Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson about hardworking verbs.
You probably have guessed that this lesson is about the verbs we use to talk about work that we do with our hands, and this lesson is filled with all different verbs that we use when we're putting a picture on the wall.
When we are repairing something.
When we are tightening something.
When we are aligning something.
Uh this lesson is made for all English learners.
All of you, at some point in your life, need to be able to talk about the verbs we use to talk about hard work.
Maybe you need something repaired in your home.
Maybe you need something fixed in your apartment.
These verbs will help you talk about that.
So once again welcome to this English lesson about hard working verbs.
To attach.
Now you might be wondering where did Bob get the idea for this lesson?
Well if you look right here this rolling tool cabinet is to have the wheels attached.
So it came almost fully assembled, but I did have to flip it upside down and I needed to attach the wheels to the bottom.
So when you attach something, it means you have something and you use either a bolt or screw or something else to make it connected.
So the wheel had to be attached.
So the first thing I did was I attached the wheels to the bottom of the toolbox, and now it can be rolled.
So, I can roll it out of the way when I want to vacuum that part of the room. mount.
So if any of you have a large flat screen TV I guess all TVs are flat screen now.
You might have it on a TV stand or you might want to mount it to the wall.
So this person is putting up a little piece of metal.
He is going to mount that to the wall to then he's going to mount the TV onto that hanger or holder.
So, when you mount something, it usually means it's large and you're putting it on the wall.
You could also use the verb to hang.
Like you can hang a TV on the wall but usually we would use the word mount.
I have a large light here and I want to mount it to the wall.
So I want to permanently attach it to the wall.
We usually use hang up for things like pictures.
Like you can hang a picture on the wall or hang up a picture coil.
So you can see that someone took the time to kind of like bend this copper pipe until it is now a coil.
They decided to coil.
It probably had something round, and then they coiled the pipe around that thing and then when they slid it off they had a nice coil.
This also looks a little bit like a spring, but we would say that the person decided they wanted to coil the pipe.
Copper pipe is bendable.
So they decided to coil the pipe. hoist.
In this picture you can see there is what we call a truss, or someone might call it a rafter, and it is on a crane and they are going to hoist it into place.
So when you hoist something, it means you pick it up from above and it doesn't have to be from above, but it usually means you're putting something heavy into place.
You can hoist something this way as well.
Like you can lift something heavy and hoist it up somewhere, or you can hoist something this way as well.
And you might be wondering what's the difference between hoist and lift?
They're the same but when you say hoist it's in my mind means something very very heavy.
Um so something like this you wouldn't be able to lift uh by hand.
So you would uh use a crane to hoist it into place.
To wind if you ever have string uh it's just laying all over the floor you might decide to wind the string on into a ball if you have an extension cord you might wind up the extension cord although we sometimes say wrap up the extension cord but anytime you have something long string or yarn or rope or a cable or a cord.
You can wind it into a ball, or you can wind it into.
I guess you wind it into what would you call that?
After you wind up the extension cord it's all wound up.
That's what you're doing.
But yes, so you can see, by the action that this person is doing, they are winding the string basically around itself secure.
If you have ever put anything on the back of a truck or on a trailer, you want to secure the load before you start driving.
When you secure the load it means you use ropes or straps.
These are straps.
Let me make this a bit bigger.
And make sure the whatever you put on the trailer or truck is now connected.
So, you have ropes or you have straps to make sure that it is secure and we use the verb to secure.
You want to secure your load before driving.
You want to secure all of the wood or lumber or pipes in this case that you bought.
You want to secure them so they don't fall off. you're driving along the road.
So to secure simply means to make sure something is tied down on a trailer or a truck.
You can secure things in other ways as well.
Um you could secure a birdhouse to a pole.
You could secure a pitcher to a wall, but usually when I think of secure, I think of a trailer to fasten.
So, when you mount something to the wall, you put some screws in it.
When you fasten it to a wall, you're doing the same thing basically.
This person has, I think the two verbs, I can fasten.
I would use mount, to put it.
I would mount a TV on the wall, but I would fasten a.
Not actually sure what this guy is putting on the wall, but it this is the verb I would use.
He had to fasten this piece of metal to the wall.
Basically, it means that he has decided to put screws in it, so it is now attached to the wall to fasten.
What else would you fasten?
You fasten your seatbelt.
Basically, it means once again that two things become connected. adjust.
So this person is not fixing this.
The person is adjusting it.
Um maybe the door closes too slowly.
This to me looks like an automatic door closer.
And so the person can adjust it.
He can turn a little screw and that will make it either close the door faster or slower.
So when you adjust something it means you usually turn something or move something.
Let's say you have a heater and it's too warm in your room.
You would adjust the knob or the thermostat so that it is cooler and nicer in your room.
So to adjust means you There's different settings and you're changing it between the settings.
You can also like I can adjust my light right now.
If I want I can go down.
I would also use the verb to dim.
Uh oh what number did I have it at?
