Practical English Listening Guide: Mastering Common Problem Expressions in Video Descriptions

We've looked at the guidelines for telling someone that there is a problem in a voicemail message. Now we're going to look at some useful language to describe the actual problems. There are hundreds of kinds of problems that could happen, so we're not going to talk about all of them. We'll just talk about some common ones and give you some vocabulary and language that will be helpful in explaining them. We're going to divide this part of the lesson into types of problems. We're going to look at problems related to location, money, delivery and equipment. Imagine that you're planning to hold an event in a hotel on a Friday evening. What problems might there be? Listen to some examples. Did you think of some similar problems? I'm afraid the room is too small. It won't accommodate all of our guests. Unfortunately, the room is double booked. I'm really sorry, but we have to cancel the reservation. Apparently, there's no heat. They need to fix it before we can use the room. Let's talk about some of the language in those examples. We can use the word accommodate to say that there is enough or not enough space for something. When a company double booked something like a room, it promises the space to two different people for the same time. If something is wrong, usually we have to fix or repair it. We can use expressions with need to or have to.

Okay, now let's talk about money. Imagine you provided a service to another company and then sent them a bill or invoice. Can you think of some possible problems? Listen to some examples. Were any of the same as your ideas? It appears that your account is overdue. Please call me as soon as possible to arrange payment. I'm sorry, but it seems that we undercharged you for your recent order. Apparently, there was a mistake on the invoice. We'll send another immediately. If an account is overdue, it means that a company hasn't paid the amount that it owes by the deadline. If you undercharged someone, it means that you asked for less money than you should have done. The opposite is overcharged. The other company might call you and say this, for example. It looks like you overcharged us.

Now, let's look at some problems regarding delivery. Imagine you ordered some office supplies for your company. What problems could there be with the delivery? Again, listen to some examples to see if you had similar ideas. We placed our order two weeks ago, but we haven't received it yet. The order was supposed to include 150 folders, but we only received 100. We received the delivery yesterday, but unfortunately, the staples are the wrong size. This language is useful to talk about several kinds of problems, so let's spend a minute talking about it. We can use yet or still to say that we are waiting for something. Here are some examples. We are still waiting for the invoice. We haven't received an invoice yet. Notice that yet is often used with a negative. We can use supposed to when we want to say that we expect something to happen, but it didn't. We were supposed to have red roses, but we received white ones. The new printer was supposed to be here last week, but we still don't have it. We can use the wrong, with a noun, to say that what we wanted was not the same as what we got. Here are some more examples. It was the wrong size. It was the wrong color. It is the wrong date.

Okay, finally, let's look at problems with equipment. Imagine you are setting up a room for a conference presentation. What are some problems you can think of? Now listen to some examples. The microphone isn't working properly. It seems that the projector is defective. The laptop keeps shutting down. When some equipment doesn't work, we often say it isn't working. If it does work, but not correctly, we can say it isn't working properly. Another way to say that equipment isn't working correctly is to use the adjective defective. If an object has something physically wrong, we can say that it is broken or damaged, like in these examples. Some of the chairs are damaged. A few of the dishes are broken. Finally, we can use the expression keep doing something to say that something, usually something not good, happens all the time. Here are some more examples. The phone keeps disconnecting. The printer keeps jamming. The posters keep falling down. As I mentioned earlier, there are hundreds of possible problems, but hopefully you have learned some language which you can use to describe some of them. I also hope that you don't get too much practice having to use them.