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In this post we’re going to look at phrasal verbs with fall.
I’m falling for the woman I’m dating.
Fall for has two meanings. If you fall for a person, you begin to love that person.
- Jerry’s really fallen for his new girlfriend. He never sees his friends any more.
- Are you falling for this guy? What do you see in him?
- I think I’m falling for you!
If you fall for a thing, for example a story or an explanation, you believe it, but you really shouldn’t.
- This ad is a lie! Don’t fall for it and waste your money.
- That’s what he told you, and you fell for it? You’ve got to be kidding me.
- Bill always lies. I’ve fallen for a lot of his lies, but never again!
Everything’s falling apart these days.
To fall apart in its literal sense means to break apart into smaller separate pieces. This meaning is just a literal combination of the verb fall and the adverb apart.
- I can’t stand it when I try to eat a sandwich and it falls apart in my hands.
- The house is cheap, but it’s practically falling apart. If you buy it, you’ll spend a lot fixing it.
- This old building is falling apart now, but when they restore it, it will be beautiful.
Fall apart is often used to describe a person’s lack of physical or emotional health, or to express a very strong emotional reaction to bad news.
- John has been falling apart since the divorce. I’m worried about him.
- You need to eat better and start working out at least a little. You’re falling apart!
- I’m afraid to tell my brother the news because he’ll fall apart.
The rain’s finally falling off!
To fall off has a literal, prepositional meaning, meaning to fall from a high place.
- Don’t set your coffee cup so close to the edge of the table! It will fall off and break.
- Everything fell off the shelves during the earthquake.
- An acorn fell off the tree and hit me in the head.
A more figurative meaning of fall off is to decrease, to become less.
- It was raining heavily all morning, but the rain fell off this afternoon.
- Attendance in class has fallen off since the beginning of the school year.
- Everyone is talking about the scandal now, but interest will fall off in a few weeks.
Don’t fall down! The sidewalk is really icy.
To fall down is a literal combination of the verb fall and the adverb down. If you fall down, you were standing, but you’ve fallen and now you’re on the floor.
- The baby’s just learning how to walk, so she falls down a lot.
- I tripped and fell down on the sidewalk in front of the store.
- A lot of the big old trees in the park have fallen down during the storms this year.
I’m falling behind in all of my classes.
To fall behind has a literal meaning, simply meaning to fall behind (on the rear side) of something.
- The blanket fell behind the couch.
- Ma’am, your jacket has fallen behind your chair.
- A big tree fell behind our house.
Note that these aren’t phrasal verbs, they’re just the literal meaning of the verb fall and the preposition behind. You could use other prepositions of location, and the only meaning change would be where the falling is happening:
- A big tree fell behind / in front of / next to / near / on top of our house.
But fall behind also has a true phrasal meaning, where behind isn’t literally behind (in position), and falling isn’t literally falling. If you fall behind (on) something, you’re not keeping up to schedule or pace, you’re moving or accomplishing things more slowly than you need to.
- When the race started, Cindy was in the front, but she’s fallen behind now.
- I need to stay late at the office tonight. I’m falling behind on my work.
- If Bill doesn’t start studying and doing his homework, he’s going to fall behind.
The fence fell over in the storm.
To fall over means to fall from a standing position to a leaning or lying position. In this sense, it’s similar to fall down.
- That fence is really old and in bad condition. It’s going to fall over soon.
- I tried to put the beach umbrella up, but it keeps falling over in the wind.
- I got out of bed last night without turning the lights on, and I fell over the dog.
Our plans fell through, so we need new plans.
To fall through means to fail to happen, usually said about plans.
- We were supposed to go out, but our plans have fallen through because of the snow.
- What happened to your plans to go to the game today? Did that fall through?
- Our vacation plans fell through, so we’re going to stay in town.
Do you have any savings to fall back on?
To fall back on something means to use it in an emergency. If you keep something extra in case you ever need it, you keep it to fall back on.
- Mark doesn’t have any savings to fall back on, so if he loses his job, he’s in trouble.
- Jack wants to be an actor, but he doesn’t have any other profession to fall back on in case acting doesn’t work out.
- When kids apply to college, they should always have at least one school to fall back on in case their first choice doesn’t accept them.
We need to fall back and rethink this.
To fall back (without on) means to stop fighting or pushing ahead so that you can return to a safer or earlier position.
- The soldiers fought very bravely but they finally fell back.
- I’ve been exercising and eating really well, but I’m afraid of falling back into bad habits.
- The company had been growing dramatically, but they need to fall back now that they’ve had three really terrible years.
We’ve fallen out and hardly ever speak.
If you fall out with someone, you stop being friends, usually because of an argument or some specific disagreement. Note that you can just say fall out, but if you mention the person or people you used to be friends with, use fall out with: we’ve fallen out; I’ve fallen out with him.
- Mary and I have fallen out, and we never speak any more.
- Sam doesn’t see his old friends anymore; I think he’s fallen out with them.
- If you’ve fallen out with a good friend, you should at least try to speak and fix the problem.
Thanksgiving always falls on a Thursday.
Fall on is used especially with holidays and other events to express what day they happen in a particular year.
- Christmas falls on a Saturday this year.
- The Fourth of July falls on a Friday this year, so we’ll have a long weekend!
- I love it when Halloween falls on a Friday because I don’t have to work the next day!
She’s fallen in with a new group of friends.
To fall in with has two different meaning. If you fall in with new friends, that means that you begin to spend time with these new friends, possibly to share their interests.
- Since we moved to this town our kids have fallen in with some really nice new friends.
- I’m worried about the group that Jake has fallen in with.
- Our son Kurt fell in with some kids who have a band, so now he wants to learn to play guitar.
If you fall in with someone’s plans or ideas, that means that you agree with them and follow them.
- I’m sorry, but I just can’t fall in with your proposal to lay off so many people.
- Everyone thinks Linda’s ideas are good, so we’re happy to fall in with them.
- If the whole family doesn’t fall in with Jerry’s ideas, he gets upset.
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