Keep right on to the traffic-lights.

[sitifan]

Right is used as an adverb before prepositional phrases, to mean 'just' 'exactly' or 'all the way'.

Keep right on to the traffic-lights.

(Practical English Usage, by Michael Swan)

What does the sentence in red mean?

 

[Tarheel]

Perhaps:

Keep going until you get to the traffic lights.

:-?

 

[Yankee]

Perhaps:

Keep going until you get to the traffic lights.

:-?

Or, stay in the right lane until you reach the traffic lights.

 

[Tarheel]

If I was going to tell somebody to stay in the right lane I would say that specifically so as to leave no doubt what I meant

 

[emsr2d2]

You only put "right" in bold in post #1. You should have bolded "right on". It's:

Keep + right on + to + the traffic lights.

BrE would use "straight on".

 

[jutfrank]

You only put "right" in bold in post #1. You should have bolded "right on". It's:

Keep + right on + to + the traffic lights.

BrE would use "straight on".

I don't think that's what it's supposed to mean. I think it should be read like this:

keep

on + to the traffic lights

The point is that right has the sense here of 'all the way'. I think it's a very poor example.​

 

[sitifan]

You only put "right" in bold in post #1. You should have bolded "right on". It's:

Keep + right on + to + the traffic lights.

BrE would use "straight on".

It was the author, Michael Swan, who put only "right" in bold in his Practical English Usage. He said his examples were mainly of standard modern British English.

 

[tedmc]

Traffic lights are at separate spots/locations. How can we keep to/right on them all the way? Keeping to traffic lights does not necessarily mean you go straight through them.

It is probably clearer to say: Go straight through the traffic lights all the way.

 

[emsr2d2]

Traffic lights are at separate spots/locations. How can we keep to/right on them all the way? Keeping to traffic lights does not necessarily mean you go straight through them.

It is probably clearer to say: Go straight through the traffic lights all the way.

It's talking about just one set of traffic lights. The instruction is continue straight along the road in question until you reach the traffic lights. There would be further instructions after that.

In BrE, telling someone to go straight through a set of traffic lights would be encouraging them to break the law. We use that when people have carried on driving despite the traffic lights being red. If we want to tell someone that they shouldn't turn left or right when they get to the traffic lights but should stay on the same road, we say "Go straight across at the traffic lights".

You used "Keeping to traffic lights ...". That means nothing.

"How can we keep to/right on them all the way?" is also ungrammatical and I don't know what you were trying to say.

 

[tedmc]

"Go straight across at the traffic lights".
"Go straight through the traffic lights".

They don't make much difference difference to me as both do not mention anything about stopping. Nobody is saying one should break the law by crossing the junction and ignoring the traffic lights.

Would this be better: Go straight through the traffic lights, stopping where necessary?

How can we keep to/right on them all the way?" is also ungrammatical and I don't know what you were trying to say.

This is restating "keep right on to the traffic lights" from you.

 

[Rover_KE]

Go straight on at the lights. (BE)

 

[JMurray]

"keep right on to the traffic lights"

For me this has exactly the meaning that emsr2d2 gives: "…continue straight along the road in question until you reach the traffic lights".

I hear no implication that you should keep to the right-hand side of the road, or that you should go through the lights.

 

[Rover_KE]

"keep right on to the traffic lights"

For me this has exactly the meaning that emsr2d2 gives: "…continue straight along the road in question until you reach the traffic lights".

I hear no implication that you should keep to the right-hand side of the road, or that you should go through the lights.

Welcome back after your 7-month absence, JMurray.;-)

(I hope you haven't been ill all this time.)

 

[jutfrank]

The word right means 'all the way'. Here's the relevant excerpt from the source in question:

2 adjectives and adverbs with the same form; adverbs with two forms

right – Right is used as an adverb before prepositional phrases, to mean ‘just’, ‘exactly’ or ‘all the way’.
- She turned up right after breakfast.
- The snowball hit me right on the nose.
- Keep right on to the traffic-lights.

A rephrase would be Keep going all the way to the traffic lights.

 

[JMurray]

Welcome back after your 7-month absence, JMurray.;-)

(I hope you haven't been ill all this time.)


Thanks, Rover. No, I've been feeling quite chipper, in fact.

 

[sitifan]

keep on: to continue travelling. "Keep right on to the end of the road." (song)
(Longman Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs)
Keep right on to the end of the road - YouTube

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

keep on: to continue travelling. "Keep right on to the end of the road." (song)
(Longman Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs)
Keep right on to the end of the road - YouTube

Right on!

 

[tedmc]

keep on: to continue travelling. "Keep right on to the end of the road." (song)
(Longman Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs)
Keep right on to the end of the road - YouTube

There is no mention about stopping though.

 

[tedmc]

I am talking about stopping at traffic lights.

 

[emsr2d2]

It's not necessary, when giving directions, to remind people that they must stop at a red light.