How to Use English Modal Verbs 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 first question this week comes

from result couse Wanda Hagen resolved

resolved says hi Alicia what’s the

difference between think and thought and

when do we use them thanks okay so I’m

going to focus on the verb uses of these

words so the simple answer is that pink

is present tense and thought is past

tense we use think when we’re talking

about our opinions or ideas for things

that are always true so for example I

think summer is the best season or I

think tea is delicious we use thought to

talk about our past ideas and opinions

yes but we use thought to talk about

actions or activities that have been

completed and we want to refer to our

opinions of those things so for example

I thought the movie was great I thought

dinner was expensive so sometimes we

want to talk about like a past situation

so something that happened before and we

want to share our opinion of it but we

don’t use present tense think we use

thought to refer to that so I thought

dinner was expensive last night or I

thought the movie was great so the

activity has ended but we want to share

our opinion of that so when we’re

talking about our regular like opinions

and ideas like things we think are

delicious always or things we enjoy or

things we hate always we use present

tense think to do that we would not use

think for a completed action like I

think the movie was great last night we

would not use that we use past tense to

do that so I hope that this helps you

understand the difference between think

and thought thanks very much for the

question ok let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from Maria

hi Maria Maria says hi could you tell me

which one is correct

of a shower or take a shower thank you

yeah

both are correct the difference here is

really just that have a shower is

perhaps more commonly used in British

English we tend to use take a shower in

American English some other expressions

you might hear related to bathing and

English are hop in the shower which

implies a very short shower or hop in

the bath hop in the tub as well where

tub refers to a bathtub or have a rinse

maybe you might also hear take a rinse

which sounds like you’re just rinsing

your body off maybe like after a jog for

example rinsing sweat off of the body

maybe rinsing some dirt off the body

after doing some gardening or something

so we have a few different shower and

bathing related expressions but the most

common one in American English is take a

shower have a shower is okay to use too

it’s just more commonly used in British

English so I hope that this helps you

thanks very much for the question okay

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from Fareed Jehan or

hello for eg Homme for eg Homme says

highly sho what is the difference

between had have can and could this is a

really big question let’s start by

looking at half and had their uses and

the meanings it really depends on the

situation so first we can use have in

present tense to refer to owning

something had is the past tense form of

that verb we can also use have and had

to make perfect tense sentences perfect

tense statements and questions so have

is used for present perfect tense had is

used for past perfect tense we also use

this in responsibility expressions like

have to and had to in present tense and

in past tense respectively so let’s look

at a list of example sentences that show

us how each one of these is used I have

a cookie I had a cookie at lunch I have

had a cookie today I had had four

cookies by the time I left the office

yesterday

I have to eat all these cookies I had to

eat so many cookies yesterday so these

example sentences show us the variety of

ways that we can use have and had some

times together to make a lot of

different statements moving on to the

second part of your question about can

and could these two words also have

quite a lot of different uses we can use

can in present tense to talk about our

abilities and to make like requests and

offers we can use could to talk about

our past abilities and to make polite

present tense requests and offers we

also use could to talk about unreal

situations and this includes impossible

situations in the past I can speak

Spanish I could speak Spanish when I was

a kid can you help me with my homework

could you please help me with my

homework if I had a lot of money I could

buy a house was that Davie no that

couldn’t have been Davie Davies at the

office so can and could is also a very

big topics I hope that this very quick

introduction at least shows you some

examples of how we use these different

words thanks very much for your question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from why he hello

Wahine Wahine says what is the

difference between do you and are you do

you begins questions that are asking for

help that are asking for information or

may be making requests and offers we

follow do you with the present tense

form of the verb just the simple

infinitive form of the verb some

examples do you know where my keys are

do you have a pen do you want to get a

coffee do you go to the gym every week

are you begins a question asking about

someone’s condition we follow are you

with a verb in the progressive tense

with a noun phrase or with an adjective

some examples are you a doctor are you

okay are you coming to the office today

are you at home so this is kind of a

good guideline that you can use when

you’re trying to decide between do you

and are you questions what kind of

information do you want to know if it’s

a condition question you can probably

use are you if you’re looking for

information or trying to make a request

you might use do you instead I hope that

this helps you thanks very much for the

question okay let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from

Schrute heart ready huygens retire

sweethear says hi Alicia what’s the

difference between it’s okay and that’s

okay um not much really in most cases we

use them interchangeably but there are a

couple cases where we do use just one so

for example when you’re making a

sentence that uses an if pattern you

always want to use it’s okay not that’s

okay for example it’s okay if you can’t

finish this today or it’s okay if you’re

running late so we would not use that’s

okay in that situation that’s okay if

you’re running late or that’s okay if

you can’t finish it today we would use

it’s okay if you’re making an if

sentence and if clause sentence so in

many cases especially in my case I tend

to use that’s okay when someone

apologizes to me for some kind of small

mistake so if someone like bumps my

shoulder or if somebody forgets

something I don’t know I could say

that’s okay to mean no problem you could

use it’s okay in this case too but I

feel like that’s okay might be a little

bit more common also when you are in

close proximity so that means when you

have a very close relationship either

physically or emotionally to another

person and you’re talking about an issue

and you want to present a situation and

you want to make the other person feel

at ease like everything’s fine you can

use it’s okay so for example person a

might say oh no I deleted an important

file from my computer B says it’s okay I

made a backup yesterday so in that

situation it’s okay

precedes or comes

for the solution to the situation in

those cases using it’s okay

might sound a little bit more natural

than that’s okay

but as I said in most cases we use them

interchangeably and it doesn’t really

cause a communication problem but I hope

that those are a few situations that you

can use in daily life and that you can

use these two expressions a little bit

more naturally so thanks very much for

the question I hope that that helps okay

that is everything that I have for this

week thank you as always for sending

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to me at English class 101.com slash ask

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