to fire
– B1-C2 (intermediate to advanced) –
Practice Your Listening Comprehension
Practice Your Reading Comprehension
In Canadian English, this verb typically means:
to remove an employee from a company, often due to misbehaviour or bad professional performance (e.g., sexual harassment, racist commentary, stealing company money, consistently not meeting company targets, etc.)
NOTE
The verb “to fire” does not mean the same thing as the phrasal verb “to lay off.” This is a common mistake among English learners.
EXAMPLES
“I want to be the boss, but I don’t want to have to fire anyone.”
“Do you know why she was fired from her last job? Are you sure you want to take a chance and hire her?”
Have you ever been fired? Maybe you were the person who fired someone? How did that make you feel? Practice using this verb by telling me about your experience in the comments below.
RELATED ARTICLES
to lay off (coming soon)
