Hello, and today I'm going to talk to you about tools. Now, when I say tools, I mean, those things that we have at home, or some of us have at home, and we use them to help us with jobs about the house. So we use tools, for example, or I use tools, I love my tools, because I like to do things myself at home. If there is a problem with a tap, and it's dripping. Well, what I like to do is to get my spanner out and open up the tap and try to fix it myself, or the toilet doesn't work. Well, I don't want to call the plumber, I like to try and fix it myself. So I have a toolbox. And in my toolbox, I have a lot of useful tools that I use to help me with these jobs about the house, we say.
Now, the reason I'm doing this today... Well, first of all, I don't suppose that the names of tools are words which are particularly needed for B2 level. I mean, they're not really very common words, although they are useful words, if you actually live in the country, and you're living a very practical sort of life. In the UK, for example, tools are important. But perhaps for passing exams, maybe not so much. But the reason that I want to talk about tools is because I think it's very interesting when we learn a language to look at words in two ways. First of all, to look at the literal meaning of the word - what something is. So for example, today I'm going to talk about the saw, the saw is a tool for cutting things. Now, that word is the literal word - that is what a saw is - and here it is there, you see[!!], this is a saw. So there is the literal word.
And then there is the figurative use or idiomatic use or metaphorical use of those words. And those words are probably more common in the English language than the literal words, especially talking about tools, for example. And that's what I'm going to do today, I'm going to bring out some idioms that we use when we're talking about - anything, lots of different things, but they use the words of tools.
Okay, so let's get started. I've already mentioned the saw. And I've got a number of tools here on my desk in my office. And I thought it's easier to describe them to you if I can actually pick them up and make some sounds as well so that you can actually hear them and understand what it is. So I'm going to saw a piece of wood here so you can hear it over the microphone. There you go, [sawing sound] I was sawing a piece of wood. So as you have probably understood from that, a saw is a tool which we use for cutting wood. We move it forwards, we move it backwards, backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards until the piece of wood is cut.
Now, I thought it's interesting to look at this word to saw and use the phrasal verbs that we use. Not only with saw, but other verbs as well, like cut, and explain how we use them. Now I'm going to start with an example of a tree. Now, I hate cutting down trees, well, I've never cut down a tree. But I wouldn't want to do that, or even talk about doing it. But I am going to, because trees do get cut down, unfortunately. And that's what I wanted to explain. So if you saw down a tree, what that means is that the whole tree will fall over, you saw something down or you cut something down, that means the whole tree will fall over into the jungle.
Now what if we use the word off? Well, if you saw something off, or you cut something off, well, that means a part of the thing. So for example, the branches of a tree, you cut them off, or you saw them off.
And then interestingly, if we use the word up, if you saw something up, what does that mean? Well, it means that you saw it into lots of different pieces, lots of pieces. So you'd have lots of logs, bits of wood, if you saw up a tree, and you can cut up something as well. If you cut up a piece of paper, that means you have lots of bits of paper.
Right? I'd better go on. But it's quite interesting, isn't it to look at those phrasal verbs and how we use them to describe the different processes of cutting.
Now, this is one you have probably heard of before. It's a piece of metal on a stick. And it makes a sound like this. [sound of a hammer] So you hit things with it, basically. Well, usually you hit a nail. A nail is a piece of metal - very thin and long. But you know, maybe it's only about three or four centimetres long, different lengths, probably. And you use the nail - you put the nail on the wood and you hit it, you hit the head of the nail with a hammer, so that it goes into the wood. Right, so that is to hit the nail with the hammer.
And let's just look at some interesting idioms then with hammer. There is another tool called tongs. And what are tongs? Tongs are two pieces of metal, or wood, which you hold in your hand, and you use them to pick up things, things that usually you can't touch, because perhaps they're very hot. So you probably have some tongs in the kitchen to pick up food out of the hot oil in a pan. Anyway, there is an expression, which is to be at it hammer and tongs, they were at it hammer and tongs, which means to argue a lot - to argue quite aggressively, really to shout at each other - at it hammer and tongs.
And there's another one, which I think perhaps is sort of maybe applicable to some English teachers, perhaps myself included. Sometimes when you hammer something into somebody. Now that means that you're trying to teach that person something. And the way that you do it is by repeating the information again and again until they understand it. So for example, those verb tables: the infinitive the past simple and the past participle. To repeat them again and again, to hammer something into somebody until they learn it. Perhaps not a very good teaching technique.
And another one as well - to hammer something out. Now we say that when a group of people are making a plan, and they are writing down the different parts of the plan and that is to hammer something out - to hammer out the plan, which means that they are trying to arrive at a decision, a mutual decision, a decision that everybody agrees on. So to hammer out an agreement, politicians getting together, or something, perhaps people getting together, talking about climate change, trying to hammer out an agreement, so that everybody agrees.
