Table of Contents
“Breath” is a noun.
“Breathe” is a verb.
Breath
- a thing, a noun
- the puff of air when you exhale
- the plural of the noun simply adds an “s” (“breaths”)
- the noun has the same vowel sound as “Seth” or “death”
Breathe
- a verb
- what you do when you inhale and exhale
- the third-person singular adds an “s” to the final, silent “e” (“breathes”)
- the pronunciation changes to an “ee” sound with the final, silent “e”
- has the same vowel sound as “weave”
- Think that the silent “e” on the end of “breathe” gives the verb more “e’s,” so the “ea” in the middle takes the long “e” sound (as in “week”).
- Another way to remember the difference is the “e” in “verb” adds an “e” on the end of the noun to make it a verb (“breathe”).
Examples:
- When she fell off her horse and landed on her stomach, she couldn’t breathe.
- (“breathe” = verb. Landing on her stomach took the air out of her lungs.)
- Everyone told her to breathe deeply, but her breath came in shallow gasps.
- (“breathe” = verb, what she wanted to do.
- (“breath” = noun, the air taken in and out of the lungs.)
- The fall knocked her breath out of her.
- (“breath” = noun, movement of air in and out of lungs)
Credits: Photo by Alain Wong, Photo by Michal Mrozek on Unsplash