I broke my toys and tore my shirt
(The difference between BREAK and TEAR)

    BREAK and TEAR - the basic difference

    Recently a student told me about an accident she had as a teenager when she fell off her bicycle. She wasn't very badly injured apart from a few minor cuts, but she was quite upset because she tore her nice new dress.

    Occasionally, I've noticed that some students are a little confused about the difference between break (-broke-broken) and tear (-tore-torn) and I've even heard students say things like: I broke my jacket. What's the difference between break and tear? Well, we tend to use break for objects made of materials like metal, wood, porcelain and glass. And we tend to use tear for objects made from paper and cloth:

    • Oh, no. The washing machine is broken.
    • Who broke the classroom window?
    • He tore his trousers as he was climbing the wall.

    Athletes can also break their legs or tear their Achilles tendons. You can also break a promise or break someone's heart.

    *Note:

    1. Be careful about the pronunciation of tear. Tear meaning is pronounced differently from the tear we are looking at in this lesson.
    2. A word with a similar meaning to tear is rip. The difference is that when we use rip, the action seems more sudden and more violent:
      - She angrily ripped up the letter from her ex-boyfriend and threw it in the bin.

    Exercise

    Use an appropriate form of BREAK-BROKE-BROKEN or TEAR-TORE-TORN in the sentences below:

    1. Be careful. There's some ___________ glass on the floor.
    2. She can't play tennis for a while - she's ___________ her leg.
    3. My leg hurts - I think I've ___________ a ligament ixсj.
    4. He ___________ his pocket on a nail.
    5. I've made too many mistakes in this letter. I'll have to ___________ it up and start again.
    6. Don't tell Susan about George's new girlfriend. It'll ___________ her heart.
    7. The teacher punished some students for ___________ pages out of their notebooks.
    8. I don't like people who ___________ their promises.

    Click here to check your answers.

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    © Robert E. Jones, 2004