Take the 2-minute tour ×

Which of the following is grammatical?

  • He wants to remain a cool kid for the rest of his life.
  • He wants to remain as a cool kid for the rest of his life.
share|improve this question

1 Answer 1

up vote 1 down vote accepted

"Remain a cool kid" is preferred in American English. I've seen "Remain as" used in Commonwealth English, although I don't know whether it's considered more acceptable than "remain" alone.

share|improve this answer
And stay is better than remain. –  Malvolio May 11 '11 at 22:59
@Malvolio Would you explain why? –  voithos May 11 '11 at 23:35
Remain has the connotation of involuntariness, of things "left over". Consider Remains of the Day, "remainder" (in division), "human remains". Stay, besides being the less formal word, has the connotation of deliberateness, of will, of "I meant to do that". Consider "mainstay" (on a ship, the line holding the mast upright; metaphorically, the chief support of anything) or expressions like "stay strong" and "stay safe". Bureaucratic instructions might say "remain standing" but in an emergency, people yell "stay there" or "stay away". –  Malvolio May 11 '11 at 23:57

protected by RegDwigнt Nov 24 '12 at 3:27


Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?
