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Everyday English · Travel & getting around

Break down

Stop working because of a fault, especially a vehicle or machine.

A machine or vehicle stops working because something is wrong with it. It is a fault, not someone deliberately switching it off.

Plain-English lessonVisual explanation3 practice steps

01 · Picture the situation

Understand it in three steps

Cartoon of a driver calling for help beside a stopped car with its bonnet raised.
Picture the meaningHis car breaks down, so he calls for help.
01Car is moving
02A fault occurs
03Car stops working

Imagine this: You are driving when the engine develops a fault. The car stops and will not start again. Your car breaks down, so you call for help.

02 · Hear it in everyday life

Examples you can use

Three natural sentences

  1. Our car broke down on the way to work.
  2. The washing machine has broken down again.
  3. If the bus breaks down, the driver will arrange help.

A short conversation

PERSON AWhy are you late?
PERSON BThe bus broke down, and we had to wait for another one.

Read the conversation aloud. Then swap roles and try it again without looking.

03 · Build your sentence

How to use break down

In the machine-failure meaning, the machine is the subject: the car breaks down. No direct object is needed after down.

BASE FORMbreak down
PAST SIMPLEbroke down
AFTER HAVE / HASbroken down

The base form is used after can, will and to. The past simple describes a finished past event. The third form follows have or has, for example when connecting an earlier action to now.

A common mistake to avoid

Use thisThe car broke down yesterday.
Avoid this in this meaningThe car breaked down yesterday.

Break has the irregular past form broke and past participle broken.

Do not confuse it: Turn off means stop a device intentionally. Break down means stop because of a problem. A car that is simply parked with its engine off has not necessarily broken down.

Does it have another meaning?

Break something down can mean divide it into smaller parts. A person can also break down emotionally. Those are different meanings from a machine failing.

Learn the meaning and sentence pattern together. Small words such as up and off do not have one fixed meaning in every expression.

04 · Make it stick

Try it for yourself

Choose an answer before opening the explanation. Then make a sentence about your own life.

1. A bus stops because its engine has a fault. It has…
  1. turned up
  2. broken down
  3. checked in
Check answer 1

B. broken down

A machine that stops because of a fault has broken down.

2. Yesterday the washing machine ___.
  1. breaked down
  2. broke down
  3. broken down
Check answer 2

B. broke down

Use broke down for a finished past event.

3. Your turn

What could you do if your car broke down?

See a possible model and self-check

Our car broke down on the way to work.

This is one model, not the only correct answer. Check that your sentence uses the meaning taught here, the right verb form and the word order above. Change the person, place or time to make it your own.