The connection broke off vs The line went dead? (what's more common?)
What's a more common thing to say - 'The connection broke off.' or 'The line went dead?'

Isn't 'The line went dead' more appropriate when it's actually dead (like out of service, or something)?

Question

The connection broke off vs The line went dead? (what's more common?)
What's a more common thing to say - 'The connection broke off.' or 'The line went dead?'

Isn't 'The line went dead' more appropriate when it's actually dead (like out of service, or something)?

Answer

"The line went dead" is more common, but is used when the service is terminated for some reason (like a storm caused a tree to fall over a phone line, etc.).

"The connection broke" might be used for a temporary outage that caused the call to drop, but doesn't indicate that the service is down. You could call again immediately, usually, and get back onto the call.