Breath is the noun: the air you take in, or one instance of doing so. <em>She took a deep breath before knocking.</em> Breathe is the verb: the act itself. <em>Try to breathe slowly through your nose.</em> If you can put <em>a</em> or <em>the</em> in front of it, you want breath; if it is something someone does, you want breathe with the E.
The core difference
One letter separates them, and that letter changes both the grammar and the pronunciation.
- Breath (noun) rhymes with death: /breθ/. The plural is breaths.
- Breathe (verb) rhymes with seethe: /briːð/. The forms are breathes, breathing, breathed.
Notice that the vowel changes too — breath is short, breathe is long. If you read your sentence aloud, your own mouth will usually tell you which one you meant.
How to use each
- He was out of breath by the second flight of stairs.
- Take a breath and start again.
- The air was so cold you could see your breath.
- I can't breathe in this jumper.
- The instructor told us to breathe out on the effort.
A test you can run
Put to in front of the word. If to ___ makes sense as an action — to breathe — you need the E. If instead you can put a, the, my or your in front of it, drop the E: a breath, your breath.
A second check: try making it plural with -s and see which sounds right. Three deep breaths works; "three deep breathes" does not.
The memory trick
Breathe is the longer word and takes longer to say — like a long, drawn-out exhale. Breath is short and clipped, like a quick intake of air. The spelling matches the length of the sound.
The edge cases
Breath can be uncountable (short of breath) or countable (a shallow breath). Both are correct; the countable version is what you want when describing a single act.
The verb takes on figurative senses that surprise learners: fabric or wine can breathe (let the red breathe for twenty minutes), and a room can breathe when it feels uncrowded. There is no matching noun use for those.
Watch two fixed phrases carefully:
- Don't breathe a word — verb, with the E, meaning don't tell anyone.
- A breath of fresh air — noun, no E, used literally and to describe a welcome change.
And note bated breath (noun) — held, restrained breath. It is bated, not "baited", and it is one of the most frequently misspelled phrases in English.
Finally, the past tense is breathed, pronounced /briːðd/, with the long vowel of the verb kept intact: She breathed out slowly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it "take a deep breath" or "take a deep breathe"?
<em>Take a deep breath</em>, with no E. The article <em>a</em> shows you need a noun; the verb never follows <em>a</em>.
Is it "I can't breath" or "I can't breathe"?
<em>I can't breathe</em>. After a modal verb like <em>can't</em> you need a verb, which is the E spelling. This is the single most common version of the error.
How do you pronounce the difference?
<em>Breath</em> has a short vowel and a hard "th" like <em>death</em>. <em>Breathe</em> has a long "ee" and a soft, voiced "th" like <em>seethe</em>. Saying the sentence aloud is a reliable check.