Me vs Mine Show Possession in English Basic English Grammar

hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia

the weekly series where you ask me
questions and I answer them

maybe first question comes from Isaac
Alexander again hi Isaac what’s the

difference between switch on and off and
turn on and off which is more casual

less so than casual in American English
turn on and turn off is more common

switch ON or switch off is just less
common that’s all hope that helps you

thanks for the question okay let’s go to
your next question next question comes

from Zachary hi Zachary the khari says I
hear Americans pronounce the article a

before a word in a sentence with the
sound a and sometimes pronounced with

the sound uh is there a rule about that
no there’s no rule there is absolutely

not a rule for this it’s just Speaker
preference though I do feel personally

when I’m trying to emphasize something
I’ll use a more it’s up to personal

preference it’s all just a speaker’s
preference so I hope that that helps you

know rule thanks for the question okay
let’s go to the next question next

question comes from Harris hi Harris
Harris says hi Alicia what is the

difference between using yet and instead
of and despite let’s begin by comparing

yet and despite we’ll talk about instead
of at the end let’s begin by comparing

two sentences I wanted to go to the
party yet I stayed home I wanted to go

to the party despite that I stayed home
let’s look at the first example sentence

here which uses yet so yet is a
conjunction here it’s connecting these

two ideas I wanted to go to the party
and I stayed home yet gives us the

meaning of even though or but so we see
it’s kind of like saying a which is the

desire I wanted to go to the party a and
B the outcome the actual result I stayed

at home
are connected with this yet statement so

a yet be desire yet outcome let’s
compare this to despite so a key

difference between despite and yet is
that we cannot use despite as a

conjunction we need to include despite
with that initial desire that a point

that I talked about in the yet
explanation so it’s like saying despite

a be so it has the same meaning yes but
it just has a different structure the

sentence has a different structure when
you make a sentence like this you can

introduce a the desire then connect it
to the next sentence not using a comma

but with the next sentence you can say
despite this or despite that where that

means part a so I wanted to go to the
party a despite that despite wanting to

go to the party B I stayed at home so
you need to connect your despite with

something like this or that or the
specific noun phrase you might also hear

the very common expressions despite the
fact that or despite wanting to blah

blah blah we need to use some kind of
noun phrase to introduce that point so

this is a key difference between yet and
despite finally let’s take a look at

instead of instead of refers to a
substitution so you’re doing something

in place of something else I stay at
home instead of going to the party so

this means in place of going to the
party I stayed at home so despite and

yet have very similar uses but we need
to make slightly different grammatical

structures in order to use them instead
of just refers to something that is

being substituted for something else so
I hope that that helps thanks very much

for the question alright let’s go on to
the next question next question comes

from Karima hi crema hi again
karema says hi Alicia I want you to

explain the phrase get started
grammatically if it’s possible when do

we use get plus adjective or get plus a
verb yeah okay so we can use get plus a

verb when we’re talking about the
getting the process of that verb so when

I start videos on this channel with the
expression let’s get started I’m saying

let’s begin the first steps of starting
some examples I gotta get going that

means I need to begin to leave let’s get
cookin that means let’s start the

process of cooking something you should
get writing so we can’t pair all verbs

with this get plus verb pattern but
there are quite a few that we can use to

move on to your next question though get
plus adjective

yet just means become here but become
sounds very formal so we use gift

instead some examples I’m gonna get
pretty for my date tonight the fight got

ugly it’s getting dark outside don’t get
drunk so I hope that this helps answer

your question thanks very much
let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from Milan hi Milan Milan
says hi Alicia I would like to ask is

there any difference between my and mine
for example he is my friend and he is

friend of mine okay
your example sentences have the same

meaning just one small correction he is
a friend of mine he is a friend of mine

don’t forget that article that you need
with your singular now I would say

though that the my pattern is more
commonly used than the mine pattern I

think that this comes from the fact that
when we end a sentence with mine it kind

of sounds like we’re being greedy or
possessive in your example like he’s a

friend of mine that’s very very common
that’s kind of a set phrase that we use

a lot but in other examples I would just
go with the simple my pattern this

something is my something or this is my
bla bla bla I just feel that that sounds

a little bit less like greedy like mine
you sometimes hear kids or like even

adults sometimes when they get really
excited about owning something or having

something they might say like this is
mine so it can have kind of a negative

feel about it for that reason I would
recommend the my pattern instead of even

pattern so I hope that that helps you
alright so thank you very much as always

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can send them to me at English class

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with your English Studies thanks very
much for watching this week’s episode of

ask Alicia and I will see you again next
time bye bye yay some examples are gone

where’d it go okay I gotta get what