grow apart
No objectThis verb takes no object at all.
How to say it
Stress the particle, not the verb: grow APART. Saying “GROW apart” 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: “grow apart” → “grow-wapart”. You do not insert it deliberately — it falls out of not stopping between the words.
What it means
To gradually become emotionally distant from someone.
- “They didn't argue — they just grew apart.”
- “We grew apart after university.”
Similar: drift apart