May be vs Might vs Probably Basic English Grammar

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alisha

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them

maybe first question this week comes

from Naru heigen aru nara says hi Alicia

what’s the difference between it and

that for example I do yoga every morning

I do it too or I do that too we use it

to replace a noun that we mentioned

earlier in the conversation so like for

example I bought a new computer it’s

really cool or I built a new computer it

was really hard so that itch refers to

like the process of building a computer

or it refers to like the computer I

bought in the first sentence so we use

it to replace that thing that object

that specific process when we use that

however yes we are talking about

something we refer to earlier in the

conversation but we’re using it for

something that the speaker and the

listener shared it’s a shared experience

so if you use that to talk about an

experience that you did not share with

your listener it’s gonna sound really

weird so in your example like I do yoga

every morning and someone says oh I do

that too

it makes sense because both speakers in

that situation have the experience of

doing yoga in the morning if you say oh

I’d do it too it’s like not wrong but it

does sound less natural than using that

so when you have a shared experience of

a situation you can use that I hope that

this helps you thanks for an interesting

question okay let’s get on to your next

question next question comes from RT hi

Artie

Artie says hi Alicia how do you politely

ask someone about their health condition

is it common to use are you sick

since sick can also mean crazy or insane

yeah good question and actually it’s

totally fine to ask are you sick that’s

totally fine this depends on your

intonation so if you say are you sick

and you have this like concerned look

and you have this concerned voice

there’s not going to be a communication

problem if you’ve seen a movie where

characters like are you sick like that’s

the situation where it’s talking about

the person’s like mental health so like

are you crazy are you insane when they

use like that shocked horrified face

like are you sick do you want to feel

all those doughnuts with mustard that’s

a situation where you would say are you

sick and it means crazier insane other

ways you could ask would be like are you

okay are you feeling okay do you have a

cold that kind of thing thanks very much

for the question let’s go to your next

question next question comes from east

mail highest mail is mail says hi Alicia

thanks for your support

what’s the difference between May and

might there isn’t really a difference

honestly may and might are used in the

same situations when you’re talking

about possibility in American English

however might is more common than May

some examples I might have forgotten my

wallet I may have forgotten my wallet

they’re the same but may sounds a bit

more formal in American English we tend

to use might so this question actually

connects nicely with a question from

another viewer this comes from Alan Chan

hi Alan

Alan asked hi Alicia how can I use may

be might and probably okay so we talked

about how we use may and might in the

same way to talk about possibility so

now let’s talk about may and be together

not may be but may be and might and

probably so let’s compare these we use

may and be when we want to talk about

something that could possibly be

something else

that sounds very open so let’s look at

some examples hmm this may be the

restaurant he recommended he may be the

right person for the job so this is the

pattern we can use for it may be and

might be so I want to continue on to

probably so if we imagine may and might

express this sort of like uncertainty

maybe on a scale from like zero to a

hundred may and my

maybe like 40% or so probably has a much

higher level of certainty like 70% or

80% or so so we have a pretty good idea

of what’s going to happen in the future

but there’s a little bit of like wiggle

room like we’re still not 100% sure some

examples I’m probably gonna sleep late

tomorrow she’s probably not gonna reply

tonight so probably shows the speaker

has a higher level of certainty so I

hope that this helps you use may and

might and maybe it might be and probably

and maybe also too thanks very much for

these two questions greats let’s move on

to your next question next question

comes from Lombardo Z Marco hi Lombardo

Z Lombardo B says can you explain the

difference between all and whole with

some examples

sure let’s begin by looking at some

example sentences my dog ate all the

cupcakes my dog ate the whole cake my

roommate stole all the iPhone chargers

my roommates stole my whole electronics

box you can see in the sentences that

use all that we’re looking at individual

units of something in the first example

sentence with the dog the dog ate all

the cakes all the cupcakes so we’re

talking about individual units there in

the second situation the roommates stole

all the iPhone charger so we’re looking

at individual units one thing but all of

those one things so when we want to

emphasize the unit we use all all plus

the unit you’ll also notice that the

units use the plural form we’re using

the plural form of the noun so in the

dog situation its cupcakes in the

roommate situation its iPhone chargers

we’re using the plural form however when

we’re using hole we’re talking about

something that can be broken down into

units so in the dog situation it’s a

cake so one cake can be like many

smaller pieces of cake in the second

example sentence it’s about like a box

of electronic equipment or like

electronic related things so it’s not

the things inside the box it’s the

complete box

so we imagine that this is like one

complete unit one complete set of

something so we use all like I said when

we want to emphasize like the units the

small pieces of something so like all my

cupcakes or all of my iPhone chargers

we’re emphasizing the unit they’re using

whole to like refer to a larger thing

that’s composed of many smaller units

really emphasizes like your level of

shock or your level of surprise that

that thing was affected so as you pay

attention in your reading I think

reading will help you to find some more

examples of this just look and see like

the kinds of units and the typical kinds

of like um larger nouns that get this

whole treatment so like foods are great

examples like a whole pizza or a whole

cake or a whole turkey or a whole

chicken so that refers to one thing

composed of many parts so I hope that

this helps you thanks very much for the

question let’s go on to your next

question your next question is from TN

Pooh hi 10/10 says can you explain a bit

more sophisticated without context I

can’t be exactly sure what this means

but I think that this is a comparative

phrase so let’s make a complete sentence

to start restaurant a is a bit more

sophisticated than restaurant B so a bit

more means like a little more then

something else a little more or a small

amount more than something else

sophisticated means like refined or

maybe they have lots of culture lots of

knowledge if you’re talking about a

person in this case with a restaurant

maybe it’s well-rounded so there’s like

lots of kind of experience that was used

to make this restaurant like the

restaurant decorator had lots of worldly

experience so the menu has a lot of like

different world flavors I don’t know so

it’s something that’s sophisticated it

has like a high-class image so if you

use a bit more sophisticated it means

item a is a higher level of

sophistication than item B in this case

a restaurant so I hope that this helps

with your understanding of the phrase

a bit more sophisticated okay that’s

everything that I have for this week

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