The Last of Us Vocabulary: Survival, Travel and Everyday Needs

Here, break down means deteriorate over time. You will also hear this phrasal verb for machines that stop working, but the surrounding noun tells you which sense is intended.

The useful travel idea is how far or how long a vehicle can go before refueling. In ordinary trip planning, pair a tank expression with time or distance.

To clear a road is to remove whatever is blocking it so traffic can pass. The same verb works with snow, fallen branches, debris and crowds.

This works for driving, walking, speaking, eating or almost any activity with a pace. It is short because the situation usually makes the missing detail obvious.

This compact pattern means “keep your attention there.” English uses eyes on + thing when the speaker wants someone to focus visually.

The phrasal verb get around can mean bypass a physical obstacle. In route talk, it is useful when a road, bridge or area is blocked.

English commonly uses take with roads, exits, turns and routes. It does not mean physically “take” the object; it means choose and follow it.

In informal English, tops after a number means “at most.” It sounds more confident and tighter than a vague estimate.

Even adds surprise or disbelief. The speaker is not just asking for the name of the food; the food is strange enough to make the question slightly incredulous.

A lot + comparative is a very useful spoken pattern: a lot fresher, a lot cheaper, a lot quieter, a lot easier.

The reusable part is the direct statement of physical discomfort. In everyday English, this is stronger and more natural than saying “I am very cold.”

I figure introduces a practical judgment, expectation or plan. In standard learner production, a fuller sentence is usually clearer: “I figure I’ll…” or “I think I’ll…”.

Grab can make a short opportunity sound casual: grab lunch, grab a coffee, grab a shower, grab some sleep. The quotation uses the reduced spoken form wanna; write want to in formal contexts.

Remote is not simply “far.” It suggests a place is isolated, difficult to reach, or far from services and population.

Settlement means an established place where people live. In ordinary modern travel, you may more often say village, town, community or populated area, but the word is useful in historical, geographic and remote-travel contexts.

The construction make your way to + place means travel or move toward a destination, often gradually. The clipped ending in the quotation represents casual speech; write making in standard spelling.

This can mean alone, independent, or without help, depending on context.

This idiom means watch someone or something attentively. It can be protective, practical or simply responsible.

This means do not move from your current place. That is different from asking someone to remain nearby while still moving with the group.

This is a compressed rule rather than a full sentence. English does this constantly on signs and in firm instructions: no parking, no running, no touching.

Odds are means something is likely, not guaranteed. It is stronger and more reasoned than a casual “maybe.”

Use this when you have given too much background and want to return to the important conclusion. Extremely useful during trip planning, because trip planning has a mysterious ability to become a seventeen-minute conversation about parking.