What is the difference between brake and break

As a verb, its main meaning is to bring a vehicle to a stop. As a noun, it means the device that stops a vehicle. When trying to remember the difference between break and brake , it may help to think of the spelling for each. Break ends with eak , just like the word steak. You could enjoy a break in your day by eating a juicy steak. Home » Break vs. In English, there are countless words that sound exactly the same when you read them out loud but turn out to have completely different meanings.

The grammatical term for words like these is homophone. This means they sound alike but are spelled differently and have different meanings. Break vs. Break can be used as a verb and a noun, and as a verb , break can be both transitive and intransitive. Share Flipboard Email. Table of Contents Expand. How to Use "Brake". How to Use "Break". How to Remember the Difference.

Practice Exercises. Answers to Practice Exercises. Richard Nordquist. English and Rhetoric Professor. Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks. Updated March 11, Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. Nordquist, Richard. Break: How to Choose the Right Word. Brake vs. Confidant vs. He'd overshot the bend. Being rather a coward and less angry than he pretended, he was careful to put the brakes on, so to speak, before the two old men and his mother came in front of his target.

Essola had not been taken by surprise when his neighbour braked so suddenly and had prepared for it by gripping his seat. She pulled over to the right, then moved out to the left, braked to let a man cross carrying a huge basket from which protruded fish heads and tails.

Break is a considerably more complex word, in terms of its possible range of meanings. I mean, go away for a while? Horns hooting, engines belching, they flowed through the break in the dam which had held them back.

But I do not have the time to proceed further with this farce. I must end it before the break of dawn and the time now was after two in the morning. Their feet lifted and they were floating, two dark heads breaking the surface, their bodies pale and luminous beneath the water.