Professional English Practice · Phrasal Verbs
15 · DOWN: reduction, defeat, and suppression
Scaling back, saying no, and keeping things quiet.
ACCESS
Read the scene and notice the moves in bold. One of them, pare down, is never taught in this book. Before you read on, let the particle show you what it means.
A finance team in a budget review, four percent over plan before the board meeting.
Farid We're four percent over plan. We need to cut down somewhere before the board review.
Ana We could scale down the regional expansion instead of killing it.
Farid Fine, but tone down the growth language in the deck. The board hates surprises.
Ana Marketing already turned down our request to trim their spend. They won't back down easily.
Farid Then we pare down travel and events first, and hold down headcount until the fourth quarter.
Ana Agreed. But let's not play down the risk. If revenue slips, none of this is enough.
ANALYSIS
ONE QUESTION RUNS THIS WHOLE UNIT
What is being brought lower?
Down is the mirror of up: toward the ground. Name what is being lowered, a quantity, a position, or a signal, and the sense follows. The three are easy to tell apart and easy to confuse if you never ask.
The structure
Down is the mirror of up, and its hub is just as physical: toward the ground. Put a box down. Sit down. Every abstract sense in this unit is that lowering applied to a quantity, a position, or a signal.
In the reduction sense, a quantity is brought lower: cut down the budget, tone down the language. In the defeat sense, a position is brought down and ends: shut down a project, turn down a request. In the suppression sense, a signal is pushed down and held there: play down a risk, hold down costs.
Reduction
- Sense
- a quantity is brought lower and stays measurable
- How you know
- you could say by how much
- Use it to
- report a cut, with the thing still there afterward
Defeat
- Sense
- a position is brought down and ends
- How you know
- afterward the thing does not exist in a smaller form; it is over
- Use it to
- report a refusal or a shutdown, not a cut
Suppression
- Sense
- a signal is pushed down and held there
- How you know
- the thing is still true; it is being kept quiet
- Use it to
- report the management of an impression
The literal sense sits at the top. Everything under it is that same movement applied to something you cannot touch.
Lowered, ended, and kept quiet
All three senses lower something, and the question that separates them is what is left afterward.
Cut down the budget and there is a smaller budget. Shut down the project and there is no project. Play down the risk and the risk is exactly the size it was: only the account of it got smaller.
That last one is the sense that matters most at work, and it is the one learners miss, because nothing in the world changed. The lowering happened to the signal, not to the thing.
The test you can run with no book
Ask: what is smaller afterward: the thing, or the story about it?
The thing itself and it is reduction. Nothing is left at all and it is defeat. Only the story and it is suppression.
Reduction is the one you can put a number on, and that is the quickest check available: cut costs by twelve percent, tone the language down a little. You cannot play a risk down by twelve percent.
The mechanical half: defeat has no smaller version. If the sentence still allows “a little”, you are not in the defeat sense: a request is not turned down a little.
One idea covers them all: down means toward the ground, lower, and the only question is what gets lowered: a quantity, a position, or a signal you want quieter. This is why scale down sounds survivable and shut down sounds final, though they share a particle.
ACTIVATION
Work down the page: the form first, then the strangers, then the particle choices, then the words, then say one out loud.
Complete the form
Use the verb in brackets plus down, in the correct form.
Spot and fix the error
Each sentence has one mistake. Rewrite it correctly.
1. We need to cut down the travel budget by ten percent.
2. They refused to back down on their budget position.
3. Finance decided to shut down the regional pilot entirely.
4. Let's water the proposal down before legal sees it.
5. The board wants us to tone the forecast down so we don't oversell.
Rewrite with a phrasal verb
Replace the formal verb with a verb plus down that carries the same meaning.
1. We need to cut down the travel budget before the review.
2. We could scale down the expansion instead of ending it.
3. Please tone down the growth language in the deck.
4. Marketing turned down our request to trim their spend.
5. Let's not play down the revenue risk.
Match the halves
Join each opening to the ending that completes it.
Meet a Stranger
These three are not taught anywhere in this book. Reason from the particle, then reveal the key.
1. “Negotiation whittled the vendor's ask down to a number we could fund.”
2. “The committee shot down the new-hire request in five minutes.”
3. “Finance clamped down on discretionary spend for the rest of the quarter.”
whittle down: to reduce something gradually, a bit at a time. Reduction sense.
shoot down: to reject an idea firmly and fast. Defeat sense.
clamp down: to impose strict control on something. Suppression sense.
Particle swap
Same verb, three particles, one right answer. Choose the particle the situation needs.
Vocabulary: cutting costs and refusing
Match each expression to its meaning.
Vocabulary in context
Complete each sentence with an expression from G.