phrasal verb · neutral

go wrong

UK/ɡəʊ rɒŋ/US/ɡoʊ rɔːŋ/go WRONG

speakingtask2

to fail or to not happen as planned; to develop problems

Examples

Everything went wrong on the day of the presentation.

If something goes wrong, call me immediately.

We checked the system to make sure nothing would go wrong.

Band 8 sentence

Despite meticulous planning, some aspects of the rollout went wrong, highlighting the importance of contingency measures.

Collocations

  • something goes wrong / things go wrong
  • if/when things go wrong

Word family

goes wrong verbwent wrong verbgoing wrong verb

Common mistakes

If something go wrong, tell me.If something goes wrong, tell me.

Everything went wronged yesterday.Everything went wrong yesterday.

Say it for a higher band

5fail6break down7+go wrong

Synonyms

fail

break down

Easily confused

fail

The experiment failed because of contamination.

break down

The engine broke down on the motorway.

go wrong

If anything goes wrong, we'll fix it.

Related words

Learn this word with the rest of its set, and get reminded at the right time.

In go …

Learn it with its set