Free English Class! Topic: Fixing and Repairing 🛠️🧵 (Lesson Only)

Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson where we're

we're gonna talk about fixing and repairing. A topic that I

know a lot of words and phrases about fixing and repairing but

I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. I

can fix some things. I'm okay at it. That means I'm not

really good at fixing things. I'm okay at it. Um I can fix

small things. I can repair small things. If you're not

sure what fixing and repairing is, it's when some Thing is

broken and it needs someone to just add a new part or fix it

in some way so that it works again or so that it is usable

again. So, today, we'll do a little lesson on fixing and

repairing. Um it's a little, it's a few words shorter than

some of my other English lessons but uh maybe I'll spend

a bit more time explaining each word and each phrase. So, let's

get started on this lesson on fixing and repairing. I want to

start by talking about the verb to fix. So we have the verb to

fix, the verb to repair, the verb to mend, and the verb to

patch. So let me back up and talk about the verb to fix. The

verb to fix is probably the most common way to talk about

something that's broken or worn out that needs to be fixed,

okay? Um even if you're talking about things like your car or

your computer or maybe a button fell off your shirt, the

general term. The verb we used the most often in my opinion is

the verb to fix. I need to have someone fix my car. I need to

fix my shirt. The button fell off. I need to get my computer

fixed because it stopped working. So, this is uh

probably the most general term. In fact, if you're learning

English and you want to talk about something that needs uh

that isn't working and you want to have it fixed. I would use

the verb to fix. I've just defined it by using it. Um we

also have the verb to repair. It means pretty much exactly

the same thing. I need to have my car repaired. Um I need, we

wouldn't use it for clothing. You don't usually repair

clothing but you might get your computer repaired. In fact, we

often have repair shops. A repair shop is a place where

you can bring something so that someone can repair it. We don't

use this verb as much. We do use it a lot but um I think

because it's two syllables, repair, fix repair. Takes a

little longer to say it so maybe we just use the verb to

fix but again, it's almost a direct replacement except I

don't think I would use it for clothing. We have the verb to

mend which is not heard very often and it's almost always

used to talk about clothing. So, if there's a hole um in

your jeans, you might have someone mend it. If you have a

hole in your sock, you might have someone mend it. The

reason we don't use the verb to mend to talk about fixing

clothing very much anymore is because people don't actually

mend their clothing very often anymore. Quite often when um an

article of clothing gets a hole in it people just throw it

away. So uh because our society has become quick to throw

things away instead of fixing them. Verbs like to mend aren't

used very much anymore. And then we have the verb to patch.