I think I had it at 85.
There we go.
So when you adjust something you change its setting.
To tighten to loosen.
So I've talked about these in other English lessons.
In English we often say righty tighty, lefty loosey, in order to remember which way to turn a bolt or nut or screw for it to either get to tighten it or to loosen it.
So, if I wanted to tighten this bolt, I would put a wrench on and I would turn it the right.
Or clockwise I guess.
So righty tighty.
I guess you have to be above for it to be righty.
I don't want to explain too much.
And then lefty loosey.
I'm probably mirrored on your screen.
So hopefully this makes some sense.
But when you tighten something you, For instance, if this bolt was here, it would be loose and you would tighten it so that everything is now firm and in place.
And if you wanted to take something apart, if you wanted to disassemble it, you might loosen the bolts or nuts in order to do that.
Um when I put the wheels on this I had to tighten the bolts.
If I wanted to take the wheels off I would loosen the bolts and then they would come off.
To hang if you're putting pictures on the wall we generally use the verb to hang.
Now I thought I also had the verb to hang up but maybe I changed it.
Yeah you can use either.
You can hang some pictures on the wall or you can hang up some pictures on the wall.
Both would work. and both would be correct English.
So this person has decided they would like some pictures on the wall, and so they decided to hang the pictures.
Jen found this picture of a tree.
You can't, it's not really in focus for you.
How would I make it in focus?
Do I have to get out of the I get out of the frame.
Does it come in focus?
No, it's still focused on me.
Sorry. was a bad attempt at getting it to focus.
Um, if you remember, there was a tree across the river and it blew down years ago, but for my whole life it was there and it was my favorite tree.
Still is.
So, um okay.
To hang, to put something on the wall somewhat permanently.
To roll up.
Now, I would actually probably say to wind up or but you can also roll up.
This is an extension cord and this person has decided to roll up the extension cord or to wind up or to wrap up.
I probably wouldn't use to coil up even though I taught you the verb to coil earlier.
So when you have a long extension cord because you need to have electricity far from an outlet.
When you're done you want to roll up the cord or wrap up the cord or wind up the cord.
I would use any of those verbs and they would all work. wrap.
So these people are putting something on this house called home wrap.
So they have decided to wrap the house.
You can also wrap a present by the way.
Before you give someone a present you will wrap it.
So you can tell that it's the action of covering something, usually with paper or plastic or something very, very thin like that.
They will wrap the house so that it doesn't have any drafts.
So wind can't blow in.
But when you wrap a present you do it because you want to hide what the present is from someone until they decide to open it.
So, to wrap a cover something with paper or cloth or fabric or plastic.
Something thin in order to cover it I guess.
To install.
If you take out a window you have to install a new window.
If you take the radio out of your car or the stereo out of your car, you might buy a new one and then install a new one.
So it's hard to explain exactly what this means, but it means you are putting something in the place where it needs to go permanently.
So you can install a door in a house.
You can install a window.
You can install a stereo in a car because there is a hole in the dash where you can put it.
Um if I bought I don't have a remote car starter.
So I can't start my car from in the house but I would love to install a remote starter in my car.
So it doesn't have one.
They would need to install one.
Um, I had a pickup truck many, many years ago and it had a remote starter and that's really nice in the winter.
Um so to install.
To put something in place permanently. clamp.
If you have two pieces of wood and you put glue on one piece and then you put another piece of wood against it.
You need to clamp the wood so that it dries very very securely.
Um and so a clamp is something that connects two pieces of wood together.
Are we going to have like the sunshine effect here?
We might.
I thought we were past that era. but uh maybe we will have that.
So, by the way, that's also called a clamp.
You would use a clamp to clamp two pieces of wood together.
Basically, you tighten the clamp.
There's another verb we just learned in order to press the two pieces of wood together, really really strongly connect.
When you have two things that can go together you can connect them.
So you can connect two extension cords together.
You can connect what else can you connect?
I'm trying to think.
After we set put the Christmas lights on the tree we connect them to an extension cord.
In that case you can also say plug in.
You can plug them in to each other.
But yes, when you have two things, you Um.
If you have two um chains, you can connect them together as well.
Um, not sure I'm explaining this one really well, but when you connect two things, you put them together.
To link.
So this was a kind of a hard one to find a picture for.
But here you have two electrical panels.
They decided to link them together.
So, you can see the black cable that goes from one box to the other.
You could use the verb to connect.
They decided to connect them together.
You could also say they decided to link them together.
This reminds me of a long time ago.
Um, I'm trying to.
I was going to talk about we would have four computers and they would all be linked to a printer, and then we had a little box and you had to choose which computer could print.
This is like 30 years ago before we had a a network at school.
Um but you could also use it to talk about computers.
All the computers in the world are linked together uh through the internet.
My computers in my house are linked together because I have a network.
The computer I'm sitting at is linked through the network uh to my my larger computer over there.
So to link to connect two things together. tie.
So this is a simple one.
