Changing a Light Bulb: English for Everyday Activities

Changing a Light Bulb: English for Everyday Activities

Discover important English vocabulary and expressions related to the everyday activity of changing a light bulb.

Video Transcript

Hi, my name’s Mark and this is English for Everyday Activities.

How many times has this happened to you: You sit down to read a good book, you go to turn on the light and… nothing happens. Today on English for Everyday Activities, we’ll talk about important vocabulary and expressions for changing a light bulb.

First some basic vocabulary. Of course we have a lamp, a lampshade, we have a cord, at the end of the cord is a plug, and the plug goes into an outlet.

The first step in replacing a light bulb is to take the cord of our lamp and unplug the lamp from the outlet. This is always a good idea when working with electricity. Now that the lamp has been unplugged we can safely replace the light bulb. If we look inside the lamp, we can see the old burned-out bulb. We’ll remove this bulb by unscrewing the bulb from the socket. After you unscrew your bulb, you are ready to recycle or throw away your old, used bulb. To make the job easier, it’s also possible to remove the lampshade. After you remove your lamp shade, you can see the socket and the switch of your lamp.

For our purposes today, we’re going to use a modern LED light bulb to replace the old burned-out bulb. You might use an LED bulb, or possibly a fluorescent light bulb, or even an older incandescent bulb. Use whichever bulb matches the instructions on your lamp. Your lamp will tell you the strength of bulb that is appropriate. Our lamp takes a 60-watt bulb, which is the style of LED bulb we are using today.

I will replace the lamp shade on the lamp, open the box of the new unused bulb, remove the bulb, and screw in the bulb into the socket. After I tighten the bulb we are ready to light our lamp. I’ll take the cord and plug in the lamp to the outlet. Here’s the big moment: we turn the switch and… let there be light!

This has been Changing a Light Bulb with English for Everyday Activities. My name is Mark and I hope to see you again soon. In the meantime, visit ESOL Advantage for other great resources for English Language Learners. That’s esoladvantage.com. Thanks for joining us. Here is the vocabulary we use today in changing a light bulb. [highlighted above]

Thanks for watching this English for Everyday Activities video for Changing a Light Bulb!

If you have a suggestion of an everyday activity you’d like to see, please share it in the comments section below.

To build your everyday vocabulary, I recommend you pick up a copy of The Heinle Picture Dictionary, 2nd Edition (available through this Amazon link)

The style of LED Bulbs used in this video are Phillips 60-watt dimmable bulbs (also available on Amazon)

Also, be sure to check out some of my other posts for English Language Learners

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