Free English Class! Topic: Describing Using Things! 🔑🔧📏 (Lesson Only)

Well, hello and welcome to this

English lesson about using things.

I will admit this is a really bad title for

a lesson, an English lesson that's filled with some very

common words that you do need to know.

I just couldn't think about a good

title for what to call it.

But the other day I ejected a DVD.

Yes, is still using a DVD player.

I ejected a DVD.

I put something up, I propped something up, I

hooked something up, I stacked some things, and I

thought all of these words make a good lesson.

A lesson, I guess, about describing

the actions of using things.

Maybe that's a better title.

Anyways, welcome to this English lesson.

I hope that you enjoy it.

We're going to talk about describing using things.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Extend.

So when you extend something, it means that

it's in a state of either being folded

up or wrapped up or rolled up.

And then extend is when you put it out.

On this camper, there is an awning.

And when the person stopped, they extended the awning.

Okay, I'm using the past tense.

So when you extend something, it

means it kind of goes out.

I wouldn't use this for an umbrella.

Like, you open an umbrella, but

you definitely extend an awning.

Maybe on your balcony you have an awning that rolls up.

There's another word for you, and

maybe you can crank it.

There's another word in order to extend the awning.

But yes, when you extend something, you move it from

a packed up state to being out and usable.

I do not own a motorhome like this.

I have a tent.

I don't have a motorhome.

I don't have a camper trailer.

Oh, hey, just a SEC.

I have to check something here.

Where is sorry to delay the lesson briefly.

I'm kind of a creature of habit.

So if I don't have my fitbit and my wedding ring

on, then I don't feel like I'm ready for my day.

So I had just noticed my wedding ring was off. Retract.

Hey, when you go on an airplane, after the

airplane takes off, they retract the landing gear.

So retract is actually the opposite of extend.

They extend the landing gear before they land,

and then they retract the landing gear.

When you retract something, it goes back

into the spot where it is stored.

Okay, so the wheels on an airplane, they

retract into the bottom of the airplane.

Sometimes in movies, they'll have an emergency because

the plane, they can't retract the landing gear.

The wheels are stuck down,

and apparently that's a problem.

I don't know a lot about aviation

stack, so here's a simple one.

There are many things in the world that you can stack.

When you stack things, you put one on top of another.

At school, when we meet as an entire school in

the gym, when we're done, we stack the chairs.

In order to put the chairs away

in the closet where they go.

We stack the chairs so they take up less space.

There's many things that you can stack.

You stack the plates in your cupboard.

You might stack cups, you might

stack bowls, you can stack spoons.

But when you stack things, it's when you put things

either inside each other or on top of each other.

Like these chairs here. Insert.

So we all do this.

I think I've lost my keys.

But sometimes you insert your key into the door,

into the lock, in order to unlock the door.

This pen has a cap.

I can insert the tip of the pen into the cap. Okay?

So whenever you have a thing that needs to

go inside of another thing, the verb we use

to describe that action is to insert.

When I was a kid, I used to go to

the arcade and I would insert coins into the video

game machine in order to play the video game.

So when you put things into something

else, we often use the verb insert.

When I'm frustrated.

Sometimes I do this.

Sometimes I take a piece of paper.

What's this piece of paper?

It's a comment from another video.

If I was done with this piece of paper, or if

I was frustrated, I might crumple the piece of paper.

So this piece of paper is now crumpled.

I might crumple it before I

throw it into the recycle bin.

You can just put paper in the recycle

bin flat but sometimes it's more fun to

crumple the paper and then throw it.

Students really like doing that.

They like to crumple the paper and they like to

throw it into the recycle bin or at each other.

So this is how this lesson came to be.

I was using a DVD player, which is rare.

Often in this world, you just

watch something on your computer.

But I have an older movie that I show in French

class, and I needed to play it from a DVD player.

So I put the DVD in, and then when I

was done, I hit the Eject button and I ejected.

Sorry I said eject.

It's not a long, it's Eject.

I hit the eject button.

Don't say eject. That's wrong.

I try not to say words wrong.

Hit the Eject button, and then the

DVD came out of the DVD player.

So when I was a kid, we could play

cassette tapes in the radio in our car.

And then if you hit Eject, it would come out.

So it's the button you push to make something come out.

I'm trying to think if there's a modern day oh, yeah.

Sometimes on a computer, if you are done

using something, you right click and eject it.

So it's like a safe way to remove

an SD card or something like that.

Rearrange do you ever get a little bit

bored of a room in your house?

Like, do you ever look at it and think,

oh, I should put that chair over there, and

I should move that file cabinet over there.

We call this rearranging.

When you rearrange a room, you

put things in different spots.

