¶ Introduction to Differences Part 2
Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson which I've given the title What's the Difference? Part 2. A couple of weeks ago, I did a lesson called What's the Difference? Where I showed you two different English words and then I explained difference between those two words. In this lesson, I have chosen a lot of a lot more words. I think there's over 30 or 30. I think there's 30 more word pairs and I'll tell you the difference between each.
Now when I show you the English words you might think some of them are quite simple but I would tell you this just make sure you realize that you might learn a new word in the description. you might also learn a few new words as I describe that vocabulary word to you. So, stick around. We'll be here for about think twenty-five minutes for the lesson itself and hopefully you learn a few new words so welcome to this English lesson called what's the difference part two.
¶ Essential Tools and Hauling Vehicles
Hand tools and power tools. So, hand tools are tools you use with your hands that don't use electricity. Things like a hammer or a wrench or a screwdriver. Um or even something like a little utility knife. Power tools are tools that run on electricity from an outlet or from batteries, okay? So, power tools. a lot of noise. You plug them in. You charge the batteries if it is cordless and then you use them.
I have both kinds of tools. I keep a lot of my hand tools in a toolbox and I keep them on my workbench in my workshop. So again in this lesson if you're familiar with the word hand tools pay attention because you'll learn words like toolbox workbench cordless uh bat charging a battery. Um I have a number of power tools as well. I have the same amount of
power tools that plug in as uh that use batteries and they're corded and cordless. I'll get to that later. So, hand tools and power tools. Hand tools are tools you use with your hands that don't use electricity. power tools tools that run on electricity from an outlet or batteries. Pick up truck dump truck. Now again you might know these words but this isn't a basic vocabulary lesson. This is where you learn a few extra words as I describe them. So pickup truck. A small truck.
an open back for carrying things and it has a tailgate that you can open and close so that it's easier to put things in. I actually had a pickup truck like that a long time ago. It's very handy if you know someone with a pickup truck. A dump truck is a large truck that can tip its back to dump out dirt and rocks or dirt or rocks. So, a dump truck
they're very very large and they're very very loud. Uh sometimes when I'm trying to make a video in town the dump trucks go by and there are a lot of them uh in this
¶ Diverse Modes of Transport
this time of the year because there's a lot of road construction. Sailboat and motorboat. A sailboat. A boat that uses sails and the wind. A motorboat. boat that moves using an engine. So with a sailboat sometimes you have to sail back and forth. I think it's called tacking against the wind.
You unfurl the sail so that you can catch the wind and the wind is what makes your boat go forward. With a motorboat you just have a motor on the back. We sometimes call it an outboard motor if it sticks out from the back. or an inboard motor if it's inside the boat. Motor boats are very fast and often people will use them for water skiing. They will pull someone on water skis behind the boat so that they can
enjoy some summertime fun. So, sailboat. A boat that uses sails and the wind. Motorboat, a boat that moves using an engine. Cargo ship and cruise ship. I have never been. on a cargo ship or a cruise ship. A cargo ship is a ship for carrying goods and containers across the ocean. A cruise ship it's basically a floating hotel a ship for traveling with rooms restaurants and entertainment
Many of you I think have probably been on cruise ships. I think I would find it a little crowded. I'm not sure I would enjoy it. then cargo ships are obviously large ships with not very many people on them. It could be a ship full of oil or a ship full of wheat or a ship like the one in the picture with lots of containers. So, we might also call that cargo
ship, a container ship. So, a cargo ship, a ship for carrying goods and containers across the ocean. A cruise ship, a ship for traveling with rooms, restaurants, and entertainment. Mountain bike. road bike. We sometimes say street bike. A mountain bike is a bicycle made for riding on rough paths. That guy though is not on a path. He has gone off the beaten path. He is he's kind of
I don't know. I hope he lands this jump. So he's doing a jump with his mountain bike and I hope he lands it. A road bike is a bicycle made for riding on smooth roads. So notice I use two words there. Bike and bicycle. They are probably both used equally. Um bike is maybe a little more common in informal speech. So a mountain bike might have shocks on the front. So the front wheel can absorb
trying to make a shock sim can absorb some of the impact. Um a road bike will be very light so that it doesn't use extra energy to uh to to pedal. So, you pedal a bike. passenger train, freight train. A passenger train is a train that carries people. A freight train is a train that carries goods. When Jen and I go to Toronto We go to the train station in Burlington and we hop on the GO train. That's the name of the train.
