The Phrasal Verb 'Fall In' Explained
- 5 days ago
- 10 min read
An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'fall in' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context
Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native.
This blog article is all about the phrasal verb 'fall in'. This useful little phrasal verb has at least 4 distinct uses in English and can be used to talk about different subjects like accidents, old buildings, military marches and new friends. In the article, I will explain all of these meanings for you and give you lots of example sentences for each so that you know when and how to use them. So, let's make a start and find out what 'fall in' is all about....
TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one)
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THE BASICS
FALL IN: KEY INFORMATION
Usage | Medium |
Number of meanings | 4 |
Past tense forms | Fell in / Fallen in |
Separable? | No |
The phrasal verb 'fall in' is formed by combining the base verb 'to fall' with the prepositional particle 'in' and before we look at what this little combination of words means in English, let's first just consider the individual words 'fall' and 'in' on their own.
Fall - 'To fall' is a common English verb whose main meaning is 'to move in a downwards direction, typically in a very quick and uncontrolled way'. When used this way it is often followed by prepositions like 'down', 'on' and 'in' which give extra meaning to the falling action. In addition to this main meaning, 'to fall' can also be used to mean 'to decrease', 'to be on a certain day' and 'to change state'. It is an irregular verb and when used in the past tense, it can often be confused by learners with another irregular verb 'to feel' (fell & fallen vs felt & felt).
The pavement is very icy; be careful that you don't fall!
Many buildings fell down during the earthquake.
I fell over when I was out jogging yesterday.
The number of website visitors fell by 10% last month.
My birthday falls on a Saturday this year.
Jane always falls asleep when watching television.
In - If you are able to read and understand this blog article, then you will undoubtedly know the word 'in' and will therefore require little explanation from me about this. In short, the word 'in' is used to talk about being in or moving towards interior spaces and it functions as the opposite of the particle 'out'. When used in phrasal verbs, 'in' can often carry this idea of movement into or towards an inside space (move in) as well as ideas like joining an activity or situation (join in), arrival (come in) and beginning (set in).
Now that we have covered the basics, let's now move on to the main event, i.e. the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'fall in'....
MEANING 1: Literal
CEFR Language Level | A2 - Elementary |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To tumble in, to drop in |
Separable? | No |
The first of the meanings of the phrasal verb 'fall in' that we will look at is the easiest and most obvious of all its meanings as it is just the literal meanings of the two words combined, i.e. to fall and land in or inside something.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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We use this literal application to describe any situations in which a person, animal or object drops from somewhere and ends up in an internal space or a completely new environment. I think most commonly this is used with nouns for bodies of water such as sea, ocean, lake and river to describe when a person accidentally accidentally falls and lands in one of these.
Aside from this, we can use this application with nouns that describe spaces that are enclosed except for the top, which therefore allow people or things to fall inside.
Be careful near the edge of the dock or you might fall in.
Luke slipped on the wet stones next to the canal and fell in.
One of the children leaned too far over the boat's edge and nearly fell in.
Mary lost her balance while reaching with the fishing net and fell in.
The dog ran too fast along the riverbank and fell in.
WHAT ABOUT FALL INTO?
As you can see from the examples above, we use 'fall in' when the water, hole or internal space is clear from the context. However, if you want to specify this information, we need the particle 'into' rather than 'in'....
The little boy leaned too far over the edge and fell into the pool.
Pam lost her footing and fell into a deep hole in the ground.
My dog chased the ball and accidentally fell into the lake.
One of the hikers tripped on a rock and fell into a narrow crevice.
Kevin's phone slipped from his hand and fell into the water.
Another time that you may hear this literal usage being used in a slightly different sense is when someone is already in something and falls to the floor. For example, it is very common for people to fall in the shower, i.e. they are already in the shower cubicle when they fall. In this case we do not use 'fall into the shower' as there is no change from where the person fell to where they ended up e.g. they fell in the shower and landed in the shower.
My mum fell in the bath and hit her head.
One last usage of this literal application is one that I am sure most of you know, whether you are romantic or not, and that is 'to fall in love', which if you weren't sure means 'to develop a deep romantic connection with someone, normally your partner or spouse'. This one is heard in so many pop music songs, it is very difficult to avoid it!
I fell in love with you the moment that I saw you!
We've fallen in love with each other and we are going to get married.
MEANING 2: To collapse
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To collapse, to cave in, to subside |
Separable? | No |
The second meaning of the phrasal verb 'fall in' that we will look at is all to do with buildings and means 'to collapse'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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Specifically for this application, we are not usually talking about an entire building that collapses but rather parts of it, particularly those which are supported in the air like the roof. If these supported parts of a building collapse and fall towards the interior of the building, we say they "fall in". Note that we would not say this if the part of the building fell and landed outside of the building's walls.