Maybe you look at your kitchen counter and you

think, oh, I should put the toaster over there,

and I should put the microwave over there.

And then maybe I'll move the

coffee maker beside the sink.

I think I'm going to rearrange

the things on my counter.

So when you rearrange, you put things either in

a room or on a counter or on a

shelf, you put things in different spots, you rearrange.

It's good to do that.

I think a lot of Canadians do that in the

middle of the winter because we're in our houses so

much, eventually we think, I should rearrange some things here.

Clamp.

So I think I talked about this verb

in another lesson, but in this lesson, I

want to talk about things like this light.

This person bought a light that

they could clamp onto their desk.

If you look at the bottom there, where the

light is connected to the desk, I think it

slid on and there's probably something to turn.

This is my clamp.

So as I turn, the clamp gets tighter. Okay.

When I was in university, I had a lamp that

would clamp onto my I had it on the headboard

of my bed so I could read at night.

I'm trying to think if I have other things right now.

Oh, I have a mic that clamps on to my tripod.

That's another use of the verb clamp.

But it simply means to attach something with something

we call a clamp, something that has a spring

or something that you turn and tighten.

Hook up.

So I think we talked about that.

These are called hitches.

There's a hitch that you use to hook up.

So my son has a truck and a trailer.

When he comes to get his

trailer, he hooks up his trailer.

When you hook something up, usually we're talking

about cars and trailers or tractors and wagons.

You hook one up to the other.

If you see a large transport truck

on the road, it has a trailer.

When he goes to the yard, he might unhook

the trailer and then hook up the trailer.

Okay, so it's when you connect something to

something else used primarily to talk about vehicles.

Although, yeah, you can hook up equipment, too.

And you might be wondering, why

not just use the word hook?

We don't you always hook up a trailer. Let me see.

I'm going to hook a trailer to my car.

Yeah, you can say that.

But I would say hookup is probably more common.

We have rip off and tear off.

You've probably seen posters like

this around your town sometimes.

Even though people usually sell things on

the Internet, you might still see these.

It might say, like, concert this week, free concert.

And then down here they'll have the address.

Or this guy is selling driveway cleaning service,

so he might have little pieces of paper

that you can rip off or tear off.

So if you're like, oh, I need my driveway cleaned,

you might tear off his name and phone number so

that you can give that person a call and they

can come and do that for you to pin.

So if you have a bulletin board or if you

have a cork board and you have pins or push

pins, you might pin something to the board.

If you use pinterest online, you might pin

something to your pinterest board as well.

But we have these in our classrooms.

We have a board in our kitchen, and if

there's something important, we will pin it to the

board so that we will remember it.

I think right now my next dentist appointment is pinned to the

board in our kitchen, so that way I can see it when

I walk by and hopefully not forget to go fold up.

We have tables where the legs will fold and so we set

the table up, but when we're done, we fold up the table.

When we go to market, we have folding tables.

So we don't often unfold the table. Just so you know.

We would set up the table and then at

the end of market, we would fold up the

table, the legs fold into the bottom.

The table itself actually folds in half, and then

you have a nice compact way to carry it.

So again, if you have folding tables,

you would set up the table.

When you're done using it, you would fold up

the table and you would put it away unfold.

So we don't have strollers anymore, but we used

to often when you have a stroller, it will

fold up and then you can unfold it.

So notice with the table, I didn't use unfold and

I wouldn't it sounds like a strange way, but with

a stroller, the little thing you push your kid or

baby around in, I would use unfold.

You fold up the stroller and put it in your

car and then you take it out and unfold it.

So when something is in a smaller form and it's designed

to kind of do this, we would use the verb unfold.

You would unfold the stroller.

I don't miss folding and unfolding strollers.

I think the newer ones work better, but definitely.

Yeah.

You know what?

I miss having little kids, because it was a lot

of fun having little kids, but I don't miss all

of the stuff like the diaper bag and the stroller

and everything you have to carry with you just to

go somewhere that was a little bit cumbersome prop up.

So this is I think it's a Microsoft Surface.

And you can see that, you see the little

back part that's out holding up the screen.

Let me see if I can mimic this.

I can't get my angles right.

So the part that's holding up the screen

at the bag, we would say that you're

using that to prop up the laptop.

Anytime you use something to kind of hold something else up

a little bit, we use the verb to prop up.

You can use prop as well, but

prop up is probably more common.

If your fence was falling over in the

backyard, you might push it straight and then

put a board to prop up the fence.

So it's something you use to hold something else up.

Often when I sit down at the kitchen table at lunch,

I might set down my phone and I might use a

book to prop up my phone so I can see it.

