maintain contact — stay in touch
collocationB1IELTS 5+neutraloccasional
to keep communicating with someone regularly, especially over a period of time.
Say it like a native
Textbook We endeavour to preserve ongoing communicative relations.
Native We try to stay in touch.
'Maintain contact' is fine in formal writing, but in speech natives say 'stay in touch'; 'preserve communicative relations' is jargon.
Pattern: maintain contact (with someone)
In use
- After graduating, I tried hard to maintain contact with my university friends.communication
- In my opinion, it's important to maintain contact with family members who live abroad, as it helps strengthen relationships despite the distance.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ They maintained contact during years.
✓ They maintained contact over the years.
'Over the years', not 'during years'.
Common collocations
maintain contact (with)— with, regular, over the years, lose
Don't confuse it
Similar to 'stay in touch,' but 'maintain contact' is a bit more formal and often used in work or study situations.