🤷‍♀️ How do we speak about things that go wrong?
These are normal everyday problems that have to be fixed. 👩‍🔧 👨‍🔧
👉 What do you say if your washing machine isn’t working? You say, the washing machine has broken down, I can’t do the laundry.
👉 You have a problem with a pipe. Water is coming out. That means the pipe is leaking. You say: this pipe is leaking, I need to call a plumber.
👉 The door handle’s come off. I need to fix it. Also buttons on your jacket can come off.
👉 You enter your bathroom and the floor is full of water. You say: The bathroom is flooded, get the mop and bucket. You collect the water from the floor with a mop and bucket. 🪣
👉 What if you need your flashlight 🔦 , but it’s not working? Probably, the batteries have run out. But you can also say the batteries are dead. You can either charge the battery or get some more in the supermarket.
👉 You can spill coffee ☕️ , tea, juice 🧃 or water on something. I’ve spilled some orange juice on my T-shirt. I hope it doesn’t stain.
👉 Are you familiar with the problem when the sink in your kitchen or bathroom gets full of water that won’t drain away? The problem is that the sink, or the drain, is blocked.
👉 A vase, a cup, a glass 🥃 , or a plate can get cracked. Here you can say, it’s cracked or chipped.
👉 If you closed the door, but had left the key 🔑 home, it means that you locked yourself out. I have locked myself out, I need to call my roommate, or get the locksmith.
👉 What can you say about the clock 🕰 in your kitchen that is not working properly? You can say that it’s slow, fast or has stopped. You have to wind it up or change the batteries.
👉 If you put your glasses, keys 🔑 , or papers somewhere and can’t find them, you have mislaid = you have misplaced (AmE) them.
👉 You hit someone while driving your car 🚗 ? If you bent the metal a little, you call it „to dent“.
👉 What if you want to start driving but your car 🚙 doesn’t? In this case you say, the car won’t start. The battery is probably flat (dead- AmE).
👉 You can twist your ankle 🦶 coming down the stairs or doing sports. I’ve twisted my ankle and now it hurts.
👉 You can cut your finger while chopping a cucumber 🥒 . You might need a band-aid. 🩹
👉 You can also bump or bang your knee, your foot 🦶 , your head etc. on something and get a bruise.
👉 If you fall down and get red broken skin but there’s no blood, you use the verb „to graze“or “to scrape”.
I hope this video was helpful for you. Let me know in the comments down below. Thank you! 🙏
With love ❤️
Karina
Find me on Instagram:
/ karinamultilingual