twist vs bend

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi everyone,

I wanted to know if “to twist” and “to bend” are interchangeable or each of them must be used in a specific way. Could you give me some examples to clear things up please?
Also, when one unscrews a the lid of a bottle, can one use “to twist” instead of unscrew? And can one use “to twist” for “to screw”?

thanks a lot for your help.

2

Twisting is a spiral sort of movement. Bending is more horizontal.

You bend your arm many times daily at the elbow, but if someone twists your arm, he’s turning it in a spiral direction, and your arm isn’t meant to bend that way. OUCH!

You can say that you twist off a bottle cap. In fact, in the United States and Canada, many bottles of cheaper beer have “twist-off” caps.

In this video you can see Chubby dance. When he really gets active, you can see that spiral motion. That’s why this dance was called the Twist.
youtube.com/watch?v=K5PqydMA … re=related

Since you’re in Cannes, you may prefer to watch Johnny Halliday and 50 million Dutch people do the Twist.
youtube.com/watch?v=T57nfY1lQIQ

3

Hey Jamie,

thanks a lot for your very clear explanation!