Repair: a listening workbook term

A repair is a change a speaker makes to correct or clarify speech.

The final quantity in this example is three. The speaker does not order five things. A repair can replace a number, a person, a place or an entire explanation. It can also clarify rather than cancel. Listen beyond a pause to find out which part changes. Words such as não, melhor, afinal and quer dizer can introduce a repair, but none gives the full new meaning alone.

Do not confuse a repair with an addition. E mais um adds one more. Não, três replaces an earlier number with three. Keep the first version crossed out in your notes. That makes the change visible and helps you identify the moment you missed. In a story, a repair may change where an event happened without changing the event itself.

A written caption may remove a false start to improve readability. If the task concerns a spoken repair, use the audio and full turn as well as the text. The worksheet key describes our original written exchange, not every possible interpretation of an unrelated recording.

Use the term in these tasks

• Track a changed café order in Portuguese
• Rebuild a Portuguese story after a spoken correction
• Catch quantities at a Portuguese market

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