Right, so you might have your phone and if

you lay it flat, it's hard to see.

But I could put my pen under to prop it up on

the table and then I can see it to prop up.

To put up.

So this is a pretty general use verb.

You can put up blinds, you can put up

curtains, you can put up things on your walls,

you can put things up on shelves.

So anytime you're putting something up, that's

not a good way to define it.

Anytime you're attaching something to the wall or you're

doing what this person's doing, reaching up to hang

something, the general term would be to put up.

You can put up wallpaper, you wouldn't

put up paint, that doesn't make sense.

But you can put your groceries

up on the top shelf, right?

You can put up curtains, you can

put up blinds, et cetera, et cetera.

I think I'm repeating myself on put up.

Take down.

Kind of the opposite of put up.

Oh, by the way, you can put up a tent as well.

This guy, I think, is going to take down the

tent, but when he got to the campground, I'm pretty

sure that he would have put up his tent.

You can use setup as well with the tent, but

when you're done camping, you take down your tent.

So a tent, when it's up, can collapse

and fold and you can roll it up.

All of those actions we would

use the verb to take down.

So not the funnest part of camping.

But when you're done camping, you

will take down your tent.

And again, you can use this for things on the wall.

I'm going to take down that painting.

I'm going to put up some posters or I'm going

to take down my posters before I move out.

So the action of putting things up and

down unfurl not used a lot anymore.

You can unfurl a sail.

You can unfurl a flag as well.

So when you have something like a fabric

that's rolled up, you can unfurl it.

And I think those are probably like when

you pull the cord on a parachute.

The parachute will unfurl above you.

You might use it then, but definitely you would use it.

If you go on a little sailing adventure, you

would unfurl the sail so the sails rolled up.

You would unfurl it before you go.

I'm trying to think of another

thing that you might unfurl.

Yeah, basically any kind of fabric that's rolled up.

If you unroll it, you might use the verb unfurl.

Let's see here.

Collapse.

So some things are meant to collapse.

This verb has a lot of meanings, but when

you do the action of collapsing something, it means

that you are putting it into a smaller form.

We have dog crates and we can collapse them.

They're built so that if we want to

put them flat, you can collapse it.

I'm trying to think of another example some

people have trying to think like at market,

when we're done using our canopy, sometimes we

say it's time to take down the canopy.

But sometimes we just say, let's collapse the canopy

so it's to make something into a smaller form.

Wind up.

When you're done using an extension cord, it's always

a good idea to wind up the cord.

Now, notice this looks a lot like the word wind.

So it's one of those words that

has two meanings and two pronunciations.

But when I'm done doing my live stream outside

on Saturdays, I wind up my network cable and

then I wind up my extension cord.

Because, believe it or not, I do

have to use electricity out there.

I think I got that fly.

Not 100% sure you do like it when I just do

normal English speaking life things like try to SWAT flies.

This is a fly swatter.

You use it to SWAT.

That wasn't part of the lesson.

But now, you know, I tried to SWAT a fly.

I think I missed it.

But anyways, to unwind well, the opposite of wind is to

unwind when you go to use your garden hose, if it

is wound up like this, you pull it and it will

unwind as you pull it when you're flying a kite.

As the kite goes higher, the string

will unwind as you're flying the kite.

And then same with an extension cord.

If I needed to vacuum my van, I would unwind an

extension cord in order to have electricity by my van.

Crank, some windows slide open.

This is actually a patio door,

but some have a little crank.

I should have zoomed in a little bit more on this.

When you crank, there's usually like a little handle

or lever on something and you turn it.

These windows here, when I do my live stream,

I unlatch the latches and then I crank the

thing and then the window opens and then I

throw my extension cord out the window.

So when you crank something, it means you turn

it back to the beginning of the lesson.

When you extend an awning, you probably crank

something there's probably like a little thing that

you crank, and then the awning will extend.

So to crank means to turn

something with a little handle.

We also use this to talk about

extreme turning with a steering wheel.

Like, you crank the wheel sometimes when you're driving,

if something like, let's say, a dog runs out

in front of you, you might crank the wheel

so that you don't have an accident.

Slide.

Isn't that weird?

Let's get back to the slides.

And then the word is slide.

So these are slides.

When you have a PowerPoint, you have slides,

but you can also slide a door open.

In my part of Canada, we call this a patio door.

So a patio door is like a large window, but it

can slide open and you can go in and out.

So often people will have a patio door

that exits onto their patio or their deck.

So this person is using their

patio door, they are sliding open.

They've decided to slide open the door

so that they can go outside.

Yeah, we don't have a patio door.

My parents built this house, and I think

when they built the house in the early

80s, patio doors weren't very energy efficient.