you can take for public transit in Ontario. Uh and then we find a seat. In order to go on the train we have to buy a ticket or a pass. A ticket lets you go on one trip. pass lets you ride the train for a certain number of hours or days. We usually buy a day pass which allows us to go to Toronto and come home uh for the same amount of money. A freight train is just a train with
whole lot of cars attached to it. Train cars. And that that train will be filled with all kinds of things. Here when a freight train goes by it might be loaded with brand new cars coming from the United States or coal.
¶ Home and Work Equipment
Uh or uh stone. All kinds of different materials. But passenger train, a train that carries people. Freight train, a train that carries goods. Push more and riding more. I prefer the riding more. A push mower is a lawnmower you push. You use this to mow the lawn. You use this to mow the grass. You use this to cut the lawn. You use this to cut the grass. It basically takes a little bit of energy and it doesn't cut
very wide strip. A riding mower on the other hand is kind of a luxury. A lawnmower you sit on and drive. It cuts a much wider swath or path. Um and it's a little more relaxing. Um and it goes faster as well. And you can mow for longer because you don't get tired. So, push mower. A lawnmower you push. Riding mower. A lawnmower you sit on and drive. desktop and laptop. A desktop is a large computer that stays on a desk. We sometimes refer to the computer as a tower
but desktop is the most common word to use. A desktop computer requires a monitor and a mouse and keyboard. You need to plug them in to the USB ports. A laptop on the other hand is a small portable computer that you can carry and you can put it on your lap. And I actually found a picture of someone with their laptop on their lap. Uh we also sometimes
Rarely now but we might call it yeah I don't know if I should yeah a notebook computer. It's not as common anymore. Uh and if it is from Apple a lot of people just call it a MacBook. So desktop a large computer that stays on a desk laptop a small portable computer that you can carry. Um I have both. I have a desktop which you can see behind me. I have a desktop right there.
then I also have a laptop that I use for work that my work gave to me to use. Hiking boots and work boots. So, boots are obviously things you wear to protect your feet. Hiking boots are boots for walking on nature trails and paths. Work boots look similar. They're strong boots for working indoors or outdoors with safety features.
So the safety features that work boots might have is they might have a steel toe. So if something falls on your foot it doesn't crush your foot. Often people will wear work boots in factories. when they are doing construction jobs. So if you are a carpenter or a plumber or you work in a factory you will be required in Ontario Canada
wear work boots. Work boots have steel toes. They also have what's called a steel shank or a puncture proof shank. That means the bottom of the shoe if you stepped on a nail the nail would not go through. Hiking boots are usually waterproof and they're a little higher than a running shoe.
Um and they have more grip on the bottom but uh they kinda look the same but they are definitely different. Hiking boots. Boots for walking on nature trails and paths. Work boots. Strong boots for working indoors or outdoors with safety features.
¶ Personal Items and Household Fixtures
Baseball cap, cowboy hat. A baseball cap is a hat with a visor or front brim that is used by baseball players and ordinary people. So, people like me. Like, I wear a baseball cap. Where's my baseball cap? So I do not play for the Toronto Blue Jays. I have a baseball cap. This part makes it so my eyes are shaded from the sun. Um but if you go to a baseball game you will see a lot of people wearing baseball caps. A cowboy hat is a large hat with a wide brim that goes all the way around.
commonly seen in the western United States and Canada so you may not have known this but if you go to a state like Texas you might see cowboy hats. If you go to the province of Alberta in Canada in Western Canada. You might also see cowboy hats. So, cowboy hats worn by cowboys. I don't have a cowboy hat. Maybe I should get one. Ceiling fan and bathroom fan. Ceiling fan is an open fan that is mounted permanently on the ceiling. A bathroom fan is an enclosed ceiling fan that's
air out of a bathroom. So, ceiling fans are pretty common. We don't have one in our house but we would like to install one above our kitchen table. have air conditioning so it doesn't feel super necessary but when it's just a little bit warm but not warm enough to turn on the air conditioning it would be nice to have a ceiling fan spinning above our heads. A bathroom fan.
