Learn English – Does “unbuild” in “Unbuild your Legos before putting them back into the box” sound natural

antonymsphrase-requestword-request

How could I change this sentence in order for it to sound more natural and easier to be understood by a toddler?

I've been using 'unassailable' or 'take them apart' but both sound strange.

Best Answer

There's nothing wrong with saying "Take apart your legos*† before putting them back into the box." (Or, equivalently, "Take your legos apart before putting them back into the box.") "Take apart" is a fairly common phrasal verb, and it's about as simple and straightforward a phrase as you can get to express this to a toddler — or anyone, really: it's not baby talk or otherwise condescending, it's just a simple phrase for a simple concept.

*American English usage considers the "lego" to primarily be the block itself, and only by normal pluralization (etc) to be the collection of such blocks. British English is the reverse. Since you put "Legos" in the title of your question, I assume you're using American English, which conveniently is my native dialect.
As a generic term for a type of block toy, there's no need to capitalize it. The trademark is in all-caps anyway: LEGO®.

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