We belong to the age of machines. Well machines have made our lives easier, am I right? Well
you want to chop your vegetables, we have a machine for that. You want to wash your
clothes, we have our awesome washing machine. Well there are so many other types of machines
that we use in our daily lives. Well our gadgets, computers, phones, cameras… they all are
machines. Now in today's lesson, I'm gonna help you with some words and expressions to
talk about your machines, well we have automatic, manual, portable, different types of machines,
but how do you describe them? Well that's what we are gonna learn in today's lesson.
Hey friends, you're with me Niharika, welcome back to a new lesson. Well today we are gonna
look at some words and expressions that would help you to describe the machines that you
use. Well you need to help me with the list of machines that you use, I'm sure there are
way too many. So how do you talk about them? Well let's have a look. Well we have, “all
singing, all dancing”. Now when you say that, oh this machine is absolutely all-singing
all-dancing it means that, it has various impressive features. You go to an electronic
store, you probably want to buy a washing machine for yourself and the sales man, well
he comes and tells you, ‘oh, you need to look out for this machine, you know it's just
amazing it has so many features’, and then you're like, ‘oh yes, it's all singing all
dancing machine, I think I should buy this one’, right? So if a machine has, too many
impressive features, this is the expression that you can use, okay? Moving on to the second
word that I have for you which is, “high-performance”. Well a machine that works really fast and
is very effective and powerful. Like my new car, well cars are also machines, right? My
new car showcases high performance. So which means that it's really fast and very powerful.
I love my car! So this is another word that you can use in English, when you are talking
about a machine which is really fast and powerful. The third one that I have for you is, “jammed”.
Well are you talking about a traffic jam? No. Well when a piece of an equipment, a piece
of a machine is not working, okay, maybe it's faulty or maybe something has gone wrong and
it's just not working, then this is the word that you can use, rather than just saying
that, ‘I guess this is not working’, you can say that, ‘well, I believe it's jammed
up’. So jammed up, it means that maybe a piece of an equipment is, not working. Like
it is out of order, okay? The next one “souped up”. Okay, you buy something for yourself,
and you have a lot of technical knowledge, you try to make that machine more powerful,
more effective and really fast. So which means that you ‘soup it up’, okay? For example,
you buy a car and you modify that car, you probably, you know put different huge wheels
on it, which makes it very powerful, so you can say, ‘oh, look at this new car of mine,
I have souped up’. So souped up it means that, you have made something very powerful
and very effective. So to make a machine very powerful. Moving on to the next one which
is, “user friendly”. Well a machine which is very simple and easy to understand. Like
you can use it, because you know how to operate it. At times, we end up buying different types
of gadgets, like probably your tablet, your phone or cameras and you're just not comfortable
operating it, well the reason because you think it's not friendly enough, it takes way
too long to just understand the machine in order to, how to use it. So if you buy a phone
and you just get the hang of it, you would say that, ‘oh wow this phone is so user
friendly’. So it's because, you are, you have understood it, okay? It's very easy to
use, and hence you using this word in English, okay? So something which is really simple
or easy to understand. Yeah, machines can be quite complicated at times, right? So if
something which is really easy to understand, use the word, ‘user friendly’. Moving
on to the next one which is, “have a mind of its own”. Well do you think machines
have a mind? Well not really, but we are the ones who control the machines, right? But
at times machines just act in a very funny manner, so this expression is used in a very
funny way, you know when you're trying to do something with the machine, and the way
machine operates, you're like quite surprised, oh, well you think that the machine is controlling
itself, okay? It's in a very humorous way when you want to say when you're really super
looking at the machine you're like, ‘ah, this acts funny’, you can use the expression,
‘well it's having a mind of its own today’, okay? This is how you would use it. So when
you think that the machine is controlling itself. Well not literally the machine is
controlling itself, but when it's just not working fine, not the way that you expected
to work, then in a very humorous way, use this expression. Moving on to the next expression
that I have for you which is, “on the blink”. Well on the blink, well you think, well blinking
is like seconds job, right? So there are many people who think that using this expression
it means that the machine is working really fast, but the correct meaning of this expression,
‘on the blink’, it means that the machine is either faulty or it is out of order, okay?
Like, it's not working. So many English learners, do get confused with this expression, like,
on the blink they think that the machine is way too fast, but not really, ‘on the blink’
it means that, the machine is out of order, there's something wrong with the machine.
So for example, ‘can I use your phone please, because my phone is on the blink’, so which
actually means, it's because my phone is not working, so can I borrow your phone to make
a call, okay? That's how you need to use this expression. And then the last expression that
I have for you is, “at the touch of a button”. Yes, we have so many things that make our
lives easier, because we can do something at the touch of a button. So when you use
the expression at the touch of a button, it means something which is so easy to use, okay?
And it is really quick, okay? For example, ‘you need to check out my new Grinder, well
it's absolutely at the touch of a button’, which means that, it's really easy to use
and it is so quick, it's just so fast, okay? So this is a very positive way of describing
a machine that you have recently bought, right? So these are the eight words and expressions
that you can use in English in order to talk about machines. So the next time you're operating
one or buying one, do not forget these expressions and start using them. I'll be back with a
new lesson, till then you take care.