Difference between tie, fasten, fix and install

Question

Hi,Could you help me to solve the following questions?1) Tie or fasten (?) a new scarf around one's neck.2) Tie or fasten (?) a kite to a post.3) Tie or fasten (?) a horse to a tree.4) Tie or fasten (?) a tie.5) Tie or fasten (?) your belts.6) Tie or fasten (?) your apron at the back.7) Tie or fasten (?) the button on your suit jacket.8) Fasten or fix (?) a calendar to a wall.9) Fasten or fix (?) a shoe cabinet to a wall.10) Fasten or fix (?) a flower to the front of one's dress.11) Fasten or fix (?) a light to one's bicycle.12) Fix or install (?) a lamp to the wall.13) Fix or install (?) a machine.  14) Fix or install (?) a microphone.  15) Fix  or install (?) a mirror.  16) Fix  or install (?) a lid.  17) Fix  or install (?) a tooth.18) Fix or install (?) the telephone wire onto the wall.   Thanks a lot.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

1) It would generally be "tie a new scarf." "Fasten a new scarf" sounds too formal and technical for this situation. However, there might be instances where you'd use "fasten." For example: "Part of Jim's disguise was a scarf. He'd never worn a designer scarf before, but he fastened it around his neck as ordered."

2) This sentence doesn't seem to make sense. Why would you attach a kite to a post? But you'd probably use "tie" here. When you have a post, you generally tie things to it.

3) "Tie" here. You can't fasten a live horse to anything.

4) You "tie" a necktie, never fasten one. The only type of tie you fasten is a bow tie with a clip.

5) You fasten your belts, as there is no way to tie on modern belts. The only types of belts you tie are those used by judo practitioners.

6) You'd generally tie your apron at the back. You'd only use fasten if it was a protective apron, like a lead-lined one used in a radiation laboratory.

7) You fasten buttons never tie them.

Anonymous · Answer

8) You'd fix a calendar to a wall. However the word "fix" in this sense is rather old-fashioned and you rarely hear it used like this today. (But you never fasten a calendar to the wall.)

9) Fix. Again, old-fashioned usage. (But you don't fasten a cabinet to the wall.)

10) Fasten a flower to the front of your dress.

11) Fasten a light to your bicycle.

Anonymous · Answer

12) Fix a lamp to the wall. Again, old-fashioned usage. (But you don't install a lamp to the wall.)

13) Install a machine.

14) Install a microphone.

15) Install a mirror.

16) Fix a lid. Old-fashioned usage, but you don't install lids.

17) Fix a tooth.

18) Fix the telephone wire onto the wall. Old-fashioned usage, but you can't install something onto something. The pronoun "onto" forces the use of the old-fashioned word "fix."

Stephenlearner · Answer

Thanks for your detailed explanation.

1) About tie and fasten. My conclusion from your answer is: When you fasten something, it cannot move. So you cannot fasten a horse, but tie a horse, because it can still move around.

Do you fasten or tie a bell to the Christmas tree? Do you fasten or tie a balloon to the stairs railing?

2) About fasten and fix. Cannot you use screws to fasten a calendar or shoe cabinet to a wall? You said fix is old-fashioned. Can you tell me the recently-used expression, please? Why fasten a flower to a dress? Why fasten a light a bicycle? I cannot tell the difference between fasten a light to a bicycle and fix a cabinet to a wall. Are the manual actions similar?

3) About fix and install. It seems to me that when you fix or install something, it is not in place before your fixing or installation. But why does something require fix, and something require install? Do you install something because it belongs to the machinery? But mirror is not a piece of machine, so why do you install a mirror?

Could you help me to solve these riddles?
Many thannks

Bw · Answer

As full disclosure, I'm an American, so my fix/fasten/install use might be different than other regions.

Fix/Fasten:
In addition to meaning that something can't really move, fasten also means generally "to close" when you have something like a button or a clip. This differentiates it from "to tie" which is more specific and means to take to ends of something (like a rope or a string) and make a knot to secure it.

So, if your bell is on a string, you would tie it to the Christmas tree. (If it was attached to something like a clamp, you would fasten it.) You would also tie a balloon to the stairs' railing.

Fasten/Fix:
Fasten can mean to attach something (usually quite securely) in addition to meaning to close. To fix can be used pretty interchangeably with to fasten in this sense, and can mean to make something secure, or to attach. For me, fix is better used for things that are more permanent - screws, nails, etc. Fasten has more of a connotation of simply to attach onto something.

