Hi. Welcome to engVid.

I'm Adam.

In today's video we're going to look at phrasal verbs.

Well, one phrasal verb in particular using the verb "break".

So, again, just to refresh our memories: A phrasal verb is a verb and a preposition that

when put together sometimes have completely different meanings than the two words, and

sometimes they have multiple meanings.

So we're going to start with: "break".

First of all: "break" means to basically make somebody whole not whole.

So you can break your bone, means it's, like, snap in half, or you break your glass.

You drop the glass on the floor and it breaks, it comes into pieces, so that's what "break"

means.

And most of these words you can a little bit guess their meanings, some of them you will

not guess at all.

We're going to start with "break out".

Okay, "break out" has a few meanings, and we have the noun "breakout".

Okay?

"To break out", so the first meaning we're going to look at is a rash, r-a-s-h.

Actually I'll write this down for you.

If you break out in a rash, it basically means you ate something that you're allergic to.

So, some people, for example, are allergic to chocolate.

So they eat a piece of chocolate, or...

By accident and suddenly on their skin they see little, red dots everywhere.

Okay?

That is called a rash.

It's itchy, it's not very pretty, but it's an allergic reaction.

So you break out in a rash, usually.

Okay?

That's one.

The same thing, on the same idea, when we talk about a disease.

So, a disease or a virus, for example, starts somewhere and then it just breaks out.

It spreads.

So: "to break out" means to spread.

So, some diseases, like for example, SARS, I don't know if everybody remembers that disease,

it started in one little place, and then it suddenly broke out and travelled all over

the world, and it was an epidemic, and everybody was really scared.

Another meaning of "break out" and similar to the idea of spread, when we talk about

artists, especially like actors or musicians, they break out, it means they suddenly become

very popular or very famous.