Back when I was a student, I can recall my nonnative English teachers — after discussing a certain word, or phrase, or passage from a text with the class — saying for me or some other guy to please "carry on" (with the reading).
Now, what I wish you could tell is if "to carry on" has any currency in AE usage in the sense "to proceed with something after a stop"? Or is this usage typically BE, and an American somehow would be more likely to say instead something like "you may (or can) go ahead", "you can go on", or "you can proceed" with a certain task?
If indeed "carry on" is sort of more typical of BE than AE in this sense, how do Americans usually use that expression?
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/carry+on?s=t
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/go+on?s=t
Best Answer
In American English (well, American Northeast English, anyway), "carry on" has a slightly formal flavor; it'd be a bit more natural in a military setting ("Very good. Carry on, soldier.") or when one wants to jokingly invoke that kind of authoritative tone. "Go ahead" would be more common as an informal permission/suggestion to proceed, "go on" would more often be a request to continue ("please go on, what happened next?")
But this is subtle enough shadings of meaning that intonation could easily shift their relative positions.