Break in / Break out

break inIt’s quite common to see stories of people escaping from prison on the news but this article on the ABC News website was the first time I’ve hear of someone trying to get inside a prison. It’s a shame the article doesn’t mention why they were tryng to get in.

Although it’s a very short article, there are some interesting words and phrases in it. The interesting vocabulary begins with the title:

Women busted trying to ‘break into‘ jail

In this headline, the word ‘busted‘ means that they were arrested or caught by the police and the phrasal verb ‘break in‘ means to enter a place illegally, usually by force. The opposite of ‘break in‘ is ‘break out‘ meaning to escape.

The next interesting word is in the second paragraph where the author uses the word ‘cottages‘. ‘Cottage‘ is a word we use to talk about a very small house.

There is some interesting legal vocabulary in the following paragraph. It mentions the women being ‘charged‘ meaning a formal statement has been issued accusing them of the crime and that they were released ‘on bail‘ meaning that they do not have to stay in prison or go to court until their trial begins.

Why do you think these women broke into a prison?

Today’s photo is by Brad Harrison.