Fall down means to fall to the ground or the floor. You say it about a person who loses their balance, or about an object that was standing and falls over. About an old house or shed, people say it's falling down, meaning that it is falling apart.
Want to use fall down in conversation?
Write a sentence — we'll show the mistakes right away and suggest how to say it more naturally.
The check is taking longer than usual. Your feedback will appear here automatically.
fall down (on the ground); fall down + the stairs/a hole; building + be falling down; fall off + bike/horse/chair
- Our little daughter fell down in the park, but she got up and kept running.
- He missed a step and fell down the stairs, but luckily he only bruised his arm.
- Nobody has lived in the old farmhouse for years, and it's slowly falling down.
What changed
First versionMy son fell down from his bike and hurt his knee.
RevisionMy son fell off his bike and hurt his knee.
When you fall from something you were sitting or standing on, such as a bike, a horse or a stepladder, English uses “fall off”: “fell off his bike”. “Down” and “from” are not needed here. But when someone tumbles all the way down a staircase, it is “fall down the stairs”.
For prices, numbers and temperature, use just “fall”, without “down”: House prices fell last year. “Fall down” is kept for a physical fall: The old fence fell down in the storm.
Your turn
The ice outside the office was so slippery that two of my colleagues ___ this morning.
Show the answer
fell down — The colleagues slipped on the ice and fell where they were standing, not from something, so “fell down” is right. “Fell off” needs something to fall from, for example “fell off a ladder”, and the sentence has nothing like that.
Think of a time when you or someone you know had a fall: on ice, at the gym or on a hike. Write where it happened and how it ended.
Last winter I fell down on the icy steps outside my office, but I only hurt my wrist a little.
Learn to use new words without mistakes
Write phrases with the words you are learning. LetsWords shows mistakes in usage and grammar, suggests corrections and explains them, and review helps the words stick.