While I agree that you could fasten a calendar to a wall or cabinet to a wall, I think "fix" is a better usage; if you said "fasten" in this context you would probably clarify with what - ie "I fastened the cabinet to the wall with screws."

For a more common usage, it depends on the sentence. I would say "attach" is probably the most general though, and works for all of the sentences:

I attached the calendar to the wall. / I attached a cabinet to the wall. / I attached a flower to the front of your dress. / I attached a light to your bicycle.

You could also say "put"/"put up" (only "put" for the flower and the bike)

I put the calendar on the wall / I put up the calendar on the wall. / I put the calendar up on the wall.

You could also say "affix" (I affixed the calendar to the wall) for all of them. Or, you could specify how it was put on (I nailed the calendar to the wall; I pinned a flower to the front of the dress).

Fix/Install:
Fix is more like "attach" or "repair," "install" is to add something new or put something in its proper place for use. Part of the trick here is the pronouns. You can "install a lamp ON the wall" but you have to "fix a lamp TO the wall." The same goes for the last one, because of the "onto" you have to "fix the telephone wire ONTO the wall." Also "install" gives the impression that whatever you have put in will work if its a machine, whereas "fix" is more simply like you attached it.

Also, if you just say "fix" without any other words it can be mistaken for "repair." So, "fix a mirror," it would mean "repair a mirror" whereas "install a mirror" means to add it to something (like a wall). If you said "fix a mirror to a wall" that would have the same meaning as "install." That goes for the rest of them as well, you can "install a machine," meaning to put it where it goes, but if you say "fix a machine" that means you are repairing it. If you "fix a machine ONTO the wall" that would be the same as attach.

To "fix" a lid would simply mean to close it (as in ******** a jar shut), whereas "install" a lid would add it (permanently) to something.

To "fix" a tooth means to get it repaired. Unless you very specifically mean that you had a new tooth put in your mouth, you wouldn't use "install" (and, even in that case, you would say that you had a new tooth "put in.")

Stephenlearner · Answer

Very good and professional explanation!
Thanks very much.

Anonymous · Answer

Replies to the second set of questions:

1) You don't fasten living things to anything. This is just a question of customary usage: you don't fasten live things to something in English. A horse is living so you tie it to something, not fasten it to something.

You could either tie or fasten a bell to a Xmas tree. Fasten is the longer and more formal-sounding word, and so to spare effort and sound more friendly and informal, you'd generally say tie. Same with attaching a balloon to a railing. Fasten takes more effort to say and sounds formal and technical, and so you'd usually say tie.

2) Again, this is a question of customary usage. You don't fasten a calendar or a cabinet to a wall in English. The choice was between fix and fasten, and so with fasten out it has to be fix. The word "fix" in this sense is old-fashioned usage not normally heard today - this is short for affix something to something.

Modern usage would be to put up a calendar on the wall, and to attach a cabinet to the wall. That's just the way it is said in (American style) English today.

If the choice is between fasten and fix, then you'd fasten a flower to a dress and fasten a light to a bicycle. However this is rather formal usage and today you'd say it as: put a flower on a dress, and attach a light to a bicycle.

This is all just a question of customary usage - it has nothing to do with the actual motions involved in the activity, or with theoretical grammatical structures. From a purely technical grammatical point of view there should be nothing wrong with fastening a cabinet to a wall, but it is just not said like that in (American) English today. As an example, you put a cap on your head, you don't install it on your head. There should be nothing wrong grammatically with saying install a cap on your head, but it's just not said like that in English.

3) Again, this all a question of usage, rather than theoretical grammar. Native speakers grow up hearing the language used in myriad situations like this, and therefore know what to say in the various contexts - even with a word like "fix," in the sense of "attach," which I've rarely heard used in my lifetime, I know all about how to use it in various situations, by instinct. Adult learners of English will have to learn all this by experience, which is a daunting task, since they typically learn English from a non-native speaker and are not interacting all day long with native English speakers.

If the choice is between the words "fix" and "install", then you install a mirror on the wall, not fix it on the wall (you don't fix something on something, you fix it to something). And if the choice is between the words "fix" and "install," then you install a machine, not fix it. Today, "to fix a machine" means to repair it, not attach it to the floor.

Stephenlearner · Answer

Thanks for your patience and kindness. Your expertise is highly regarded.

Difference between tie, fasten, fix and install

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