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Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody.
Welcome back to Know Your Verbs.
My name is Alisha, and in this video, we're going to talk about the verb, break.
Let's get started.
First, let's start with the basic definition of the verb, break.
The basic definition is to separate into parts suddenly.
Here are some examples.
He broke a glass when he was in the kitchen.
She broke her arm snowboarding.
Now let's look at the conjugation of this verb, present, break, breaks, past, broke, past participle, broken, progressive, breaking.
Okay, now let's take a look at some additional meanings for this verb.
The first additional meaning is to violate or to fail to follow a rule.
Here are some examples.
He broke the law.
You broke your promise to me.
Okay, both of these example sentences show a situation in which one person has violated some kind of social rule or legal rule.
In the first example sentence, we see the very common expression, break the law, or in this case, the past tense, he broke the law.
So when someone fails to follow the legal rules of a society in a city or in a country, and they do something that is not within the rules of that society, we use the expression to break the law to describe that.
So common examples of this might be, for example, driving in a car and not stopping at a stop sign or at a red light.
If you continue driving through the red light, you break the law.
So that is something that is against the rules in, I think, most countries.
So when we break the law, it is generally a very bad thing.
In the second example sentence, we see a social kind of rule.
So in this case, the speaker is expressing that someone broke a promise to them.
So that means that someone made a promise with the speaker, but they did not fulfill the promise.
They did not do the things they said they were going to do.
So when we make a promise with another person, it's kind of like we have a social contract with that person.
We agree to do something together, right? When we don't do that, we violate that law.
We violate the rule that we have created.
We violate the contract that we have between these two people.
So we can use to break in this sense in legal situations like official legal situations in a country or in a culture, and we can also use it to talk about social situations when someone does not follow an established rule.
The second additional meaning of break is to destroy or exhaust someone or something.
Let's look at some examples.
The awful weather conditions broke my spirit.
The end of his relationship is going to break him.
Okay, so this use of break refers to generally emotional and mental conditions.
So in the first example sentence, when we're talking about the weather breaking someone's spirits, it means that the weather is so bad, it's so awful that we feel emotionally and mentally exhausted or just destroyed.
Maybe we're camping or maybe we're taking a long hiking trip and it's snowy and cold and so miserable, and after many, many days of this, we feel just exhausted like we can't continue.
So that's a situation in which you might hear someone The weather broke my spirit in past tense.
In other words, it destroyed me.
So my spirit even, not just my body, but my spirit as well was destroyed from the situation.
So we can use the verb break to describe that point at which the person just decides this is too much, I'm done, I'm destroyed, I'm finished.
In the second example sentence, we see a relationship situation.
The end of his relationship is going to break him.
So this is a person predicting something that is going to happen in the future.
In other words, this future situation, this person's relationship ending is going to destroy him is what this sentence is expressing.
This person thinks that this person's relationship is so important that when it ends, it's going to destroy this guy.
So we use break to talk about this kind of mental and emotional sort of destruction that happens.
You might also see this used in situations relating to war, like two enemy sides fighting and trying to break the enemy, which means trying to exhaust the enemy.
So generally, this is not used in a very positive way.
So you might also see this use of break used in like wartime situations where there are two sides that are fighting and they're each trying to break the other side, which means they're trying to destroy the other side or exhaust the other side.
So this use of break is generally not a positive use of break.
It's used to talk about someone or something that is just so exhausted or so destroyed that they cannot continue
The next additional meaning of break is to split into smaller parts.
Here are some examples.
Let's break the class up into groups.
She broke the information into short sections.
Okay, this use of break is used when we have something large, a large number of something, or maybe a large quantity of something, and we want to make it smaller, either so that it's easier to understand or so that we can give it to more people, whatever.
When we want to take something that is big and make it smaller, we could use the verb perhaps separate, but we often also like to use the verb to break.
So this means it's just kind of rough.
The idea with separate is that it might just be two sides, perhaps, to separate side A from side B.
But when we use the verb break to do this, it means that we're just kind of roughly making smaller pieces out of something that is larger.
So in the first example sentence, let's break the class up into small groups.
It sounds like let's roughly divide the class into groups of maybe three or four people in order to do this task.
And in the second example sentence, we have a person breaking information into smaller pieces.
So we might do this if we have, say, a book or maybe a very long essay that we want to talk about.
We need to present the information in a way that's easy to understand.
So we might just take small pieces of that big piece of information and share that to the audience to present the key points.
So if you want to talk about just taking small pieces of something and presenting it or doing something in smaller groups as opposed to one big group, you can use the verb break to do that.
The last meaning for break for this video is to exceed or to go beyond.
Here are some examples.
Wow, you broke a world record.
That plane can break the sound barrier.
Okay, so this use of break is used when we talk about going past an existing limit.
So in the first example, we have a very, very common example of breaking a record.