It's kind of crucial. I won't tell you why in too many descriptive words but I will say this. When you use the bathroom, when you use the washroom in Canada, it might smell. you should turn on the bathroom fan because that will remove any odors that have been created. Wood fence, chain link fence. A wood fence, a fence made of wood commonly found in backyards. So, in my part of the world, in Canada, we have lots of trees. So, we have lots of wood. Most things
that can be built are built out of wood if wood works. That was not a good description. Most people build fences using wood because we have lots of wood. So you will see fences like that sometimes in my videos when I'm out in town. A chain link fence is a fence made of woven metal wire and metal posts. You will see chain link fences in places where the fence needs to be very very durable. So at a a park or around a baseball diamond. So it's a fence that
It'll last longer than a wood fence for sure. Brick wall and siding. So a brick wall is a wall made of small hard rectangular blocks called bricks. Usually red or brown. My house has brick walls. Siding though is something that goes on the wall. A wall covered with flat panels often wood vinyl or metal that protects the outside of the house. This might be very different in your country. In Canada
Quite often the walls of houses on the outside are either brick or siding. We don't use wood very often because wood will rot. Brick lasts a long time. siding lasts a long time. They're very resistant to the elements. Rain, snow, freezing, thawing. So we don't put wood. We sometimes we do but it has to be like
¶ Modern Tech and Kitchen Essentials
special kind of wood that doesn't rot easily. Flip phone and foldable phone. A flip phone is a mobile phone that folds in half usually with the buttons on the bottom and the screen on the top. very common many years ago is kind of making a comeback. A foldable phone or a folding phone or a fold phone. We haven't decided on the name yet. Is a newer type of smartphone that can open
to make a larger tablet like display. Um I don't know if I'm going to buy one of these. They're a little bit too expensive for me. I usually buy Like a mid-range phone. I don't usually buy something too expensive but it's tempting because it's probably easier to read. And I should say there are newer flip phones similar to the foldable phone.
open this way where the top and bottom are a screen and we haven't decided whether we're calling them flip foldables or because they're not traditional flip phones but we'll see. refrigerator or fridge a large appliance that keeps food and drinks cold at three degrees Celsius or two or four somewhere in that range just above freezing.
A freezer though is a large appliance that keeps food frozen at minus 20 degrees Celsius or minus 18. You can also have anyways. A fridge often has a fridge at the bottom and a freezer at the top. But you can also buy a freezer separate where it's just a freezer and we call that a freezer or a deep freeze or a chest freezer or a deep freezer. Um we have one in our garage and that's where we keep a lot of our food.
Let's see here. T-shirt. A casual short sleeve shirt worn to relax. Dress shirt. A formal shirt with buttons and a collar for work or events. These can be worn by men or women. I often when I come home from work will take off my dress shirt and put on a t-shirt. I find t-shirts much more relaxing. Um it's just nice uh at the end of the day to put on something comfortable.
So a dress shirt then is something that looks a bit nicer. The material is a little bit nicer. It has a collar. You can wear a tie with a dress shirt. butter knife and steak knife. So a butter knife is a small dull knife used for spreading butter or soft foods. A steak knife is a sharp knife used for cutting and cutting while eating. And you don't have to use it for steak. I often use a butter knife to put butter on my toast and then I use a butter knife to put jam on my toast. When I'm eating
vegetables. I might use a steak knife to cut up the vegetables or I might use the steak knife to cut up chicken. You don't have to just cut up steak with your steak knife. So once again a butter knife, a dull knife, steak knife, a sharp knife. Frying pan and saucepan. Frying pan, a shallow pan often used to fry eggs on a stove. Eggs or bacon or even to saute some vegetables. A saucepan is a deep pan with
boiling vegetables or making soup or other things. You can make stew. You can make a sauce. Um it's just um better for uh when you have a lot of liquid that you have to heat up in order to eat it which is cooking.
