My mobile phone has <something wrong>, so I'll get it fixed

Question

Sentence to be discussed:
My mobile phone has something wrong, so I'll get it fixed.

Source:
This is a quiz question from a Chinese textbook (junior high school).

Background:
Ask students to rewrite the sentence [1] below.

• [1] There's something wrong with my mobile phone, so I'll get it fixed.

And it provides a template for them to finish rewriting this sentence (as you can see in [2])

• [2] My mobile phone has   _____    _____,  so I'll get it fixed.

(Students need to fill in these two blanks, with one word each)

So, the answer given in our textbook is "broken down". But, a couple of students are wondering, why can't we fill in "something wrong" here.

[3] My mobile phone has something wrong, so I'll get it fixed.

Questions:

1. Which sentence is idiomatic to you?

2. Why is the sentence [2] (fill in "broken down") in the present perfect? Is this one natural? Can we write it in simple present tense?

Answer 1

We usually speak of a vehicle or some other machine breaking down, not an electronic device like a mobile phone. Google Ngrams doesn't find any results for 'phone has broken down'.

It would be more idiomatic to say "My mobile phone has something wrong with it."

Answer 2

Even though as Kate points out 'My mobile phone has broken down' is unidiomatic rather than ungrammatical ('My car has broken down' is far more idiomatic [though perhaps sounding a little dated nowadays]), there is another problem with [2] with 'broken down' as an answer. It is not a strict rewrite of [1]. Consider

• [1'] There's something wrong with my mobile phone which I bought yesterday; it's just not working, so I'm returning it.

It may have been defective when sold, whereas [2] with 'has broken down' must entail that it has worked previously.

Yes, context means that this is probably not the case ... but strict rewrites are strict rewrites.

..........

[3] is a strict rewrite, but adding 'with it' after 'something wrong' is in my opinion needed to make it idiomatic.

Answer 3

As others have said, "broken down" is unidiomatic to refer to a phone, and is normally used specifically for vehicles. (It is also used rather more metaphorically for things like negotiations.)

If you wanted a two-word verb to fit in the space, that is idiomatic for electronic devices and has essentially the same meaning, I would use "stopped working".

Answer 4

Why is the sentence [2] (fill in "broken down") in the present perfect?

I presume the textbook authors were trying to make the question easier to answer. The choice is somewhat arbitrary. (Choices like these can have subtle effects on the meaning of a sentence in context, but in a textbook like this, there isn't any.)

Is this one natural?

The grammar isn't unnatural. However, “broken down” means something different: it suggests that something with moving parts, usually a mechanical contraption used for transportation, has physically degraded enough that it no longer serves its main purpose.

You could also use “broken”, but that's still stronger than “something wrong”: “broken” suggests that the phone can no longer be used, whereas “something wrong” could be as benign as “the colours on the screen are a bit fuzzy”.

I would fill this gap with the single word “malfunctioned”, or the two words “gone wrong”.

I might also say that the phone “is playing up” (if the issue is currently occurring), or “my phone's been playing up” (if the issue is not currently occurring, but that I expect it to reoccur shortly), but Wiktionary says this usage is chiefly British, so it may not be widely understood.

Can we write it in simple present tense?

Yup!

But, a couple of students are wondering, why can't we fill in "something wrong" here.

If someone “has something wrong”, it means they have a mistaken understanding:

Alice: "I was talking to Carol about my new kite, and she said you might want to fly it with me."
Bob: "No, Carol has that wrong. I like the birds, not the other sort."

The textbook's sentence provides enough context to make it clear this is not what is meant, but it's still confusing to process. We would normally write:

My mobile phone has something wrong with it, so I'll get it fixed.

The transitive and intransitive forms of an expression often have different meanings in English, so it's important not to mix them up.

Answer 5

'has something wrong' sounds weird (not in an idiomatic way) to me. If you'd phrase it like this, it would rather be "My mobile phone has something that's wrong with it", but this sentence is unnecessarily long and devious, and just doesn't sound well.

Better alternatives are:

• "My phone has a defect"
• "My phone has an issue"
• "There is something wrong with my phone"

You could also say "My phone has broken" but as Kate Bunting pointed out, without ~'down' at the end

As for your specific two questions:

1. None of these sound idiomatic to me
2. The sentence is in the present perfect in a sentence like "has broken", but not "has something wrong". The reason is 'has' + verb in the past tense ('broken')

present perfect