How to Pronounce Names like an English Native Speaker

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them

maybe first question this week comes

from Reza hi Reza Reza says hi Alicia

what’s the difference between in the

beach at the beach and on the beach are

they all correct okay first in the beach

is not used at the beach and on the

beach are both okay we use at the beach

when we want to talk about the general

location we use this when we’re sharing

pictures of ourselves visiting the beach

when we want to talk about a place to

meet and so on

so if you for example take a photo and

you want to post it to Instagram you

might use the caption Here I am at the

beach or today I’m at the beach with my

friends we use at the beach to talk

about the specific location where

something is happening we had a barbecue

at the beach and so on on the other hand

we use on the beach to talk about

activities that happen on the surface of

the beach so this is activities like

lying in the Sun to get a tan for

example or looking for shells on the

beach so these are things that happen on

the surface of the beach like you play

volleyball on the beach these are things

that happen like on the sand you can

think of it as the surface of the beach

so when you want to talk about a

specific location use at the beach let’s

meet at the beach or I saw my friend at

the beach when you want to talk about an

activity that you do on the surface of

the beach you can use on the beach for

example I found this beautiful shell on

the beach or I’m going to lie in the Sun

on the beach so at the beach okay

on the beach okay in the beach not used

I hope that that helps you thanks for

the question okay let’s move on to your

next question next question comes from

Sabina hi Sabina Sabina says hello

Alicia I would like to know the

difference between come back

get back and go back if there are any

okay first let’s talk about come back so

come back means to return to a place you

were just at but we use this when we’re

talking from the perspective of a person

who remains in the original location so

if I am here in front of the camera and

suddenly our camera person leaves I

might say no come back

meaning please return to the place you

were just in I’m still in this place but

I don’t want you to go I want you to

come back return to the place you were

just in so come back in this way means

to return to a place you were at

originally please keep in mind this is

different from come back which does not

have a space to make a come back means

to return to a place of former glory or

a former like kind of celebrity status

so for example an actor or an actress

who has not appeared in movies or TV for

quite some time might try to make a

comeback and appear in something big and

exciting in order to regain their former

status that is spelled come back with no

space to come back however has a space

between come and back so that’s an

important distinction between these

words now let’s talk about get back get

back and have a couple of different

meanings to get back can have the

meaning of to take revenge we use this

in a situation where someone has done

something wrong or something has

happened that is bad to us and we want

to get revenge on that person we use the

expression to get back at that person

like I’m going to get back at my

roommate for destroying my date or I’m

going to get back at my co-worker for

ruining my meeting so to get back at

someone means to take revenge on someone

so like to return a bad action to get

back we can also use get back as a

warning so this means like step away

from a dangerous place so imagine for

example you are near the edge of a cliff

or you’re near a

River that’s very dangerous if you’re

near the river very close to the edge of

the river and it looks really dangerous

someone might say to you get back which

means move away from the edge of the

river move away from this dangerous

position you might hear this in movies a

lot like in action scenes especially one

character might say no get back

meaning move your body physically in a

backwards motion or in a backwards

direction from this dangerous thing so

get back also has this meaning and then

one more point about the expression get

back you might know this expression from

like the famous Beatles song they say

get back to where you once belonged this

has a similar meaning of come back like

I talked about earlier so to get back to

a place means to regain your position

somewhere like if you’re playing a video

game and you die and you have to

continue the game again to get back to

the position you were at you would use

that verb we do not use come back in

that way because we use come back for

like celebrity status or like same that

kind of thing to make a comeback we

might also use that in sports when we

want to talk about going back to a

position we were at before but it’s not

like a super cool position you’re just

kind of regaining lost time you can use

to get back so the last word in your

list is go back go back so to go back to

something is used in very specific

situations it’s usually used in like

presentations like PowerPoint

presentations or like if you’re showing

someone photos or something like that

and you want them to return to the

previous page or to the previous item so

if you’re doing like a PowerPoint

presentation for example and someone in

your audience says like oh can you go

back to the last slide it means can you

return so this go back means return we

can also use go back to mean return to a

physical place we were in like I talked

about with come back at the beginning of

this answer but we use go back when were

the person that’s returning so in my

earlier example about the camera person

leaving the room during the shoot the

camera person might say I’m going to go

back into the room

so go back can have a few different uses

come back go back and get back are all

quite different though so please try to

keep this in mind okay

I hope that that helps you understand

the differences between these words

thanks very much for your question

alright let’s move along to your next

