Breath vs Breathe
Breath and Breathe are two words that are often confused possibly due to their pronunciation. Strictly speaking, they are to be understood differently. The word ‘breath’ is used as noun. On the other hand, the word ‘breathe’ is used as verb. This is the main difference between the two words.
The word ‘breath’ is used in the sense of ‘inhalation’. On the other hand, the word ‘breathe’ is used in the sense of ‘respire’. This is another difference between the two words. Observe the two sentences
1. He was gasping for breath.
2. He took a deep breath.
In both the sentences, the word ‘breath’ is used in the sense of ‘inhalation’, and hence the meaning of the first sentence would be ‘he was gasping for inhalation’, and the meaning of the second sentence would be ‘he took a deep inhalation’.
Observe the two sentences
1. He was breathing normally in the morning.
2. She is finding it difficult to breathe.
In both the sentences, you can see that the word ‘breathe’ is used in the sense of ‘respire’ and hence, the meaning of the first sentence would be ‘he was respiring normally in the morning’ and the meaning of the second sentence would be ‘she is finding it difficult to respire’.
It is important to know that the word ‘breathe’ is sometimes used with the expression ‘his/her last’, and it gives the meaning of ‘die’ as in the sentence ‘she breathed her last in 2002’. In this sentence, the word ‘breathe her last’ is used in the sense of ‘die’ and hence, the meaning of the sentence would be ‘she died in 2002’.
It is interesting to note that the word ‘breathe’ is used occasionally in the sense of ‘take rest’ as in the sentence ‘I found no time to breathe’. These are the important differences between the two words, namely, breath and breathe. The word ‘breathe’ is occasionally used with prepositions such as ‘out’. ‘in’ and ‘for’ too to give different meanings.
The word ‘breath’ is used in the sense of ‘mouthful of air’ too as in the sentence ‘good tooth paste arrests bad breath’. In this sentence you can see that the word ‘breath’ is used in the sense of ‘mouthful of air’ and hence the meaning of the sentence would be ‘good tooth paste arrests bad mouthful of air’. These are the differences between the two words, breath and breathe’.
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