When I was a kid if my genes got a big hole in the knee my

mum would a patch on the knee. Um you can see here this gene

has patches. Again, the verb to patch is probably used more to

talk about patching up the road or sometimes you patch up

something. Um but to patch uh clothing, we don't often put

patches on clothing anymore. For the same reason, we don't

use the verb to mend as much anymore. Sometimes you just

want to do a quick fix. In English a quick fix is not

always the best way to fix something. Um but it's uh a fix

that you can do very very quickly without spending a lot

of money. Here is a quick fix of a hose. The hose probably

had a leak in it. And so a quick fix uh was to wrap tape

around it. Quick fixes are quick to do but they also do

not last very long. So I don't think this is the Best way to

fix a hose with a leak in it but it certainly is a quick

fix. Um other quick fixes might be um and they often involve

tape. Uh maybe you have a cup. Maybe you have a cup and the

cup has a hole in it so you put a piece of tape across. It

works for a little bit but eventually the water will come

through. So that's what a quick fix is. Oh and I thought I

should uh another quick fix if a light bulb goes out is to

change the light bulb. But I thought I should tell you a

joke. There is a joke in English and I'm sure you have

the same joke in your languages. And the format of

the joke is to ask how many of a certain type of people does

it take to change a light bulb. This joke can be very rude and

it can be very what we call derogatory. I'm going to tell

the joke and make fun of Canadians because I am

Canadian. I'm not gonna tell the joke and try to make the

joke make someone from another feel bad but I will make fun of

Canadians. So the joke would go like this. How many Canadians

does it take to change a light bulb? And the answer to the

joke is usually something that makes fun of the people you're

talking about. So the answer for this one is that it takes

three. One to stand on the ladder and hold the light bulb

and then two more Canadians to lift the ladder and and walk in

a circle. So the light bulb gets screwed in. So you can see

how it kind of a funny joke. Um please don't use this joke to

make fun of other people. Um but if you want to use it to

make fun of yourself, that's fine. And the answer to the

joke changes. There are many many types of answers to the

joke. How many Canadians does it take to change a light bulb?

There's something new in the world called a hack. A hack is

when you use something in a way very quickly to solve a problem

or to fix something. Um so a hack be if you look at this,

they used paper clips to hold all your all their cables. So,

instead of um buying a cable holder and I know this isn't

really a fix or a repair but a hack is something you do in

life to fix a problem. So, if the problem is that all your

cables are on the floor, a hack would be something uh that you

just do quickly to solve that problem. So, this hack is to

use paper clips, the big type of paper clip to hold of the

cables up. So I wanna talk a little bit about the state of

things before it needs to be fixed. And there are different

ways to describe things that need to be fixed. One is to

just say it's broken. So this phone was dropped and now this

phone is broken. You can see that the glass is all um

fractured. That the glass has shattered a little bit. So when

something is broken it needs to be fixed I'm not sure if this

is fixable. I didn't put the word fixable in my list. I

probably should've um but uh broke um broken sorry fixable

is a way to describe something that you can fix. If it's not

fixable, it's usually just garbage or needs to be

recycled. I did wanna go back and mention that the word hack

comes from uh in computers in the computer world when you

hack a computer, it means you kind of find a way in or you

get past the security and we've now started to use the word

hack for things in life as well. Um so, when something's

broken, uh it doesn't work anymore but when something's

damaged, it means something has happened to it, okay? Um so,

let me uh think about this. There was a big storm in the US

recently and it caused a lot of damage. There's a lot of

buildings that are damaged. When a building is damaged, it

needs to be fixed. It needs to be repaired. Um when you get in

a car accident, your car is damaged and so you need to find

someone who can repair the car or fix the car because it is

damaged. So, things can be broken, things can be damaged,

and they need to be fixed. Sometimes, things just break

down. When something breaks down, it stops working. We

usually use this verb to talk about vehicles. My car broke

down on the side of the road last week. I'm going to go on a

long trip. My car's in good shape but I hope it doesn't

break down along the way. So, break down is yeah I I'm not

sure I use it with anything else. Like my tractor can break

down. You can have um yeah I think it for anything that you

drive like a truck can break down, a car can break down,

etcetera. Sometimes things are just worn out. Uh when

something is worn out, it usually means it has been used

so much that it has holes in it. This bike seat looks very

very worn out. Let me make it a little bigger for you. Um it

means that it has been used a lot so it's not broken yet um

it's not necessarily considered to be damaged but it's showing

a lot of wear it is uh beginning to be worn out and

sometimes when something is worn out you can't fix it you

simply need to replace it so a fixer upper is a place you buy

or even a car you buy that needs lots of repairs. It needs

a lot of fixing. Um notice I'm throwing the words fix and

repair. I'm using them in a lot of different ways. It needs a

lot of repairs. It needs a lot of fixing. It needs to be fixed

up. So, we would call it a fixer upper. There's even a TV

show I think called fixer upper. Where uh they buy an old

house that's a little bit worn down, a little bit um falling

apart a little bit and they spend some time fixing it up.

So, a fixer upper is anything you buy or anything you have

that needs to be fixed. It needs improvements. It needs

some peers. We have a phrase in English. We'll say that

something needs some work. You could say, oh, Joe bought an

old car and needs some work or I bought a house and it needs

some work. Um I was gonna say you could use this to talk

about people too but that's kind of rude but you could say

uh you know, Julie has a new boyfriend. He needs some work.

