Test time!
Mr. Vig (that’s me!) broke his leg while ____
- Riding a bull
- Rescuing a kitten from a burning fireworks factory
- Skiing in the rain
To help Mr. Vig walk with a broken leg, he has to use these:
What’s the word for these in English?
- sticks
- crutches
- watermelons
And The Answers Are…
C) Skiing in the rain
And B) crutches
And since this is an English lesson, and not a ski lesson, let’s talk about crutches.
The Word Of The Day
Even if your legs work fine, you can use “crutch” as a metaphor.
If something supports you… helps you… assists you…it’s a crutch.
Examples:
“Mr. Vig says you shouldn’t use Google translate when you write emails; it’s just a crutch.”
“He uses alcohol as a crutch to get through the day.”
“Your boss isn’t the real reason you don’t make more money; that’s just a psychological crutch.”
Notice something all these examples have in common?
Are they positive or negative?
That’s right, they’re all negative.
While my crutches are good for me when I want to get off the couch…
When you want to talk about a metaphorical crutch, make sure it’s negative.
Is that clear?
Want to practice?
Jump over to the blog (click on “leave a comment” below) and answer this question:
“Do you rely on any crutches when you use English?”
when I use English my crutshes is google translate
I use google translație when I written email at my job
I do. Google translate
Yes, I do… Google translator…
This is proces Ryan/ Mr. VIG…
At the end last year I broke my big finger I couldn’t walk ….to the moment when I gave cruteches….. when I got special boots I thought that will be good …not exacly my hips and spine destroid second boots get me happy.. after 3 weeks I go to the Spanish beach and .. remember the first amazing moment when My feet touch ground ….wet and hard Sand and wonderful water….it Was amazing feeling I was conected …I will trust myself … wow ! Thanks are you great…the next steps I tried soft Sand and one day I felt that Im ready to dance on the all beach…. natura support my proces ….You are amazing ✨️ how your leg?
It’s getting better. But no dancing yet.
Yes, I do. When I write in English I use translation app as a crutch.
My crutches are usually Google translate, but I use it so, I type in English and look how it looks in my language.
When I write scientific papers I use crutches (instatex), but when I speak I try to find appropriate word without crutches.
My crutches were “Google translate”, but now ChatGPT (or simlar, I really like AI) is also pretty good too …
Yes,I do only for mails letters etc and feel better after that.
Yes, it’is easy to use Google translator as a crutch. I had to prepare an article for Bulgarian medical magazine and they required also an abstract in English. I had to do this for a very short time and I put the text in Google and immediately received translation, which was not bad and I had just to make some corrections. The crutch helped…
Thanks a bunch for the nice clarification of the metaphorical crutch! I am scared that without any crutches while studying English could have a lot of mistakes. Sorry for that. But I intend to stop crutches someday when my brain will be on point with English knowledge.
Skiing in the rain,
Crutches
I hope, Mr.Vig, you are OK,
Have a nice evening
Ján
My teachers is my crutshes 🙂
When I use English I don’t rely on any kind of crutches . I rely only on your kindness!
Nice!
Yes, I use Google translate as crutshes when I have to write official letter and I don’t know the English word.
Hello dear Mr Vig I am wondering why using cruces would be negative,even that helps us?
Good question. It’s because a crutch does the work for you. Imagine how weak your leg becomes after not using it for a long time.
Yes, I do. My crutches are Google translate and ReversoContext but I’ve noticed that now use them not as often as before.
Google translate is still my main crutch in English but still I need help from the best English teacher, who knows all clever tricks to make learning easier. Thanks Mr.Vig!
Pain to the crow, disease to the magpie, Vig´s leg will be healed. /Old folk saying/
actually, I shouldn’t use dictionary under english lesson but it is my crutches for better comprehension.
No
I’m trying avoid the any crutches, when i use English, because i want to thinking English in the future, but sometimes i have to use google or google- or deepL tarnslate.
I make myself the sentences, I don’t rely on any crutches, but sometime i use dictionary to see how to write a word correctly.
Yes I do: Often when I study english I use an online traslator.
Yes, I use google translate as crunches to check my knowledge.
Yes, sometimes… I rely on crutches when I translate an unknown word in my native language.. when I really don’t understand the meaning despite what is explained in English…
Yes, J do. Now I need it as a crutch. J hope after some time I’ll be able to rely only on myself.
Many times I have used google translate to write a message to my English friend.
Hi! I Like your daily mails. All is clear and and useful in them.
Unfortunately I still use google translate crutshes for writing my emails
I used cratches when i send messages to my family. Like that , i am sure not making mistakes
I don’t trust google translator. I use dictionaty as a crutch. I try to find among examples proper grammar construction.
My crutch in using English is Google translator. It is very convenient – some word or all the sentence. Very good for training hearing are News (France 24 – for me)- it is more complicate then Power lessons. Thank you!
Yes, I use Google Translator as a crutches, after I have written the text in English to see if I wrote correctely. I think it’s a good way to verify myself. But I do not use Google Translator to translate the sentences in English. And I saw that in many cases thei don’t correct all the mistakes regarding the letters in the words. I wish you have dexterity using your physical crutches and pacience for the next weeks that you’ll have to spend using them.
Yes, I do Google translate when I need to translate big business document
Yes, I use Google Translate more often.
Mr Vig, shouldn ´t it be “ a few week”S” intead of “few week” as you wrote in the first your sentence of your writing to readers. Or is so USA english different?
I use google translate
I don’t use Google translate so oft.
Only for my broken German language
I don’t use Google translate so oft. For English language, never.
Only for my broken German language
I often use Google translate as a crutch, but only to obtain an intermediary content/text. After that, I could work on the text, having already the “raw material”..
Yes, I use sometimes as a “crutch” an automated tool – usualy the translator programme of Microsoft Word – when composing a sentence (and it is in my head only in Bulgarian :)).
I did that before, but i try don’t do tha now!
yes I do crutches when i use English some times.
Yes I did before more often, but recently I rarely using google translator as I am trying to rely on my self
i use google translate for translate words and some times sentence.
I use google transate. That is my crutch.
Yes, I use google tanslate for crutches
Then I wrote a letter the Grammarly app automatically gives me help and pointed to the mistakes. In academic conversations, it’s an important opportunity and saves me time.
Sometimes I use the dictionary