2021-12-31
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด – B – breath & breathe
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Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง breath = ‘BRETH’
ออกเสียง breathe = ‘BREETH’
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Usage Notes
'Breath' vs. 'Breathe'
Take a breather.
What to Know
Breath is the noun and breathe is the verb in this pairing.
To keep them apart, especially in writing,
remember that breathe has both the /ee/ sound and an e at the end.
Often the English word for an action
and the word for the doing of that action are the same.
Let’s go for a run/I try to run every day
Have a look/Please look around
When Verbs and Nouns Are the Same
Many common noun/verb pairs fit this pattern:
walk, talk, sleep, dream, drink, cut, scratch, play, race, smell.
This does give a slight advantage to learners of English
who can make fast progress
through common noun/infinitive verb pairings.
The idea of this symmetry is so entrenched in our minds
that jargony new (or new-sounding) nouns are often just infinitive verbs
used as nouns (a process known as functional shift):
That’s a big ask.
Have a think.
Send me an invite.
We like our regular verbs.
So much so that, when we invent verbs,
they correspondingly usually take the form of the related noun:
Cats gonna cat.
Plutes gonna plute.
All of this noun/verb symmetry, however,
tends to give our language a sense of stability and predictability
that it probably does not deserve.
Nouns and Verbs That Don't Match
For those pairs that are exceptions to this pattern,
there is nevertheless often a family resemblance
between the corresponding noun and verb
—but never enough to mistake them for each other:
thought/think
suit/sue
speech/speak
life/live
flight/fly
A few noun/verb pairs show a resemblance
that might be considered a bit too close for comfort,
and these can be traps for easily avoidable spelling errors.
Some of these at least have the same vowel sounds:
sheath/sheathe
teeth/teethe
It’s important to remember that there’s that extra e on the verbs.
But the real traps seem to be
the much more commonly used pairs that don’t rhyme as these do
—where the difference
between the noun and the verb can be easily heard. These include:
bath/bathe
breath/breathe
'Breath' vs. 'Breathe'
Breath and breathe are at perhaps
the trickiest intersection of spelling and similarity,
since they are so frequently confused.
Because of their different vowel sounds,
we never use one of these words for the other when speaking,
and that’s precisely the problem here:
encountering the wrong one on the page or on a screen is jarring
because it forces the reader to make a quick mental adjustment
to the sentence,
since what we read is not so much a misspelling
as the correct spelling of a different part of speech.
We’d probably adjust faster to an actual misspelling.
It’s because of this, and because we breathe
so much more often than we bathe
(or at the very least use the word more often),
that this particular confusion is both so frequent and so annoying.
Keep in mind that the noun breath,
pronounced /BRETH/, has no e at the end:
A breath of fresh air
Don’t hold your breath
Out of breath
Take a deep breath
And the verb breathe, pronounced /BREETHE/,
is spelled with an e at the end:
Breathe deeply
I could hardly breathe
Breathe in through your nose
Breathe new life into the show
Just remember that breathe rhymes with /ee/ and has an e at the end.
Then: deep breath, and relax.
Collins COBUILD English Usage
Breathe – breath
1. 'breathe'
Breathe /briːð/ is a verb.
When people or animals breathe,
they take air into their lungs and let it out again.
It was difficult for him to breathe.
Always breathe through your nose.
2. 'breath'
Breath /breθ/ is a noun.
Your breath is the air that you take into your lungs
and let out again when you breathe.
She took a deep breath, then started to explain.
I could smell the coffee on his breath.
Dictionary of Problem Words in English
Breath & breathe
A breath is an exhalation of air.
To breathe is “to take in (orexhale) air.
“His breath was frozen in the cold air.”
“Breathe deeply and you will feel better.”
Neither breath nor breathe should be confused with
breadth meaning “distance” or “width”;
“The stream was 50 feet in breadth.”
Common Errors in English Usage Dictionary
Breath & breathe
When you need to breathe, you take a breath.
“Breathe” is the verb,
“breath” the noun.
The A-Z of Correct English Common Errors in English Dictionary
Breath & breathe
BREATH is the noun, and rhymes with ‘death’.
He called for help with his dying BREATH.
BREATHE is the verb and rhymes with ‘seethe’.
BREATHE deeply and fill those lungs’