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Please imagine a young boy who's mother is dealing with a malignant cancer. He feels very sad and has lost his morale recently and is not able to put enough time on his studies. After a long period of chemical therapy, the treatment process works and the mother is healed. The boy's spirit enhances and gets ready to continue his studies. Now, I would appreciate it if someone could let me know which one of the following sentences work here properly:

  • His spirit has been uplifted.

  • His spirit was boosted.

If they don't sound natural to you, then please let me know how a native speaker would normally explain such a situation?

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All those verbs you listed (uplift and boost) would work just fine, though I think when talking about someone's spirits, the verb that most native speakers would naturally use would be to lift up.

Example:

His mother's recovery from cancer has really lifted his spirits up.

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  • Is it possible to substitute "spirits" with "morale" here @Cookie Monster?
    – A-friend
    Jan 9, 2017 at 21:02
  • Yes, I think so. Jan 9, 2017 at 23:38
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First off, you use the plural spirits, not the singular spirit.

You can pick up, boost, lift up, or uplift somebody's spirits, but the verbs "lift" and "raise" are more usual and idiomatic. So you say:

His spirits were lifted.

His spirits were raised.

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