question next question comes from Dewey

citta again hi Dewey Dewey says what

says take someone or something for

granted mean ok so to take something or

someone for granted means to assume or

to expect that someone or something will

always be there to support you like you

forget to show appreciation for

something so a good example is like my

boyfriend or my girlfriend took me for

granted that means my boyfriend or my

girlfriend assumed I would always be

there to support them to help them to

give them what they need to do whatever

it takes to assist them in some way so

this has a very negative meaning about

it because each person chooses who to

support and in what way to support those

people and so when we don’t get

appreciation we may feel very bad about

that so if I say my boyfriend took me

for granted or my girlfriend took me for

granted it would show that I have a

negative understanding or a negative

view of that situation that person did

not express appreciation for my support

and so I feel upset about that so to

take someone for granted is not a good

thing to take someone or something for

granted is considered a negative thing

so please don’t do this ok the reason

that this seems quite negative is it’s

almost like the person who is taking

someone else for granted is like

expecting a free service almost so if I

say oh my boyfriend took me for granted

it’s like he’s just expecting me to for

example cook for him or to support his

work or something like that without

showing any appreciation or any kind of

recognition to avoid this kind of

situation you show your appreciation to

the people who support you this is a

pretty easy way to make sure that you

never make someone feel like they have

been taken for granted so I hope

this helps you with the understanding of

this phrase thanks very much for the

question

okay let’s move along to your next

question next question comes from tram

nuyen hi tram tram says dear Alisha I

hope you’re fine I’m a fan of your

podcasts could you please give me some

rules or tips for pronouncing proper

nouns such as human names geographical

names and so on it’s hard to say these

names properly if you haven’t heard them

before

thanks yeah really good question I would

suggest using YouTube especially if

you’re looking for a famous place or if

you’re looking for a famous person I

would suggest searching YouTube to find

some videos about that place or about

that person

so in many cases you can just find like

a presentation or you can find maybe

something about tourism in that area and

that will give you the correct

pronunciation of that places name or

that person’s name keep in mind though

that even though there are words that

are spelled the same in English they

don’t always have the same pronunciation

this is especially true with names a

great example is my name it’s spelled al

is H a I pronounce it Alicia

some people might choose to pronounce it

Alicia so that’s up to personal

preference you have to ask the person

what they want to be called in those

cases so it’s up to you to ask that

person so those are kind of specific

cases with names if it’s a famous name

or a famous place you should be able to

find a resource on YouTube if you really

want to be sure about your pronunciation

if however you’re just reading a name

and a book and it’s a character in a

book I would say make your best guess

this happens with native speakers all

the time especially in like fantasy

novels where the names of characters are

kind of strange they’re unusual kind of

fantastic if you can’t read the name and

you’re not sure about the pronunciation

that’s totally okay just choose a name

choose an understanding or choose a

pronunciation that works for you to

understand the story this is what native

speakers do as well and then in

conversations we compare our

pronunciations if there’s anything that

happens like that if there’s like a

character a name that we don’t know we

ask each other how do you say this name

how do you say this person’s name

and then you can kind of decide on the

correct pronunciation in your group in

that case so in some Czech YouTube for

famous places talk to people

individually if you have questions about

their name pronunciation but if it’s

just something you’re reading in a book

and it doesn’t really affect other

people if you just need to know a

character name pronunciation make your

best guess so I hope that this helps you

thanks for this question ok let’s move

on to your next question next question

comes from Douglas otávio hi Douglas

Douglas says hi Alicia I saw the phrase

let’s hope in a movie what does it mean

PS the movie was the American assassin

yeah so let’s hope is usually said after

a desired outcome so for example speaker

a might say this restaurant is really

popular but I think we can get a

reservation and speaker B might say mmm

let’s hope so

let’s hope is short for it let’s hope

for that outcome that you just mentioned

so you have to go back to the previous

sentence and the conversation in this

case I think we can get a reservation

that’s the thing that the speaker wants

that’s the desired result

speaker B is agreeing with speaker a by

saying let’s hope which means I also

want that outcome I hope that we can

achieve that outcome so let’s hope

connects to the thing that was

previously said so let’s look at one

more example that uses this phrase

speaker a might say the Sun is going

down but I think we can finish our hike

by sunset speaker B could say let’s hope

meaning I hope that we have the ability

to finish our hike by sunset so it

connects to the previous phrase in the

conversation so I hope that this helps

you understand the expression let’s hope

thanks very much for sending it along ok

that is everything that I have for this

week thank you as always for sending

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them to me in English class 101.com /

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English Studies thanks very much for

watching this week’s episode of ask

Alisha and I will see you again next

week bye bye

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