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AppleFanboy Posted 11 years ago
Vocabulary

Break, separate?

You should break your futile illusion.
break + illusion

You need to separate reality from ideal.
separate + reality + ideal

Do these two sentences sound native?
  

Top answer

AppleFanboy Do these two sentences sound native? No. Illusions are 'shattered', but not by ourselves; we 'disillusion' ourselves.

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4 Answers
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AppleFanboyDo these two sentences sound native?
No. Illusions are 'shattered', but not by ourselves; we 'disillusion' ourselves.

You should disillusion yourself.
Your illusions should be shattered.

You need to separate reality from the ideal.
You need to separate reality from illusion.
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So don't natives use 'break' with 'illusion' even when illusion is shattered not by ourselves?

Break and shatter seem to have the same meaning..

I will break your illusion.
I will shatter your illusion.

Is only the second one acceptable?
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AppleFanboyIs only the second one acceptable?
Yes, if you wish a native expression. If you do not, you may use crack, crash, fracture, snap, tear, sever and many other verbs carrying the same general meaning.
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But I just looked up the Oxford Collocation Dictionary and it said

VERB + ILLUSION | break, destroy, dispel, shatter Within the first week at university all my illusions were shattered. | shed Now is the time to shed our illusions.

Is it because the collocation people prefer to use differs from the country they are from such as UK and US?
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