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hi everybody 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 uh 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 were 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 um 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 there 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 fallen shows us that they have
reduced um 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 two 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 um to refer to someone
taking this position as like a sign of
respect uh 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 walking 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 uh
responsibilities for maybe um
like analysis perhaps so let's look at
some examples of this
this task falls outside my job
description
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 there's 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
um 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 uh has finished the
birthday was in the past so my birthday
fell on a sunday this year in the second
example sentence our meetings 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
house work 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 uh 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 ew
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
remove in love from the expression we
can just use fall or past tense fell to
explain that
now let's compare this expression to to
fall for some thing to fall for
something 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 someone 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 that you believed
my dumb story so
uh 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 uh 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 or
they're really really tired it means
their mental state is about to break
it's going to be like maybe
their life is really tough right now so
they seem 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 comment section of course if you
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watching this episode of know your verbs
and we'll see you again soon bye-bye
fall
i'm gonna fall off this chair yeah fall
asleep
you