When to Use Continuous form vs Future form in English Basic English Grammar

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hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and i answer them maybe

okay let’s get to your first question

this week first question this week comes

from

emma hi emma emma says hi alicia

can you explain the difference between

will and be going to

and will be doing or be going to be

doing

i would like to know when we use

continuous forms instead of just using

simple future tense

sure we use the continuous form when we

want to talk about a future plan

that we think will be in progress so

let’s compare two example sentences

i’m going to start working in a new

company soon

three months from now i’m going to be

working in a new company

so in the first example sentence i’m

going to start working in a new company

soon

we’re talking about a future plan we’re

just using simple future tense going to

there

to express a future plan a future action

in this case using going to because

we’re quite sure about that plan

in the second example sentence however

three months from now

i’m going to be working so we’re using a

time period or rather a point in time in

the future

three months from now that means i’m

indicating

or i want to refer to a specific point

in time in the future

and talk about an action that i think

will be ongoing at that future point in

time

in those cases we use will be going to

or going to be going to or something

like that going to be plus the ing

form of a verb so we use that form

to refer to an ongoing thing that we

think will happen at a specific point in

the future

you can just use the simple future tense

will and going to

to talk about general future plans

without a specific point in time

but if you want to talk about something

in the future like a month from now or

two months from now or years from now or

whatever

and you want to express a plan or some

idea you have

about something that will happen or be

happening at that time

you can use will be going to or going to

be plus

the ing form of a verb so i hope that

this helps you thanks for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question

comes from arzu hi arzu our zoo says hi

alicia

could you explain the difference between

roughly approximately

and nearly yeah sure roughly and

approximately mean the same thing

they both mean about the difference

between these two words is that

approximately sounds more

formal than roughly so you would see

approximately used in very formal

writing

in like scientific papers in situations

where you need to express

data you might hear roughly in everyday

conversation

used in place of about so there’s no

meaning difference here it’s just a

formality difference

some examples roughly 50 people attended

the event

approximately 100 people responded to

our survey

on the other hand nearly means almost

a certain amount so we use nearly before

a number to express that we were very

very close to that number but

not quite so this does not mean about

it means very close to the number but

not exactly

that amount so for example we could say

nearly 50 people

attended our event or nearly 100 people

responded to our survey

so that means not quite 50 people

attended or

not quite 100 people responded but it

was very very close

so in sum approximately and roughly have

the same meaning just different levels

of formality

merely means almost but not quite or

very close but not quite

so i hope that this helps you thanks for

the question okay

let’s move on to your next question next

question

comes from mindful alex hi mindful alex

mindful alex says hi alicia what tense

present or future

must follow a command clause for example

one

let me know what you find versus let me

know what you will find

two let me know what you find versus

tell me

what you will find thanks a lot yes you

need to use

present tense in these example sentences

so in your case the correct answers

would be

let me know what you find and tell me

what you find

the same thing is true if you change the

subject so for example

if you’re requesting an update from a

third person meaning from someone

outside the conversation you can say

let me know what he finds or tell me

what she

finds so you still need to follow this

present tense rule we can’t use the

infinitive form of the verb there

so these are examples of what are called

embedded questions they are questions

that are like

inside another question or they’re

questions that are inside of a statement

so like tell me

what you find you can see that what you

find is kind of like a question but it

follows a different word order

so we follow that subject verb object

order

inside embedded questions if you want to

know more about this grammar point you

can do a search

for embedded questions to find some more

information i’ve talked about this here

and there

in some live streams in the past so i

hope that that’s helpful for you

so yes in sum you need to use a present

tense verb

in a case like this keep in mind you can

also use past tense if you want to as

well i hope that this is helpful for you

thanks for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question

comes from alejandra hi alejandra

alejandra says how do i know when to

reduce

i have to i’ve and when not to

is there any rule yes when you are

expressing

ownership of something you should not

use the reduced form

i’ve always use i have like i have a dog

or i have a house or i have a bag

you should not use ive in these cases

you should however use ive and other

reduced forms when you’re using

perfect tense sentence structures so for

example i’ve been to france

or i’ve never eaten horse so when you’re

using that i

have plus past participle verb form you

can

reduce the i have part to ive if you are

talking about

ownership of something you cannot reduce

the i have to i

so yes that is the rule in this case for

reduction

you may also hear the i have and i have

got to

reduce to ive as in i’ve got to do

something something something

but this might be a little bit more

common in british english

generally though you can consider those

first two rules i mentioned

i have for ownership and ive for perfect

tense structure so i hope that this

helps you thanks for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from

reynaldi hi reinaldi reynaldi says hi

i’m from indonesia

sometimes someone says opportunity and

i’m confused about whether i should

respond with opportunity

or chance what’s the difference between

those words and when is the right time

to say them

thanks okay um opportunity tends

to sound more formal than chance

we tend to use opportunity in cases

where we have received an

offer some like special offer like a job

offer a school offer or maybe an offer

of money

we are presented with some kind of like

professional or formal situation

chance however is used to refer to

situations that arise because of

luck so something that happened because

of luck we’re not really

offered anything but it’s like the

timing is just

right for a situation and we have this

chance we have this option to take

advantage

of that situation so to take advantage

of something means that we can try to do

something

that would be to our benefit in that

situation

so opportunity sounds more formal it’s

like something is presented

to you like a job as i said chance is

more like for

games perhaps or just something that

happens at random

and that you maybe can take advantage of

you can maybe find some benefits in so

let’s take a look at some example

sentences

i have two great job opportunities to

consider

thanks very much for this opportunity my

flight was delayed

so i had a chance to check out the

airport lounge i haven’t had a chance to

read that book

so i hope that this helps you understand

the differences between opportunity and

chance thanks for the question okay that

is everything that i have for this week

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you