Common English Grammar Mistake RISE vs RAISE

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them

maybe first question comes from

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Inderjeet singh high energy energy says

how do we use say and said in English

okay we use say and said for reports of

speech in English when we use say we’re

often using it to talk about something

that a person often says when we use

said we’re using it to report something

that was in the past so just a simple

neutral report of speech in the past

let’s look at some examples my boss said

I did a great job my boss said you did a

great job my parents say I’m a good

student okay so you’ll notice in these

example sentences especially the first

two there’s a very small difference

there like my boss said I did a good job

and my boss said comma quotation marks

you did a good job when you’re reporting

speech directly as in the second example

sentence you can use those quotation

marks that’s what I’m doing with my

fingers here like this is like the open

marking this is the closed mark to make

a quote so when you’re doing that we can

use said to report past tense so this is

something that a boss in this case said

in the past if I’m not being direct

meaning if I’m not sharing exactly the

thing someone said I can use a pattern

like the first example sentence which

was my boss said I did a great job so

the boss didn’t say I did a great job

the speaker wants to communicate that

the boss said that he or she the speaker

I did a great job so the first example

is very common way of reporting this

speech indirectly if you want to

directly report speech you can use a

pattern like the second example the

third example sentence my

parents say I’m a good student is an

example of something where we would use

the present form of the verb the present

tense form of the verb so my parents say

I’m a good student so lots of learners

ask like why don’t we use said my

parents said I’m a good student we use

present tense for things that are

regular so for things that happen like

maybe every week for example or every

month like a regular like repeating

action so in this case the speaker’s

parents say something so that means this

is a regular thing they say my parents

say I’m a good student this is a regular

like thing that they comment about if

it’s past tense my parents said I’m a

good student

it sounds like perhaps it was just one

time or maybe when the speaker was a

child this was something that was

regularly said so like they want to

communicate more like a past thing like

one time it’s over it’s done if we want

to communicate something like present

happening now perhaps regularly we can

use the present form my parents say

another example of this would be in like

business for example the CEO says the

company is doing well so here the CEO

says is in present tense and the kind of

reported information is the company is

doing well so the use of the present

tense here shows us that this is

something the CEO regularly says this is

a regular comment we know this because

it’s in present tense some other ways

that we use this are in like thank you

so in more formal situations like I want

to say thank you we would use it in that

way or I want to say goodbye so we kind

of soften those expressions thank you or

goodbye with I want to say or I’d like

to say so if you’re giving like a formal

speech for example to you might begin it

by saying may I say a few words so again

this is just a simple report of speech a

simple neutral way of expressing

communication using say in present tense

say or says or

using said for past tense so I hope that

this helps you understand how to use say

and said in English thanks very much for

the question okay let’s move on to your

next question next question comes from

mohamed abdel hakim hi mohamed mohamed

says what is the correct use of looking

forward to is it right to say i look

forward to hearing from you or i am

looking forward to hearing from you

yep both are correct you can use both of

these they’re both fine they communicate

the same thing they have the same level

of formality it’s just the speaker’s

preference you can choose whatever you

prefer so like I look forward to seeing

you and I’m looking forward to seeing

you they’re both correct they’re both

fine we look forward to having dinner

with you and we’re looking forward to

having dinner with you they mean the

same thing I would say perhaps in some

less formal situations we drop the I or

the we in the ing pattern so like

instead of saying I’m looking forward to

we might just say looking forward to so

we sometimes do that when we use the ing

pattern so but to answer your question

they are both correct you can feel free

to choose whichever you prefer I hope

that that helps you thanks for the

question okay

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from

Arjun Singh heigen Arjun Arjun says hi

Alicia can you please tell me the

difference between expert and perfect

okay

expert means having a lot of experience

with something to become an expert you

gain skills so you get like lots of

experience you study things and you

gradually like level up to become an

expert for example she’s an expert

programmer or their expert negotiators

so that means that they are very good at

something because they’ve practiced a

lot they’ve gained experience and

they’ve liked to work their way up

through many skill levels to become

experts at something the word perfect

however means something that is flawless

there’s no problems with it it’s like

pure it’s Genya

it’s exactly as it should be so for

example the weather today is perfect our

new software is perfect so we use

perfect to mean things that don’t have

problems at all so we might use the word

perfect to refer to one specific action

like a trick in sports or maybe like a

specific task that someone can do

perfectly but we don’t really use the

word perfect to talk about the person

doing it because that implies that like

they’re flawless which is impossible

because we’re all humans and we’re not

perfect so in some expert refers to

gaining skills to get something so we

use that to talk about people and their

jobs

perfect refers to something that is

flawless so often it’s kind of natural

or just something that doesn’t require

any skills but it’s just great and

doesn’t have any issues so I hope that

this helps you understand the difference

between these two words thanks very much

for the question let’s move on to your

next question next question comes from

Demi Wong hi Demi Wong Demi Long says hi

Alicia what is the difference between

rise and raise and how do we use them

yeah so the difference here is just in

grammatical function raise takes a

direct object rise does not take a

direct object both verbs just mean to go

up so for example raise your hand so

your hand is the direct object of raise

in that example sentence or he raised

the cup above his head so in that

sentence the object of the verb raised

is the cup so to move the cup above his

head to raise a cup in contrast the verb

rise does not take a direct object for

example the Sun rises every morning and

she rose early there’s no direct object

in either of those so when you have a

direct object you can use raise when you

don’t have a direct object you can use

rise I hope that this helps you

understand the difference thanks very

much for the question ok let’s move on

to your next question next question

comes from heaven Silva hi Harrison

Everson says when should I use Ben

viii or below is there any difference

between them um there’s not really a

difference in meaning no it’s just

formality we would use beneath in more

formal situations or perhaps like when

we’re writing poetry beneath is actually

not so commonly used in everyday

American English speech anyway we most

commonly use the word under actually so

there are quite a few different words

that we can use to have the same meaning

we have beneath and below and under and

underneath but of these the most common

is under so let’s take a look at a few

sentences that use these my bag is

beneath the desk my bag is below the

desk my bag is under the desk okay so

from these the most commonly used

sentence would be my bag is under the

desk the next most common would be my

bag is below and the least common here

would be my bag is beneath the desk so

we don’t really use it so much to talk

about positioning we use under more

commonly to talk about positioning so

beneath and below share the meaning of

being under something though they’re not

as common as under so I hope that this

helps you understand the differences

between these words thanks very much for

the question okay that’s everything that

I have for this week thanks as always

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