I heard a local guy say in English that we should “turn the air conditioning down” to make it cooler in the room. A little buzzer went off inside my head.
I’ve always used “turn up” to mean “increase the intensity” of something, even increasing the intensity of coldness.
But now it’s got me. I think I’ve used “turn up” and “turn down” interchangeably when referring to air conditioners - but mostly I use “turn down” to mean “decrease the intensity of the machine thus making the temperature rise”.
Unfortunately, my trusty dictionaries only use “the heater” as an example. Well, how convenient.
You turn it “up” if you are increasing a setting (i.e., going from “low” to “medium” or “high”, like the fan speed or something.) Something to literally produce more airflow.
You turn it “down” if you’re adjusting the thermostat lower to make the turn-on temperature lower.
But…don’t you have too much free time, if you’re worried about this?
Consider yourself lucky. My students all say “open the air conditioner” and “close the air conditioner.” - and I can’t get them to stop. I’ve even said it myself, lately.
Consider yourself lucky. My students all say “open the air conditioner” and “close the air conditioner.” - and I can’t get them to stop. I’ve even said it myself, lately.[/quote]
Keep on trying. I got this hammered into my colleagues who kept on opening/closing the lights, the PCs and whatever needs to be switched on/off. Took a few years though and they still get it wrong sometimes …
Yeah, that’s a hard one. I’m not sure what I would say about air conditioners. Probably end up saying “increase the temperature” or something. Hardly ideal, I know.
Now, as for an alarm going “off”, there’s a whole other can of worms.
