Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

break it to

Word Rarity Common

Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.17 in modern English

Syllables: break it -to
IPA

15

Scrabble Score

9

Letters

2

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To deliver unfortunate or upsetting news to someone.

Example Sentences

"Look, I hate to break it to you, but Tim doesn't want anything to do with you anymore."
"Although I don't doubt that he'd have put much more faith in a local wizard if one had been available, he let us take the boy into the hospital tent and do what we could for him. It wasn't much, and I told my assistant to break it to poor old Calico that he must be prepared for the worst."
"[Spoken by a shopkeeper] Hmmm... Hate to break this to you, but you don't have enough money."

Inflected Forms

breaks it to (present, singular) breaking it to (participle, present) broke it to (past) broken it to (participle, past) break it (alternative) break the news (alternative)

Questions

What does break it to mean?: To deliver unfortunate or upsetting news to someone.

How to pronounce break it to

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “break it to”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “break it to”.
Repeat and practice — Say “break it to” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.