¶ Food, Mixers, and Drinkware
Hot dog and hamburger. You probably know the difference. Obviously. They look very very different. A hot dog is a cooked sausage called a wiener in a bun. A hamburger is a flat cooked piece of ground beef. called a patty on a bun. So it's interesting in my thinking on this you put a wiener in a bun and you put a patty on a bun. Notice I use different prepositions.
I think that's correct. Um I don't think I would put a hot dog on a bun. Although that wouldn't be incorrect. You could say that. I put two hot dogs on one bun. But I generally say in. I put my hot dog in the bun or I put the wiener in the bun. I put the patty on the bun. Anyways, they're both yummy. Stand mixer. A large mixer that sits on the counter.
mixer a small mixer you hold to mix things in a bowl. So remember there are extra words to learn besides the actual word I'm teaching. So when I said counter that's the flat surface. that you use in the kitchen to prepare food. So the stand mixer sits on the counter. I don't have a stand mixer. It's something that I would like to have. I hear that it's just very very handy.
do have a hand mixer and sometimes when I'm mixing things I take it out of the bowl while it's running too far and it splatters food everywhere. So stand mixer. Cool. Sits on the counter. Hand mixer you use with your hand. Tea cup and coffee cup. So, they can be the same. But when I think of teacup I think of a small usually fancy cup for drinking tea. I don't know why we have two different cups but for a coffee cup I think of a cup also called a mug for drinking coffee.
I think of this takeout cup right here. So when I go for a walk along the road there's a lot of coffee cups in the ditch. The paper coffee cups that you get from a restaurant. And then the white um cup in the middle I would also call a mug. In English, at least in my part of the world, you drink a cup of tea. You have a cup of coffee or a mug of coffee but you don't often say I drank a mug of tea.
It just sounds weird to me. So, you can get a cup of tea from Tim Hortons or you can get a cup of coffee. Um and then you can enjoy your caffeine or not if you like a decaf.
¶ Electronics, Shovels, and Stoves
Wired and wireless. Wired is electronics that have a wire and need to be plugged in. The most common would be headphones. When you wear headphones it might have a cord that you have to plug in and we call it wired. I know cord and cable and wire gets confusing in English but that's how I would describe it. Wireless electronics that do not have a wire and do not need to be plugged in. So, a wireless set of headphones does not have a wire or cord.
It has batteries and you can just put it on your head and listen. Corded and cordless though is what we use to talk about tools. So a tool that has a cord for power and needs to be plugged in is corded. If I say to Jen can you go get the drill? She might say do you want the cordless drill or the corded drill? We sometimes say the drill with a cord.
But corded is probably more common. Cordless. A tool that does not have a cord and runs on batteries. I love cordless drills. Cordless saws. It's very very handy and the technology just gets better all the. time. Snow shovel and garden shovel. A snow shovel is a wide shovel for clearing snow. If you live where I live you need a snow shovel. Sometimes it's even made out of plastic. You can't use a plastic shovel.
dig in the garden though. Then you need a garden shovel. A small shovel for digging in soil. So a snow shovel is wide and big and made for moving light snow when you clean the driveway when you shovel the driveway and a garden shovel is usually made of metal and it's good for digging in the soil. stove and electric stove. A gas stove is a stove that cooks food using flames from gas. An electric stove is a stove that cooks food using electricity. We have a an electric stove.
When I lived in the city, I had a gas stove. Jen and I do not have natural gas so we can't have a gas stove. We have to use an electric stove. Backpack and duffel bag.
¶ Bags, Tables, Pools, and Lights
duffel bag that might be a new term for you but a backpack is obviously a soft bag with straps that you carry on your back students very often have backpacks it is the most common type of bag students will use in school at high school or in university or college. A duffel bag is a soft bag with handles.
used when traveling or going to the gym. So a duffel bag when it's empty will fold up and then you can kind of unfold it and stuff it full of your gym clothes or maybe you're going on a quick trip. instead of a suitcase you just take a duffel bag. So I think most of you probably have a backpack and a duffel bag somewhere. Coffee table and kitchen table.
