One syllable: broke.
/ˈbɹoʊk/
Say it backBroke is the past tense of 'break' and also an informal adjective meaning having little or no money. In pronunciation, it is a single-stressed, closed-front vowel /oʊ/ followed by a voiceless /k/ ending, often reduced in fast speech. The meaning can affect intonation and rhythm in sentences, especially when contrasting temporary status vs. ongoing condition.
- You might default to a flat vowel instead of the prominent /oʊ/ diphthong; aim for a smooth glide from a mid-back vowel to a high back position. - Final /k/ sometimes becomes a weak glottal stop in rapid speech or before another word; practice a clear /k/ with a light release. - Some learners insert extra vowel sounds before /k/ or mispronounce /b/ by starting with a voiceless stop; ensure a voiced /b/ onset, then immediate glide into /roʊ/ and flat /k/ end. - Focus on the transition from /b/ to /r/ to /oʊ/: keep a quick, clean movement of the tongue from bilabial closure to alveolar approximant without delaying the syllable.
"After fixing the loan, he still felt broke for months."
"The glass broke when it fell from the shelf."
"If you’re broke this week, we can split the bill later."
Broke is pronounced as /broʊk/ in US and UK; the initial consonant is a voiced bilabial /b/, followed by the long close-mid back rounded diphthong /oʊ/ and a voiceless stop /k/. In syllable structure, it is a single stressed syllable: /broʊk/. In casual speech you may hear slight vowel reduction, but the core is /b/ + /roʊ/ + /k/. Mouth position: lips start rounded for /oʊ/ and close around the /k/ at the end. IPA: US /broʊk/, UK /brəʊk/, AU /brəʊk/.
Common errors: 1) Pronouncing /oʊ/ as a short /ɒ/ as in 'box'; correct is the long diphthong /oʊ/. 2) Misplacing the /b/ and /r/ sequence by starting with a heavy /b/ release and a weak /r/; ensure the /b/ is lightly released into /roʊ/. 3) Final /k/ released as a glottal stop or omitted; aim for a clear voiceless /k/ with final aspiration or slight puff. Correct these by practicing the onset /b/, ensuring the tongue closes for /b/ and immediately transitions to /roʊ/; finish with a clean /k/ release.
US: /broʊk/, rhotic, with clear rhotic vowel in some regions; the /r/ is a post-alveolar approximant. UK: /brəʊk/ or /brəuk/ with non-rhotic tendencies in some dialects; vowel is a longer /əʊ/ diphthong; AU: /brəʊk/, often with a lengthened /əʊ/ and less pronounced rhoticity. Differences mainly revolve around rhoticity and vowel quality of the diphthong; US tends to a tighter /oʊ/ with a rounded onset, UK tends toward /əʊ/ with less pronounced postvocalic r, AU shares /əʊ/ but with Australian vowel shift nuances.
The difficulty lies in the diphthong /oʊ/ forming a smooth, sliding vowel from mid-back to close; coordination of lip rounding and tongue height is subtle, especially in fast speech; the final /k/ must be released cleanly without voicing or aspiration loss; non-native speakers often substitute /o/ or misarticulate the onset, causing a less natural American prosody. Practice with isolated /broʊk/ and then embed it in short sentences to tune the transition and the final stop release.
Broke has no silent letters and carries a single-stress syllable; the entire word is one syllable with primary stress on that syllable by default. The challenge is not stress placement but the diphthong boundary and the final /k/ release. In connected speech, you might hear it compressed before a following consonant, but the fundamental pronunciation remains /broʊk/. IPA reference helps anchor the exact vowel quality for you.
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- US: /broʊk/ with a rhotic r; ensure the /r/ is pronounced as an alveolar approximant after the rounded /oʊ/ vowel; lip rounding should feel natural. - UK: /brəʊk/ with a less pronounced rhotic; the vowel quality leans toward /əʊ/ and the /r/ is often non-rhotic in many dialects, though connected speech may reveal limited r-coloring. - AU: /brəʊk/ similar to UK; may show a more centralized /ə/ before the /ʊ/ glide; keep vowel length comfortable and avoid over-enunciating. Reference IPA: US /broʊk/, UK /brəʊk/, AU /brəʊk/. - General tips: practice the diphthong by starting with a rounded mouth and gliding to a higher tongue position; the /k/ should be a crisp closure without aspiration loss in careful speech. - Collocations: go broke, broke again, broke the trust; stress patterns align with content emphasis rather than a fixed rule.
Broke comes from the past tense of the verb break, stemming from Old English brecan, related to Dutch breken and German brechen. The modern form broke emerged in Middle English as the past tense developed from -e (broke) versus -en (broken). The root idea centers on fracturing or causing to separate, but over time the semantic load shifted in colloquial English to denote fracture of objects, systems, or figurative states (e.g., financially broke). By the 17th–18th centuries, broke was already used idiomatically as past action (he broke the agreement) and later as a state descriptor (he is broke financially). The word’s phonology simplified through regularization of the diphthong in stressed syllables, aligning with patterns like woke, soak. In contemporary English, broke is ubiquitous in informal speech, often used in the idiom “broke again” and in headlines to convey sudden financial hardship or injury to plans. First known written attestations align with monetary sense in early modern texts, while the sense of ‘damaged’ predated the financial metaphor, expanding the word’s versatility across different contexts.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "broke" and can often be used interchangeably.
🔄 These words have opposite meanings to "broke" and show contrast in usage.
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Words that rhyme with "broke"
-oke sounds
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