自宅の水道、排水管などのトラブルを説明する際に役立つ英語を学びましょう。問題点の説明、費用の問い合わせ、修理の手配など、日常的に使えるフレーズを練習しましょう。
英語を理解し話すことは、オーストラリアでの生活を向上させるのにとても役立ちます。SBSポッドキャスト、SBS Learn Englishでは、日々のさまざまなシチュエーションで使えるとっさの英語や表現を、あらゆる例を取り入れて簡単に説明します。
このエピソードは、中級者に適しています。聴き終わったらクイズで学習成果を確認しましょう。
学習ノート:
水回りのトラブルを説明するときに使える様々なフレーズ：
- My tap won’t stop dripping
- The tap keeps leaking.
- There’s a constant drip.
- The shower pressure is really low.
- The toilet keeps running.
- The sink is blocked.
- The drain smells bad.
- That sounds like wear and tear.
- It could just be a worn-out washer.
修理代金をたずねるときに使える様々なフレーズ：
- What am I looking at to fix it, roughly?
- Can you give me an estimate?
- What’s the ballpark figure for this repair?
口語的な言い回し：
something keeps happening ー 何かが、繰り返し繰り返し起こること、簡単に止まらないことを意味します。
something is driving you crazy ー 何かが、自分をイライラさせる、それが非常に迷惑で無視するのが難しいことを意味します。
Wear and tear ー 摩耗すること。 頻繁に使用される物が、時間の経過とともに少しずつ生じる損傷のことです。
A ballpark figure ー 正確な数値ではなく、おおよその見積もりを意味します。
To swing by ー 「立ち寄る」ことです。、多くの場合、短時間だけ訪れることを意味します。
ボキャブラリ：
To leak ー 漏れること。水やその他の液体が、ある場所から本来あるべきでない場所に漏れ出すことを意味します。
To drip ー 滴り落ちること、小さな水滴がゆっくりと一つずつ落ちていく。
A washer ー 蛇口の中にある小さなゴム製の円形の部品で、水の流れを密閉する役割を果たします。
To seal ー 液体または空気の流れを止めること。
To flush ー ある空間を洗浄するために、水を大量に素早く流し込むことを意味します。
A drain ー 排水口。汚れた水や使用済みの水が流れ出る開口部またはその水が流れるパイプを意味します。
Blocked ー 詰まっていること。何かが流れない状態を指します。パイプが詰まっていると、水は正常に流れません。
Low pressure ー 圧力が低いこと、力が弱いということです。水圧が低いと、水は弱く流れます。
An estimate ー 見積もり。何かにかかる費用のおおよその目安で、正確な金額ではありません。
トランススクリプト:
(注：これは一字一句書き起こしたものではありません）
SBS acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country and their connections and continuous care for the skies, lands, and waterways throughout Australia.
Your tap won’t stop dripping. The water in your shower gets weaker after a few minutes. Or maybe your kitchen sink is full of water which won’t go down. These are common problems at home that can quickly turn into big headaches.
I’m Kate and in this episode, we’re practising everyday English you can use when talking about plumbing problems.
Plumbing is the pipes and systems at home that bring in fresh water and take dirty water away. A person who fixes pipes, toilets, and water problems is a plumber. . In Australia, we sometimes call them a tradie - short for tradesperson.
You know who is having a plumbing problem today? Claire. She is standing in her bathroom, staring at the tap as it drips...drip..drip...into the sink. She sighs, grabs her phone and calls her plumber, Allan.
Claire:
My tap in the bathroom won’t stop dripping. It’s driving me crazy.
Allan:
Yeah, it doesn’t sound to serious. It could just be wear and tear, a worn-out washer maybe.
Claire:
I see...What am I looking at to fix it, roughly?
Allan:
I can’t say now. I can give you a ballpark figure once I see it. Do you want me to swing by this afternoon?
Like Claire, we all have small problems at home. Things break, or stop working, and we need someone to fix them. To get the best help, it’s important to explain the problem clearly. So, let’s look at some useful phrases we can use when talking to a plumber.
First, Claire said,
My tap in the bathroom won’t stop dripping.
If water is dripping, it means small drops of water are falling slowly, one by one.
Or another way of saying this is,
- The tap keeps leaking.
If something ‘keeps’ happening, it means it happens again and again, and doesn’t stop easily.
And if water is leaking from somewhere, it is slowly coming out from somewhere to a place where it shouldn’t go so that even when you turn it off, the water still comes out in small drops.
You could also say.
- There’s a constant drip.
This means the same thing. The water keeps coming out slowly, or we can say, it keeps dripping.
Claire also said,
It’s driving me crazy.
If something is driving you crazy, it’s very annoying and hard to ignore. You can use this phrase whenever something keeps bothering you or makes you feel frustrated. For example, I love spending time on my balcony, but the traffic noise drives me crazy. Do your kids drive you crazy in school holidays?
So far we have talked about water that is dripping or leaking. That’s just one example of a plumbing problem you can have at home. There are so many others, and it’s useful to know how to describe them clearly. For example, you might have this problem:
- The shower pressure is really low.
If your shower pressure is really low, the water is only coming out very weakly, not strongly.
Or this one,
- The toilet keeps running.
If your toilet keeps running, the water keeps flowing into the basin even after you have finished flushing. To flush the toilet is to press the button or pull the lever that sends water quickly through the toilet to clean it.
Let’s look at a few more examples of problems you might have,
- The sink is blocked.
If your sink is blocked, then the water doesn’t go down the drain properly because something is stopping it. The drain is the opening at the bottom of the sink where the dirty water goes away.
Or,
- The drain smells bad.
This means there is an unpleasant smell coming from the pipes.
These are all common problems and phrases we can use to help the plumber understand what’s wrong. Let’s go back to our dialogue. Allan said,
It could just be wear and tear.
Wear and tear is the damage that happens slowly over time to something that is used a lot. It’s not sudden damage; it’s the kind of damage that can be expected after something has been used a lot. The other day, my washing machine stopped working. It is very old, so I expect that the damages just wear and tear and I’ll probably have to get a new one.
Allan also said,
It could just be a worn-out washer.
Washer is a small rubber circle inside the tap that seals the flow of water. To seal is to prevent water or air from getting through. A worn-out washer is a common cause of dripping taps.
Then Claire asked,
What am I looking at to fix it, roughly?
Here, Claire is asking for an approximate price. You could also say,
- Can you give me an estimate?
An estimate is an approximate idea of how much something will cost, not an exact number. You could ask,
- What’s the ballpark figure for this repair?
A ballpark figure is, like an estimate, is a rough number that is close enough, but not exact.
At the end of the dialogue Allan said,
I can’t say now. I can give you a ballpark figure once I see it. Do you want me to swing by this afternoon?
To swing by means to visit someone or some place for a short time. It’s informal and friendly.
You can use it when you want to visit someone quickly because you’re already nearby or when the visit is short and informal and doesn’t need much planning.
So, in this context. Allan is offering to come to Claire’s place later that day for a quick visit to check the problem.
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Paul Nicholson and Lily O'Sullivan voiced the characters of Allan and Claire, and Professor Lynda Yates was our educational consultant.
