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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