He's a fixer upper. You might have heard this in a Disney

movie. He's a bit of a fixer upper. I'm not sure what movie

that is. Beauty and the Beast maybe. Um so, you can use some

of these phrases to talk about people but it's a little rude.

Um you might buy an old computer and it needs some

work. Maybe it needs more memory and a better video card.

Um but um probably the most common way to use it would be

to talk about cars or houses. Things that you can fix. So

maybe your friend bought an old car and it needs some work.

That means maybe uh they need to paint it. Maybe it needs

some engine work done etcetera. Uh Julie and the chat says the

mouse is unfixable. That's correct. Um it gave up the

ghost. No, it's not quite that far. We have another phrase in

English to talk about usually electronic things or things

like computers or TVs, we would say they gave up the ghost.

This means it's not fixable. When something gives up the

ghost, it means it's it's no longer able, it doesn't turn

on. You can't use it anymore. Um So I have had many computers

in my life where I've owned them for seven or 8 years and

eventually they give up the ghost. Eventually they just

don't work anymore. We also have a word wonky and this

might be a local word that I use in my area of Ontario,

Canada but whenever something is wonky, it means it's not

quite perfect. So, many of you have probably sat on a stool

where one leg is a little shorter than the other and it

wobbles and you might say, oh, this stool is kinda wonky.

Sometimes, your computer does strange things by itself. This

mouse by the way, I didn't do this on purpose. This mouse is

wonky. It's clicking twice when I click once. So, it's wonky.

It's it's doing things it's not supposed to do. You might have

a phone. Um yesterday, my phone was acting wonky. My phone was

wonky yesterday. All the icons disappeared and I had to turn

it off and back on again. So, it was wonky. Again, I'm not

sure how widespread this word is used um but definitely

wonky. I don't think Brent is here Today, American English

with this guy but I was gonna ask him if they use it in his

part of the United States. Um and then another thing is the

word to crash. Computers crash. If your computer keeps

crashing, that means it is crashing over and over again.

Maybe you get a blue screen with an error quite often.

Maybe your computer just shuts off by itself. We would then

say, oh, my computer needs to be fixed. I need to have my

computer repaired because it keeps crashing. Um it

repeatedly stops working. That is never a fun thing. That is

quite annoying. Um thankfully, at the beginning of the lesson,

I said, I'm not good at repairing or fixing things. I

am actually quite good at fixing computers. That's the

one thing I am good at fixing. Some people do home

improvements. So, home improvements aren't necessarily

because they want to fix or repair something but maybe

there's too many things in your bathroom that are broken and

instead of fixing everything in the bathroom, you decide to do

some home improvements. So, you actually remove everything from

the bathroom and you paint the walls and you put in a new sink

and a new toilet. So, sometimes, instead of fixing or

repairing something that's broken, sometimes you just

replace it. Maybe you do home improvements and you um end up

with everything brand new in the bathroom. I would like to

do that with our downstairs bathroom. Our downstairs

bathroom sink is currently broken. It leaks a little bit

and I've repaired it three times in the last three years.

But because I'm not good at it I probably do it wrong every

time. So it has started to leak a little bit again. Hey we do

have uh Sean from Free ninety-nine English here. I

should ask Shawn if he uses the word wonky. He's on the East

Coast of Canada. We'll uh listen in the chat, see if he

uses that word. So, we have DIY which stands for do it

yourself. If you don't do it uh yourself, uh let me just check

if I have what slide I have up next here. Okay, it's a little

further long. Um if you do things yourself, it means you

fix things or you repair things because you've learned a little

bit about it. Maybe you know how to do a little bit of

electrical work. Maybe you know a little bit about plumbing.

