When you look at the words breathe vs breath, do you know the difference between these spellings? Both are correct, but these two words do not share similar meanings. Breathe is an action word, while breath is a noun. If you want to understand these commonly confused and misspelled words better, read on.
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What Is Breathe?
As we mentioned earlier, “breathe” is an action word (verb) that refers to inhaling and exhaling air.
In many situations, the word “breathe” is used as a transitive verb. This means you use it in relation to a direct object of a sentence. For example, if you say that someone needs to “breathe some fresh air,” the fresh air is the direct object.
But “breathe” can also be an intransitive verb, which means it can be used without a direct object. In this form, “breathe” often means allowing air to make contact with something.
For example, if you said you liked a Dri-fit shirt because it allows your skin to “breathe,” you would be using the verb “breathe” without connecting the action to anything specific. Nothing is on the receiving end of the action, but this sentence still makes grammatical sense.
Examples:
- We opened the doors to let the room breathe after Sally sprayed her perfume around.
- I couldn’t breathe because I was choking on a peanut shell.
- There’s no better feeling than breathing in crisp natural air on a sunny day.
- Just breathe—everything is going to be okay; there’s no need to panic!
- Before I go to a job interview, I always make sure to breathe slowly and calm myself down.
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When and How to Use Breathe?
Use the word breathe when you are talking about the action of inhaling air.
You can also use the word “breathe” in less literal contexts when you’re communicating about something that air passes through.
For instance, some people like to expose wine to outside air before drinking it (this is known as letting the wine “breathe.”) Alternatively, if you got home from a formal event and took off your stuffy, tight clothing for the night, you might say that your skin needs time to “breathe.”
As mentioned before, you can use “breathe” as an intransitive verb. This means you do not always need to connect it to a direct object in order for the verb to be grammatically correct.
Now, let’s look at how to conjugate this verb.
Breathe is the present tense of the word. The present participle form is “breathing,” (you drop the letter E and add the suffix ing.) To conjugate this word in the past tense, write it as “breathed.” To make it future tense, you can simply write “will breathe.”
What Is Breath?
Breath is the noun counterpart to the verb breathe. While “breathe” refers to the action of inhaling air, the word “breath” is the air taken or expelled from your body (or more precisely from your lungs.)
Examples:
- It’s always a great idea to take a deep breath when you are stressed.
- You have bad breath.
- This vacation has really been a breath of fresh air—I feel revitalized!
- Take a deep breath before you argue with your husband.
When and How to Use Breath?
Use the word breath when you’re referring to the actual idea of an intake of air. So, after someone has breathed, they have taken a breath. Since breath is a noun, you do not need to conjugate it in different forms as you do for the verb breathe.
What’s the Difference?
Breathe and breath relate to the same topic, but they have different meanings. They also have different functions – breathe is a verb or an action word, whereas breath is a noun or a thing.
In addition to this difference in meanings, these words’ pronunciations are also different:
Breathe is spoken like “br-ee-th” (breethe) with a long E sound.
Breath is spoken like “br-eh-th.” with a short E sound.
There’s also a slight difference in the way you say the “th” sound in both of these words. When you say breathe, the “th” sound is made by your vocal cords. But when you say the “th” at the end of breath, the “th” sound should come from the air that flows between your teeth and tongue.
Tip: If you read or saw “breadth” in a text, it’s not a misspelling! It’s a real word but not related to either “breathe” or “breath.”
Trick to Remembering Which Spelling to Use
Now you know the difference between breathe vs. breath, use these clever tricks to remember which is the right word to use.
- Think about the action of taking a deep breath. If you do it right, it should take a long time—just like it takes a “longer time” to spell “breathe”—because it has one more letter than the word “breath.”
- Consider the sounds each of these two words makes. “Breathe” has an “ee” sound in the middle, which can help you remember to also put the letter “e” at the end. Meanwhile, “breath” has an “eh” sound in the middle. Just like it does not have an “ee” sound, it doesn’t get an extra E at the end of the word.
- The first two vowels (ea) in “breathe” are pronounced as “ee” (/i/ sound), just like in real, meet, seethe, or breeze.
Final Thoughts
Breathe vs breath is a very important distinction to be aware of. These words are very similar, so they are often confused and misspelled even by native English speakers. But hopefully, you have breathed a sigh of relief after reading our guide. Remember that “breathe” is a verb that refers to the action of inhaling air, while “breath” is a noun that refers to the air taken or expelled from your body (or more precisely from your lungs).
