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.