Maybe you know how to sew a button back on a shirt. Maybe

you know how to fix a computer. You might be a do it yourself

or when you do it yourself, it means you have a different job

but maybe at night or on the weekends, you like to fix

things for yourself. When you are handy, it means you are

good at doing things with tools. You're good at fixing

things. You're good at repairing things. You can look

at something that's broken and you can figure out what's wrong

and you can fix it. Um I'm handy when it comes to

computers but I'm not handy when it comes to fixing a car

engine. I don't have a lot of skills in that area. We have a

word handyman and in English, we're trying to use the word

handy person but handyman is still probably the most common.

In English, we're trying to replace words with man in it

with words that reflect both men and women. So, instead of

fireman, we usually say firefighter um and we with

handyman, we haven't gotten away from the word handyman.

You will not see the word handy person very often. In fact, um

if you look online, if you need to hire someone to fix things,

you'll see a lot of listings for people who are uh consider

themselves a handyman. So, a handyman is someone who is good

at fixing things and will come to your house and you can pay

them to fix things. Again, At some point, it will be handy

person but I think in English, people are having trouble

getting used to the new word. We also say that people are

good with their hands. Um when someone is good with their

hands, um it means the same as being handy. They're good at

using tools. They're good at using a drill like this person

is. They're good at fixing or building things. Um when

someone's good with their hands, they can um like buy an

old car and fix it all up. They maybe can build a shed in their

backyard. If their sink is leaking, if you're good with

your hands, you probably can fix it. You'll go to the

hardware store and buy the correct part. Um but

definitely, um I'm a little bit better with my brain than with

my hands, I would say. Uh let's get to the next slide. If you

are not handy, if you are not good with your hands, we often

say that you are all thumbs, okay? In order to be good with

your hands, you have to be able to use all your fingers. If you

say to someone that you are all thumbs, it means that when you

try to fix things or repair things, you end up maybe making

it worse or you just can't do it very well. Um I have a

friend who is all thumbs. Um he has, I shouldn't make fun of

him but he has trouble even climbing a ladder because he

he's just, he's very talented at other things. He is not at

fixing things or doing anything that involves tools. He's all

thumbs when it comes to that. If you aren't handy and if you

don't like doing things yourself, you will probably

hire a professional or an expert. Um like I mentioned, I

can do small repairs in my house. I can do computer

repairs. But if my tractor is broken, I hire a professional.

I hire an expert. I am not good at fixing things like that. So

it's important that I hire someone who knows how to do it.

Certainly, this is going to be a bit of a review the next few

slides of the lesson I did on tools a year ago but in order

to fix things you will probably need tools little things you

can use with your hands in order to fix things you will

probably have a toolbox I think most people have a small

toolbox in their house even if you're not handy it's a good

idea to have some tools around basic tools that I think

everyone should have a hammer Hammers are very very uh handy

to have. Um there's a funny saying in English, when the

only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail

and what that means is that if you only have learned one way

to deal with problems, you'll always deal with them the same

way which isn't always a good thing but anyone who um needs

to do small fixes, everyone should have a hammer, you

should have a set of screwdrivers. Every screwdriver

a different tip. By the way, in Canada, one of the tips on the

screwdrivers is a square tip and we call it a Robertson and

I believe it's the best screwdriver tip in the world

but it's not used everywhere. Most people use Philips or a

flat head screwdriver. Um but you should have a hammer. You

should have a screwdriver set. You should have a few wrenches

uh which you use to turn knots and bolts to tighten and loosen

them. You should have a few pairs of pliers. Pliers are

very very handy and you should have some crazy glue. Sorry, I

didn't know that was the next slide. I'm not sure if you know

what crazy glue is. Crazy glue is a type of glue that you can

use to glue things together and you can use it on almost

anything and it's very very um powerful glue. When you have a

mug that breaks in the kitchen and if you use crazy glue to

fix it, it will not fall apart, okay? If you put crazy glue on

your finger and accidentally touch your other finger, your

fingers will be stuck together. It's don't do that. A bad thing

to do. Do not try that at home um but in Canada and I'm sure

in other parts of the world, people often use crazy glue to

fix things um because it's a quick fix. You also might use

what's called duct tape. So, some people call it duct tape

like quack, quack, like a duck, quack, quack, but it's actually

called duct tape. We don't quite though say the T on duct.

