Don’t fall apart – read this first!

Don’t FALL BEHIND on your English skills! Even on vacation, you can learn.
Because, even on vacation, I can teach.

Here I am, on vacation last week, during my favorite season….fall! And of course, I love making (spontaneous) lessons to help you, based on what I see and hear in my daily life. I can make a lesson out of just about anything! Even when I’m standing in the woods.

I want to keep your vocabulary from falling apart, so here’s a little vocabulary and grammar lesson for you! (See what I did there?)

I want to share 5 phrasal verbs using ‘fall’ as the base.
What is a phrasal verb?
Well, my darling, that is when a verb (like ‘to fall’) and a preposition (like ‘at’, ‘away’, back’, etc) get together and they make a new verb. Sexy, right? These are used by native speakers all the time.

Here we go!

1. To fall back on something – have the option to use something if other plans are not successful. ‘I am taking a photography class at night so I have something to fall back on if my pole dancing career doesn’t take off.’

2. To fall behind – to not make enough progress. ‘Make sure you do your homework, I wouldn’t want you to fall behind this year!’

3. To fall apart – to become emotionally upset or to break into smaller pieces. ‘When the antique picture frame fell apart and I saw all the bits of glass on the floor, I fell apart because my uncle gave that to me before he died.’

4. To fall out – to have an argument with someone. ‘I haven’t seen her in a year – we fell out over who could keep the lava lamp in the breakup.’

5. To fall for – to fall in love with someone, or to believe a shady story or bad joke. ‘I can’t believe you fell for that guy who told you that he was really a Nigerian prince. You really fell for that ridiculous story?’

Which one will you use today?

I hope this adds more color to your English!

Love,
Buffi

PS: People ask me all the time they should use ‘fall’ or ‘autumn’. ‘Autumn’ is actually the ‘official’ name of the season and used more in the UK than in the US. I don’t care which one you prefer, just remember that ‘autumn’ has a silent N at the end and sounds like ‘AW-tum’. 🙂