So this doesn't mean destroying a record.
It actually means going beyond a record.
So when someone breaks a world record, for example, let's say a runner breaks a world record for sprinting time, it means that the runner has passed or gone faster than the existing fastest time.
So let's say if the existing fastest time for this particular sport is 10 seconds and this runner does it in 9 seconds, we can say the runner broke the record, which means the runner went past the existing time or the runner was faster than the existing time.
So we use the verb break to talk about those records.
Breaking a record is a very, very common expression for talking about these kinds of high-level achievements.
In the second example sentence, we have this break used to mean going beyond the sound barrier.
So in this case, the plane is able to break the sound barrier, which means the plane can travel faster than the speed of sound.
So you might also hear this use of break used to talk about like the natural laws of the planet as well, things that can go beyond those kinds of natural laws.
So if you see break used in this way, it generally means it's something positive or very exciting, like it's a special kind of achievement or maybe it's a special feature or some kind of special skill.
So this use of break is very common in news stories in particular.
Great.
So with these additional meanings in mind, let's take a look at some variations
The first variation is to break up.
To break up means to end a relationship, usually a romantic one.
Here are some examples
We broke up last month.
I'm so sad.
He's worried his girlfriend is going to break up with him
Okay.
So to break up is a very, very common use of break.
To break up means that your existing relationship no longer continues.
So it's generally a very sad thing.
Some people might be happy when they break up with someone if the person wasn't so good.
But generally, when people talk about their breakups, they feel frustrated or they feel lonely or sad.
And it's generally a pretty rough period of time for people.
So when you hear someone talking about a breakup, it usually refers to a romantic connection.
Occasionally, you will hear people talking about a friend break up, like after a really big argument.
But most of the time, break up refers to romantic connections.
The second variation is to break even.
To break even means to have a balance between input and output, especially with time and money.
Here are some examples.
Wow, this month our business finally broke even.
It took about a year before my side project could break even.
Okay, break even is a very common expression in business related discussions, business related discussions, maybe side project related discussions, anything you need to put time and money into that you expect to get something out of.
So in the first example sentence where the person is expressing, oh, my business broke even this month, it means that all of the time and effort and money I put into this business I also received back.
So let's say, for example, the person spent $1,000 on their business this month, and then through sales or through their services or whatever, they also received $1,000 back.
So this kind of balance between input and output is called breaking even.
So when people say they broke even, it means they got that balance between input and output just right.
The same thing is true in the second example sentence, just over a longer period of time.
It took about a year for the person's side project to break even.
So that means over the period of a year of the person putting in time and effort and money into the side project, gradually over one year, they were able to break even, which means they were able to achieve a balance.
So it took a long time in this case, but they were able to reach that point of input output balance.
So this is what break even means.
And this is a very common expression.
Okay, let's review what we talked about in this lesson.
I'll introduce two example sentences that are both correct, but that have different meanings of the verb.
Choose the sentence that expresses the correct meaning.
I think I might have broken my arm.
Have you ever broken a law? Which sentence uses the to violate a rule meaning of break? The answer is the second sentence.
Have you ever broken a law? When we talk about rules and laws in our society and not following those rules and laws, we use the verb break to do that.
In this case, we have the past participle form broken.
Have you ever broken a law? So this is a question about someone's past experiences.
Great.
Let's move on to the second review question.
They're going to try to break the sales record this month.
I think they're going to break up soon.
Which sentence uses the to exceed or to go beyond meaning of break? The answer is the first sentence.
They're going to try to break the sales record this month.
In this situation, there is an existing record for the number of sales in one month.
And in this case, the team or this group of people is going to try to go beyond that existing record.
So they are going to try to break that record.
Great.
Let's continue on to the next review question.
Let's break into teams to do this project.
I'm nowhere close to breaking even with this business idea.
Which sentence uses the to split into smaller pieces meaning of break? The answer is the first sentence.
Let's break into teams to do this project.
So this use of break means to take something that is large and make it a little bit smaller in a rough fashion as in the first example sentence, creating teams from a larger group.
Great.
Now let's move on to the last review question for this lesson.
Her hurtful words broke me.
I accidentally broke my brother's computer.
Which sentence uses the to destroy or to exhaust someone or something use of break? The answer is the first sentence.
Her hurtful words broke me.
This is an example of an emotional situation.
In this case, someone's hurtful words caused another person to feel destroyed or exhausted mentally or emotionally.
So this use of break is used in situations that have a strong emotional or mental component to them.
Okay, great.
That's the end of the review section.
Awesome.
So I hope that you learned a little bit more information about the word break and some different ways that you can use it.
Of course, if you like this lesson, don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel if you haven't already so that you can get more great episodes just like this one.
Thanks very much for watching this episode of Know Your Verbs and I will see you again next time.
Bye.

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