You mostly do this with rope or string.
It's when you create a knot so that the rope or string is connected to something else.
Here they decided to tie the rope to this wooden pole.
If I had a piece of string I could tie this is an elastic, but I could pretend this is a string and I could tie this around my finger to help me remember.
I'm very good at tying to help me remember something.
I did a really bad job, but um anyways, when you tie two things together or when you tie something, it usually involves a string or rope I would call this a rope and you create a knot so that that thing is basically held to whatever you tie it to.
To hook.
So, here you have two hooks and they've decided to hook them together.
When you hook something, it usually means there is some kind of hook on it.
So, a hook is usually a bent piece of metal.
It can be made out of wood as well, but usually a hook is made of metal, and so if I had my glasses here and I had something with a hook, I could hook it my glasses.
When you put your clothes on a coat hanger, you then hook it on the bar in your closet.
So a hook is anything that that is shaped like this that is meant to kind of connect in the way you see in this picture here to another thing.
To place.
To position.
So this is a little tricky to explain, but they are hoisting this beam and then they're going to place it in the right spot.
So this is a general verb like I can take my cup and I can place it top of my camera.
I don't know why I would do that.
That's a bad example.
Um I can take my glasses and I can place them on top of my head.
So it's a general verb that you use when it means something is being put somewhere.
So they are going to place this beam.
They're going to hoist it and then place it in the right spot.
To position means almost the same thing.
Um but it might be a little more precise.
So you could say this.
They're going to place it in the right spot and then they're going to position it.
Like they're gonna make sure it's exactly in the right spot.
But I could definitely use these two verbs interchangeably.
They've hoisted the beam and they are going to position it, or they're going to place it in the right spot.
Um I like this little machine he's using to position the beam.
When I worked construction, we would have done this by hand, with like three people at each end lifting a 600 pound beam.
That was not fun but uh he has a nice little machine he can use to position that beam. align.
So this is related also to precision.
When you put two pieces of wood together like this person is doing you want to align them perfectly.
Because if they're out of alignment then the furniture or whatever you're building doesn't look good.
So you want to make sure that they are aligned properly.
So again if you look at my fingers you don't want it out of alignment. you want it to be aligned.
So you align them properly and then use glue, and and then you would use a clamp to clamp it together.
So to align means to like usually it's two or more things, and you're putting them exactly where they need to go.
The same happens when you put there's trim around this door and you want to align the two pieces so that they come together with some precision.
To suspend.
So Jen has lights in her work area in the barn, in her flower shop, and we decided to suspend some lights.
We would probably use the verb to hang and but this light.
Someone has decided to suspend the light from the ceiling.
So, it simply means that there are ropes or chains or something that are holding it up.
Um I would probably use the verb to hang like Jen has decided to hang more lights in her workshop.
Um, we do use suspend like oh, you need to suspend more lights in that room if you want it to be brighter.
To assemble and to disassemble.
Now these pictures look very similar.
Um, but in this picture the person has bought a piece of furniture and they are going to assemble the furniture.
They are going to read the instructions.
They they are going to attach and connect and tighten little bolts and they're going to make sure they use, they align everything properly as they build what looks like maybe a dresser.
Not sure what it is.
To assemble means to put something together.
It means you have pieces and you are going to connect them together to make something.
So disassemble is the opposite.
This person might have decided they want to move their chair to another location.
So they are going they are going to disassemble it.
They're going to take it apart.
And then they are going to move it and then probably they will assemble it again.
So once again to assemble means to put something together.
To disassemble means to take something apart. reinforce.
So sometimes when you connect things together, they're a little bit wobbly and they're not very secure.
And they need to be reinforced.
So here you can see they put a couple extra pieces of wood on angles.
And those pieces of wood will reinforce what you've built.
So it will be very secure and firm and it won't be wiggly or wobbly anymore.
So to reinforce means to add pieces to something so that it is more solid.
So it is stronger.
Um so it is safer as well.
To replace.
So it looks like this deck had a rotted board and so this person has decided to replace it.
So, replacing the verb to replace means two things.
It means to remove something and then put something back where it was.
If you have a board that is rotted, you will remove it and then put a new one in.
You will replace it.
So again, the action has two parts.
When you replace something, you're removing something and putting something else there.
If I where am I?
Oh, my other glasses are right here.
If I was wearing these glasses and I decided that they weren't working, I could replace them with these glasses.
I don't wear these very often.
I'm not sure if these are men's or women's.
I got them for free from my sister.
So I know you guys can decide, but either way, when you replace something, it means you take one away and put something else in the place where it was repair.
So sometimes things break and you need to fix them.
You need to open them up and take parts out and put other parts in.
Maybe you need to replace the battery.
So again you would then take the battery out and put a new battery in.
So But sometimes you just need to repair something.
Sometimes something is broken and you need to repair it.
So this is different than assembling something.
This happens after you've used something or had something for a while, and then part of it isn't working anymore.
So you need to repair it.
