calm down — make someone calm
phrasal verbB1IELTS 5+neutralcommon
To help someone else feel less upset, angry, or excited.
Say it like a native
Textbook I attempted to pacify the distressed child.
Native I tried to calm the baby down.
'Calm someone down' is the everyday verb for soothing them; 'pacify' is formal.
Pattern: calm (someone) down
In use
- She tried to calm her son down after he started crying.family
- In stressful situations at work, it's important to know how to calm your colleagues down.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ It took ages to calm down him.
✓ It took ages to calm him down.
With a pronoun, the object goes in the middle: 'calm him down'.
Common collocations
calm someone down— the baby, him down, the crowd, her
Don't confuse it
This sense is about helping another person, not yourself.
Related
- calm down (become calm) — Another meaning of 'calm down' is 'become calm'; compare the examples to keep the meanings separate.