Improve your vocabulary! 18 ways to say something is broken in English

Sorry, I think my phone's busted.

Hey, everyone.

I'm Alex.

Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on how to talk about things that are broken

in English.

So, this specifically refers to machines, electronics, things like printers, computers,

phones, photocopiers, televisions, radios, okay?

Machines and electronics.

There are other contexts where you can use some of today's vocabulary, but I'm specifically

going to talk about them in the context of electronics and machines that are giving you

problems.

All right?

So, we have three levels, here.

We have it's not working properly, it needs to be replaced soon, or it's dead.

We need to replace it, like, now, pretty much.

Or something needs to be replaced in the machine.

All right.

So, let's start here.

So, of course, you can say that something is not working properly, right, or it's not

functioning properly, or you can say - we have some slang terminology, here - it's messed

up.

Okay?

So, repeat after me.

It's messed up.

The printer's messed up.

Okay?

You can also say it's screwed up.

Right?

So, you can say the computer is screwed up, or the mouse is screwed up, the keyboard is

all screwed up, like the keys are putting in the wrong letters when I type, for example.

Okay?

So, you have messed up, screwed up, you can put those together.

This one, not as common today, but you can still hear it sometimes in films and TV shows.

Sometimes on the fritz, this means that it's not working properly, like it hasn't been

working properly for a while.

Something is inside the machine that's causing it to be messed up, be screwed up, be on the

fritz.

Okay?

Next, very common, it's having issues, it's having problems.

You can say I'm having problems with my phone, I'm having problems with my keyboard, like

it's having issues, it's having problems.

Okay?

All right, it's acting up.

So, if something is acting up, it's not working properly.

You can also use this to talk about people and kids, specifically, like oh, he's acting

up, like he's not working properly, not acting properly or in the expected way.

So, my phone is acting up, my computer is acting up, whatever, the printer is acting

up, the photocopier is acting up, the internet, the wifi is acting up, it's not working properly.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Next, it's being temperamental or finicky.

Let's start with temperamental.

So, you see the word "temper", right?

So, imagine, you know, your phone, it has like a personality.

It can be angry, it can be happy, so when it's working, it's happy, but sometimes it

doesn't want to load your browser or it doesn't want to load your apps properly or it freezes.

So, it's like it has a temper, so if you can say like it's being temperamental, it's just...

You can use this for people as well.

And it's being finicky, like there are little details that are annoying you, like you're

trying to scroll on your phone, but sometimes it scrolls, sometimes it doesn't scroll, like

it's being really weird with little details.

It's being finicky.

And it's being buggy, so a bug, like a virus, basically, inside a computer, so if you say

something is buggy, that means that something is wrong inside that machine, something is

wrong inside that program.

Video games can also be buggy, like the controls can be buggy, like in level three, when I

get near the river and I just push the controller this way, the character doesn't jump in, he

goes this way instead, like the controls are buggy, they're weird.

Something is not 100% right.

And defective, basically you get something and it's already not working properly, so

it is...

You can also say a lemon, so if you get a lemon, it's something that you buy that doesn't

work properly the moment you open the box.

Right?

So, "car" is the most common context where you can say "lemon".

I didn't add "lemon" here, but I just thought of it, so bonus English for you guys.

All right?

So, a lemon is something that is defective.

It's not working properly.

Next, something that needs to be replaced soon.

So, you can say something is on its last legs, so think of your machines as, you know, having

energy and they're running well, okay?

But just like you, if you run for a long time, your legs get weaker.

Just like a machine, you can say, "Okay, my car is on its last legs."

Yes, cars have wheels, but you can use the metaphor that the car is on its last legs.

Or very simple, it's dying.

It's dying a very slow death, okay?

So, very simple here, it's dying.

It's on life support, so if it's like your machine is in a hospital and there are other

machines trying to keep it alive, like you can tell, okay, it works still, but not super

well.

Just make sure you don't click this button, because if you click this button, everything

gets messed up, okay?

So it's... it's on life support, it needs to be replaced soon, and it's in disrepair.

Okay?

So, it's disorganized, pieces of it aren't functioning properly, and it doesn't matter.

Like, imagine pieces of the machine inside it being everywhere, out of order, not working

properly.

All right, and finally, we have... we went from "it's dying" to "it's dead", okay?

It needs to be replaced now, or something inside the machine needs to be replaced.

So, you can say, "It's busted.

My phone is busted.

Can you fix my phone?

My keyboard is busted, I need a new keyboard.

It's toast."

So, think of bread in a toaster, it comes up, it's burned.

Okay?

So, think of your machine almost, like, being burned, like toast, so it's not working properly,

it's dead, it's toast.

It's fried.

So, imagine putting your phone in the oven, or in a microwave, and turning that on, and

frying your phone, or your keyboard, or your whatever else, other electronic device, your

Nintendo 3DS, for example.

Okay?

So, it's...

It's fried.

Imagine, like, smoke coming from it.

All right?

It's out of order.

This is not as bad, like, you think of a vending machine, a vending machine is a machine where

you can get snacks, so you can buy drinks, or crackers, or chips, if you put money in

the machine, and the chips come out, or the drinks come out.

But often you see the sign "out of order".

This means the machine is not working, we need to get a mechanic to come and replace

something in the machine, or fix the machine in some way.

This also works for toilets.

Right?

So, sometimes you go to a public bathroom and you'll see the sign "out of order".

It is not working properly.

It is dead right now, it will be fixed later, but for now it's gone.

It's kaput.

So, "kaput" is like a German-Yiddish kind of word, so maybe you have it in your own

language.

It's kaput, it's dead, it's gone, it's done.

It's done, which is exactly what I just said.

Alright.

So, we have "it's not working properly", "it needs to be replaced soon", "it's dead", tons

of words.

So, to make sure that you got this, let's repeat them one more time.

So, guys, repeat after me.

It's messed up.

It's screwed up.

It's on the fritz.

It's having issues.

It's having problems.

It's acting up.

It's being temperamental.

It's being finicky.

It's buggy.

It's defective.

It's on its last legs.

It's dying.

It's on life support.

It's in disrepair.

It's dead.

It's busted.

It's toast.

It's fried.

It's out of order.

It's kaput.

It's done.

And now, this video is done.

So, guys, if you want to test your understanding of this vocabulary, and, you know, you can

always do that on www.engvid.com, check out the quiz there, and don't forget to use this

in your daily life because we all experience, you know, headaches with technology.

We all experience headaches with our phones and computers and other devices in our houses

that are driving us crazy, but making us slaves at the same time.

It's sad.

So, if you want to check out more videos like this, if you enjoyed this, if you want to

learn more vocabulary, check me out on engVid.

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel, and if you want to see, you know, some other

things that I'm doing, I'm also on Facebook, I'm also on Twitter.

The links are attached to this video, so hopefully I'll see you there.

And let me know your most frustrating technological disaster story in the comments.

I want to know.

Tell me, and I'll respond.

So, until next time, thanks for clicking.