8 Phrasal Verbs with BREAK: break in, break up, break through...

Hi. Welcome to engVid.

I'm Adam.

In today's video we're going to look at phrasal verbs.

Well, one phrasal verb in particular using the verb "break".

So, again, just to refresh our memories: A phrasal verb is a verb and a preposition that

when put together sometimes have completely different meanings than the two words, and

sometimes they have multiple meanings.

So we're going to start with: "break".

First of all: "break" means to basically make somebody whole not whole.

So you can break your bone, means it's, like, snap in half, or you break your glass.

You drop the glass on the floor and it breaks, it comes into pieces, so that's what "break"

means.

And most of these words you can a little bit guess their meanings, some of them you will

not guess at all.

We're going to start with "break out".

Okay, "break out" has a few meanings, and we have the noun "breakout".

Okay?

"To break out", so the first meaning we're going to look at is a rash, r-a-s-h.

Actually I'll write this down for you.

If you break out in a rash, it basically means you ate something that you're allergic to.

So, some people, for example, are allergic to chocolate.

So they eat a piece of chocolate, or...

By accident and suddenly on their skin they see little, red dots everywhere.

Okay?

That is called a rash.

It's itchy, it's not very pretty, but it's an allergic reaction.

So you break out in a rash, usually.

Okay?

That's one.

The same thing, on the same idea, when we talk about a disease.

So, a disease or a virus, for example, starts somewhere and then it just breaks out.

It spreads.

So: "to break out" means to spread.

So, some diseases, like for example, SARS, I don't know if everybody remembers that disease,

it started in one little place, and then it suddenly broke out and travelled all over

the world, and it was an epidemic, and everybody was really scared.

Another meaning of "break out" and similar to the idea of spread, when we talk about

artists, especially like actors or musicians, they break out, it means they suddenly become

very popular or very famous.

So, some singers or some bands, they make an album, for example.

And, you know, the sales are so-so and not that many people hear about them.

Then their next album, so-so, maybe a little bit better, maybe not.

Their third album suddenly they break out, suddenly everybody knows who they are, they're

very famous, everybody's buying their album, so we also call this their "breakout album".

That's the album that spread their name and made them famous.

Okay?

And lastly: "to break out" means to escape.

So if you break out of jail, that means you escape from jail.

So a little bit like, you know, you have...

You're handcuffed or you have that ball with a chain on your leg, so you break it and you

get out, so you escape.

You break out of jail.

So that's "break out".

"Break in", a few meanings.

One, and again, "break-in" is a noun with the hyphen.

"To break in" basically means to enter illegally and using force.

So, if someone has a break in in their house, means that the burglar broke the lock or the

window, or whatever and came in and stole their things.

So: "to break in" means to enter forcefully.

Usually we use it with "break into", you break into someone's house, you break into the office,

etc.

But "break into" has another meaning, we'll get to that.

So that's "break in".

Another meaning of "break in": "to break in" means to make something basically more suited

to your style, to your comfort.

Okay?

So think about jeans.

When you buy your first pair of jeans or when you buy a new pair of jeans, I should say,

they're a little bit stiff.

You know?

They're not that comfortable, you're not sitting too well in them, so you do a few squats.

Okay?

Or you do some stretches, or you put it in the laundry, and after a few washes, it becomes

a little bit softer, a little bit more flexible, so now your jeans are broken in.

You've broken in your jeans.

If you take a baseball glove-okay?-this is a very common thing that you need to break

in.

When you buy a new baseball glove it's very stiff, so if somebody throws you the ball,

you can't catch it because you can't close the glove.

So, what do you do?

You take some oil, you put it inside the glove, take a baseball, put it in, close it tight,

tie it with some rope, put it on the street, drive over it with your car, slip it under

your bed and sleep on it for a few days.

After a few days it's nice, and soft, and very flexible and you can catch the ball.

So, that's how you break in a baseball glove.

You can also break in a person in the same way.

Somebody new comes to your office to work in your company, but, you know, they don't

really know everything about the office, they don't know the company culture, they don't

really know anybody, they don't have friends.

So you help break them in, you show them how everything works, you introduce them to other

people in the company, and soon enough they're comfortable, they're working like everybody

else.

"Break up", I think everybody knows this one.

You break up with your boyfriend, you break up with your girlfriend.

Okay?

And you go through a "break-up", basically means you go through the process of separating,

splitting up.

Okay?

"Break up" can also mean to separate into smaller pieces.

So if you think about a big company, a conglomerate...

This is a good word to know.

A "conglomerate" is a huge company that actually owns a lot of smaller companies.

Okay?

In Asia you have a lot of these conglomerates, they're huge.