So, we it often sounds like duct tape, like the duct uh but

it's a gray tape that's very very sticky and very very

strong and very often people in North America and other parts

of the world will fix things quickly using duct tape or

crazy glue. They're very very handy. I have both crazy glue

and duct tape in my house. By the way a duct is a metal thing

that air goes through. Usually for heating or air

conditioning. And I think this tape was originally used on

duct like in houses and buildings but eventually um

people started to use it for other things because it's very

very handy. Um notice a person can be handy but items can also

be handy. I said that it's very handy to have a hammer and duct

tape is very very handy. Um I love duct tape by the way. Um

you might have a Swiss army knife. A Swiss army knife is a

special knife that has many many small tools in it. I used

to have a Swiss army knife. I think I'd lost it but it had a

small screwdriver. It had a knife. It had a little pair of

scissors like this one. Um and it even had like an um a needle

that you could use to you could pull out and then you could sew

things. It was quite quite handy. I'm not sure what I did

with it. I think I might have given it to one of my kids

actually. I'm not sure. But a Swiss army knife is very handy

to have. Something a little bigger than a Swiss army knife

is something called a multi-tool. You can see that

this is small and handy to carry in your pocket. This is

something that you might have in a drawer or uh in your

toolbox. It's a pair of pliers. It's a knife. It's a

screwdriver. It has a little saw on it for cutting things.

It's quite handy to carry a multi-tool. If you go camping

or hiking or if you're doing something where you might need

to do um little fixes where you might need to fix things when

you're far from home a multi-tool can be very, very

handy. And then of course, there's string. If you live on

a farm, there's something called baler twine. If you have

a bale of hay, there's twine which is very thick string and

baler twine is very handy for fixing things but if you are

not on a farm, you probably have a roll of string

somewhere. String can be very helpful and very useful uh for

doing quick fixes and quick repairs. And you might have a

needle and thread. Uh so a needle and thread would be used

to fix clothing. So if a button did fall off my shirt, I would

use a needle which is a long pointy piece of metal and I

would put some string through the eye of the needle, okay? Or

some thread. We use thread and string somewhat

interchangeably. Usually, if you're talking about, you know,

fixing clothing or mending clothing, um you're going to

say thread. So, I would get a needle. I would put thread

through the eye of the needle and then I would sew the button

back on my shirt. I do actually know how to do that by the way.

My mom taught me how to sew on a button before I went to

university. So, you might repair something or mend

something using needle and thread. And if you're lucky and

you know how to use it, you might have a sewing machine. Um

I don't know how to use a sewing machine. We do have a

sewing machine in our house. Um and it's quite handy. Um my

wife is pretty good at using a sewing machine. And so she will

fix. We have aprons that we wear at market. She'll modify

them or repair those uh and other things. Just a way to

instead of sewing everything by hand, it's nice to have a

sewing machine and maybe somewhere in your house, maybe

in your garage, maybe you have a shed outside, um you might

have a workbench. Uh a workbench is a place where you

maybe keep some tools but it's also a nice place where you can

go to fix things or to repair things. You can set the broken

item on your workbench and you can find out uh what's wrong

with it. Maybe you can buy some parts to uh to fix it um but a

workbench is Certainly a handy place um to go when you need to

fix something in your house uh or just in general. Sometimes

it's nice. I have a few workbenches but they're kind of

full. Workbenches sometimes people put things on

workbenches. I tend to um put things on my workbench that

don't need to be fixed. I use it like a big shelf. And then

when I do need to fix something, I have to clean off

my workbench before I can work on it. Um never never don't do

that. That's not a good way to, you should keep your workbench

clean so that when you need it, it's ready to use.