blow out
SeparableThe object can go before or after the particle — but a pronoun MUST go in the middle: “clean it up”, never “clean up it”.
How to say it
Stress the particle, not the verb: blow OUT. Saying “BLOW out” is the clearest learner tell — the verb stays light and the particle carries the beat.
A glide appears. Two vowels meet, so American English slips a /w/ between them: “blow out” → “blow-wout”. You do not insert it deliberately — it falls out of not stopping between the words.
Verb vs noun
As a noun the stress flips to the front: the verb is blow OUT, the noun is BLOWOUT. Same two words, different beat — “to blow OUT” is the action, “a blowout” is the thing. Getting this backwards makes the sentence land oddly even when every sound is right.
2 meanings
- 1
To extinguish a flame with a breath of air.
- “Make a wish and blow out the candles.”
- “The wind blew the match out before he could light it.”
Similar: extinguish, put out
- 2
(Of a tyre) to burst suddenly.
- “A tyre blew out on the highway and we spun into the shoulder.”
Similar: burst