Break vs. Brake

Do you think these two words are similar? Are they one and the same or do they have slight differences? Well, let's find out.

What Is Their Main Difference?

Interestingly, these two words do not have anything in common. Due to their close dictations and pronunciations, people tend to mistakenly use them. 'Break' is a short pause in the middle of a play, a conference, a show, etc. However, 'brake' is a pedal is a car or a vehicle used to stop the car.

Differences

As stated above, these two words are not similar. We mainly use 'break' to talk about a short pause in a meeting, a play, a show, etc. Look:

After the break, we will continue our discussion on unsolved murder cases.

The professor didn't let us take a short break and taught for 3 hours straight.

'Brake', on the other hand, is used to talk about one of the pedals in vehicles to stop it. Check out the following examples:

There's no need for you to press the brake pedal this hard.

I thought she was gonna slam the brake but she didn't.

Similarities

These two words are only similar in that they somehow look they same and they are also pronounced the same.

Are They Interchangeable?

As mentioned above, these two words are completely different, so they can never be used interchangeably. Compare:

✓ Did you check the brakes? Are they operating properly?

X Did you check the breaks? Are they operating properly?

As you can see here, we cannot check the break.

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