Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 486. The title of today's lesson is the difference
between Pierce and Puncture. Yeah. Sometimes I'll get students to ask what is the difference between
these two ? Okay. If somebody wants a screenshot , do it right now. Let's get right to it. There
is some crossover definitely. There's, there's sometimes where you might be able to use either
one or the other and I'll just give you a lot of hints of where we're more likely to use this one
and not that one in certain situations. All right. Let's continue. Both words mean to make a hole
in or through something. So that could be true for both. Something with a sharp object. Okay.
Punctures are usually small holes and piercings could be big or small. So that's something to
note. Puncture is usually just small, but piercing could be larger or smaller.
Let's continue. If you're talking about body piercings like for earrings, use pierce and
not puncture. A puncture would sound weird. It sounds sounds almost too violent too,
but of course you know, we say people have pierced ears and of course you nowadays
it's very common you could have pierced other parts of your body. You could have a
pierced nose ring, pierced you know nipple, pierced neck or the pierced tongue. Yeah. A lot
of things would never say puncture for those that would sound really strange puncture. All right.
Let's continue. Even though this is not a hard-and fast rule which means it's not definite. It's not
100. There'll be exceptions to it. That's what we mean by that. Pierce is more often done on purpose
and puncture is more often done by accidents. That's something to kind of keep in mind.
All right. But again there could be exceptions to that rule. Thus with tires or vehicles getting
flat from a sharp object we are more likely to use the word puncture. Like. Yeah. It's very
common that you might say something punctured your tire. Put a hole into your tire that way
rather than pierce. We don't say it's something usually pierced you're tire. We say something
punctured your tire. Okay. Let's continue. With needles for injections, we are more likely to
use the verbs like.... more likely to use some other verbs actually, like stick, jab, give,
like you give somebody a needle or you give somebody an injection. You got jabbed with it.
You got stuck with it. Because sometimes students might ask. Well which one should I say puncture or
should I say pierce with a needle ? And really to be honest, some of these other verbs might actually
be better than either of those two. All right. If you are choosing between pierce and puncture
you know, like for a needle pierce would be better because puncture sounds too rough. Yeah. Usually
puncture sounds almost like he got stabbed with it. Pierce sounds more careful and delicate.
All right. Let's continue. We are all right. So if we are talking about balls, like a basketball
or a volleyball or any ball that can have air in it , puncture would be more common. It sounds
more like an accident because you don't really usually want to put holes in your balls . So
puncture is more like it rather than say something pierced the ball. Again not entirely
wrong , but but puncture would be more common . You know. And usually the holes are small
with wounds. Puncture is more common. Unless it was a piercing done on purpose. Yeah. Like you
know , like if somebody got stabbed or shot you know, say you know, the bullet punctured his lung.
The bullet pierced his lung. Not as likely. We'd probably say puncture in this sort of sentence.
Okay. Good. And. All right. And let's just give you some examples here.
Here's the first one. She decided to have her nose pierced. Yeah. So again with
piercings , definitely the word pierce. He ran over a nail and it punctured a hole in his tire. Good
or the third one here. The nurse pierced my skin with a needle. Well if you're
going to use that but again stick or jab would probably actually be even better.
Yeah. So the nurse stuck ... Yeah. My arm with a needle. Yeah. I guess. So ... so stick is again
better. You stuck it. All right and number five here. She dropped that volleyball from
a third floor window and it hit a metal spike which punctured a hole in it. So something like
that. Anyway that's kind of the idea. All right . Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope you got a better
feel of when you'd be more likely to use one than the other. Okay. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.