Easy English Lesson: turn on, turn off, turn up, turn down

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo- -doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

Hello. Hi. James from engVid.

You might have noticed that my voice changed. I went from soft to loud.

Now, many students I find have a problem when it comes to electronics.

They don't know whether they should use, or if

they should use "up", "down", "on", or "off". Today is a basic lesson on those things. So,

let's go to the board and take a look.

Now, when we talk about electronics, which could be something as simple as your cellphone-okay?-what

happens is people want to use them, which is fine if you're doing it for yourself, but

when you're talking to other people and you want them to do something for you. You notice

that this cellphone is, would you say "down" or "off"? All right? That's the lesson we're

going to do today. What do you say when you want to change the condition of this cellphone?

We'll start right now.

E, so are we going to turn up the volume or turn on the volume? Well, I notice

"dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh-d- unh-dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh"

the music is already on. This is low volume and this is high volume, but how do we change

them? Let's start with some basic definitions.

First, "turn", that was a turn. It's to move around a centre. Here's a centre, I turn around

a centre, or to reverse a position. Interesting. Both of these definitions we need to understand

if we say: "turn up" or "turn on". The first one, to turn around a centre, we have to go

back in time a little bit. You're from the Modern Age, so when you press your toys, you

just press. But when I was a little boy a long time ago, when the Indians rode on the

plains... I'm not that old, but I feel that way. What happened was we used to have televisions

and radios, and we would turn, we would turn them if we wanted more volume.

So if you look over here, where I said turn means to reverse a position, you have 360.

So, I feel like we're doing an old science lesson. And boys and girls, we will now demonstrate

the turning mechanism. Here we go. We will turn up the power, and turn down the power.

Which means reverse. So we're going to look here, and you notice I have to turn. Okay?

This is a very old machine. Some of you won't recognize this. It's a film projector. Yeah,

we don't use these now. Anyway. But the point was: The technology, you had to actually do

something with it, and that's where we get the ideas for "up", "down", "on", and "off".

We're switching. We're either reversing the position or moving around a centre.

Now, when you have a lot of movement or 360, which is basically a circle... All right?

When you have a circle, this is why we talk about turning up and down, because as you

turn it, you can increase the power or decrease the power, or make the sound higher or make

the sound lower. In fact, in the old days, they used to do this for television, radios,

and lights. You would turn up and you would increase it so it would get more. So here's

the 360, or you would go more, more, more, more, more. Or you would turn it down and

decrease it and you would get less, less, less, less. So the room could be darker if

you're talking about light. If sounds all of a sudden the voice would get lower, lower

and disappear. Okay.

So that's why when we talk about volume on televisions or radios,

we say: "Hey, could you turn up the volume?" And if you think about this machine, okay?

Turn up the volume,

turn down the volume. See? So turning.

You don't use it now because we have new machines,

but that was what the idea was for English. Now, "turn up", "turn down", you understand.

We increase going one way, decrease the other. Higher or lower. And you just think up is

more, down is less.

So what about the "on/off" thing? On/off. Well, think about it this way: On/off for

us is like yes or no. -"Do you want to use it?" -"Yes. Turn it on."

-"Do you not want to use it?" -"No. Turn it off."

And that's the light switch. When you want to have light,

you turn it on. Yes, light. When you don't want it, turn it off. No. Another way of thinking

of it is if you like The Avengers, or Hercules from when I was a little kid:

"I have the power!" Usually, with electronics, it's about power.

When you turn something on, you give

it power or electricity, like your lightbulb. And because of that, it goes on and starts

to work, and it will continue to work until you take off the power. That's why we say:

"Turn on the power", so it can continue going.

There is no increase or decrease; it just works.

"Attaching", so we say: "We attach power". "Attach" means when you have something, you

put it on something so it stays. Now it's attached to my hand. See? Now it's not attached.

Well, here is a lightbulb. It doesn't have power, so we attach the power, and then we

have light. No li-... No power or no electricity, no light. Lightbulb is off. So that's what

we talk about with the "turn on" and "turn off". You want to think: Am I attaching power?

Yes? Then you have light. Or not attaching power? No light. "Off" is separating or preventing.

When we separate, we prevent the power to go to the light. Because we stop it, there

is no light. So this is why we have "on" or "off". Sorry. "On" or "off" for power, and

we say: "We're turning on the power", and "turning off the power". But if we want more

light, we will turn it up and increase it. Or if we want less light, we will turn it

down and decrease it.

Now, I'm going to do a little quiz with you, because this was an easy lesson, but an important

one. So in the future, the full statement should be: If you want the lights on:

"Could you turn on the light, please?" If you want the light off:

"Could you turn off the light?"

If you want more light, you should say: "Can you turn up the light?" and think of the light

going up, up, up; increasing. And if it's too much light, you go:

"Could you turn the lights down, please? I just woke up." You'll get less, less light.

Ready for the quiz?

Let's go.

[Snaps]

Are we ready? I want to do a quick recap. A "recap" means to go over something again

to help you remember. So let's go. So, "on" or "off", we're talking about power. Think

"yes" or "no". Do I want it on? Do I want it off? Yes or no? When we turn something...

Or sorry, "up" and "down", it's comparative. Think higher or lower. So we turn on the power

or turn off the power, like the light. Turn on the light, turn off the light. Okay? When

we go up or down, it's comparative, so something is changing in intensity or direction. So

it's going higher volume or lower volume. Okay?

So we're going comparatively, higher or lower. Cool.

Okay? So, let's do some sentences. We have four, here. Okay? First one:

"John asked if we had air conditioning because he was hot. I said I would turn it __________."

Which one?

Now, if John is hot and he's asking if we have air conditioning, probably he cannot

hear it or see it. So, I would probably have to turn it

"on" because he was hot.

If we had air conditioning working, the room would be cool, and he wouldn't have to ask.

So we add power to the air conditioning. Yes, we want power, and yes, we want air conditioning.

I just turned it on.

Next question. Let's go here:

"The radio was too loud in the car. Mr. E asked me to turn it __________." "off" or "down"?

Well, "too" we talk about

how intense or strong something is, and usually we say it's comparative, so higher or lower.

Too salty, too much salt. Too loud, too much sound. It doesn't mean we don't like the thing.

Or if it's too little, we don't have enough. It doesn't mean we don't like it, it means

there's more than we want. We want some, but less. So let's take a look. Comparative over

here we have for higher or lower. If the music is too high, we want it lower.

That means we want to turn it down.

So: "Mr. E asked me to turn it down." Not off, he likes the

music, just not so loud. He's got little worm ears.

Number three: "The room was dark because the lights were off, so Mr. E turned __________ the lights."

This one's a little easy. I want to help you,

because if the room were dark, there are no lights. What's the opposite of "off"?

Let's take a look. Over here, the opposite of "off" is "on". We need to add power to the lights.

So when we add power and turn on the lights, we will be able to see. So:

"Mr. E turned on the lights."

And number four, what would that be?

"While your computer is turned __________ go do the quiz at engVid."

Huh? Well, I will leave it for you to think

about for a second. Your computer.

Do you think you know the answer? Let's take a look.

Can you see me? Yes. That means your computer must have power. Correct? That means your

computer must be "on". If your computer is on, you can see me.

And while you're doing that and it's on, I'm going to suggest that you go do the quiz at

www.eng as in English, vid as in video (www.engvid.com), okay? Well, you're probably already there,

but if you're on YouTube, go there, do the quiz. See how well you understand the lesson.

Okay? Anyway, I've got to go, but I look forward to seeing you soon.

And as always, thank you for joining us and don't forget to subscribe.

Chow.