But let's say you want...

You're the owner of one of these conglomerates and you want to split it up, you want to make

some money, or you don't want all the work, you want to relax a little bit, so you break

up the company into pieces, and then sell each one individually, make tons of money.

You can break up anything into smaller pieces that are easier to handle.

Okay, sometimes we talk about TV.

You're watching TV or even on Skype if you're on the internet and the connection is not

good, like somebody freezes and whatever, so they're not...

It's not a very good connection, so you can say to somebody: "Oh, you're breaking up."

The connection is breaking, it's not smooth and flowing.

Okay?

So that's another very common use of "break up".

"Break off" basically means to separate a piece from something else, to make not whole.

So if there's a tree and it's hanging over your driveway, and it's, like...

The leaves are falling on your car, you go to the tree, you grab the branch and you just

break it off, and it's no more branch, no more leaves, no more problem.

Okay?

You can also break off, means like interrupt, especially when we're talking about speech.

So I'm talking to somebody and then I hear a large crash, so I...

In the middle of the speech I break off the speech to go deal with that.

Right?

So you interrupt something, especially speech when we're using that.

Now, I want to be careful with "for".

Technically, when you "break for lunch", for example, or "brake for a child on the street",

the "for" goes with the object, not with the "break".

It's not a phrasal verb.

So: "break for lunch" means take a break.

Why?

For lunch, because you're going to go have lunch.

So be careful.

This is not a phrasal verb, so I put it in brackets.

Okay?

Let's go to this side: "break down", a few meanings here as well.

If something breaks down, it means it stops working.

So when you...

Especially when we're talking about machines, a machine breaks down or your car broke down,

it means it stopped working, there was a problem with it, you probably need to fix it.

When you want to analyze something...

Let's say you have a problem and it's a pretty big problem and you can't deal with it because...

Because it's too big, so you break it down.

You separate it into smaller pieces, and then you analyze each piece by itself, so that

way you can fix the whole problem.

This is what scientists do.

They have a problem, they break it down into individual parts, they assess each one, they

fix the problem altogether.

Now, when we talk about a "breakdown", again, it's the situation of something not working.

The most common use is when we talk about, like, a mental breakdown.

If someone has a mental breakdown, it means their brain, not stopped working because,

you know, they're still alive, they can still do things, but emotionally they just can't

do anything; they can't go to work, they can't talk to people, they just don't know what

to do with their lives, they're very distressed, very depressed, etc., so they have a mental

breakdown.

Maybe they go to a doctor, they fix it, they get back on their feet and go on.

So: "break into" I mentioned, you can break into something, means enter it forcefully,

but you can also break into an industry.

Okay, so let's say I'm a photographer and I want to make money...

Make a career as a photographer, so I take a lot of pictures, but nobody's really interested,

nobody's really buying.

So finally I go to one magazine and I show my portfolio, and they say: "Wow, this is

really good stuff.

Okay, come work for us."

So now I've basically entered this industry, the photography industry, I've broken in,

I have my start, and now I can build my career from that point on.

So it's still enter, but it's not a physical place and it's not forcibly.

Okay?

It's an industry, it's an idea.

"Break away", so "break away" means to separate from a group.

Okay?

So, in sports especially you see this, you have a lot of, like, basketball players, everybody

is in this area trying to get the ball, and then one guy steals the ball and he runs.

And he's over here, and the rest of the players are all over there.

So he's on a breakaway, and then he goes and slam dunks, does whatever he wants, because

nobody's around him.

He has separated himself from the group, he has broken away.

This is also what happens in politics, especially when you talk about "breakaway" as an adjective.

Okay?

So, the sports player goes on a "breakaway", but a political group, we talk about a "breakaway

party".

So let's say you have...

Okay, let's look at America, for example.

In the United States you have the Republican Party, and then you have the breakaway party

called the Tea Party.

So, the Tea Party used to be...

Are people from the Republicans who decided to go their own way and separate from the

main Republican group.

Okay?

So that's "break away".

And "breakeven".

"Breakeven" basically means not gain...

Not gain, not loss.

So, when you reach a "breakeven point" it means you're at neutral.

If you invest some money, you invested $10,000 and after a year, you know, you're in stocks

and your stocks went down, your stocks went up, but after a year you're at breakeven.

That means you didn't make any money, you didn't lose any money, although you technically

did because of inflation and all that stuff, but that's a whole other lesson.

So: "breakeven".

Now, if you have any questions about any of these phrasal verbs-I hope they were pretty

clear-please go to www.engvid.com, there's a forum, you can ask me questions there.

There's also a quiz where you can practice using all of these in sentences.

And I hope you like this lesson.

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