Trip, Tumble, Slip: English Verbs of Falling

In this post we’ll look at English verbs of falling. You’ll learn specific vocabulary to use in place of fall, so you can be more precise in your descriptions.

Fall

To fall is the most basic and general verb that describes moving from high to low, by gravity.

• Leaves are falling from the trees.
• When I was a child, I fell off a horse and broke my arm.
• The cat fell from a third story window, but she didn’t get hurt at all.

There are a few common expressions and phrasal verbs that use to fall: to fall asleep (to enter a state of sleep), to fall in love (to start loving someone), to fall through the cracks (to be forgotten, to be missed as part of a procedure), to fall apart (to enter a state of disrepair, to be in a state of poor maintenance), to fall through (to not happen, as in plans), to fall short (to not have or be enough), to fall into debt (to enter a state of owing money)… You can learn a lot of phrasal verbs with fall in this post.

• I got in bed at 11:30 but didn’t fall asleep until around 1am.
• Dan said he fell in love with Sarah the first time he saw her.
• We forgot to pay this bill! It must have fallen through the cracks.
• Our house is very old and in very bad shape. It’s really falling apart.
• Jerry’s plans to drive to the country this weekend fell through because of the snowstorm.
• We did our best, but unfortunately we fell short.
• After Mike lost his job, he quickly fell into debt because he had no savings.

Trip

To trip is to fall because you accidentally step into something that you don’t see. You can trip on or trip over something.

• Someone left a big box on the sidewalk, and I didn’t see it and tripped over it.
• The dog is always sleeping in the middle of the hall, so we always trip over him.
• Be careful! Your shoelaces are untied. Don’t trip on them!

Stumble

To stumble over something is to trip over it, but if you stumble, you don’t necessarily fall. To stumble also means to walk in a very awkward way, almost falling with each step that you take. People stumble when they’re tired, or seriously injured, or drunk.

• I stumbled over someone’s shoes that were left lying in the middle of the room.
• I stumble out of bed every morning and immediately make a cup of coffee!
• What time did you stumble out of the bar and go home last night? You look awful this morning!

Slip

To slip is to lose your footing – to stumble and almost fall – because you walked on something slippery, like ice, or something wet, or the proverbial banana peel.

• I slipped on ice walking up the stairs outside and really hurt myself.
• Don’t run on the floors! They’re wet, and you’ll slip.
• Has anyone really ever slipped on a banana peel?

Slide

To slide is similar to slip, but to slip means to (almost) fall, while to slide simply means to lose control of your movement because of a slippery surface.

• My car slid off the road in the snowstorm.
• I don’t ski. The thought of sliding down a mountain over snow and ice terrifies me!
• All of the glasses and bottle slid onto the floor during the earthquake. What a mess!

Tumble

To tumble is to fall in bouncing movement. For example, while you may fall from a tree, you probably tumble down a hillside, because you come into and out of contact with the hill as you fall.

• I tumbled down a pretty steep hill while we were hiking, but I didn’t get too hurt.
• Huge rocks came tumbling down the mountainside and almost hit our car.
• Clothes tumble around in a clothes drier as they dry.

Roll

When something round or cylindrical moves over a surface because of gravity or a push, that’s to roll. Wheels roll, logs roll, a ball or an orange may roll.

• I forgot to put the emergency brake on in my car, and it rolled down the hill.
• Denise rolled the ball across the lawn to her daughter.
• That suitcase has wheels. If it’s too heavy to lift, just roll it.

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