Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 299. Today we're going to look at the
difference between malfunction and dysfunction and of course any other
forms of it. You know, like the adjective malfunctional or dysfunctional or you
know malfunction of a verb. Of course, will say will follow the same meaning as
malfunction as a noun and adjective as well. So let's take a look at the note
here. A malfunction means something has an incorrect or faulty function.
It basically means something does not work correctly, especially used with
machines. Malfunction tends to be used for single events you know something
that happened. It malfunctioned at that time. So it's not usually used for
ongoing or continuing events. At least you know, with the same person or with
the same exact object. Okay. Let's take a look at the second one here. Well, let's
continue with the note here. If something has a dysfunction, it means something
fails to work in an expected way or in a complete way. Dysfunction or
dysfunctional as an adjective is especially used in regard to medical or
psychological terms. It is often used with disorders or if a bodily organ
doesn't work correctly in your body something like that, is not working.
Dysfunction tends to be used with events that are ongoing or continuing or more
long-term. So there's another clear difference between the two. All right. And
let's look at some examples we have here. GM had to have a recall. A recall that's
when you know there's a problem with the car and they, they ask everybody who
bought the card to bring it back in , and they change a certain part. So GM had to
have a recall due to a malfunction in that part. So one part was not working
correctly. So again this is with machines and you know it's just one part that's
not working. So we usually would use malfunction for that.
Yeah. We don't usually say a dysfunctional part. That would be weird.
So again, with machines we almost always use malfunction. The computer system is
malfunctioning. Again here we're using it as a verb. It must have a bug or maybe a
virus or something like that in it. So again, it's not working correctly it's
not working properly. Okay. Number three. Again the that voting
machine seemed to be malfunctioning. Many voters complained that they voted for
one candidate and it recorded the votes for the opposite candidate. Yeah. That's a
big problem. In some elections, this happened. So that voting machine was
malfunctioning, was not functioning correctly. All right. Let's look at number
four. He comes from a dysfunctional family. All right. Yeah. Now we're getting
into like psychological terms or you know something to do with medicine. You
know, the dysfunctional families. A family that's not working properly, especially
in regard to behavior. All right. Let's continue. Number four. He comes from a
dysfunctional family. Oh no, That's what we just read so number five. Grandpa
is suffering from a kidney and liver dysfunction. All right. It's your body parts.
It's a body part that's not working correctly. So yeah we don't usually say a
malfunctioning kidney. We usually say dysfunction or dysfunctioning or
dysfunctional kidney. All right. Let's continue. She is showing signs of
dysfunctional behavior. Again. remember both medical and psychological terms in this
sense will probably use dysfunctional. And number seven. He is suffering from
erectile dysfunction. It's one of the ways they like to say it. If some poor guy
you know, he's a sexual part is not working in regards to sex anymore. You
know, it's a it's not getting you know hard like it supposed to. That's referred
to as erectile dysfunction. So that's another common way that you hear this
used. Anyway, I hope it's clear. I hope, I hope you have a better sense of when you
should use malfunction and when you should use dysfunction. Okay. Bye-bye.
Thank you for time. Bye-bye.