A coffee table is a small low table usually in a living room. And a kitchen table is a larger table used for eating meals in a kitchen. I should have also added dining room table. We have a kitchen and we have a kitchen table in our kitchen. Some people have a kitchen and then they have a separate room called a dining room and then they would have a table in there called a dining room table but
I do have coffee table and kitchen table. We definitely have a coffee table in front of our couch in our back room and we do have a nice We have a really large kitchen table because when all of our kids come home for a meal, we we need a lot of chairs. Um swimming pool and kiddie pool. So obviously we all know this. A large pool filled with water where adults and children can swim is called a swimming pool. I don't have a swimming pool. Last week I wished.
we had a swimming pool. A kiddie pool is a small shallow pool made for children to safely play in water. Sometimes this the kiddie pool is inflatable. That means it's made out of plastic or vinyl or rubber and you have to fill it with air before you can fill it with water. So, you have to inflate the kiddie pool before you fill it with water. Um but
Yeah, it would be really nice to have a pool someday but I don't know. It costs a lot of money to fill it and to you have to winterize it every year and you have to buy chemicals. I'm not sure. I'm not sure I actually really want one. I like going swimming though. Stoplight and streetlight. A stoplight. Colored lights that control when cars can go through an intersection. And then streetlight. A tall outdoor light that makes roads and sidewalks bright at night.
Both of these lights by the way are for safety. A stoplight or what we also call a traffic light or a traffic signal. made so that people know when they can go through an intersection. It's made so people take turns and so people are safe. A street light is obviously to light up places at night so that you can feel safer and so you can see when you are walking or going for a run or jog.
¶ Power, Footwear, and Hygiene
power bar and extension cord. So, a power bar is a strip with multiple electrical outlets so you can plug in many devices. I think I actually own that one. Is that the Amazon basics one? I can't see it clearly enough. Um but basically a power bar has a cord. You plug it into an outlet and then it has four or five or six outlets on it. It also has an indicator light.
say whether it's on or off. And most of them will have a circuit breaker. So that little red switch if you plug in too many things that little red switch will click and then the power bar will turn off. can use it as a switch as well to turn it on and off. An extension cord is a long cable that lets you use electricity far away from a power outlet. So you can I just bought an extension cord yesterday.
Um but it lets you plug into an outlet and then you can unroll or unwind the extension cord and plug in a power tool or something else. Rubber boots and snow boots. So, rubber boots Some people call them rain boots. I think in England they call them wellies. Maybe in Australia and New Zealand as well.
but we call them rubber boots. Rubber boots, rain boots, wellies, waterproof boots made of rubber used to keep feet dry in wet or muddy conditions. Snow boots, warm insulated boots designed for walking in snow and cold weather. Those snow boots look really really cozy. If you live somewhere where it's cold you need a good pair of snow boots.
We even sometimes call them snowmobile boots because you most often wear them if you're gonna go drive a snowmobile to keep your feet warm. And if you live somewhere where it rains, it's important to have rubber boots. One of the things I hate about rubber boots is when they start to leak or when they start to let water in and then your foot gets wet because the whole point of the rubber boot is to keep your feet dry.
bar soap and liquid soap. Uh bar soap is a solid block of soap used for washing your hands or body and it sits in a soap dish. And I actually have a nice soap dish that Brent gave me. keep it by the kitchen sink from the state of Maine. It's really nice. Liquid soap is a soap is soap in liquid form in a bottle with a pump for washing your hands or body. Quite often
my part of the world. If you go to wash your hands at a sink at home or at work or at someone else's house, they will have liquid soap and you'll pump some soap onto your hands and wash your hands. I think a lot of people have a bar of soap in the shower or they use it in the tub and they use liquid soap to wash their hands.
picnic table and patio table. A picnic table is a wooden table with benches for eating outside. By the way, it doesn't have to be wooden. It can be metal but most often it looks like picture there. A picnic table. And then a patio table is a table used on a deck patio in a backyard for outdoor dining. So you can see the patio table is a little more like It's like a kitchen table, but it's built to withstand the elements. It can be outside and it does a good job.
