The weather, more precisely

This is the list for a weather bulletin, and its last entry is the one an English reader is most likely to build wrongly. French does not break a record, it beats it: battre un record, la ville a battu un record de chaleur. « To break » here would be casser or briser, and neither is ever used of a record; the figure is treated as an opponent you defeat, not as a barrier you shatter. The rest of the family follows the same logic. Détenir un record is to hold one, égaler un record is to equal it, and when the margin is not close there is pulvériser un record — to pulverise it, which is the one place French does break something. The verb repays knowing beyond this phrase, because battre is the verb of repeated striking, and it is already higher up this page: la pluie battante is the rain that beats against a window. So in French the record and the downpour share a verb, and in English they share nothing at all.