Common English Expressions Made Easy

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hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and i answer them maybe let’s

get to your first question this week

first question this week comes from

eliab hello eliab eliab says hi alicia i

love your videos i was watching a series

and they said these things i can read

him and you’re reading into that what do

they mean thanks nice question yeah

first let’s start with i can read him so

the question here i think is about the

verb read right we usually use read for

books and newspapers right words on a

page but we can also use read for people

or maybe even buildings if you work in a

certain profession but when we talk

about being able to read a person it

means we understand something about that

person based on maybe how they’re

dressed how they speak the way that they

move when you can read someone it means

that that person is communicating

something to you

not just through the words that they’re

saying right so that’s the idea here

that that person is giving you some

information about themselves and you are

able to read that so that’s what this

means this i can read him so you can use

this as well like you could say like oh

my gosh i can read that guy like a book

he’s trying to talk to that girl across

the room for example so that means that

that person is communicating something

and you are able to read it as if that

person were a book you can kind of think

of it that way okay let’s talk now about

that other use of read that you

described you’re reading into this this

use of read means that you are finding

too much detail in this situation or in

this comment in other words you’re

understanding something or your

understanding of the situation is beyond

what is happening here here’s an example

situation you might find at work so

maybe you come to a contract discussion

with your company and they make an offer

and you’re not so happy about the offer

but you think about it for a long time

you think about it so much and you start

to think is the company valuing me do

they care about me you start to think

all of these kind of intense thoughts

and maybe you go beyond what the company

is actually saying so your friend or

someone else might say to you i think

you’re reading too much into this which

means you are reading more information

from the situation that is actually

there like you are looking for too much

detail or you’re thinking too much about

the situation that’s what this reading

too much into something means like

you’re thinking too much about this

situation or you’re thinking too deeply

about the situation just think about the

information you have in front of you so

i hope that this helps clear up your

understanding about these two uses of

read it’s a really interesting verb

thanks for the question okay let’s move

on to your next question next question

comes from coden hi conan conan says

hello may i ask the difference between

in my 20s and at the age of 20. thank

you so much sure in my 20s versus at the

age of 20. you can also do this for

something like in my 30s and at the age

of 30 and so on in my 20s means from the

year 20 until the year 29 so your 20s

refers to the years in which you are 20

something 21 22 23 in my 20s so for

example i was so crazy when i was in my

20s or i did so much studying when i was

in my 20s it refers to that time period

of your life before 20s you can say in

my teens but that specifically refers to

like 13 through 19. so generally we use

this for in my 20s and my 30s and my 40s

and my 50s those kinds of numbers in

contrast at the age of 20 refers to

something that happened

only in the year in which you were 20

years old it doesn’t refer to 21 22 23

all those other years it refers to one

year only so at the age of 20 i was a

university student or at the age of 20 i

had two part-time jobs that refers to

that year only so in my 20s refers to a

whole group of years at the age of 20

refers to just one year so you can use

different years as you see fit i hope

that this helps you thanks for the

question okay let’s go to our next

question next question comes from

muhammad hello himam hey mom says hi

alicia

throne in this sentence i am really just

thrown by the place it’s not what i

expected at all what does it mean

great question to be thrown by something

means to be surprised or to be confused

or to encounter something unexpected so

in this sentence i was really thrown by

the place it means i was confused or i

was surprised or there was something

kind of strange about it that i didn’t

expect

you can also use this in conversations

like if someone says something really

surprising to you like hey did you know

that i’m leaving the company tomorrow

you might go whoa

i was really thrown by that i had no

idea so it’s like someone kind of shakes

you or maybe throws you across the room

and you feel confused or suddenly like

kind of startled or surprised so that’s

kind of the feeling here you might feel

shocked or maybe like i don’t know what

to do your mind is kind of upset by

something in some way so we tend to use

this in a way that shows surprise shock

or confusion so this is how we use

throne in this way i was really thrown

by that or i was really thrown by her

comment it expresses that confusion

surprise something unexpected happening

thanks for a great question okay let’s

go to our next question next question

comes from alina hello alina alina says

what is the difference between scare and

intimidate nice question let’s talk

about scare first to scare someone or to

scare something like maybe an animal

means to cause that person to feel fear

like i scared my little brother or i

scared the cat i feel so bad about it

you caused someone else to feel fear

to intimidate someone is kind of like

scaring them a little bit but you’re not

causing them to feel fear when you

intimidate someone you are showing them

your power so maybe you could say my

co-workers tried to intimidate me at

work the other day so you’re trying to

express your power to someone else when

you intimidate someone it’s generally

not seen as a positive thing you’re

trying to make someone feel lower than

you so when you intimidate someone at

work you’re trying to maybe make your

own power seem higher which is generally

not seen as a very healthy kind of thing

to do so to intimidate someone might

mean to scare them as well if someone is

trying to intimidate you yes they may

also scare you like they may threaten

you or they may say mean things or they

may bully you and so on but the

objective of intimidation is to find

some kind of power to get some kind of

power over you so this is the difference

between scare and intimidate i hope that

this answers your question thanks for an

interesting one okay let’s move on to

our next question next question comes

from ali ahmad khan hello ali ali says

hi alicia could you tell me the

difference between these examples how i

met your mother and how did i meet your

mother i’m confused about these examples

great question okay this is actually the

name of a very popular tv series in the

u.s maybe that’s what your question is

from

so how i met your mother this is a

statement right how i met your mother

this is how i met your mother the way in

which or the manner in which i met your

mother

how did i meet your mother is a question

how did i meet your mother or how did i

meet that guy i forgot how did i do

something refers to a question pattern

so how did i do something these kinds of

patterns are like questions you ask

yourself like how did i do that what did

i do or how did i meet that guy i forget

or how did i meet your mother in this

case it’s asking yourself a question

that’s the idea with this kind of

sentence pattern how i met your mother

or how i did that is the beginning of an

explanation for something so this is how

i met your mother or this is how i did

that so that’s the difference here with

one you’re explaining something you’re

sharing some information with the other

pattern you’re asking yourself a

question about the manner in which you

did something so i hope that this helps

you thanks very much for the question

all right that is everything that i have

for this week thank you as always for

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alicia and i will see you again next

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