FALL Basic Verbs Learn English Grammar

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hi everybody and welcome back to know

your verbs my name is Alicia and in this

episode we’re going to talk about the

verb fall let’s get started

the basic definition of the verb fall is

to move towards the ground by accident

though so like your body or an object

moves towards the ground but it’s not on

purpose it’s an accident examples I fell

on the stairs be careful don’t fall down

let’s look at the conjugations of this

verb present tense fall falls past tense

fell past participle tense fallen

progressive falling okay so now let’s

talk about some additional meanings for

this verb the first additional meaning

is to decrease like to decrease in size

to decrease in the amount of something

the number of something the capacity of

something so to get smaller in some way

examples temperatures fell to freezing

overnight wages have fallen over the

last 10 years

so in these example sentences the

subject of the verb has reduced in some

way in the first example sentence it was

temperature so temperatures fell meaning

the temperatures in this case we’re

using the plural temperatures so there

were many temperatures from maybe like

day to night but we’re talking about

like the range of temperatures overnight

so temperatures fell or temperatures

decreased to freezing so freezing was

the lowest point for the temperature so

temperatures fell to freezing overnight

that was the reduced like the most

reduced point in the second example

sentence wages have fallen over the last

10 years it means over a 10-year time

period wages have continued to fall so

I’m using the I’m using the present

perfect tense their wages have fallen

which means that something started in

the past and continues up to the present

so wages have fallen which means

starting from like 10 years ago

wages have continued to fall over the

last 10 years so have

and shows us that they have reduced in

like so in other words people are

getting less and less pay gradually

let’s go on to the second meaning for

this verb meaning to to move from a

higher position to a lower position

examples a leaf fell on my shoulder she

fell to her knees and begged okay so in

the first example sentence a leaf fell

on my shoulder it’s like the leaf was

attached to a tree and it just fell to

my shoulder so it was kind of just

naturally falling the leaf fell on my

shoulder here in the second example

sentence though I’ve used the expression

she fell to her knees and begged so the

image is that a person moves from a

standing position to a position this is

begging like doing this but on your

knees so meaning you’re not standing on

your feet your your body becomes much

smaller on your knees like in this

motion your knees are like this we use

this expression to fall to your knees as

like to refer to someone taking this

position as like it’s a sign of respect

or as a way to sincerely ask for

something so we only use fall to your

knees we don’t say like fall to your

stomach or fall to your arms or anything

like that only fall to your knees we can

however say fall on your face so that’s

slightly different to fall on your face

means to move from a standing position

and fall and your face touches the

ground so the fall is very extreme this

is very hard so walking walking walk and

you fall on your face so your face

touches the ground

however in fall to your knees it’s on

purpose so you drop to your knees from a

standing position slightly different so

fall to your knees is a set expression

for a request a sincere request okay

let’s go to the third meaning the third

meaning is to belong to a group or to a

category so we use this for like

responsibilities for maybe like analysis

perhaps so let’s look at some examples

of this this task falls outside my job

too

scription our work falls into two

categories so in the first example

sentence this task falls outside my job

description we can imagine that the

person’s job description is here in one

circle but the task belongs to something

that’s not in this person’s job

description circle the task is something

outside of the person’s job description

so we can say the task falls outside the

job description the task in other words

the task belongs to a different category

the task is a different group from this

person’s job description so we use fall

it falls outside my job description in

the second example sentence our work

falls into two categories means our work

belongs to two categories or basically

there are two styles of things we do or

two types of things we do so their style

a and style B so our work falls into one

of two categories so our work belongs to

one of two categories category a

category B we use false for that the

fourth meaning for this verb is to

happen to happen so we use this a lot

for like holidays birthdays celebration

you’ll see let’s look at some examples

my birthday fell on a Sunday this year

our meetings keep falling on Fridays

okay in the first example sentence my

birthday fell on a Sunday it means my

birthday happened on a Sunday that’s all

we just used the word fell in this case

past tense to talk about that because

the birthday has finished the birthday

was in the past

so my birthday fell on a Sunday this

year in the second example sentence our

meanings keep falling on Fridays

we’re using the pattern keep plus the

ing form of the verb which means that

repeatedly something is happening our

meetings continue to fall so our

meetings continue to happen on Fridays

okay so it just means happen in this way

let’s move along to some variations of

this verb the first variation is to fall

behind to fall behind to fall behind

means to have a delayed schedule or to

take longer than you expect to take

let’s look at some examples I’ve been so

busy I’m falling behind on my studies be

careful not to fall behind on the

housework so in the first example I’m

falling behind on my studies means there

are things I should do but I’m so busy I

can’t take care of it I’m delayed or I’m

not able to do the things I know I need

to do I need to study I should be at

this point but I’m falling behind I’m

falling behind my like pace I’m falling

behind schedule so I need to fix it

somehow so fall behind my studies is one

common example the other sentence was be

careful not to fall behind on housework

so meaning maybe you’re not falling

behind now but just this is like a

warning phrase like make sure to always

do your housework so don’t fall behind

on housework otherwise your house will

be dirty No ah the next one I included

two in the next one because they are

very similar in terms of the way they

sound but they are very different in

terms of meaning first to fall for

someone to fall for someone means to

fall in love with someone like to become

in a state of love with someone is to

fall for someone examples don’t fall for

him too soon he fell for her right away

fell or fall means become in love with

that person so don’t fall in love with

him too soon or he fell in love with her

right away but we were move in love from

the expression we can just use fall or a

past tense fell to explain that now

let’s compare this expression to to fall

for some thing to fall for some thing

has a very different meaning to fall for

something means to believe something but

that thing is not true so it’s like a

lie for example example sentences don’t

fall for it I can’t believe you fell for

my dumb story so this means that some

one in the first example sentence don’t

fall for it means don’t believe that

story it’s not true

so maybe it sounds good or it sounds

like a nice idea but don’t believe the

story don’t fall for it

in the second example sentence I can’t

believe you fell for my dumb story it

means I can’t believe you actually

believed my story was true I’m shocked

sure that you believed my dumb story so

it means something was not true in other

words and you fell for it you believed

it was true so this has a negative

nuance about it you fell for that like

it sounds like how could you fall for

that how could you believe something

that ridiculous so kind of a negative

expression so to fall for someone to

fall for something quite different to

fall in love to believe something that’s

not true

to fall apart is the last variation to

fall apart to fall apart means to become

disconnected or to break apart let’s

look at some examples of this my jacket

is falling apart she looks like she’s

about to fall apart in the first example

sentence I said my jacket is falling

apart that means physically so like my

clothing my piece of clothing the the

fabric is breaking so it’s falling apart

so it’s becoming separated the physical

items that make up the jacket are

becoming separated in the second example

sentence I said she looks like she’s

about to fall apart here we’re not

talking about this person’s body we’re

talking about the mental state so the

person a person who looks like they’re

about to fall apart means they mentally

seem about to break so maybe they have a

lot of stress and they’re really really

tired it means their mental state is

about to break it’s gonna be like it

maybe I don’t know their life is really

tough right now so they’ve seemed like

they’re about to fall apart so those are

a few hopefully new ways to use the verb

fall I hope you got something new from

this lesson of course if you have any

other ways that you like to use fall or

that you’ve heard of or if you have any

questions or comments or just want to

try to make an example sentence please

feel free to do so in the comments

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for watching this episode of know your

verbs and we’ll see you again soon

I might fall I’m gonna fall off this

chair

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