Now going on to nail then, a nail, as I explained, is that long thing that we hammer into wood. And there's a nice little expression that we use, when somebody is talking to you, and they have a problem. And they say to you, you know, I've got this problem, and they try to explain, and they're not really being very successful in explaining what is wrong with them. And then you say something - you offer [try to define], in one sentence, what the problem is, and that person says, Yes, you're right! That's exactly it, you have hit the nail on the head, what you've said is exactly right. So that's a nice little expression.
I'll use one more as well, I'll give you one more - to pay on the nail. So to pay on the nail, is to pay promptly pay without delay. So when somebody for example, buys something, and you pay there and then that's to pay on the nail.
Now, going on, well, with my tools, I have a screwdriver here, a screwdriver. Now a screwdriver I need to mention it because it's a very useful and common tool that you use to screw a screw into a piece of wood, or into a piece of metal, for example. And a screw is like a nail, but you have to turn it to make it go in. The screwdriver is the tool that you use to do that. Now, I couldn't find any idioms about screwdrivers. But maybe you've heard of the famous cocktail called a screwdriver, which is vodka and orange juice! So the next time you're in a British bar, or in the United States, you can ask for a screwdriver.
Now the screw that you actually screw into the piece of wood, in fact, does have quite a few little expressions. And I've just selected two idioms to share with you. And one is a quite an interesting one, which is to have a screw loose. Now, if you have a screw loose, which means that the screw or something that's holding the parts of something together, is falling out. So if you say a person has a screw loose, well then it means that they're perhaps not quite normal. A little bit crazy. That person's got a screw loose, you say - she's got a screw loose.
And then another one I've chosen is to screw up. And that is when you make a big mistake and you get it completely wrong. Your English homework, you perhaps did the wrong exercise and you hand into the teacher. And well, you get a zero because you did the wrong one. You screwed up completely.
Okay, moving on then screwdrivers don't make much noise do that is difficult to demonstrate it. My other one here is a spirit level. And a spirit level is a very useful tool, which you can use when you are putting up pictures in your home. And the picture frame goes on the wall and you want it level. You don't want it wonky! You don't want to go into one side. You want to look at it and it looks nice and straight. So use a spirit level. To do that, you put it alongside the picture frame, and you can get it straight by getting the bubble in the middle of the two lines.
There are quite a few idioms and metaphors talking about level. And I've just brought one out actually here for time's sake, which is - so if something is a level playing field. We say the playing field is like a football pitch or a cricket pitch, a place where you're playing a game outside, usually on grass, a playing field, a level playing field means that everybody has the same opportunities, the same chances [in any situation - not necessarily sport]. So both sides are on a level playing field. Because if the field wasn't level - for example, Barcelona playing against Real Madrid and Barcelona has to play uphill, because the field is not level, when obviously, it's more difficult. Barcelona would definitely lose playing uphill. So - a level playing field.
And the next one is a spanner. And a spanner is for turning a bolt. So it's a long piece of metal, and it's got a kind of a C-shaped part at the end. What you do is that you insert that over the head of a bolt, which is like a screw. But in this case, you don't use a screwdriver, you use the spanner. You turn it, and that will go in, and usually on the end of the bolt, you put a nut and that screws onto the bolt and holds two things together, for example. So that's a spanner. I hope I've explained that well enough.
And there's a nice idiom with spanner, which is to throw a spanner in the works when, for example, we're making plans for a party, okay, we're making plans to have a party, we want to invite lots of people. And the place where we're going to have the party was John's house, you know, John is always a good sort. John will let us use his house for the party. But then what happens is that John says, I can't use my house for the party. We've got the painters in and, you know, we've got everything covered up - all the furniture covered. And we've got the painters in. We've got the builders in as well - the tools are everywhere, you just can't have a party at my house. So we can say, well, that's thrown a spanner in the works, hasn't it? That has brought about or caused a problem, which stops our original plan.
And I'm just going to finish with another one, which again, the idioms of which we can apply to English teaching as well. And it is this. Can you guess what it is? [sound of a drill] Right. Well, that was a drill. And a drill is for making holes in the wall, perhaps when we're putting up our picture. And we have to drill in the wall before we use the screw and put up the picture. Hang up the picture on the wall.
Right, now interesting, idiomatic expressions that we use with drill. And it's a bit like the one that we saw at the beginning with the hammer - to hammer something into somebody. Well, you can drill something into somebody as well. So when we are teaching English, some teachers may decide to repeat something again and again and again until the students learn it. And that's to drill something into somebody. And we actually have a technique which is called drills. And drills are just that really, you repeat something again and again until they get it right. So, for example, we would say, verb to be, I am, you are, he is, she is, it is, we are, they are. And you get the students to repeat it. And that is called a drill. So, to drill something into somebody is to repeat it again and again until they learn, right?
Well, I'm going to finish. There are a lot more, actually, I've got on my sheet, but I'm running out of time.
And so I'm going to leave you with that. Goodbye!
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