knock off
BothSense-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: knock OFF. Saying “KNOCK off” is the clearest learner tell — the verb stays light and the particle carries the beat.
Link across the gap. The final /k/ of “knock” moves onto the particle and starts its syllable: “knock off” is said “kno-ckoff”. Pausing between the words is what makes phrasal verbs sound recited rather than spoken.
Verb vs noun
As a noun the stress flips to the front: the verb is knock OFF, the noun is KNOCKOFF. Same two words, different beat — “to knock OFF” is the action, “a knockoff” is the thing. Getting this backwards makes the sentence land oddly even when every sound is right.
2 meanings
- 1
To stop work for the day.
informal- “We usually knock off around five.”
Similar: clock off
- 2
To reduce a price.
- “She knocked twenty dollars off for the scratch.”
Similar: deduct