing comes between keep and updated.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jun 21, 2014 at 8:28
  • Yeah, this is the sense I was thinking about. Or "Should I keep updated?" except that could be more accurately replaced with "stay updated". Thanks for the example since I couldn't think of it. So, I guess we still don't have an answer on "keep updated", eh? (unless I misunderstood)
    – Netside
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 4:45
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I'm not an expert in English, but it's obvious to me that something is missing here, an object. the correct usage should be to keep [object] updated. To keep a person updated means to keep this person up to date of what's new and what's going on. To keep 'it' updated means to make sure all the information on 'it' are up to date. say a bulletin board.

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