Shadowing Practice: The Difference Between Contactors And Relays - ELECTROMAGNETIC SWITCHES electricians use - Learn English Speaking with Video

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What's going on my friends?

This is Dustin Stelzer with Electrician U and today we're going to talk about the difference between a relay and a contactor. so relays

and contactors are pretty much the same thing i mean they

essentially work the same way both of them are electromagnetic switches

so rather than you having to come up

and push to turn this device on you know like manually

you can actually send current to it send an electrical signal

and that is what turns the thing on it does

that for both of these both of them are electromagnetic switches

both of them are really used as like multi -pole switches

so if you want to control several different circuits

or several different loads that are on different circuits at the same time you can do

that with both of these whereas a normal light switch you

can only control one thing both of them have coils

so there's actually a coil of wire in here that

when you send current through it engages an electromagnet

and it sucks the contacts shut or opens them up they both operate

that way and both of them have contacts

so they have multiple different contacts

that you can run say home runs from a panel to

and then you run out of the other contacts out to

the field somewhere to different kinds of things relays also have them so even though

that they're very similar in a lot of ways they're very

different in some important ways typically a relay is going to be a low voltage

or low current application meaning that the both the coil

and the contacts really can't handle a lot of current a lot of these things are rated at like 5 amps,

10 amps, 15 amps, where contactors are typically used in higher voltage, higher current environments.

The contacts on these can handle anywhere from 30, 40, 50 amps.

The metal and the pieces that make up the inside of this relay are actually a lot smaller and more compact,

whereas a contactor, everything is a lot more beefy.

Typically with relays, you cannot change the coils inside of them.

Whatever rating you get this device is the rating you got to run to it and through it.

Whereas a lot of contactors, not all of them, but a lot of them, you can actually take this coil pack out and put a brand new coil in it.

So if you have 120 volt coil but you need a 277 coil, a lot of times you can just go to the supply house, pull this out, put a new one in.

Another difference is that relays can typically only control up to like two

or three loads they're just designed for a couple of different

functions whereas contactors this one specifically can do four loads

and there's some even like this crazy one back here that's a six pole

and it can even be expanded to do eight

or this guy up here can do 12

so they're a lot more expansive most relays also have a both a normally open

and a normally closed option so you can kind of turn some things off

while turning other things on at the same time with a relay where most general use contactors you can't do

that general use contactors are typically only normally open or normally closed

so everything is going to turn on or everything is going to turn off

when you energize that coil however lighting contactors like again this guy

or this guy you can change you can add auxiliaries to them you can kind of move back and forth

whether or not some of them are normally open

and some of them are normally closed

so they have a little bit more high functionality

but again it's kind of the same thing it's just limited to usually two

or three things or anywhere from like two to twelve in

that case another thing

that some contactors have again lighting contactors more specifically is they have the ability to be mechanically held

so you can latch them in place and that way

if power is gone

or you lose power to the coil all the lights fail in an on position where relays don't have

that function basically once you send power to them

and you take power away they turn on or they turn off like a general purpose contactor would.

So that's pretty much it for the differences between contactors and relays.

I hope that kind of cleared some things up.

A lot of people when they hear relay they're like uh what is that it's some like magical switch.

No it's the same thing.

They're both just electromagnetic switches.

You send power to them to turn them on and off

and that's as as difficult as it gets

so i'm going to have a video that's going to come out uh specifically on relays

that just talks about how all relays work

and i'm going to cover a bunch of different types i'm going to have another video

that just covers contactors how they work i'm going to tear them open

so you can see the insides of them talk about different environments in which you use them

and then i'm also going to do a video on both

of these where i'm going to wire each one of them

and draw some diagrams and show you how they work

and how the practical application of both of these works out

so in the next couple of months you're going to see a few different videos on contactors

and relays so thank you guys so much i really appreciate your attention

and i will see you in the next episode

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “The Difference Between Contactors And Relays - ELECTROMAGNETIC SWITCHES electricians use”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: contactor, relay, coil, normally, contact. This video has 6 sentences and 952 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:17. The speaker talks fast, about 180 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
relay noun	/ˈɹiːleɪ/	A new set of anything.
coil noun	/kɔɪl/	Something wound in the form of a helix or spiral.
whereas	/(h)wɛɹˈæz/	In contrast; whilst on the contrary; although.
amp verb	/ˈæmp/	To amplify.
rat noun	/ɹæt/	Any of the numerous members of several rodent families that usually have short limbs, a pointy snout, a long, hairless tail, and a body length greater than…
electromagnetic adjective	/ɪˌlɛk.tɹoʊ.mæɡˈnɛ.tɪk/	Relating to electromagnetism.
circuit noun	/ˈsɝ.kɪt/	The act of moving or revolving around, or as in a circle or orbit; a revolution
wire noun	/ˈwaɪɚ/	Metal formed into a thin, even thread, now usually by being drawn through a hole in a steel die.
voltage noun	/ˈvəʊltɪd͡ʒ/	The difference in electrostatic potential between two points in space, especially between live and neutral conductors or the earth.
practical adjective	/ˈpɹæk.tɪ.kəl/	Relating to, or based on, practice or action rather than theory or hypothesis.
electrical adjective	/ɪˈlɛktɹɪkəl/	Related to electricity (or electronics)
essentially adverb	/ɪˈsɛnʃəli/	In essence: by nature.
suck verb	/sʌk/	To use the mouth and lips to pull in (a liquid, especially milk from the breast).
engage verb	/ɪnˈɡeɪd͡ʒ/	To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied.
expand verb	/ɪkˈspænd/	To change (something) from a smaller form or size to a larger one; to spread out or lay open.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
turn off verb		To power down, to switch off, to put out of operation, to deactivate (an appliance, light, mechanism, functionality etc.).
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
come up verb		To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
make up verb	/ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/	To constitute, to compose.
move back verb		To reschedule (something) to a later date or time.
work out verb	/ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/	To calculate.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 23 contractions and reduced forms, such as gonna, I'm, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

Long words — get the stress right: electromagnetic /ɪˌlɛk.tɹoʊ.mæɡˈnɛ.tɪk/, electrical /ɪˈlɛktɹɪkəl/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, auxiliary /ɔɡˈzɪl.(jə).ɹi/, manually /ˈmænj(u)əliː/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like relay, coil, whereas.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: The Difference Between Contactors And Relays - ELECTROMAGNETIC SWITCHES electricians use - Learn English Speaking with Video

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