IELTS Speaking for Success - 🔧 Fixing things (Part 1) + Transcript

Episode Date: February 18, 2026

Get access to our episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs Can you fix things? What kinds of things can you fix? Have you ever asked people to teach you how to fix things? Is fixing things a necessary skill? Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/rory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/s13e14 Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2025 Podcourses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, lovely. I'm Maria. And my name is Rory. I'm the host of the IELD Speaking for Success podcast, the podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way. We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high-ILD school. Your band nine's name.

Oh, Rory, I really like your new chain. Oh, thank you. The old one broke and I couldn't actually get it fixed. How interesting. Because today we're going to be talking about fixing things. Oh, excellent. Let's fix up some vocabulary. Yeah, dear, listen up, the topic is fixing things.

You know, like when you repair broken things, when you fix things. You can also fix people or fix your life. You know, just make something better. Let's talk about fixing things. Can you fix things? Unfortunately, not really. I've never been a very handy person around the house. If I was pushed, I could probably make some very basic repairs to like a hole in the wall or something like that, but I couldn't fix up a smartphone or something similar. What kinds of things can you fix? Well, if something like a railing or a fixture came loose, then I could, well, at least I can knock it back in.

into place, but that's just using brute force to solve a problem, really. It doesn't take much technical knowledge. Have you ever asked people to teach you how to fix things? Oh, constantly. Sometimes my computers died on me and I've needed to know how to replace the battery or some component in it, for example. Though I certainly wouldn't say that makes me a qualified repairman or anything. Is fixing things a necessary skill? It probably is, yeah. Even though I'm useless at it. Things break down or stop working all the time and since tradesmen or specialists can be so unreliable these days, it's important to be able to do things like that for yourself. So I should probably make more of an effort to learn.

As you know, we now release all of our premium content for free and it's available for one month. After one month, it goes into our super secret archive. To sign up for the archive, click on for the archive, click on it's available for one month. archive, click the link in the description below. See you soon. Fixing things. What synonym can we use? Fix things can I say repair things? Um, yes, or fix things up. It's a phrasal verb. Oh. So fix up a broken table, for example. Repair something. Or do home repairs. Yeah, can I say like do home repairs? Well, you can do, I think most people talk about making repairs, for example.

Or just repairing, that's the verb. And what do people usually fix at home, for example? Like, we talk about broken toilets, like running toilets, or taps in the bathroom. Right, when you kind of, you have water, you have to open up your taps, right? Or furniture, broken furniture. something like electrical, electrical items, clothing, bicycles, appliances, okay, maybe your microwave oven broke down and you fix it, right, the listener? So you can talk about electronics, different appliances, gadgets, clothes, yeah, so we fix them.

Rory can't fix things. So he says, I've never been a very handy person. around the house. So I'm not a handy person, which means I don't really fix things around the house. Or I'm not very good at it. I'm not very good at fixing things. Yeah.

And then we can use the second conditional. We're imagining. Like, I can't fix things, but if I was pushed to do it, if somebody pushed me to do it, if I was pushed, I could make some basic repairs. So make basic repairs, fix something which is very easy to fix. Maybe a broken, I don't know, broken glass, like glue it together.

For example, like some basic repairs, a hole in the wall. Okay, but I can't fix up a smartphone. I can't fix up a microwave or lighting or anything electrical, for example. Or I can't fix up a broken toilet. Or actually, we say a running toilet, the listener. Here you do need to choose maybe three specific phrases, like fix up a running toilet, or fix up leaky taps. Leaky, L-E-A-K-Y, Leaky taps.

Rory, what are leaky taps in your bathroom? Oh, well, they're taps that are not working properly. So usually the taps are either open or closed. So if they're open, then the water is coming. And if they're closed, then the water is not. But if they are leaking, then maybe you've closed the taps or turned the tap off and the water is still coming out of the tap. Or maybe even worse, it's coming from somewhere else.

Yeah. Or just go to Google Images and Google Leaky Tapes. And also another one is like we might fix light switches. So when you just turn on your light in your house, It's called like a light switch. This is kind of little button. And you have the light and then you switch it off. A light switch.

So I can fix light switches or I can't fix up even light switches. And another one is nice clogged sinks. Also in the bathroom, a sink is a sink. Go to Google Images, DeLis. No, it's the thing that you fill with water to wash your dishes. Yeah. In the kitchen or in the bathroom, and if it's clogged. It's not draining properly.

So usually the water goes away when you're finished with the sink, but if it doesn't go away, when you take the plug out, then it's clogged. It's blocked, right? And these are like classical stories around the house, broken toilet, clogged sinks. And then the next question is like, what kinds of things can you fix? So you can lie, dearly, and you can say, oh, I can fix light switches, clogged sinks and running toilets. There you, you know, dear listener. Three phrases,

Band 9. Yay, very specific vocabulary. And you can also say, like, I can do some DIY repairs, maybe car repairs or bicycle repairs. Rory, what is DIY repairs? Oh, DIY is just do it yourself. So this is when you fix something yourself, basically. Yeah. You can also say that, You can, I don't know, repair shoes, for example. I can repair furniture? If you can't delist, I don't know, can you? Because seriously, I can't repair anything. Oh, no, no, no, maybe clothes.

Oh, can you mend clothes? Manned, yeah. If you can call it mending. You're like, no, no, probably not. Well, to me, it's mending, mending, like improving clothes. But my mom is not impressed when she sees my mended clothes. She goes like, what have you done? You should have given them to me.