So we put in normal doors.

The back of my house has a normal door, zip and unzip.

So when you have something on that has a

zipper, you can zip up or zip the zipper.

When I put on my jacket, I can zip

up the zipper, or I can zip the zipper.

And then when I take it off, I unzip the zipper.

Same with button.

You can button up and unbutton a shirt.

Same usage, same way you can use it.

Same way.

You can use it in the same way.

There we go.

Spin.

So I don't know if you've ever done this, but in

the spring, when I get my kids bikes ready to use,

I will put them upside down and I will spin the

tire just to make sure that it spins properly.

I'll make sure the tire is straight.

I will put a little bit of oil on the chain.

And so when you spin something, it's something that can

turn, and you've actively decided to make it turn.

So you can turn a bike upside down and spin the tire.

Let's see, what else can you spin?

We have a game at school where you can spin the wheel,

and then it clicks, and then you can win a prize.

We use that in our classrooms sometimes

to box up and to unbox.

So if you move, you need to box up your stuff.

You could say, I need to move.

I need to put my stuff in boxes.

But most often, people will say, I have

to help my brother move this weekend.

I'm going to go help him box up all his stuff.

You could say, I'm going to go help

him put all his stuff in boxes.

But that just seems like a long way to say to box up.

When you move, you get a whole bunch of boxes.

You box up your stuff.

You can also say pack up your stuff

and then you move to your new place.

When you get there, you unbox all your

stuff or you unpack all your stuff.

Unbox has become a popular word on the

Internet, though you might have watched channels where

they unbox things, or they might unbox.

What's the big channel?

Oh, unbox therapy.

He's Canadian, by the way.

Unbox Therapy is a channel where he will

unbox things, so he gets new things.

And the act of opening and taking the

thing out of the box is called unboxing.

I kind of like those YouTube

channels where they unbox stuff.

Maybe I should start unboxing things.

Keep forgetting.

Whenever I talk about this, I always forget.

Anyways, it's a secret there.

I'll tell you another time.

To tighten.

To loosen.

So when you tighten something, usually it's

something like a bolt and nut.

So the bolt is the long piece.

The nut is right here.

And you would use a wrench to tighten that nut.

When I use my tripod, I tighten.

If I do this, I can loosen.

You can't see what I'm doing, but I can loosen this

and then put it in a different spot and then tighten

it so there's a little handle and I can loosen it.

And then I can move the camera up and down.

And then when it's in the right spot, I can tighten it.

So whenever you do that, and I don't

know if I've taught you this before in

English, we always say righty, tighty, lefty loosey.

So it's kind of a funny little thing.

But what that means is if you turn something

to the right, okay, it will get tighter.

If you turn something to the left, it will get looser.

So righty, tighty, lefty loosey.

That's how you remember which way to turn.

Something to wrap.

Christmas is coming, still a few months away.

We will wrap a lot of presents when Christmas

arrives so that our kids can open those presents.

But when you wrap something,

you put something around it.

Maybe you make a sandwich in the morning

and you wrap it in plastic wrap. Maybe.

Let me see another use of wrap.

Wrap things.

Yeah, those are probably the two biggest ones.

You wrap a present, you can wrap your sandwich.

I don't use plastic wrap on my sandwiches.

If I make a lunch, I have a

little reusable container that I take to school.

But yes, when I was a kid, my mom

would wrap my sandwiches in wax paper, I think.

Then I would eat them at school.

Plunge.

Sometimes the toilet won't flush.

Sometimes you need to unclog the toilet

or you need to plunge the toilet.

This thing that this person has is called a plunger.

You use it to kind of force air through the

bottom of the toilet, and that will unclog the toilet.

So someone might say, oh, the toilet upstairs

isn't flushing, we need to plunge the toilet.

So unclog or plunge, both words you can use.

And again, that is a plunger.

You probably learned about that in my lesson on

everyday items from a couple of years ago.

That was a while ago to measure.

So when you want to build things, when you

want to put up curtains, when you want to

put up blinds, first you want to measure.

You want to know how many

centimeters wide is my window?

How many inches is the window?

If I was to buy new curtains for this room, I would

want to measure the windows before I go and buy them.

Let me see something else you might measure.

Yeah, if you were going to build

something out of wood, you would certainly

measure things before you built them.

But for sure you use a tape measure or you use a ruler.

I don't have a ruler here.

This is a tape measure.

You use a tape measure to measure things.

Or you might use a ruler which will

be 30 CM long, usually in Canada.

Usually a ruler in Canada is twelve inches long on

one side and 30 CM long on the other side.

It's the same length, by the

way, or almost the same length.

But you would use that to measure things.