Of course, this normally does not happen in buildings that are occupied and well maintained but rather with derelict and unused buildings that have been empty for a long time. Moreover, you may hear this in cases where buildings are damaged by natural disasters or wars.
In addition to buildings, you can also use this with other structures like bridges or mines, however it is less common to do this.
Part of the old roof suddenly fell in during the storm.
The ceiling of the house is likely to fall in now that the fire has weakened the beams.
The ground fell in beneath Fred's feet when the old tunnel collapsed.
The walls of the abandoned house slowly fell in over the years.
The bridge began to shake and then part of it fell in.
A section of the mine has fallen in, trapping several workers underground.
The rotten wooden floor suddenly fell in under the weight of the furniture.
When they removed the support beam, the whole structure began to fall in.
MEANING 3: To form a line
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To get in line, to queue up, to line up |
Separable? | No |
Unlike the previous two applications of the phrasal verb 'fall in', the third one has nothing to do with physical falling and more to do with the military and means 'to form a line'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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What is the first thing that you think of when you read the word 'army'? Many of you might say fighting and weapons, especially with what is happening in the world right now, however I imagine that some of you will think of a military parade where hundreds or thousands of military personnel are walking or standing in perfect lines.
When the soldiers take their place in the line and become a part of this large military formation, we can sat they 'fall in' (or that they 'fall in line' - more about this later). This may be a line in a marching parade or it may be a line on the military base where they are inspected e.g. first thing in the morning.
The sergeant shouted for the soldiers to fall in immediately.
The recruits quickly fell in outside the barracks.
At six o’clock sharp, the platoon fell in for inspection.
The officer ordered the troops to fall in on the parade ground.
When the whistle blew, the cadets fell in in two neat rows.
The commander told everyone to fall in and prepare to march
The battalion fell in before the ceremony started.
Additionally, it is also possible to hear the variations 'to fall in behind someone' and 'to fall in beside someone', meaning to walk behind and next to someone respectively. This is again something that you will hear in the military but it is also possible to hear these variations used for normal people when they are walking in a line or in groups, e.g. school children on a class trip or tourists on a tour.
The late arrivals hurried to fall in behind the rest of the platoon.
The children were told to fall in behind the teacher for the walk back to school.
Two new recruits fell in beside the others in the second row.
The officer ordered the latecomers to fall in beside their assigned partners.
The scouts quickly fell in behind the group and the march continued.
The walking tour guide asked the new people to fall in behind the others as they set off to their next destination.
BONUS: The idiom 'to fall in line'
Whilst we are still on the third application of 'fall in', I want to make you aware of a nice and useful little expression featuring it that you can use to elevate your English and impress your friends and colleagues: 'to fall in line'.
We can use this expression to talk about both people and organisations when they begin to follow the rules that they are expected to follow and behave in the way that they should. It is typically used after a period of time when they have not followed the rules or have not done what an authority has asked them to do.
The company warned that employees who refused to fall in line with the new rules could face disciplinary action.
If the smaller countries refuse to fall in line, the agreement could collapse.
Eventually, the younger players fell in line and followed the captain’s instructions.
MEANING 4: To become friendly with someone
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | British English |
Potential synonyms | To become friendly with, to befriend |
Separable? | No |
Our fourth and final meaning of the phrasal verb 'fall in' is one that is more common in British English and means 'to become friendly with someone'. For this application, we also require the additional preposition 'with' to specify the people concerned.
To give you more context for this one, this application tends to be used when someone makes friends or starts spending a lot of time with another person or group of people by chance or when you don't plan or expect to meet new people. It often implies that the person who has 'fallen in' with the others starts to join in with their activities or even starts to think and act like them.
Examples of this range from positive ones, for example when someone is travelling alone and makes friends with other travellers who they they then travel with, to negative ones when someone starts to spend time with a bad crowd of people and he or she changes negatively as a consequence.
While travelling in Spain, Pierre fell in with a group of backpackers.
Linda fell in with some old friends at the conference.
On the train, I fell in with a couple who were also visiting the city and we had dinner that evening.
Johannes fell in with the wrong crowd when he moved to the city.
During the festival, we fell in with a group of musicians and followed them around all evening.
Leanne quickly fell in with the other students in her class.
On the hike, we fell in with another group heading the same way.
Ron worried that his son had fallen in with a bad crowd.
We have now reached the end of this post and I just want to say thank you for clicking on my post and reading it. I hope that you've enjoyed it and have been able to learn something new about the phrasal verb 'fall in'. If you enjoyed this post, please go ahead and check out some of my other posts.
Now it is YOUR turn. Can you think of a sentence yourself using 'fall in'. Write it in the comments section below if you can, or alternatively any comments, suggestions or feedback that you may have....don't be shy!!!
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THE END
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