A camera is a device for taking photos or videos, including the camera in a phone. In some languages a similar word also names a small room or a chamber, but in English those things have other names: a room in a prison is a cell, the rubber tube inside a bike tyre is an inner tube, and the place at a station where you can leave your bags is left luggage.
camera: will you get the meaning right?
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a digital/security + camera; the camera on + a phone; on camera; a prison cell (not camera); a bike inner tube (not camera)
- I don't carry a camera any more because my phone takes excellent photos.
- A security camera recorded the man who took the bike from outside the shop.
- She gets nervous on camera, so she prefers writing reports to recording videos.
What changed
First versionI got a flat tyre, so I need to buy a new camera for my bike.
RevisionI got a flat tyre, so I need to buy a new inner tube for my bike.
The rubber tube inside a bike wheel is called an inner tube in English. Camera means only a device for photos or videos, so the sentence sounds as if you're buying a camera for your bike after a puncture.
The phrase on camera means “being filmed, in front of a camera”: He admitted everything on camera. The legal phrase in camera means “in private, without the public present”; it hardly ever comes up in everyday speech.
Your turn
The prisoner spent the night alone in a small ___ with one narrow window.
Show the answer
cell — The prisoner spent the night in a room in a prison, which is a cell. A camera is a device for filming or taking photos, not a room with a window.
Write about what you use to take photos when you travel. Say whether it's your phone or a separate camera, and explain why.
On trips I always take my old film camera, because I love waiting to see how the photos turn out.
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