Breathe vs. Breath

The key difference between the words breathe and breath is that breathe is a verb, while breath is a noun.

To breathe is the action of inhaling and exhaling air. You can breathe in fresh air when you are in the mountains. You are taking the action of inhaling and exhaling the fresh mountain air.

Meanwhile, your breath is the physical amount of air you inhale and exhale. 'You see your warm breath when the weather is cold.' This means you are seeing your physical breath in the form of condensation.

Now, what about the pronunciation? Although the spelling of the two words are similar, the pronunciations are different. Breathe is pronounced with as breeth with a long E sound, and breath is pronounced as breth with a short E sound.

If you are unsure whether you should be using breathe or breath in a sentence, an easy way to know is to see whether you need a noun or verb in the spot.

Here are two examples.

Drew nervously took a deep breathe/breath.

Paula can breathe/breath through the oxygen mask.

In the first sentence, the object of the sentence is the word in question. Only nouns can be used as a subject or object, so the correct answer is the noun breath. To break the sentence down, Drew is the subject of the sentence, took is the verb of the sentence, and breath is the object of the sentence.

In the second sentence, there is a verb missing from the sentence. Therefore, the correct choice is breathe. The subject Paula is performing the verb, which is breathing.

Here are some more example sentences that will give you a better idea of how breathe and breath are used in context.

Try to breathe evenly when you are meditating.

In this example, the sentence is commanding the reader to perform a certain verb to breathe evenly, when meditating.

Do not breathe underwater, or you will get water in your lungs.

Like the previous sentence, this sentence is commanding the read to not do a particular verb, to breathe, underwater.

Justin had a shortness of breath because he was nervous.

Justin had a shortness of the object breath because of nervousness. The object of the sentence should be a noun, hence the use of breath over breathe is correct.

Did you catch a breath of the cold morning air?

You can catch a noun but not a verb, so we use the noun breath as the object of the sentence. You can catch a breath of the morning air.

Lydia could not breathe well with her mask on.

This sentence is trying to convey that the subject Lydia cannot perform the action of breathing well because she has her mask on. Therefore, the verb breathe is used over the noun breath.

Try out some practice questions to master the different!

Practice questions

I took a deep breathe/breath before starting my presentation.
Millie trained herself to hold her breathe/breath underwater for more than one minute.
Be careful not to breathe/breath in sulfur dioxide.
Eating garlic causes your breathe/breath to smell like it for hours.
His breathe/breath was starting to sound raspy.
She leaned closer to breathe/breath in the scent of the flowers.
How long can you hold your breathe/breath?
I could smell the fish on his breathe/breathe.
The soldiers had to breathe/breath in small amounts of poisonous gas to train themselves.
Humans naturally breathe/breath even when asleep.

Answers: