fall off

[Naeem Afzal]

Hi,

I want to use the following phrasal verb in a sentence.

Fall off = to decrease in quality or quantity

Is "Food we stored had started falling off" correct?

Thanks

 

[Tdol]

It doesn't work for me.

Sales fell off after prices went up.

 

[JMurray]

not a teacher

"Food we stored had started falling off"

If you mean that the food went bad/rotten, then: "Food we had stored started going off".

You can say, for example: "This shop used to sell good fruit, but the quality has fallen off in recent times".

 

[Tdol]

I assumed the intended meaning was that they were running low.

 

[JMurray]

I assumed the intended meaning was that they were running low.

You're probably right, but as the OP included "quality" in the definition, I was just showing how "fall off" might be used in that context.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Not good. You're talking about a single supply of food, and as the word decrease suggests, when you use "falling off," you're comparing supplies over a period of time: Last year we stored a lot of food, but we stored less this year. The supply has fallen off.

Better:

- The food we stored is running low.
- We're running out of food.
- We've been using up the food we stored.
- We're eating up our food supply.