When you push the accelerator, the engine turns the wheels.
If you’re moving and you don’t push the accelerator, the wheels turn the engine.
This is hard to do, so it slows the car down. This is engine braking.
When you push the clutch in, the wheels don’t turn the engine anymore, no more engine braking.
Usually that’s fine, but sometimes when you’re going down a hill, you don’t want to put that effort all on the regular brakes, so you can put some of it on the engine brakes.
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