Turn Down and Break Up

Overview

Turn down and break up are two phrasal verbs that learners encounter early and frequently. Both carry more than one meaning, and both require attention to grammar patterns that are not always predictable from the individual words. Turn down combines a verb of physical movement with a particle that suggests downward direction, yet its most common meaning has nothing to do with either. Break up involves a verb of physical separation, and while some of its meanings involve literal breaking apart, its most emotionally significant meaning describes the end of a relationship.

Turn Down: Meanings and Uses

Meaning 1: To Refuse an Offer or Request

The most common meaning of turn down is to refuse or decline something that has been offered or requested. The object can be an offer, a job, an invitation, an application, or a person making a request.

Turn down in this meaning is a separable transitive phrasal verb. The object can follow the full phrasal verb or go between turn and down. When the object is a pronoun, it must go between the two parts.

The synonym decline or reject can often replace turn down in formal writing, but turn down is the more natural choice in everyday spoken and written English.

Meaning 2: To Reduce the Volume, Heat, or Intensity of Something

Turn down also means to reduce the level of something produced by a device, such as the volume of a speaker, the heat on a cooker, or the brightness of a screen. The object is the device or the control setting.

As a separable verb, the object can go after down or between turn and down.

When the object is a pronoun, it goes between the two parts.

Summary Table: Turn Down

Break Up: Meanings and Uses

Meaning 1: To End a Romantic Relationship

The most widely known meaning of break up is the ending of a romantic relationship. It is used with or without with plus the other person.

Break up in this meaning is intransitive: no direct object follows it. When the person you are separating from is named, with is used.

Meaning 2: To Separate, Dissolve, or Divide Something

Break up can also be used transitively to mean causing something to separate into smaller parts, or bringing something to an end by dividing it. The object can be a concrete thing (a piece of chocolate, a company) or an abstract entity (a fight, a meeting, a partnership).

When used transitively, this is a separable verb. Pronouns go between the two parts.

Meaning 3: To Come to an End (of a Group or Organisation)

Used intransitively, break up describes the ending or dissolution of a group, organisation, band, or institution, without specifying who caused it.

Meaning 4: School Breaking Up (British English)

In British English, break up is also used to describe the end of a school term, when classes finish and the holidays begin. This is intransitive.

Summary Table: Break Up

Object Position: Turn Down and Break Up

Both turn down and the transitive meaning of break up are separable. The rules for object position follow the standard separable pattern.

Noun phrase objects can go either after the full phrasal verb or between the two parts.

Pronoun objects must go between the two parts. Placing a pronoun after the particle is always incorrect.

Break up in its intransitive meanings (relationship ending, group dissolving, school finishing) takes no object at all.

Turn Down and Break Up Compared

Both can describe the ending of something: turn down ends a possibility by refusing it, while break up ends a relationship, a partnership, or an institution by dissolving it.

Common Mistakes

Placing a Pronoun After the Particle in Turn Down

When the object of turn down is a pronoun, it must go between turn and down.

Adding With When Break Up Has a Non-Person Object

Break up with is used specifically when the object is a person in a romantic or personal relationship. When the object is a fight, a group, or a solid object, with is not used.

Using Turn Down When Turn Up Is Intended

Turn down (reduce) and turn up (increase) are antonyms. Confusing them produces the opposite of the intended instruction.

Using Break Up Transitively Without an Object

When break up is used transitively, it requires a direct object.

Using the Wrong Verb for Refusing an Offer

Turn down is the natural phrasal verb for refusing an offer or opportunity. Break up does not carry this meaning.

Forgetting That Break Up Is Intransitive in the Relationship Meaning

In the sense of ending a romantic relationship, break up does not take a direct object. The person you are breaking up with is introduced by with, not placed directly after break up.

Practice Exercises

Exercise 1: Choose the Correct Phrasal Verb

Fill each blank with the correct form of turn down or break up.

1. She _______ the offer because the commute was too long.
2. They _______ after dating for almost two years.
3. Could you _______ the television? I'm trying to sleep.
4. The organisation _______ into smaller regional chapters after the leadership dispute.
5. The bank _______ his application for a business loan.
6. The referee had to _______ the fight that started in the third quarter.
7. We _______ for the winter holidays at the end of next week.
8. She was offered a place at the university but _______ it _______ to take a job instead.

Exercise 2: Correct the Word Order

Each sentence has a pronoun placement error. Rewrite it correctly.

1. He offered her the contract and she turned down it.
2. The gathering was getting rowdy so the security team broke up it.
3. She turned down him even though she liked him.
4. The meeting was going nowhere so the chair broke up it after an hour.

Exercise 3: Identify the Meaning

Write the meaning being used: (a) refuse an offer, (b) reduce volume/heat, (c) end a romantic relationship, (d) separate or divide something, (e) come to an end as a group, or (f) school term ends.

1. He turned down the chance to work overseas.
2. She broke up with her partner just before the holidays.
3. Turn down the heat. The sauce is burning.
4. The conglomerate broke up into four independent companies.
5. We break up for summer at the end of this week.
6. Security was called to break up the crowd near the exit.

Exercise 4: Complete the Sentence

Write the correct form of the phrasal verb in brackets.

1. He _______ (turn down) the promotion twice, but they offered it again.
2. She _______ (break up) with her colleague after they had worked together for years.
3. The music is too loud. Can you _______ (turn down) it, please?
4. They _______ (break up) the land into smaller parcels before selling it.
5. The committee _______ (turn down) every revision proposed during the session.
6. The band _______ (break up) at the height of their popularity, which surprised everyone.

Summary

Keep pronoun placement correct for both separable meanings, and remember that the relationship meaning of break up is intransitive.