Break down
Today’s expression is to “break down.” This is a phrasal verb and it means to stop working. Often, it refers to a mechanical problem.
Why are you so late? Someone might ask. “My car broke down and I needed to call a tow truck,” you might respond. If your car breaks down, it’s broken: you can’t drive it any more. Maybe it’s making a terrible noise; maybe the engine just shut off; maybe there’s an awful smell and white smoke coming out from under the hood. All those have happened to me in my lifetime—not with my current car, but previous ones. That’s what happens when you drive a fifteen-year-old car with almost 200,000 miles on the odometer: it will break down occasionally.
Lime and Bird scooters were not fifteen years old, but they were breaking down. They were cheaply made, exposed to the weather, handled (not carefully) by lots of riders per day. The scooters would break down every so often and a company employee or contractor would have to find it and bring it to a repair shop—or, just as often, scrap it (throw it away). That added to the high costs these companies face. The new versions are sturdier; they’re more expensive up front, but they are less likely to break down. And when they do break down, the new versions have sensors that will tell the company exactly what’s wrong, so the scooter can get back on the road quickly.
When I moved from New York to Chicago, I drove a moving truck with all my belongings in the back. And guess what happened on the Ohio Turnpike just west of Cleveland? You guessed it: the truck broke down. All of a sudden, I realized I just couldn’t accelerate. The truck would move, but very slowly. I had to pull over (remember that one?)—I had to pull over and call the truck rental company. The truck broke down. Penske—the big yellow trucks, if you’ve seen them in the US—Penske sent someone out to fix the truck so I could be on my way. Luckily, it was an easy repair and I continued my journey the same day.
That’s the most common way to use “break down”: cars, trucks, machines, things like that. You can also use it when referring to a process that stops working. A negotiation can break down if the two parties to the negotiation cannot reach an agreement and are not willing to keep talking. A deal can break down for similar reasons. A process can break down if it’s not working the way it was intended. A team can suffer a communication breakdown. In that case, communication can break down if members of your team (or your family!) are just not talking, not communicating well.
JR’s song of the week
JR’s song for this week is “Every Breath You Take” by the Police. The lead singer of the Police was Sting, who also had a solo career. It’s estimated that this one song represents between a quarter and a third of the income he made from music. It’s frequently played on the radio and is number 84 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. “Every Breath You Take” by the Police is JR’s Song of the Week. And remember you can play the song of the week right from your Plain English dashboard if you’re a member at any level, including the free level.
See you next time!
That brings us to the end of this lesson. Congratulations on making it to the end. Thanks again for being with us for 301 lessons; I hope you liked JR’s message from yesterday. And remember you can explore all our lessons by becoming a free member at PlainEnglish.com and exploring the lesson libraries. See you next time!
Use realistic expressions like a native speaker
