AAAmerican Accent US

give out

Both

Sense-dependent: some meanings take an object and split, others take none. Check the sense you mean.

How to say it

Stress the particle, not the verb: give OUT. Saying “GIVE out” is the clearest learner tell — the verb stays light and the particle carries the beat.

Link across the gap. The final /v/ of “give” moves onto the particle and starts its syllable: “give out” is said “gi-vout”. Pausing between the words is what makes phrasal verbs sound recited rather than spoken.

2 meanings

  1. 1

    To distribute something to many people.

    • “Volunteers were giving out water at the finish line.”

    Similar: hand out, distribute

  2. 2

    (Of a machine or a body part) to stop working.

    • “His knees gave out on the last mile.”

    Similar: fail

Don’t confuse it with

give offTo emit heat, light, a smell or an impression.

Give OUT distributes to people, or fails. Give OFF emits — a smell, heat, or light.

The particle logic

out

Something exits a container, becomes visible, or is exhausted.

Listen + practice

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More GIVE phrasal verbs

Compare the whole family →

give up

To stop trying to do something.

give in

To stop resisting and accept what someone else wants.

give away

To donate something without payment.

give back

To return something to its owner.

give off

To emit heat, light, a smell or an impression.

give up on

To lose faith in a person, plan or possibility.

give out — meaning, examples & how to say it