So, yeah, so you can imagine the quality. And Rory tells us that he can fix something up if it doesn't take much technical knowledge. So kind of some basic repairs. Yeah, I can repair something if it doesn't take much technical knowledge. My computer has died on me, which means like my computer has broken down. like you are working on your computer

then bam something happens and your computer dies on you right and you can say that well when my computer or my smartphone died on me I had to ask my brother or a specialist to teach me

like to ask for help ask somebody to replace the battery for example or to replace certain components in food we have to have ingredients in devices, we have components, different parts. So we replace certain parts in a television or inside a computer. So television components, cars, electrical components for cars.

That just means parts of things, though, doesn't it? Yeah, parts. You can say that I'm not a qualified repairman. So when you're repair, you're a. things, you become a repairman. Well, if it's your job. Really? Like a repairman? That's the name of the job? Well, I think that's the general term. And then there'll be more specialist repairs. Yeah, like plumber, for example. So if you have what? Clogged sink, the listener. Go to Google Images right now. Have a look at what a sink is. So blocked sink, a clogged sink.

and toilet pipes and all this jazz we call a plumber like a special person who deals with blockages in your toilet oh and that one is a shower tap is it shower tap tap oh well it depends on what part of the shower we're talking about here oh this little thingy that this circular thingy

oh okay well it's the easiest word is tap yes yeah okay If you wanted to be really fancy, you'd say a pressure regulator. Ooh, fancy. Pressure regulator. Pressure regulator. All right. So maybe you asked your parents or grandparents to teach you how to fix things.

But seriously, like, how often do we do this? Like, oh, please, Grand Park, would you teach me how to, I don't know, how to deal with the clogged sinks? That might be a good time to learn. Actually, they run courses at the local college where, I live and I'm seriously tempted to just take one because it might be quite useful to have in the future. Yeah, so for example, you maybe you've asked your teacher or you've never asked anybody. Hey, Dad, I have a stuck door. My door doesn't open. Fixing things is a necessary skill. Yes, it's quite necessary to know how to fix things, how to make some basic repairs.

Right? But I'm useless at it, you can say. Like, if you can't teach, if you can't fix things, you can say, I'm useless. I'm not good at this at all. But if you are very good at this, yes, you can say, like, I'm good at fixing. I'm good at fixing, blah, blah and blah. And things break down. So we say different things. Break down.

Break down. Right, it's a phrase of love. And tradesmen. tradesmen like people who fix things like plumbers right so repairmen tradesmen specialists who else do we have we have we have electricians who fix electricity plumbers right who else fixes things people who work with furniture what do you call them i mean that is a very good question upholsterers perhaps you're upholsterers perhaps you're upholstery is part of your furniture, but I don't know what they're called. They probably have a very special name that I don't know.

What is the name of the people that repair furniture? Furniture repair people. Handyman, there we go. That could be for anything, though. Yeah, exactly. Is he kind of like handyman or maintenance workers? Maintenance, like who maintain your flat, for example, your house. Repair technicians.

So all of them have, all of them are good at fixing things, right? so they specialize in repairing, installing, maintaining household items, appliances. So, yeah. Oh, carpenter, yeah. So plumbers, electricians and carpenters. Carpenters deal with wood, usually. But the good news is you only need to think of one or two,

and you can say I'm not a carpenter or something, or I'm not a plumber or something. Yeah, yeah, and you can say just, I can fix. What can you fix the listener? clogged sinks, running toilets, and what did you say about taps? Leaky taps, light switches. All right, dear listener, you can just go to Google and go to Google images, look at the stuff you can fix.

Yeah, there you go, Ben 9 vocabulary. Yeah, you can also say, like, replace light switches, fix refrigerators. No, come on, dear listener, you can't possibly be able to fix a fridge. No, because I think it's difficult you just call a special fridge person. Well, I suppose it depends on what the damage is. Maybe it's just a light bulb that needs to be replaced and then it's okay. Or maybe you just forgot to plug it in, you know, to connect your fridge to electricity. Very plausible. Oh, all right. Are we ready for a joke? Uh, do I get a choice?

No, no. Yay, no choices. Yeah. And Rory, could you please tell us first, what? What is a handle? Oh, a handle? Oh god, I best to describe. It's the thing that sticks out from a door and you turn it to open it. Yeah. To open the door, you just touch a handle and then you open the door, okay? So the joke is, fixing a door myself proved to be rather difficult.

I could never quite get a handle on it. Oh, yes, get a handle on something, get to grips with it. Yeah, dear listener. So now the joke is about to get a handle on something, right? So a door usually has a handle and first of all we say like fixing a door is difficult because, well, I can't put a handle on it because it's difficult. But here the joke is like I could never quite get a handle on it, which means, well, get to grips with something or understand something, how something works. Yeah, de lisa, it may not be funny, but well, it's a good idiom, so to get a handle on something, understand, be able to deal with something.

For example, I started to get a handle on the problem. I started understanding this problem. Or you can say, or I start getting a handle on this I-L-speaking test. With the help of Rory and Maria. Absolutely. Thank you very much for listening. We'll get back to you in our next episode. Bye. Unfortunately, not really. I've never been a very handy person around the house. If I was pushed, I could probably make some very basic repairs to like a hole in the wall or something like that, but I couldn't fix up a smartphone or something similar.

What kinds of things can you fix? Well, if something like a railing or a fixture came loose, then I could, well, at least I can knock it back into place. But that's just using brute force to solve a problem, really. It doesn't take much technical knowledge. Have you ever asked people to teach you how to fix things? Oh, constantly. Sometimes my computers died on me,

and I've needed to know how to replace the battery or some component in it, for example. Though I certainly wouldn't say that makes me a qualified repairman or anything. Is fixing things a necessary skill? It probably is, yeah, even though I'm useless out of it. Things break down or stop working all the time, and since tradesmen or specialists can be so unreliable these days, it's important to be able to do things like that for yourself.

So I should probably make more of an effort to learn.