Have a breakdown

[irland5]

Hi there!

I know that breakdown has different meanings and one of the is when you end up crying.

My question is , do you say my car has a breakdown, I have a breakdown , my car is breakdown?

If you say I have a breakdown is it like " I am having a bad time" ?

When you say I got a breakdown yesterday , do you mean that you were crying or that your car breakdown?

Thanks

 

[Eckaslike]

I think many people use breakdown to mean their car has broken down.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/breakdown

Usually the context makes it clear, however, sometimes it can be ambiguous such as:

"I had a breakdown yesterday". This could mean your car broke down, but it could be that you were very upset and went into "meltdown".

It always makes me chuckle when I see something saying "Breakdown assistance".

Personally, I prefer to distinguish between the two:
For cars, or general machinery, "My car broke down yesterday" or "My car has broken down".

As opposed to:

"I had a [nervous] breakdown yesterday" or "I'm having a [nervous] breakdown".

Sometimes people will make it absolutely clear what they are talking about by using the term "nervous breakdown", then there is absolutely no confusion.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/nervous-breakdown

But as I said, usually the context makes it pretty clear.

Update:
However, breakdown in the sense of "They broke down and cried", to me, just implies that they were very upset for a period of time, because they'd lost their job, or a family member, or received other bad news. (i.e. they were not having a full nervous breakdown, from which they may not fully recover).

 

[m3zomo]

pretty useful reply^

 

[emsr2d2]

pretty useful reply^

M3zomo, what is your response supposed to mean? It has no capitalisation or punctuation. It is not a complete sentence. Why do you consider the reply only to be "pretty useful"? Please clarify why you didn't think it was a good/great/perfect reply. Why is there a strange little pointy hat at the end?

If you find a response useful, there is no need to write a post at all. Simply click on the "Like" or "Thank" button (or both) to indicate your feelings about it.

 

[Tdol]

"I had a breakdown yesterday".

This works fine, but I wouldn't use it in the present tense.