Break the rules means to disobey established rules, to do something you're not supposed to do. It can be about the rules of a game, a school, a company or the road. Breaking the law is a separate phrase: break the law.
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break the rules; break a rule; broke (past)
- Employees who break the rules more than once may lose their jobs.
- It's tempting to break the rules when nobody seems to be watching.
- The referee warned both teams not to break the rules again.
What changed
First versionIf you break rules here, you will get a warning.
RevisionIf you break the rules here, you will get a warning.
The word here shows that the rules belong to this particular place and everyone already knows them, so the article is needed: break the rules. Without it, break rules sounds like a general statement about rules as a concept: Some people enjoy breaking rules. Since the article system works differently in many languages, the is easy to leave out by mistake.
Break a rule means to break one specific rule: She broke a school rule by using her phone in class. Bend the rules means to make a small exception, just this once: Could you bend the rules just this once?
Your turn
Every employee signs a contract, so anyone who ___ can be dismissed immediately.
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breaks the rules — The company's rules are already understood through the contract, so the rules is needed. Breaks rule, without an article and in the singular, is a grammar mistake.
Write about rules at your workplace or place of study that must not be broken, and what happens if they are.
If you break the rules about deadlines here, your manager will talk to you personally.
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